Another week is coming to an end, so the Bam Smack Pow team is here once again to bring up all the most important anime news for the week. The biggest news this week is that Crunchyroll is gearing up for the annual Anime Awards next month.
With that in mind, here's all the anime news you need to know as the Easter long weekend kicks off.
Anime Awards 2025 fan voting closes, ceremony scheduled for May 25
The fan voting period for Crunchyroll's 2025 Anime Awards is now closed. This year's nominees were initially determined by a panel of industry judges, with the winners to be determined by the panel of judges in conjunction with the public fan vote for categories such as Anime of the Year, Film of the Year, Best Voice Performance in both Japanese and English, as well as the best anime in genres including Action, Comedy, Drama, Slice of Life, and Isekai.
Crunchyroll has announced that this year's hosts will be Sally Amaki (voicing Carol in both the Japanese and English versions of romantic comedy Tomo-Chan is a Girl!) and Japanse broadcaster and narrator Jon Kabira. Announced presenters for this year include boxer Ben Whittaker, snowboarder Chloe Kim, VTuber Ironmouse and others. The 2025 Anime Awards are scheduled to air live from Tokyo on May 25, 2025. Further details about the broadcast will be announced as we get closer to the date of the ceremony.
Yakuza Fiancé reveals English cast
Crunchyroll has revealed the cast for its English dub of Yakuza Fiancé: Raise wa Tanin ga Ii, which began airing earlier this week. All 12 episodes of the English dub have been released at once and are now streaming on Crunchyroll as of April 15.
The English cast includes:
• Molly Searcy as Yoshino
• Bryson Baugus as Kirishima
• Ian Sinclair as Asebi
• Monica Rial as Nao
Additionally, the production crew of Yakuza Fiancé's English dub includes Jad Saxton as the voice director, Susie Nixon as the producer, the English adaptation of the script by Jessica Sluys, Ricky Watkins as the mixer and Zachary Davis as the Engineer.
Crunchyroll provides the following summary for the series:
"Somei Renji is Somei Yoshino’s grandfather and leader of the “Somei Group”, the Kansai region’s biggest yakuza group. When he arranges for her to be married to Miyama Kirishima, Yoshino has to move to “Miyama Clan” estate, the Kanto region’s biggest yakuza group. Kirishima warmly welcomes Yoshino and is such a pleasant, personable, and nice young man that nobody would suspect that he comes from a yakuza family. This puts Yoshino at ease even though she was initially feeling insecure in this unfamiliar place.
But then, a certain event leads to Yoshino witnessing the real Kirishima."
◤ アーマードオールマイトが来た!! ◢
— 僕のヒーローアカデミア／ヒロアカ アニメ公式 (@heroaca_anime) April 16, 2025
『僕のヒーローアカデミア』7期最終話で
その雄姿を見せたアーマードオールマイト。
スペシャルビジュアルを公開!!#ヒロアカ FINAL SEASON、
10月より毎週土曜夕方5:30放送開始!!#heroaca_a pic.twitter.com/xv4NXzoPrs
My Hero Academia shares new visual for the final anime season
Following the My Hero Academia manga's conclusion in the summer of 2024, the anime adaptation has also been gearing up towards wrapping up its run. The anime's eighth and final season is currently slated to debut in Japan in October 2025. We'll keep you updated with new information as it becomes available, particularly when the English-language release is announced.
In anticipation of the upcoming final season of My Hero Academia, the anime's production team has posted a special new visual featuring All Might in the special armor he appeared in during the final episode of My Her Academia's seventh season. This new visual was posted to social media by the My Hero Academia team and is now being shared by news outlets such as Crunchyroll.
Crunchyroll has announced that the final season of My Hero Academia will see most of the previous production team return. Kenji Nagasaki and Naomi Nakayama will direct. Yusuke Kuroda is writing the scripts. Yoshihiko Umakoshi and Hitomi Odashima are providing the character designs and Yuki Hayashi is providing the soundtrack.
Weekly anime recommendation: Tomo-chan is a Girl!
Inspired by the news that Sally Amaki, a member of its main cast, will be hosting the Anime Awards, our anime recommendation for this week is the high school romantic comedy Tomo-chan is a Girl!
Tomo-chan is a Girl! is fairly similar in a lot of ways to fellow high school RomCom Kaguya-sama: Love is War and the two series compliment each other nicely. At the core of both series is the fact the male and female leads' inability to just come out and say how they feel about each other creates drives most of the comedy. The primary differences are that Kaguya-sama focuses more on serious, dramatic moments. Tomo-chan has serious moments, but it cleaves closer to pure comedy than Kaguya-sama does. Tomo-chan also has a significantly shorter run time, wrapping up its romance arc neatly in a single 13-episode season.
The Tomo-chan in question is Tomo Aizawa, the tomboyish daughter of a karate instructor. Her best friend and love interest is Jun. Although Jun has been her best friend since childhood, he didn't even realize Tomo was a girl at first and still struggles to see Tomo as anything other than his best friend, to the point of referring to her as "bro." As Tomo comes to realize her own feelings for Jun, she struggles to get him to see her as a girl and more than just a friend. Tomo is helped along the way by the quirky but relentlessly nice Carol Olston (the character voiced by the bilingual Sally Amaki in both Japanese and English) and the gloomy Misuzu Gundou, who feels a bit like a more grounded and realistic Wednesday Addams.
Crunchyroll provides the following synopsis for the series:
"Tomboy Tomo couldn’t have picked a more awkward high school crush ’cause it’s on her childhood friend, Junichiro, but he only sees her as one of the guys. Despite her pretty looks and signals, nothing gets through to this meathead! Will Junichiro ever realize Tomo’s into him and see her for the cutesy girl she actually is?!"
Tomo-chan is a Girl! is a really cute serious and at 13 episodes, it's easy to binge, especially as a potential palate cleanser after watching any of the really grim and dark anime or non-anime series out there. It's also a very relatable series. Most of us, especially as teenagers, have struggled to figure out our true identities and get other people to see and validate those identities.
Tomo-chan is a Girl! is streaming on Crunchyroll.
On behalf of the Bam Smack Pow team, enjoy your long weekend. As always, be sure to check back in next week for the biggest anime news of the week and another anime recommendation!