My Hero Academia: The Final Season
Short Synopsis: The final season of My Hero Academia, you know what this is at this point.
Lenlo: Ah My Hero Academia, so we finally come to your swan song. Let’s be real, you know by this point if you enjoy My Hero Academia or not, we’re like… 8 seasons in. No one is watching this that isn’t invested in seeing it through to the end. The real question is, what do I think of the ending and the content being adapted? Personally? It’s… Alright. Muddied, a clear vision executed sloppily that the anime has a chance to fix but probably won’t. Luckily it’s still good enough that I want to finish it, and I hope BONES gives it the animation it needs to shine, because it’s going to be non-stop battles from here until the end.
Potential: 60%
Inexpressive Kashiwada and Expressive Oota
Short Synopsis: An overly emotional middle school boy tries and fails to prank his stoic female classmate.
Wooper: I have to call it like I see it – this is just a retread of Komi-san Can’t Communicate. Sure, the male lead has more of a personality (“pissed off for no reason”), which changes his dynamic with the female lead, but in nearly every other way it’s a clone. It uses on-screen text and a female narrator to clue us into what the silent Kashiwada is thinking, its soundtrack is piano-heavy, the side characters’ lives revolve entirely around the main duo – the similarities are uncanny. That last point especially is taken to the extreme here, with multiple classroom scenes arranged so that Kashiwada and Oota are in the center of the room, and everybody else stands on the periphery, observing them as though they’re the only people that matter. The only moments of visual interest are exterior shots of birds in a nest outside their second-floor classroom, which are meant to symbolize the show’s central relationship but somehow end up overshadowing it, despite constituting less than one percent of this episode’s runtime. This won’t go down as fall’s worst premiere, but it’s the worst one I’ve seen at this early stage.
Potential: 5%
Sanda
Short Synopsis: Two middle schoolers, one descended from Santa Claus and the other willing to do anything to get his help, set out to discover what happened to one of their classmates. Did I mention she stabs him in the first 10 minutes?
Lenlo: What the fuck did I just watch. Paru Itagaki, author of Beastars, what the hell have you created? Why did our lead just stab a kid to turn him into Santa Claus? Why is Santa Claus buff as hell? Why are we blowing up a school?! I have absolutely no idea what is happening or where this is going to go. Will it become some kind of battle shounen between the various holidays? Or is Santa Claus going to become a domestic terrorist to find a lost little girl? I honestly don’t know. But it looks good, the character designs are sharp, the art style stands out, and there’s just enough sanity that I want to watch more and see what other crazy shit it does. Besides, Fuyumura is kinda cute.
Potential: 60%
The post Fall 2025 Impressions: My Hero Academia S8, Inexpressive Kashiwada and Expressive Oota, Sanda appeared first on Star Crossed Anime.
