The Real Winners of 2025 Animation

Instead of voicing my own takes on current events, let's instead focus on the positives by taking a look back at what winners we have for Animation for this year:

THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP

I'm astonished that for all of his ANTI-ANIMATION attitude that David Zaslav has for anything from WB whether it be Looney Tunes or Cartoon Network, this film alongside Coyote Vs. Acme, was miraculously swiped away from his Tax Write-Off Fingers of Doom by the good people of KETCHUP ENTERTAINMENT.

While I'm still mad at WARNER BROS. for preferring to spend their marketing expenditures on THE MINECRAFT MOVIE, I still think that THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP is a much better animated film than what is currently being released in CINEMAS today because not only is it in Hand-Drawn, Frame by Frame 2D Animation, but it's also a love letter to BOB CLAMPETT who I feel is constantly always being overshadowed by Historian's preferences for Chuck Jones or Friz Freleng.

And all thanks goes to this movie for ACTUALLY GETTING ME OUT OF THE HOUSE AND ACTUALLY GOING TO A CINEMA AFTER 6 YEARS OF NOT WATCHING IN A CINEMA DUE TO THE PANDEMIC AND MY COLLEGE EDUCATION.

Thank You KETCHUP ENTERTAINMENT 

and Thank you GHOST OF BOB CLAMPETT as well as the still-living RUTH CLAMPETT. You really made my early spring real good.

MAKEINE: TOO MANY LOSING HEROINES:

I missed out on posting this in my 2024 Animation Retrospective but to be honest, I just wanted to wait it out before making the posts because it came rather late in 2024 for me so I can give a proper mention.

MAKEINE: TOO MANY LOSING HEROINES is an Japanese Animated Sitcom/Light Novel that centers on several girls who become the girlfriends of one KAZUHIKO NUKUMIZU.

Why?

Because NUKUMIZU is the only one who witnessed the heartbreak of said girls who's childhood boyfriends don't reciprocate their feelings.

Yeah, it's the typical HAREM genre but what makes MAKEINE interesting is how the main character is given newfound popularity amongst the other characters due to his nice attitude as well as the fact that each girlfriend of his has a different personality compared to the dominatrix like personas of other HAREM CHARACTERS in the past. (I’m looking at you High School DXD)

For example, ANNA YANAMI is a big eater who's metabolism can rival that of Shaggy from Scooby-Doo.

My personal favorite LEMON YAKISHIO is an ALL-STAR athlete with dark skin, short hair, and a nice demeanour who could give PATTI MAYONAISE a run for her money... sans her heartbreak with Mizuki of course.

And CHIKA KOMARI the resident introvert and the only one who's intended boyfriend remained oblivious to her crush. Also, she talks with a stutter. (No Comparisons please!)

And there are other girls too but the list would be too long for me to write.

FLOW:

I bring this up because this film slipped past me through the summer of 2024 and It's earned a lot of buzz on the Internet due to the fact that it's one of the only films animated on BLENDER that has won an ACADEMY AWARD FOR BEST PICTURE.

While I will continue to use AUTODESK MAYA going forward, I have no choice but to include this film since I did a Maverick Quickie Congratulating the film on it's Oscar Win.

LILO AND STITCH:

A Live-Action Remake? Oh what the hell.

Disney's more recent LIVE-ACTION REMAKES have been hit-or-miss with many being viewed as nothing but less-than-stellar examples that show that the MOUSE HOUSE has not learned from their mistakes since their INFAMOUS DIRECT-TO-VIDEO SEQUELS of the 2000s.

After the SNOW WHITE remake opened as an unmitigated disaster as the company's pre-1937 naysayers predicted, Now the MOUSE HOUSE looked on to making up for their SPRING FOLLY by releasing a remake of LILO & STITCH.

I usually don't pay attention to the Live-Action remakes' BEHIND THE SCENES stories but this film is an exception as I have paid attention to it's production history as well as also having watched the 2002 Animated Original.

Although film fans were not pleased with the changes to Jumba's accent and demeanor as well as the change to the ending of the film, this is one of the better remakes in DISNEY'S history to a point that alongside LION KING's Prequel, this film will get it's own Sequel.

King of the Hill Season 14:

We finally have the return of AMERICA’s (and TEXAS’) most famous Cartoon CURMUDGEON gracing our Disney+/Hulu Bundle Subscriptions with his triumphant but confused return to Arlen, Texas I TELL YOU WHAT!

This new season takes place almost 8 years later after the events of SEASON 13 where Bobby Hill is now a Robata Chef while his father HANK HILL is dealing with the pangs of retirement, all while voicing closeted criticisms of all the changes to AMERICA that happened throughout the 2020s.

A reference to some people’s distaste of change in our society in favor of traditional values.

And that's not the first time a cartoon character from the 90s would voice their criticism of 2020s society.

Rocko did that back in 2019 with STATIC CLING.

Demon Slayer: Kimitsu no Yaiba INFINITY CASTLE PART 01:

With USA/CANADIAN Animation however either being forced to take a back seat due to Executive meddling, reviews gone awry, or just not being nice to us North Americans.....

The time to switch to the Japanese side of Animation should be a nice change.

And DEMON SLAYER fits that bill.

Enter INFINITY CASTLE Part 01:

A theatrical imagining of the INFINITY CASTLE arc from the manga.

And yes, I've seen the film in IMAX to the point that it was optimized for the film.

And while it's meant to be a film about scaling a large dimensional castle, the film is actually more a drama featuring a crap-ton of flashbacks for several characters.

And several moments of this film were more TEARJERKER than ACTION.

I won't indulge into the film as to avoid spoilers so watch the film in your own free time.

RANMA 1/2 Remake SEASON 2:

Well… here we are. SEASON 2 of the RANMA 1/2 remake as seen on NETFLIX.

This covers the second Season of the RANMA series before HARD BATTLE aired back in 1990 so this should be good.

Like I said, the DUB replaced most of the previous actors due to factors like NETFLIX preferring IYUNO's Translation Services instead of OCEAN or BANG ZOOM's. 

But 3 characters had to be recast in the original Japanese due to the deaths of their actors.

The most prominent being UKYO KUONJI because back in November 2017, Hiromi Tsuru passed away due to aortic dissection.

KPop Demon Hunters:

Similar to how I was taken aghast by NEMONA in 2023

& HASBIN HOTEL in 2024,

This is a rather surprising entry for 2025.

I originally thought this was from SOUTH KOREA considering the majority of actresses are of Korean Descent but I found that this is an AMERICAN CGI Film, just with a Korean Flair, what with the title, character names, etc.

Still, I welcome that.

Chainsaw Man-The Movie REZE Arc:

Move over and keep your katanas in their sheathes DEMON SLAYER Fans because another film has overtaken your TAISHO ERA Movie in the box office.

That's right. It's the CHAINSAW MAN Movie which premiered on OCTOBER 24 and I got to say, this film is rather exhilarating. 

I've really enjoyed this film to it's fullest and the jokes revolving around Denji and his insensitiveness amused both me and the people who watched this film in IMAX.

But what really gets to me is that the fight scenes really did do IMAX it's justice. I could tell that carefully planned and choreographed attention was put to it's use to provide the most visually stunning animation that's befitting an IMAX screen. 

And despite the obvious background revolving around REZE, she's an interesting character.

And there you go.

Yeah, the list looks truncated but this has been such a weird-ass year that my options were somewhat limited.

But with things like TRUMP's Tariff Threats against Hollywood, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, etc.,

I just want to avoid going all political with this blog and avoid the anger that plagued my mental health in 2023 and 2024 so there you have.

On the other hand, 

I originally was going to include GENDDY TARTAKOVSKY's FIXED in this list which I did but when that film bombed with both viewers and critics over the subject matter,

(Therefore Validating my views that R-Rated Dramas perform better than R-Rated Comedies, hench the reason why DEMON SLAYER has taken the place of FIXED.)

I removed mentions of FIXED from my list of 2025 Animation winners.

But if public opinions of the film change, let me know so I can put the film back on the list but until then, I'll just leave it as is.