Weekly Roundup, October 8-14, 2025: ICE ADOLESCENCE, Gainax’s Princess Anime, and BL Light Novels

AniFem Round-Up

Alma-Chan wants to be a family! – Episode 1

It’s not really trying to break the mold popularized by SpyFam, but it’s cute and well done.

Big accidents in love! – Episode 1

By the way, this is the show for taking on the herculean task of selling a lovable, confidently fat heroine to a fat-suffering world.

Chitose in a Ramune Bottle – Episode 1

It’s a lazy, self-aggrandizing narrative, and no amount of good animation can add depth. You can get in that Ramune bottle and stay there, my friend.

Ninja vs Gokudo – Episode 1

The concept of ninjas and yakuza waging a covert war in the darkest corners of society isn’t a cool enough premise to make up for a premiere that was dead right away.

The Dark Story of a Reborn Villain – Episode 1

Bringing the woman into her own high school fanfic makes for a wonderfully tender parody of isekai stories for teenage girls.

Wandance – Episode 1

A real and exciting premiere about a boy who wants to dance and a girl who loves to dance, eclipsed by the incredible 3DCGI with its dance sequences.

GNOSIA – Episode 1

GNOSIA transports viewers to the deepest corners of the universe as the team tries to find the traitor in their midst before it’s too late. So far, it has all the beauty and gender of the game.

What is your favorite anime based game?

We’ve all played a couple, right?

Outside AniFem

Exclusive: Anime Times President Hideo Katsumata on India expansion, industry challenges and future collaborations (AnimeHunch)

Interview with industry veteran and producer.

Animehunch team: You have worked as a producer on many popular films, including Black Clover and Fullmetal Alchemist. However, you were also involved with Yuri!!! on ICE. That’s what fans are desperate to ask. The planned FROZEN ADOLESCENT movie has been officially canceled by MAPPA, leaving many fans heartbroken as they loved the series so much. We know this is a touchy subject and you may not be able to discuss it, but fans would be incredibly grateful for any insight into what went wrong or why the movie was ultimately canceled.

Hideo Katsumata: I cannot talk about the details as it involves some very private matters. But if you are asking whether this issue is creative or business, then the reasons lie in the creative aspect. The main reason is that it couldn’t be done for creative reasons. Because it was original animation, the people involved—including the creators and the MAPPA animation studio…with the creators, on the creative side, there was a situation where it just became impossible to continue production.

Crunchyroll is citing internal system issues with subtitles for the Fall 2025 anime (Anime News Network, Alex Mateo)

The company says it hasn’t changed the subtitle program.

Last week, many people on social media speculated that Crunchyroll had switched from Aegisub to Israeli subtitle company OOONA, starting with the fall 2025 anime season. ANN asked Crunchyroll if the company previously used Aegisub and switched to OOONA, but the company only provided ANN with the above statement from a company representative and did not comment on what subtitling program it used in the past or currently uses.

Company recently announced titles it is streaming for the fall 2025 anime season.

Crispy roll liberated number of employees in Aug. In addition, some employees have expanded their scope and others have taken on new roles. Crunchyroll also revealed plans to build engineering centers in the US, Mexico and India to “fuel innovation and drive transformation.”

INTERVIEW: J-Novel Club Knight with Madison Salters (Yatta-Tachi, wendeego)

Knight is a J-Roman imprint specifically for BL works.

SALT SHANKS: We decided now is the time to start digital releases for BL authors. There are fantastic teams working on these books; this is a passion project for us. For two years I worked behind the scenes preparing for the launch. We needed to make sure all the right pieces were in place.

WESCOTT: With longer series, there is always the danger that they may not come out in full. Is this what you remember about JNC Knight?

SALT SHANKS: We started with two books, each consisting of one volume. We’ve got a few more of these, and then we’re focusing on the BL series from one to three volumes with the longer ones. Manga series will last longer. We wanted the works to be not just new, but also already made, so that our readers would have an end! I can’t tell you how many manga I’ve started and I’m so in love with it at first, but then I quit for so long that I had to take a year or two off before coming back.

WESCOTT: While I can’t speak for Japan, queer media is currently under threat in the United States. As a publisher, do you feel you have a responsibility to keep queer stories in print and accessible to people?

SALT SHANKS: yes This is something we discussed, if not internally, then informally as colleagues. I just married my wife a few months ago. It’s very important to me that we publish stories about different types of love and different people. Not just stories about being gay, but stories about people of all genders and sexualities just living life and often winning at it. Of course, there will be sad stories and tragic plots; that’s how you give them gravity. But at the end of the day, we need to keep publishing literature like BL so that people can see themselves in fiction that matters to them.

Erotic and grotesque roots Silent Hill f(Endless Mode, Madeline Blondeau)

A spoiler-filled discussion of the new game and ero-guro.

Both Silent Hill f and Toshio Saeki’s artwork indicts aging, old systems of necropolitics as the primary source of violence against young women. Hinako was not only abused by her father and an arranged marriage, but also outright ostracized by her friends and her own mother. Both Hinako’s mother and her classmates are defensive about their lifestyles—so secure in their precious husband that they will doom the young girl’s future just to hold on to him.

Hinako has started taking prescription pills to deal with the stress headaches that come from her situation. This is an in-game item that cannot be used as an offer at one of the game’s update points. According to the spiritual practice of the game, these pills are not sacred. This is a hint that the player probably shouldn’t use them to get the best out of the game. Later entries indicate horrific side effects and hint at the detrimental effects on Hinako’s body and psyche. Players will also learn that the pill has its origins in traditional Chinese medicine, designed to rebuild chi those who absorb

There is a meaning that this drug is of Chinese origin, but similar in function to the American pain reliever.like, say, the Nazi tranquilizer thalidomide. Japan’s military history with China is a dark stain for both countries, defined by forcible colonization and punitive sexual violence as mechanisms of social control. Relates to Silent Hill fhowever, these are the experiments of microbiologist and military officer Shiro Ishii. His Unit 731 was a Japanese Imperial Research Laboratory based in what is now northeastern China. This facility was intended to investigate the effects of weapons, test experimental operations, and conduct tests on objects.

‘Vinland Saga creator Makoto Yukimura returns to writing his pacifist Viking epic (Gizmodo, Isaiah Colbert)

A wonderful detailed interview.

io9: The Vinland Saga won praise for its moral clarity in a genre often defined by moral ambiguity. Do you see Thorfinn’s pacifism as a radical act of storytelling in today’s media climate?

Yukimura: I never really thought about it that way. It may be true that people today tend to make morals more ambiguous in stories. Maybe it’s more mainstream.

io9: In the west, The Vinland Saga often grouped with Berserk and Vagrant as a kind of “big three seinen”. Naruto, Bleachand One Piece were for shonen. What do you make of that comparison—especially in terms of how these stories focus on men enduring hell and softening rather than perpetuating cycles of violence?

Yukimura: (Laughs) Wow, I’m honored! From the beginning of this story, I had a really strong feeling that I wanted to say something. It’s something about morality and the state of the world. How we are immersed in violence and wars. There was something that made me think, “There’s something wrong with this photo.” I really wanted to tell it in a way that everyone could understand. It was a strong feeling that I focused on writing the story. To be honest, I don’t know how people will perceive my work in the rest of society. I don’t feel it.

io9: To add to this, Thorfinn’s famous statement that he “has no enemies” has become a meme at the event, being fondly used, most notably during the high-profile rap feud between Kendrick Lamar and Drake, via J. Cole’s reaction images in social media posts, and as a shortened catchphrase in anime circles. How does it feel to have such a pivotal moment in your story become ingrained in popular culture like this?

Yukimura: (Laughs) First of all, I’m very happy that it’s become such a phenomenon—my work has become a meme—because it means that my intention to turn what I’m trying to say in a story into a short compact sentence has been successful. People don’t remember if it was a really long sentence or something really complicated.

If “I Have No Enemies” becomes a meme and people remember it, then maybe people will understand what I’m really trying to say with this story, which is that people are immature, but we can grow up. Becoming mature means becoming good. That’s the gist of what I’m trying to say, but it really needs to be much shorter for people to remember. But it gives me hope that people will remember these short phrases as memes. Then, one day, it clicks in their minds what I was actually trying to say in the first place.

VIDEO: Podcast discussion of the first half of Khorimiya (feat. Caitlin).

VIDEO: Boys over flowers retrospective (especially the K-Drama adaptation).

VIDEO: Little princess Yusi retrospective

COIL: mini letter about josei.

COIL: Sailor Guardian Cosplay Set Inspired by Mexican Folklore.

AniFem community

We especially like obscure attractions.

Literally literally my favorite 3DS game of all time.

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— Moment👾Appliarise (@momentaimonster.bsky.social) October 13, 2025 at 11:39 p.m

Giant robots AND alternate timelines.

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— Thomas aka OtakuboyT (@otakuboyt.bsky.social) October 14, 2025 at 5:23 p.m

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