Welcome to Anime Rants. 🙂 Only two weeks left in the season after this. Some shows will start wrapping up this weekend. Thanks for joining me for the coverage of these Summer 2025 shows. Here are the episode reviews for week 11!
- City the Animation Episode 11
- Dr. Stone: Science Future Episode 22
- Kaiju No. 8 Episode 21 (S2 Ep 9)
- New Panty and Stocking Episode 10
- Ruri Rocks Episode 11
- Sakamoto Days Episode 21
- The Summer Hikaru Died Episode 10
City the Animation Episode 11
Episode Rating: 9/10
Nagumo and Niikura are trying to create a viral video. Their attempts and antics were hilarious. By the end of the episode, they had made a pretty funny and chaotic video with mixed footage they gathered. Meanwhile, the manga artist who thought his story was getting canceled (Kamaboko) gets a second chance. A “superior” manga artist mailed in their submission, but it was 18+ and the magazine didn’t want to publish it. So the editor went back and told Kamaboko to continue his kid-friendly manga, Mr. Bummer. The whole scene was witnessed and helped along by Wako.
My favorite part of this episode was the skit where Mimineko and the other animals talk in the sewer. It was cute and funny to hear them talk and see them interact. An endangered species of salamander (Scholar), an endangered species of ibis (Toki), and a Tsuchinoko joined Mimineko in discussing the city and how dangerous it would be to get caught as an unusal species. The Tekaridake troupe also showed up. So did a strange creature with a long nose that nobody could identify. It had me giggling at the absurdity.
Dr. Stone: Science Future Episode 22
Episode Rating: 9/10
It was another surprisingly intense episode of Dr. Stone. Suika was the star. As the petrification light began to freeze everyone, Senku tried to find a way to ensure their revival. Unfortunately, he was shot and his bottle of revival fluid was broken. Elsewhere, Ukyo freed the hostages (Francois, Matsukaze, Ginro, and Suika) and explained the situation. But Xeno appeared out of nowhere with Stanley and shot the hostages and Ukyo. Only Suika survived, running away with the last bottle of revival fluid.
Per Senku’s orders, the last bottle was placed on the sound canon receptacle, and Suika stood right underneath it. This way, when a loud noise broke the bottle, it would fall directly on Suika and un-petrify her. Stanley had the chance to try shooting one more time to knock the bottle off the sound receptacle. But he apparently decided it wasn’t worth it to end humanity, and lit a cigarette instead. With his last words to Xeno, Senku reiterated his disinterest in power and ruling others. Everyone turned to stone.
From what I could guess, about a year passed before the revival fluid bottle finally broke and unfroze Suika. At first, she was happy that her side won. But quickly, the little girl realized she was all alone and there was no more revival fluid. Suika cried her heart out and considered letting herself starve. But then she remembered that Senku was also alone for a long time, and this gave her courage. Though she still didn’t know what to do about revival, Suika could at least gather the statues of her teammates and ensure their safety in one place.
With this new goal in mind, Suika found the motivation to go on living. She soon built a shelter, found a supply of fruit, and introduced herself to the curious local monkeys. Suika was the only human left in the world, but she wasn’t giving up. The episode ends there. I appreciated the cute interlude with Suika’s puppy growing up and forming a friendship with a wild pig. I still don’t know if or how Suika will manage to unfreeze everyone, but I look forward to finding out!
Kaiju No. 8 Episode 21 (S2 Ep 9)
Episode Rating: 8/10
As Kafka trained with Hoshina, the last of Isao’s consciousness faded away within Kaiju 9. As the days passed, a lot of new kaiju types started appearing. There were fourteen incidents where weird new kaiju manifested but then vanished before the Defense Force could respond. There was one that looked like a monolith with faces on it, and another that looked like a giant humanoid runner. At least one of them – the kaiju that looks like it’s made of brains – has a human form. She resembles an evil version of Kikoru. At the end of the episode, this new enemy begins attacking people.
This episode had some very touching moments since Kafka got to talk to Reno again and also Mina on the rooftop. I’m so glad Reno and the other squad members are reasonable and understand that Kafka is on their side. I’m also happy to know that Mina still remembers the promise with Kafka when they were kids. It was a special memory for both of them. In other news, Kikoru was chosen by Narumi to be next wearer of the suit made from Kaiju No. 4. This was what Hikari Shinomiya wore into battle many times. With this new power, Kikoru will be near unstoppable.
On a final note, I want to reiterate how much I love the character of Kafka. I admire his determination and work ethic, but also his emotional honesty and vulnerability. He’s a sweet, sensitive soul who’s not afraid to cry. I think Kafka is doing wonders for the presentation of positive masculinity in fiction.
New Panty and Stocking Episode 10
Episode Rating: 7/10
The first of the two mini-episodes was titled “The Sex from Another World” and was about a sex alien that possessed people and sucked the souls out of men. It was fairly amusing and also disgusting at times. The second mini-episode was a parody of Conan the Barbarian – or so I think, but I’ve never seen the classic 80s movie myself. I think it was also slightly a reference to LOTR, since there are elves, demons, and such. The episode was titled “Lord of the Konan the Great.”
Panty was Konan the Great and Stocking was her steed dragon. Together, they were on a revenge quest to kill the demonic two-headed dragon that killed Panty’s father. (The demon sisters played the two-headed enemy.) I enjoyed this installment quite a lot for the chaotic battles, weird sex scene, and shots of Brief dressed as a femboy elf. (I love femboys.) Kudos to whoever wrote the music for this episode. It was epic.
Ruri Rocks Episode 11
Episode Rating: 8/10
Ruri and her classmates need to choose electives for the next semester in school. Shoko and Aoi already knew what they wanted to do, but Ruri wasn’t sure. In the meantime, she kept studying rocks with Imari and Shoko (Nagi was on a trip to the United States). Imari showed the girls how to make thin slides of rock for looking at under microscopes. She said this was one way to see the world beyond the rock. Inspired, Ruri decided she wanted to learn more about the sapphire deposit they found in a previous episode.
In the lab, they identified the host rock of the sapphire as calcite. Then they went into the field and visited the sapphire deposit again. Shoko got to collect her share of beautiful blue gems. Eventually, Ruri found a second sapphire deposit on the side of a rock wall. It looked vaguely like an Asian dragon. This must be why the locals had legends of blue dragon bones in this area. Ruri and company also verified that the host rocks for the sapphire were calcite and gneiss. After this adventure, Ruri chose Earth Science for her elective, investing in a future of studying “pretty rocks.”
It was a good, informative episode, but now that it’s been 11 episodes, I’m finally noticing the formulaic design of this show. It’s pretty much always the same on the surface level: Ruri has a question or a subject to study, so they go on a field trip, and Ruri eventually discovers an amazing crystal deposit. If I was watching this show for a creatively structured story, I’d probably be disappointed. But I’m watching it because it’s so heartwarming and inspiring. I don’t care if it follows a basic formula.
Sakamoto Days Episode 21
Episode Rating: 7/10
This episode focused on the fight between Shin and Shinaya, who was being controlled by Gaku. Mafuyu and Toramaru helped Shin until they were both defeated. Kaji joined in the fight after some encouragement from Shin. Even with Kaji and Shin fighting at the top of their games, they couldn’t defeat Shinaya. He was beating them to a pulp. Luckily, Sakamoto arrived and saved the day. He was able to defeat Shinaya and break the mechanism linking him to Gaku. This episode was fairly entertaining but I don’t have more to say about it other than I really like Kaji and his super-hearing powers.
The Summer Hikaru Died Episode 10
Episode Rating: 9/10
We finally learned some important truths in this exciting, creepy installment. It’s fascinating stuff. I was especially intrigued by the village’s old method of “reducing population”. I’m not going to review most of what we learned, but I did want to point out two things. First, this anime reminds me quite a lot of Higurashi (When They Cry), where there are also gods, curses, and dismemberment murders set in a rural Japanese village. Secondly, I thought it was cool how there’s a reason why Niseyama mountain is regarded as forbidden. (Explanation below.)
Niseyama is the mountain where the Indo family does their ritual. Apparently, mercury occurs naturally in the rocks on that mountain. In fact, it was once used as an ingredient in a local abortion drug, which was also developed for population control. The real reason to forbid the mountain would be to avoid the hunger of Nonuki-sama, but there’s also an “official” reason: you could be exposed to mercury. You can tell the world-building is good when there are multiple levels of detail like this in the setting.
There’s so much to process in this anime. I love shows like this that make me consider things beyond surface level, but they can also be a bit overwhelming. I currently don’t have the energy to write everything I’m thinking. So I’ll just make a few more quick observations. To start with, the voice-acting is impressive in this episode, especially from Chiaki Kobayashi (Yoshiki) and Chikahiro Kobayashi (Tanaka). Secondly, Tanaka is turning out to be an interesting antagonist. I like him but also fear his unhinged mind and what it may lead him to do next.
On a final note, it’s certain that Nonuki has been tempted to consume Yoshiki’s soul. That’s why he visited him in the middle of the night in a strange state. He may even experience something like hunger for human souls. In that case, I like Nonuki even more for resisting and hope he continues on a path where he doesn’t kill. But unfortunately, I can’t see the world letting that happen. I think, in the end, Nonuki will either cease to exist, return to the mountain, or disappear into some other dimension. Like Yoshiki’s classmates, I find it hard to see how a curse god could continue living among humans. As always, this episode was amazing!
~Thanks for Reading~
Written by 7Mononoke at Anime Rants
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