In hindsight, Summer 2025 had one of the biggest and best seasonal anime line-ups in quite a while. The comedy genre saw quite a lot of heavy hitters as well, including but not limited to Grand Blue Season 2 and New Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt. But as popular and well-made as these comedies are, they all pale in comparison to City the Animation, Kyoto Animation’s long-awaited return to comic form.
Based on the manga CITY by Keiihci Arawi, City the Animation follows the day-to-day lives of the residents of a city that’s simply named “City.” This misleadingly uneventful premise should not be taken lightly, since City the Animation uses it to be the funniest and most endearing comedy anime of Summer 2025. Many comedy anime have a healthy blend of heart and humor, but not on the level that City the Animation does.
City the Animation Perfectly Recaptures Nichijou’s Spirit
A rainbow appears in City the AnimationImage via Kyoto Animation
In more ways than one, City the Animation is basically Nichijou — My Ordinary Life’s belated sequel. If a certain blue-haired mangaka is who older anime fans think it is, then City the Animation may very well be Nichijou’s canon legacy sequel. None of this is to say that today’s viewers have to watch Nichijou to understand City the Animation, although doing so isn’t a bad idea. Instead, City the Animation is Nichijou’s spiritual successor in every conceivable way imaginable.
Besides being animated by Kyoto Animation and being based on Arawi’s manga, City the Animation also has the exact same sense of humor that Nichijou does. Both are slice-of-life anime that follow an enormous cast of characters who live out their everyday lives in the most hilarious and absurdist ways possible. The only real difference is that if Nichijou primarily focuses on high school students who live in the countryside, City the Animation follows much older characters who live in the eponymous city.
Much like Nichijou, City the Animation doesn’t have a typical narrative or conflict. At most, the anime makes a big deal out of Ecchan’s coming migration, and her struggle to break this sad news to her best friend, Matsuri Makabe. Other than that, the anime lacks any stakes due to how mundane and peaceful life in the city is. What’s more, this one storyline is only one of many within the anime. City the Animation’s other storylines have their own gravitas, but they’re not as emotionally resonant as Ecchan and Matsuri’s plight.
This isn’t a problem at all, since the lack of a centralized narrative allows City the Animation to be a never-ending, sprawling and unpredictable comedy of errors. Every storyline, no matter how unimportant it may seem in the grand scheme of things, is given its time in the spotlight. Each segment finds the joy and humor in the most ordinary of things, like listening to a horse race’s radio coverage or going to a restaurant. City life in anime has never been as relatable and funny as it has been in City the Animation.
City the Animation’s Incredible Characters Are Too Lovable For Their Own Good
Nagumo leads the race in City the AnimationImage via Kyoto Animation
It’s not hyperbolic to say that City the Animation has too many characters to list down. The closest that the anime has to main characters would be the trio that the college-age young adults Midori Nagumo, Ayumu Niikura and Wako Izumi form. Not only are they the anime’s flagship group, but they also get a bulk of its gags and screentime. But even so, every episode is filled with shorts that star a different friend group or individual. As cliché as it may be to say, the entire city’s populace is a character in and of itself.
Every personality and group dynamic is distinct from the other. Everyone is simultaneously ordinary, yet unique and nuanced. It’s in this regard that City the Animation’s cast has some of the most relatable and lifelike anime characters seen in a while. It’s a joy to see them converge, especially in chaotic citywide events. It’s a testament to the anime’s wealth of substance that every resident has a story worth following and a signature joke to their name. Even when it cuts to a one-off character, the anime never loses its momentum, sincerity and cleverness.
The worst that can be said about City the Animation’s cast is that, at times, it can be too large for its own good. It’s almost impossible to keep track of everyone who’s been introduced. There will be times when rewatching an episode or immediately rewinding a scene is necessary just to catch all their names, quirks and punchlines. What’s more, some characters will outshine others to an unfair degree. That said, this issue is more of an embarrassment of riches than a detrimental flaw. Additionally, this is the anime’s point.
City the Animation is set in a bustling city filled with different people who live their own lives. The anime perfectly captures what living in such a busy and dense place would be like. There are people who are basically the city’s main characters, and there are those who prefer to stay in the background while still fulfilling their irreplaceable roles in their neighbors’ lives. The city would feel incomplete if even just one person were missing. All in all, City the Animation boasts Summer 2025’s biggest and liveliest cast of characters.
Kyoto Animation Unleashes Summer 2025’s Most Creative Visuals in City the Animation
The split screen in City the AnimationImage via Kyoto Animation
The biggest challenge that any slice-of-life comedy faces is deriving entertainment from everyday life. This is especially true for anime, since it’s an animated medium that’s best known for its heightened and stylized sensibilities. This is why most, if not all, slice-of-life anime deploy overblown visual gags with cartoon logic and pop culture references. City the Animation solves this problem by replacing comedy anime’s most overused conventions with the most creative animation seen in Summer 2025.
Instead of making low-hanging references or recycling the usual anime visual gags, City the Animation pushes its characters to their comedic breaking points while still keeping them grounded in their reality. Characters’ reactions are still larger-than-life, and they’re capable of performing physical feats — such as jumping over buildings — for comedic effect. However, they don’t go as far as transforming into a beastly caricature of themselves or summoning superweapons to get the joke across. At most, they experience wild visualizations of their emotions.
This, in turn, gives City the Animation its unique sense of humor and visual language. Truth be told, City the Animation is more of a sitcom than a typical comedy anime. Every episode gets its laughs from throwing its chosen characters into a situation that’s either unassumingly uneventful or ridiculously exaggerated. Kyto Animation’s comforting art style, energetic comedic animation and bursts of absurdity compliment the character’s witty banter and scenario-driven hijinks. The comedy’s precise direction and the animators’ sharp editing elevate everything some more.
Even better, Kyoto Animation outdid themselves in City the Animation’s most elaborate scenes. Highlights include the party at the Tanabe family’s mansion, the last leg of the annual race, and the season’s musical finale. The sheer scale of these scenes is unbelievable and awe-inspiring. That even the most crowded and action-packed sequences are still visually comprehensible and entertaining makes the animators’ achievement all the more impressive. This is the best that Kyoto Animation has been in a while, which says a lot given their already awesome pedigree.
City the Animation Tops Summer 2025’s Comedy Anime Lineup
Ecchan and Matsuri in City the AnimationImage via Kyoto Animation
City the Animation is a celebration of community and of finding joy in the simplest of things. This is a theme that many slice-of-life and comedy anime carry, but they’re ultimately held back by how they (understandably) only focus on their core eccentric main characters. In contrast, City the Animation exerts more effort than anyone would expect from a comfy anime when it comes to making its setting feel as alive and lived-in as possible. The end results are both stunning and heartwarming in ways that most anime — regardless of genre — aren’t.
City the Animation’s only real flaw is that, like any anthology, audiences will inevitably have their favorites. Not everyone is going to be a fan of Mr. Bummer’s perpetually stressed creators, or of the Tekaridake Theater Troupe’s latest production. Others will leave Season 1 wishing that subplots like Tatewaku Makabe and Riko Izumi’s young love got more screentime. But even so, this is a matter of taste and preference that does nothing to undermine how City the Animation is Summer 2025’s funniest and most artistically impressive anime.
Kyoto Animation’s anime have always been some of the best ever made, but nothing comes close to what they achieved in City the Animation. The studio’s ambition and passion for the source material, slice-of-life comedies and anime as an art form are evident in every frame of this modern masterpiece. At this rate, it’s safe to say that the only anime that can possibly top it would be a hypothetical City the Animation Season 2. It wouldn’t be surprising if Kyoto Animation, once again, surpasses itself if ever Nagumo, Niikura and Wako return in the near future.
City the Animation Season 1 is now streaming on Prime Video.
Release Date
July 7, 2025
Network
Tokyo MX
Writers
Ayano Sato
Aki Toyosaki
Niikura (voice)
Yui Ishikawa
Wako Izumi (voice)
Pros & Cons
Hilarious & lovable characters
Clever story & lifelike writing
Unparalleled animation
Overwhelmingly large cast
Some jokes miss the mark
AloJapan.com