Spring of 2025 anime, from my most favorite to least favorite
from AnimeZone
We have some new entries to talk about. Let's go!
New season, new stuff.
This time around, I'll be keeping this specific blog post short, mainly because I only have 6 TV series I've watched for this particular anime batch (one of which is The Apothecary Diares, which should be well known to you if you read my past blog entries already).
Crunchyroll had some interesting candidates this time, and I'm glad to say that some were better than I expected (while others being just mild). However, there wasn't anything this season that I can say I particularly hated with a passion.
The last entry on this ranking is gonna be a bad show, yes, but it's not a “so bad it's good” kind of show. It's just boringly bad.
But let's not go into too many details. Let's start with the rankings!
PS: I ditched the first episode screenshots to avoid copyright strikes
1. A Ninja and an Assassin Under One Roof
We're starting off strong with, what is arguably, the most surprising entry on this list.
Frankly, when I watched the Crunchyroll preview for this show, I had no idea what to expect.
Sure, I knew it would be a comedy, and I suspected that it would be dark comedy given the subject matter, but I didn't expect for it to be as good as it turned out to be.
Make no mistake: I loved this show, to the brim.
This is a nonsensical type of comedy that is absolutely chock-full with many original ideas that were very much welcome.
But before I get ahead of myself, let me summarize the first episode of this TV series.
Deep inside a forest inside a ninja village, a young girl named Satoko Kusagakure flees the village, along with other villagers that decided to desert their hometown and find new lives for themselves in the outside world.
As soon as they manage to escape, they all go their different paths, hoping to integrate into modern day Japan as regular civilians.
Satoko, however, is not very good at doing that and, eventually, she ends up alone in a dark alleyway, on the verge of starvation, due to not being able to make money to buy food.
There, she meets up with another girl around her age, a girl named Konoha Koga.
As the two make acquaintance with one another, they are attacked by another ninja from Satoko's village, who had been tasked with killing her as punishment for her fleeing. Konoha gets roped in with Satoko but she very quickly and easily disposes of the attacker, killing her in cold blood.
It is then revealed that Konoha is actually a very skilled assassin who's very much used to killing other people and doesn't mind getting her hands dirty. She's part of an association that takes jobs to assassinate others and whom she's trying trying to climb the ranks of.
After witnessing Satoko dispose of the dead attacker's body by using a secret ninja technique that only she knows which turns dead bodies into leaves, Konoha gets the idea of partnering up with Satoko, since her ability to dispose of bodies is exactly what Konoha needs to improve her assassin work, since that is the main thing holding her back in climbing the ranks.
After some persuasion from her part, Satoko agrees to partner up with her and, in exchange, Konoha will allow her to live in her apartment for the time being, as well as promising to protect her from future ninja that may be pursuing her.
And such begins the relationship between the very feminine and innocent Satoko and the poker faced and cold blooded Konoha.
That's the premise of this show.
So yeah, where to start?
I was never much into dark comedy TV series, mainly because I find them always relying on recurrent gags that get old very quickly, but this show broke that trend for me.
I love how every single time a new ninja appears to threaten Satoko's life, she always ends up being murdered very swiftly and without much effort. Most of the ninja barely get any screen time at all.
The show doesn't portray the exact means in which they are killed, that happens very quickly off screen, but it's still nice to see how quickly the body count increments with each passing episode.
Also, all of the characters in this are very unique and have nice designs. The simple fact that a lot of the enemies barely get any screen time at all is a bit of a shame, although it did caught me off guard.
I was expecting for this gag to wear off on me eventually but no, every time Konoha kills someone, I ended up laughing.
As sinister as that sounds, the show just knows how to deliver that punchline each and every time, without it getting old.
And the duality of Satoko and Konoha's personalities always clashing with each other is such a joy to watch.
Seeing how innocent and gullible Satoko usually is, always ends up clashing with the harsh reality in one way or another, and then her and Konoha have to figure out how to fix things.
Their partnership felt a bit strained at first but I very quickly bought the idea that they were becoming friends.
That and all the characters are so fun to watch interacting.
The show is basically a nonsensical comedy. There's a mad scientist type of character that appears later on as a rival to Konoha, and she mixes things up and the trio become embroiled in a lot of wacky shenanigans.
I love their relationships and how they interact off each other.
And yeah, there's also a sort of pseudo-romance that forms later on, between certain characters.
I won't go into details but I will say, I very rarely end up shipping a lesbian couple, mainly because I never find their relationships believable. This time, however, I genuinely found myself saying “Yeah, I want to see these two together”.
The show never crosses that border, always holding onto itself and never making things more than just a close friendship, but I genuinely liked seeing those two interact.
And combined with the comedic non-sequiturs from the show, and I genuinely respected this one.
The show just likes bringing the cold hard reality to ruin any moment that tends to become too cheesy, in a simple way of shattering expectations in a way that's both blunt but also stylistically unique.
That and there's a robot Satoko that makes an appearance later on that can shoot lasers out of her eyes. I mean, what more is there to say?
Do yourself a favor and give this show a watch! It is very much worth the experience!
2. The Apothecary Diaries (Season 2 second half)
As promised, I am returning to talking about this show.
I've talked about this show on length, many times before. I've praised it for its originality, focus to details, unique world and atmosphere and its superb musical compositions.
And yeah, Maomao just keeps kicking ass everywhere she goes.
This is a continuation of the first half that began the previous winter batch, of which I already wrote.
I want to keep praising this show again but, really, I don't think there's anything left to say that wasn't already said.
Maomao ends up biting more than she can chew, this time around, when her meddling ends up almost revealing the masterminds behind the attempted assassinations against imperial officials that were shown the previous season, the new character Shisui ends up playing a very major role, political turmoil in the country ends up rearing its ugly head and one of the concubines of the emperor ends up going missing.
That and so many questions that were left unanswered previously end up being explained now.
Honestly, I think this is the most intelligent TV series I have watched in recent years. The mysteries, the drama, the class and style that it displays, they are just wonderfully done.
This is a masterclass in how anime needs to be done and I am so thankful that I have decided to pick up this story, for it is the one ongoing plot that keeps on giving with each passing episode.
And for those that want to learn more about Jinshi's character, this second half will finish the introduction of his full backstory, so there's more to digest about him.
I simply cannot do this show justice just by writing all of this about it.
If you don't mind complex stories that deal with real drama and has very intricate plot twists, please give this show a watch. It is amazingly fruitful.
3. To Be Hero X
And yet another superhero anime TV series set in modern day Japan has appeared.
This one, I'll be honest, I have mixed feelings about.
Let's get into the first episode, shall we?
Lin Ling, who works for an advertising company and who is obsessed with superheroes, is giving his boss his new pitch that he hopes will inspire other people.
Lin Ling is very enthusiastic about heroes and is passionate about learning more about their lives and backstories, especially about two named Nice and, his girlfriend, Moon.
In that world, heroes exist and save lives, and their powers (as well as their weaknesses and sometimes even curses) are intimately tied to the amount of faith that the majority of people have in them. When people start to believe that a particular person should be able to fly, then they will gain the ability to fly. Conversely, if people start to lose faith in a particular hero, they will eventually lose their powers.
After the pitch that he had made to his boss goes very poorly, Lin Ling gets fired and is now without a job.
As he considers committing suicide by jumping off a building, Lin Ling discovers his personal hero, Nice, flying and landing onto the same rooftop as him.
But before they could interact, Nice jumps off the building and crashes down below, dying from the impact.
Lin Ling is horrified, realizing that he had just witnessed his own personal hero having committed suicide and is then found by Nice's personal manager and her bodyguards who take him into custody being he was a witness.
After Lin Ling explains to them what he had seen, the manager realizes that, by some strange coincidence, Lin Ling's face almost looks like Nice's face.
Using this to her advantage, and not wanting to give up her job because Nice had died, the manager decides to release a public statement in which she hides the fact that Nice had died and, instead, she swaps their identities, her claiming to the public that it was actually Lin Ling that had killed himself by jumping off a building and then disguising Lin Ling as Nice, asking him to continue being the hero he had always looked up to.
Lin Ling is obviously very reluctant about taking up this role but, since people believe that he is Nice, he slowly ends up acquiring Nice's powers and slowly but surely starts turning more and more into Nice.
That's the premise of episode 1.
Now, before I go into more details, I will say, this isn't just about Lin Ling.
Yes, he is the main character of the first arc of the show however, this isn't the only arc.
This show is divided into multiple arcs, all with their own main characters. They all share the same universe, with some characters that have already appeared in a previous arc making a very short comeback in new arcs to further the plot.
The show follows all of their personal stories, their tragedies, how they each end up becoming heroes and how they all will eventually end up competing against each other in a public tournament that takes place every 2 years, that's there to update the rankings among all the heroes of the world and with the number 1 spot earning the title of Hero X.
Now, as I learned, this story is part of a larger plot that encompasses two other anime that aired in 2016 and 2018, respectively.
This series is, in fact, the de facto third season of those shows (which are actually just two seasons of the same show).
I didn't know this going in. And I never watched any of those previous seasons, so I was going into this blind. In my defense, Crunchyroll didn't make it very clear that this was a continuation of that saga.
Either way, for someone that went into this completely blind, I had no trouble whatsoever following the plot.
The ideas are very simple to grasp, the plot was very easy to follow and the show came into its own very nicely at the end.
The multiple arcs thing was actually very welcome, since it felt like it was constantly keeping things fresh, always introducing new characters, new enemies, new dilemmas, it was actually very fun.
My only gripe with the show was the fact that most characters felt shallow, especially the bad guys.
The motivation of the villains in this show is not particularly interesting, with a lot of somewhat intelligent and competent characters always devolving into mere shadows of their former selves.
I didn't like that very much.
That and also, I didn't really like the world building in this one. I genuinely feel that a society in which faith in others can literally confer other people supernatural powers would be wildly different than our current ways of living. Religion, philosophy, technology and social norms would be very different if we had the rules that that world has, and yet this show treats that world as just another iteration of modern day Japan, which is so very boring to me.
But, outside of those pet peeves of mine, yeah, I liked the show. The stories were engaging, the main characters were somewhat fleshed out, there is some character development happening and certain arcs had some nice and heartwarming endings (although not all).
And yeah, it had some unexpected plot twists at times.
Overall, it was a good experience. I very much enjoyed watching it. And also, I did become a Lucky Cyan fan. Her arc was very emotional.
4. Once Upon a Witch's Death
This one was interesting, to say the least.
I feel like I needed to have a show with magic in it, for this season (there's also Teogonia in this batch but I'll get to that in a minute).
My overall thoughts on this show are that this was an interesting idea that suffered from a pretty lackluster execution.
The story follows Meg Raspberry, a young girl who's the apprentice of Ms. Faust, an old lady who's renowned across the whole world as one of the Seven Mages.
On her 17th birthday, Meg is informed by Faust that she has only 1 year left to live, before a curse that had been placed upon her since birth will rob her of her life.
There is, however, a solution: Meg has to collect in a special magical glass bottle, 1000 tears of joy from other people. This will allow her to create a Seed of Life, which will make Meg immortal, effectively nullifying her curse.
Meg is unsure how to take this news but, as she walks around the town of Lapis, she encounters a young girl whose mother had passed away recently.
Being friendly, Meg offers to help the girl find the pink flowers that her mother had always loved, so that they can bring them to her grave.
After following the girl to her house and meeting with her father, Meg realizes that the flowers that the mother loved so much were Yoshino Cherry Blossoms, from a foreign country in the far east.
Being Faust's apprentice, Meg is knowledgeable enough in magic to cast a spell that creates the illusion of those particular flowers to fall from the sky around them, which reminds the family of the dead woman and gives closure to them.
The father and daughter cry together and their tears of joy automatically become captured inside Meg's glass.
Thus begins Meg's journey into stopping the curse that threatens her life.
That's episode 1.
This series is based off a light novel and that clearly shows.
For one, this is a dialogue heavy show. There's a lot of talking and world building constantly going on, and this will become eerily obvious as the show progresses.
On the one hand, that's one of the show's greatest strengths. I really like the world building being done here.
There's a lot of imagination being used to create this colorful and vibrant world. There are many quirky and nice characters inhabiting it as well. And the rules of this world are fairly standard and simple: magic is almost like this sort of essence of nature that flows through all things and objects and is one with the world. Sometimes magic can also disrupt the natural flow of things, bringing about natural disasters of sorts.
Then there's spirits, intelligent beings that appear as floating orbs of energy that only some people can communicate with. And then there's demons which are malevolent and who make deals with mortals in order to bring evil to the world.
As cliched as all of these concepts feel, I'm very impressed by their integration into the plot. Nothing ever feels out of place, everything is woven into the story organically and in a believable manner, and all the elements are always done in a manner that is consistent and easy to understand.
And I also really like Meg as a main character. She's quirky and a bit of a brat but also has a good heart and knows her way around the world.
I found her to be a very nice and refreshing take on the role of a female lead in a magical world.
The fact that this girl is capable of not only taking the news of her upcoming death very well, but is willing to fight her destiny without even batting an eye is very unique and, I feel, actually believable when taking in her personality.
However, when all is said and done, there is one thing that ruins this show: it's the lack of action in it.
This story takes itself way too seriously. There's almost no comedy in it at all, outside of Meg's quirkiness from time to time.
This might be fine in certain cases, but I feel like the show is too slow paced in what it does, and the constant talking and lack of interesting events ends up hurting it more than it helps.
I'm fine with exposition dumps and character introductions but I generally dislike shows that take a very long time to get into the main plot. And yeah, that's the other thing I really don't like about it: almost everything feels like a side-quest.
Technically it all ends up helping, since Meg is collecting tears of joy throughout all of the show's length, this is true, but it almost turns into a formulaic adventure-of-the-week type of story, in which every new week something new happens in the town of Lapis that Meg will have to help others with.
That's really unfortunate, since this is an interesting world that does have a lot of promise. I just wish it had a bit more meat and bones that I could chew on.
But alas, the world building makes up for its drawbacks.
Overall, I enjoyed watching this. Could it have been done better in certain areas? Almost certainly.
But I'm not gonna fault the show for being too slow paced, since I'd rather have that than be too fast paced, instead.
Either way, I'll be looking forward towards a new season of this.
5. Please Put Them On, Takamine-san
Ok, there's also this show that has magic in it, although, at this point, I almost can't take this show seriously at all.
This is what I like to call “a good idea, with good execution but whose very nature is bringing it down” kind of show. Why?
Because this is an ecchi show. And it knows it's an ecchi show. And it takes full advantage of the fact that it is an ecchi show.
What's it about?
Shirota Koushi is a regular high school student that's pretty much the very definition of a loser. He lives an average life, mostly invisible by those around him, as he tries to go through his school classes uneventfully.
One day, while hiding in a gym storage room, the class representative of his class, Takamine Takane, also sneaks into the same storage room as him and, unbeknownst to her of his presence there, she begins undressing there to change her clothes.
Shirota remains quiet to not give away his presence until she's done and leaves.
Later during that day, as the teacher is handing out their test results and Takamine receives an almost perfect score, she suddenly decides to pull down her panties in front of the class, much to Shirota's complete dismay.
A couple of seconds later, Shirota suddenly realizes that time has turned back for him and that the teacher is starting to hand out their test results all over again, only this time Takamine receives a complete perfect score somehow.
Apparently nobody else noticed this discrepancy, and nobody remembers Takamine having taken off her panties at all.
When asking Takamine directly about what had transpired, Takakine realizes that Shirota was somehow now immune to her powers.
Seeing that he is the first person to be able to have recollection of those erased events, Takamine decides to reveal to him that she has special powers: the power to turn back time to undo past events whenever she takes off her underwear or bra.
Since Shirota had previously seen Takamine's breasts while she was changing in the storage room earlier that day, this somehow made him immune to her powers of turning back time, meaning that his mind travels back in time unscathed along with hers whenever she removes her undergarments.
Seeing that this is the current state of events, Takamine offers to Shirota to become her “closet”, meaning that she wants him to partner up with her and carry around a bag full of spare underwear all day long. Since taking off her underwear to use her powers completely causes said underwear to vanish into thin air, Takamine wants for Shirota to put new underwear on her body, so that she can keep using her powers continuously if she needs to.
Shirota, realizing that there's nothing in it for him and that she's trying to use him as a man servant, considers refusing her. Seeing his reluctance, Takamine decides to “persuade” him by shouting that he had assaulted her, causing the entire school to immediately come to her rescue and restrain him and call the cops on him.
Realizing that he has no way out of this predicament and that his life is officially over, Shirota shouts to Takamine that he agrees to become her closet, causing her to use her powers to undo all those past events and save his life from being ruined.
Thus, now Shirota has become Takamine's personal closet and one of his first duties is: he has to put her underwear on her in the middle of class after she uses her powers during it.
Thus ends episode 1.
That was a long summary that I had to write, but that's really necessary for a story like this.
Honestly, how else would you explain a plot such as this to a complete newcomer?
This show is pretty much a textbook example of nonsensical absurdity that exists only to be perverse and show Takamine in many unusual and questionable situations where she's scantily clad or, sometimes even, completely nude.
Leaving aside the fact that this show had one of the most unstable release schedules on Crunchyroll when it came out (I never could figure out on which day of the week new episodes were supposed to come out since it kept flip-flopping between releasing the censored episodes and the uncensored ones), the show just isn't that good.
It tries to be a comedy by putting the protagonist in very weird situations in which he is forced to put underwear on Takamine without anyone else noticing him, and that is the source of tension with regards to the episodes.
To be fair to the show, it was quite creative and novel in coming up with these unique situations, sure, but the problem is, most of them are simply not realistic.
I could not believe that this man was able to put on underwear on that girl in the middle of a class, without anyone noticing at all. I don't care how stealthy you are, that's simply not possible.
The amount of suspension of disbelief that you have to pull off to buy into some of these premises is absolutely mind boggling. And trust me: I tried.
I feel like this premise would have worked better in the context of a harem, because it would at least add some variety to the ecchi scenes and make it a bit more interesting, but it didn't do that. This is one of those “one true love” kind of stories and it sticks to just Takamine.
There's some differences between the censored and the uncensored versions, obvious ones, but nothing to really write home about. Honestly, I'd pick to watch the uncensored episodes any day of the week, but mostly because I find the censorship so annoying in this show that it's actively distracting. The nudity is really not that impressive either though.
Nothing is particularly original here. If you want to watch nudity with a bit of comedic edge and don't mind the absurdity, I guess it's fine just for that.
But I got tired of how much I was supposed to suspend my own disbelief. Like one time, while Shirota was at Takamine's house so that she can help him do his homework, she used a cat costume to distract him so that he ended up staying later than intended (her excuse was that it would help him study somehow).
Oh yeah, Takamine is just not honest with her own feelings. She's clearly attracted to Shirota but keeps making excuses whenever he catches her in the act of being kind towards him.
And Shirota, for his part, is just the dumb ecchi protagonist that simply can't catch a hint and never realizes that she has feelings towards him.
The one good thing that the show did was the ending of season 1, where it took a step forward and decided to be brazen about the direction it was going.
I'm not gonna spoil what it did, but I will say that it did some things that other, more respectable shows, were too afraid to do. And that left me with a good taste in my mouth.
Was the ending so good that it justifies watching the whole show though? Maybe, but it really depends on the person. For me, it wasn't worth it, but I can easily see other people who may be able to enjoy it.
As for me, I'm not planning on watching another season of this one.
6. Teogonia
And we finally arrive at the very end.
This one, I had high hopes of.
The premise is fairly simple. In a remote small village called Lag Village, a young warrior named Kai is involved in fightning in an invasion of their village by anthropomorphic macaques. During this skirmish, Kai is saved by a man named Olha Vezin, the son of the chief of the village and a Guardian Bearer.
In that world, Guardian Bearers are powerful individuals that were chosen by a god of a particular piece of land to protect said land against aggressors.
Olha uses his enhanced strength and stamina as a Guardian Bearer to fend off the invading forces of the macaques. The bodies of the dead monkeys are then dissected to extract their God-stones. In that world, each living creature has a God-stone in their body. Having that God-stone removed will immediately end that creature's life.
Once extracted, liquid from another creature's God-stone can be drank in order to rejuvenate the body and fuel it with a surge of spiritual energy.
After the defeat of the macaques, all of their God-stones are collected by the villagers and shared among everyone that has fought in defending the village.
Kai is disgruntled since low ranking warriors like himself only receive small amounts of God-stone juice and food after their victory, while the chief's family receives much more.
He wishes he could become stronger, so that he could advance in rank among their army and receive better rewards.
Kai is also plagued by visions of a past life and glimpses of knowledge that are not his. He is troubled by these and is uncertain of what to make of them.
He had a vision of creating flames from his own hands, which makes him wonder if he is capable of such an act.
Later on, during another invasion by demi-humans against their village, Kai is severely injured, making him unable to run. When the other villagers are forced to retreat, they have to leave him behind.
When another enemy is about to take his life, Kai uses the knowledge of that vision of summoning flames from his hands to actually create magic and gain the upper hand against the demi-human that he's fighting, only for him and his enemy to fall into a river below.
Thus ends episode 1.
If it wasn't obvious already, this is another isekai story.
The protagonist is actually reincarnated from our world, and the visions that he sees is from a past life from living in, what I assume to be modern day Japan.
Using glimpses of scientific knowledge from our society, Kai is able to construct unique spells that will come in handy in solving various problems in that world.
I admit: I'm very fond of that idea. The idea of someone using modern day knowledge to gain an upper hand in a fantasy world is an intriguing one.
Of course, this concept had already been done to death in other anime, so this is nothing special by itself.
But the foundational idea is a good one, and I feel like this world and these characters are unique enough that, given enough imagination and time at the drawing board, I'm sure a very interesting story can arise from all of this.
Sadly, that's where all the good things I have to say about this show end.
This story was just severely overwhelming.
You may wonder how a lowbrow ecchi show like Please Put Them On, Takamine-san ended up having a higher spot in this ranking than a serious plot like this one. I'll tell you how: that show took some risks.
Like sure, Takamine-san was absolutely nonsensical and completely unhinged but, at the very least, it had the fanservice to make it stand out, somewhat.
And I'm not that big of a fanservice fan. In fact, I consider it one of the cheapest ways of setting yourself apart. But, at the end of the day, it's something.
Teogonia doesn't even have that much going for it.
The problem with this show is it's story. It is incredibly cliched, to an extent I never thought possible: the cliche of the chosen one, the cliche of the underdog, the cliche of reincarnation and knowledge from a modern day Japan in a fantasy setting, the cliche of the woman that wants to be recognized as a warrior but isn't because she's a woman, the cliche of the damsel in distress, the cliche of the corrupt nobleman that's a bastard and needs to get his comeupins, the cliche of the arrogant warrior that is too prideful to listen to reason until the protagonist has to intervene, the cliche of the love interest that ends up pulled out of the story.
It is incredible the amount of cliches that could be crammed into one single show. This anime is absolutely fascinating in how uninspired it is.
I have never seen a show be so devoid of originality before. The more episodes I was watching, the more dread I was feeling in my soul.
The show isn't bad, per se, and if you watch these cliches for the very first time here, I'm sure you will enjoy it. But after watching these cliches and common writing tropes so many times before, done in so many other shows before this one, sometimes done even better, this felt very disappointing.
I will say: this world is interesting. I feel like, in the hands of a competent writer, this could have become a very good series.
But it just lacks originality. These characters are so shallow, but even with their shallowness they still deserve a better written story about them.
This lackluster story is pretty much responsible for single handedly killing this show off for me.
A good comparison of a similar show would be Sengoku Youko, which I already reviewed on this blog, in the past.
Both Sengoku Youko and this show are fantasy-esque anime TV series that start out a bit underwhelming and have seemingly boring protagonists and cliched story elements in them. However, what set Sengoku Youko apart and what made it one of my most cherished anime TV series in recent years was the fact that, even though it had cliched plot points in it, it still knew how to tell interesting and unique stories.
The characters were fun and complex in it. The dialogue was timeless and memorable. The quotes were deep and introspective. The character growth and motivations were deeply explored and showcased over many episodes.
And guess what? Sengoku Youko also suffered from common tropes like the Chosen One, the damsel in distress, the protagonist underdog that wanted to become stronger. But the difference was that it knew that if it wanted to set itself apart, it needed to explore the characters and the themes of the show more deeply than just surface level.
Teogonia doesn't do that. Everything is surface level here. There's no deeper layers to the characters, no hidden meaning behind the plot, no introspective conversations or character growth.
Everything just feels so shallow in this one.
I feel bad for harping on this show so hard, but it really is that simple. This story lacks depth at a fundamental level.
I just wish there was more to it than what meets the eye. Towards the end it started picking up steam by putting the protagonist in the role of an arbiter among different species, which I like the idea of but it didn't do much with it.
Maybe a season 2 would flesh this one out a bit more, much in the same way that it did for Sengoku Youko but, as it stands, this one's very underwhelming.
I couldn't bring myself to like it. I've definitely seen far worse anime TV series in recent years than this one, but nothing as unoriginal as this, at least.