Another weekend is upon us, which means it's time once again to bring you all the most important anime news of the past week. With the Summer 2025 anime season rapidly approaching, there's more news coming about what to expect during the summer months in terms of anime, including a look at what's in store for July's 2025 iteration of Anime Expo.
In the aftermath of last weekend's Anime Awards, the Bam Smack Pow team has been taking a look at look at the night's big winners. So be sure to check out our articles taking a look at Solo Leveling, Dan Da Dan, Frieren and Attack on Titan.
Crunchyroll announces Anime Expo 2025 schedule
Crunchyroll has announced its slate of panels, premieres and other announcements for Anime Expo 2025, set to take place July 3-6 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
As part of its slate of events for the Anime Expo weekend, Crunchyroll has announced the following events:
• Special premieres of upcoming anime including Clevatess, Solo Camping for Two, Rent-a-Girlfriend season 4, A Couple of Cuckoos season 2 and Let's Play.
• Panels and discussions with the Japanese casts of series including The Apothecary Diaries, My Dress-Up Darling and Dr. Stone.
•The Crunchyroll Industry Panel.
These announcements come on the heels of Crunchyroll's previous confirmation that it will be the streaming home of season 2 of My Dress-Up Darling and series debuting at Anime Expo including Let's Play and Clevatess.
More information about the event line-up and other activities to be held at Anime Expo 2025 can be found at the official Anime Expo website.
Kaiju No. 8 announces manga's conclusion
Anime News Network is reporting that publisher Shueisha has announced that the Kaiju No. 8 manga will end its run with two final chapter releases. The second-last chapter is slated for a June 20 release, while the exact release of the final chapter is not yet known.
The Kaiju No. 8 manga by Naoya Matsumoto debuted in 2020. The manga was adapted into an anime series whose first season debuted during the Spring 2024 season. A second season was confirmed last summer, with Crunchyroll almost immediately confirming that it would be the streaming home of the second season.
Fans can catch up on the first season of Kaiju No. 8 on Crunchyroll, which provides the following summary of the series:
"In a world plagued by creatures known as Kaiju, Kafka Hibino aspired to enlist in The Defense Force. He makes a promise to enlist with his childhood friend, Mina Ashiro. Soon, life takes them in separate ways. While employed cleaning up after Kaiju battles, Kafka meets Reno Ichikawa. Reno's determination to join The Defense Force reawakens Kafka's promise to join Mina and protect humanity."
Shin Godzilla 4K re-release coming to theaters
Speaking of kaiju, we've got some Godzilla news to share. Toho's official Godzilla website has shared that a 4K re-master of 2016's Shin Godzilla is coming to North America this August thanks to distributor GKIDS, which has previously remastered and re-released several iconic anime films, including Princess Mononoke.
Released in 2016 and directed by Hideaki Anno, the creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion and the co-founder of the anime studio Gainax and sole founder of its successor Khara, Shin Godzilla was the first Godzilla movie produced by Toho in 12 years after 2004's Final Wars. The film was well-received by critics and the Shin iteration of Godzilla himself was especially noted as a new and monstrous take on the legendary kaiju.
GKIDS's official website describes the movie as follows:
"Something has surfaced in Tokyo Bay. As the Prime Minister of Japan pleads with the public to remain calm, a horrific creature of tremendous size makes landfall in the city, leaving death
and destruction in its wake. Then it evolves. The government assembles a motley task force to combat the monster when an envoy from the US Department of State delivers a folder of classified documents. On its cover is written: “GODZILLA.”
From visionary directors Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi, Shin Godzilla offers a thrilling origin story to one of cinema’s greatest creations. Propelled by astounding visual effects and rapid fire
dialogue, Shin Godzilla is equal parts pulse-pounding action film and venomous political satire, worthy of the franchise’s towering history."
Shin Godzilla was originally released internationally by Funimation, which has since been merged into Crunchyroll, following Sony's purchase of the latter in 2021 and sunsetting of Funimation in 2024. The Funimation-produced version is not currently available on streaming or home media, though a physical and/or streaming re-release from GKIDS will likely follow the theatrical run, though there is currently no word if GKIDS will include the Funimation-produced English dub, produce a new dub, or only release a subtitled Japanese version. Toho's announcement of the re-release confirms that only the subtitled version will come to North American theaters.
Weekly anime recommendation: Golden Kamuy
Golden Kamuy feels like the anime equivalent of a classic Western. In fact, one of the most obvious points of reference to help contextualize the tone and plot of Golden Kamuy is probably the iconic Western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Ultimately, this is because the situation on Hokkaido at the turn of the 20th century has a lot in common with the American Old West at roughly the same time, with the clearest parallel between Golden Kamuy and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly being that both are driven by the hunt of a hidden stash of treasure.
Taking place in the aftermath of the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War, Golden Kamuy is also set against the backdrop of the Japanese colonization of the island of Hokkaido, following various factions as they search for the 24 escaped convicts who have part of a map leading to a hidden stash of Ainu gold tattooed onto their bodies. The two primary charcters are Sugimoto, a veteran of the Russo-Japanese War nicknamed "the Immortal Sugimoto" for being apparently impossible to kill, and Asirpa, a young Ainu huntress who is eventually revealed to have a direct connection to the hidden gold.
Exploring the unique Ainu culture is a major theme of the series and Golden Kamuy is probably one of the most in-depth looks at Ainu culture out there outside of an academic textbook. Asirpa gets plenty of opportunities to educate Sugimoto and the other Japanese characters on the customs, beliefs and traditional food of her people.
Golden Kamuy is also a very violent and raunchy series — though the anime has toned down several aspects of the original manga series. Notably, it's a very fanservice-oriented series, though the fanservice tends to be focused on the male characters and played for comedy rather than solely for titillation. Still, it's worth noting that Golden Kamuy is rated 18+ on Crunchyroll and it very much earns that rating for any number of reasons.
Two live-action, feature-length adaptations of Golden Kamuy are also available on Netflix.
The original manga series can be read on Viz Media's Shonen Jump website and app — though the manga series was actually originally published in Shōnen Jump's sister magazine Weekly Young Jump.