Another weekend is upon us. That means it's once again time for the Bam Smack Pow team to bring you a weekly round-up of all the most important anime news of the week that was. This week, we're focusing on some major releases for the summer and beyond. Our anime recommendation this week is also one of the most influential and important anime movies of all time.
2025 Anime Awards reveal additional guests, presenters and where to stream
With Crunchyroll's 2025 Anime Awards set for May 25, the popular anime streaming service has announced several additional details about the ceremony. Most importantly, the start time for the ceremony and where fans can watch the live stream: the pre-show for the 2025 Anime Awards begins at 5:00 pm Japanese Standard Time (4:00 am Eastern) and the ceremony itself starts at 6:00 JST (5:00 am Eastern). Anime fans around the world can watch the ceremony live-stream on Crunchyroll's YouTube and Twitch channels, as well as SONY PICTURES CORE and Sony Group Corp Global's YouTube channels.
Crunchyroll has also announced several additional guests and presenters for this year's ceremony. Musical performers include LiSA (performer of the Demon Slayer opening theme), FLOW and Creepy Nuts, the hip-hop group that perform the opening theme for Dan Da Dan — like the anime series itself, the opening for Da Da Dan has become an instant hit with fans. Presenters for the ceremony include musicians J Balvin and Kacey Musgraves and screenwriter Zak Penn.
More information about the 2025 Anime Awards can be found at the official website here.
Dan Da Dan movie reveals new trailer
Distributor GKIDS has shared a new trailer for Dan Da Dan: Evil Eye, a special theatrical release of the first three episodes of the upcoming second season, which we've shared above. The movie is set to release in theaters across North America starting June 6. In the meantime, season one can be watched on Netflix and Crunchyroll.
GKIDS provides the following information in the YouTube video description for the trailer:
"Based on the popular manga by Yukinobu Tatsu, DAN DA DAN is an electrifying, action-packed love letter to sci-fi and horror with the heart of a ruthlessly funny teen rom-com. In DAN DA DAN: EVIL EYE co-directors Fuga Yamashiro and Abel Gongora bring fans a new story in the latest series from cutting-edge animation studio Science SARU (The Colors Within, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off) with pulse-pounding original music from kensuke ushio (Chainsaw Man)."
GKIDS distributes numerous notable anime movies internationally, including the Studio Ghibli movies directed by Hayao Miyazaki — including Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and Castle in the Sky — as well as several Ghibli movies not directed by Miyazaki, including the famous tragic Grave of the Fireflies and non-Ghibli anime movies including The End of Evangelion. Beyond Dan Da Dan, the anime series distributed by GKIDS include the main Neon Genesis Evangelion series (for which they released a new dub via Netflix) and Witch Watch.
Several anime announcements for later in 2025 and into 2026
With the start of the Summer 2025 anime season on the horizon, various anime studios and streaming services are announcing their upcoming anime lineups for the summer season and beyond. Here's a quick run-down of the new announcements from this past week:
• HIDIVE has announced that season 2 of vampire-centric romance anime Call of the Night will begin streaming this July. Additionally, a special panel focusing on the series will be held at this year's Anime Expo on July 5. HIDIVE has also released a teaser trailer for season two of Call of the Night on YouTube.
• Anime News Network is reporting that the second part of the first season of Sakamoto Days will debut July 14.
• Looking a little further ahead, Anime News Network is also reporting that anime adaptations of Heroine? Saint? No, I'm an All-Works Maid (And Proud of It)! and Observation Records of My Fiancée: The Misadventures of a Self-Proclaimed Villainess are in the works for 2026. Similarly, the second season of Ace of Diamond Act II is also slated for 2026.
Weekly Anime Recommendation: The Castle of Cagliostro
The Castle of Cagliostro, the second and likely most famous movie in the long-running Lupin III franchise, was legendary director Hayao Miyazaki's directorial debut. The original Lupin III manga ran from 1967-1969. The title character is Arsène Lupin III, the grandson of the legendary gentleman thief who was the star of a series of popular French pulp stories in the early 1900s. Miyazaki's iteration of the character was actually originally controversial with Japanese audiences for significantly lightening his character. In the original manga, Lupin is a fairly ruthless and cold character who's openly willing to use lethal force. In Castle of Cagliostro, Lupin is much more of a Robin Hood or Han Solo sort of character, a charming scoundrel with a heart of gold who will ultimately do the right thing when pushed.
Ultimately, The Castle of Cagliostro is essential viewing as one of the most influential anime movies of all time. Lupin himself is one of the most popular anime characters in history and his rival-slash-love interest Fujiko Mine is a contender for the single most popular female anime character in the entire medium. With The Castle of Cagliostro, Miyazaki got his directorial career off to an unbelievably strong start and even after almost 50 years, the animation still holds up. There's a longstanding rumor that Steven Spielberg commented that the opening car chase was one of the greatest scenes he'd ever seen — unfortunately, all available information points to this being just an urban legend.
The Castle of Cagliostro is not currently available to stream through any subscription service, but it is available for digital rental or purchase on most major platforms. However, Richard Epcar, the current voice of Lupin's triggerman Jigen, did reveal in an interview that there are plans for a new dub (which would be the movie's third English dub) with the current English cast. After the release of this new dub, it's likely the movie will find its way back to streaming. In the meantime, the various anime series in the franchise can be streamed on Crunchyroll and HIDIVE.
As always, come back every week for the latest anime news and a new anime recommendation from the Back Smack Pow team!