Sara Talks Anime

The last Sara Aeschliman simulcast writeup before Christmas! And next week’s the final Sara Aeschliman simulcast writeup for 2025! It’s so hard to believe that we’re getting so close to the end of the Fall 2025 anime season, and honestly, I don’t think I would have it any other way. The Winter 2026 anime season should have me popping up a bit more, so if you didn’t feel content with me only popping up once per week, don’t worry! I can confirm I’ll be popping up three days a week at minimum during the Winter 2026 season!

Next week, I’ll see if I can also get a post out that describes my plans for the Winter 2026 anime season, so that you guys aren’t completely blind as to what I’m gonna do starting next year. If it doesn’t come out before the year ends, then hopefully it comes out before my first simulcast writeup for the Winter 2026 anime season is supposed to go up.

Anyway, this episode is split into two stories within the same episode (though they are somewhat connected), so I’ll cover each one separately.

Story 1: Celebrations and Chances

To celebrate Futami, Nashida, and Nagomi (a character introduced in a previous episode that I forgot whether or not I referred to her by name, but if I haven’t before now, then there’s her name)’s success, the one mangaka they were all assistants for prior to their mangaka journeys invites them over for a pizza party.

Meanwhile, Sato and Toko stop by Futami’s apartment because they forgot they rescheduled a meeting, so Mizuki decides to spend some time eating, drinking, and talking with them.

Through both of these encounters, a valuable aspect of life is explored: your journey is ultimately defined by the people you meet by chance. And you also can’t have just skills to survive in the creative industry. You also need a bit of luck. And, honestly, that’s so real.

Futami and Nashida do go back to Futami’s apartment, with Sato deciding to do the meeting with Futami a day early. I’ll talk about what happens past that under the story 2 banner, but this first story was so sweet. It was nice to see all the reflection. Kind of reminds you that the anime season is winding down. If it weren’t for the fact that I know this is a 13 episode anime, I would’ve thought that this was part of the final episode. But that’s where Story 2 comes in…

Story 2: The Signing Event

As it turns out, Futami has a signing event at a bookstore in the prefecture (I believe that’s the correct term for me to use here, please correct me if I’m incorrect) she grew up in, with Futami becoming a nervous wreck when she realizes she has to interact with people.

On the way, Futami’s reminded by Sato about being able to meet her fans. Anyway, the signing event occurs, and there was almost 100% attendance during it, as one person ended up not coming. Futami, however, convinces the bookstore employees to let her stay longer to let her wait for the person who’s running late.

While there’s an understandable reason why this person would be running late, I’ll leave that out so that I don’t get too heavy into the spoiler zone. However, I believe that this is a really sweet way to end the episode, and I can’t wait to see how next episode completes the series…or if this ends up getting a second season, then how it wraps up this season. Despite my issues with one of the characters, I genuinely hope this gets a season 2.

Previous Post: Episode 11 – “It’s Important to Actually Experience It”

Next Post: Episode 13 (“A Mangaka’s Weirdly Wonderful Workplace”) hasn’t aired yet. Unless the next episode gets delayed before airing, this writeup will come out on December 29th, 2025 at 12 PM PST.