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KYOTO VIDEO 2025 Quarterly Report (May - Jul)

Published: May 6th 2025, 1:22:23 am

May 16th: Hand Maid May

The year is 2000. Humanity has passed into a new millennium. And the anime industry has found itself in the throes of maid robots. Out of that mini-craze, we’ll be discussing a special one. One that not only asks “what would you do if had a robot maid to clean up after you?” But also, “what would you do if said maid was only a foot tall and could easily fit in the palm of you hand?”

May 31st: Assemble Insert

Anime and other areas of Japanese pop culture had developed into their own universe by the time the late 80s came about. Such an environment was ripe for silly parody. And that’s where an anime like Assemble Insert comes into play. The comedic story of an ordinary high-school student forced into the twin roles of being both a mecha pilot and an idol singer.

June 23rd: Lost Universe

In lieu of covering an entry of the Slayers franchise this year, I am instead going to do a history on the failed “technically spin-off” series that wound up indirectly sending Slayers and any other future Kanzaka stories into the dirt. 1998’s Lost Universe is a fraught tale about how recessions and studio fires ultimately doomed an attempt to create the sci-fi answer to Slayers.

July 15th: Ninja Cadets

While fantasy dominated the 90s anime sphere, there was still room for other genres. Such as the short-lived phase of ninja anime released around this time. We look at one such example from the pre-Naruto era of ninja anime: 1996’s Ninja Cadets.

July 31st: Battle Arena Toshinden

Looks like we’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel now. While it might be forgotten today, Battle Arena Toshinden was a popular fighting game franchise in Japan, even if it didn’t make it out of the 90s. But in between it’s brief peak, it somehow crafted an anime. Is it just as scrublord-y as the franchise that spawned it?