The Joy of Life in Motion - CITY the Animation Review and Analysis
Written by Rei Caldombra 11/7/25 Video: TBD
Hello everyone, Rei Caldombra here to gush about how incredible CITY the Animation is. I will be getting into pretty much all of my feelings on it, which spoiler alert is exclusively positive. There’s no agenda here, I just truly have nothing negative to say. The series can be summarized pretty simply as the daily happenings of the people who live in City, primarily centering around Nagumo, Niikura and Izumi who live together in an apartment. I’ll start by talking about the broader things that make it so great then dive into the themes. The Review section will not have spoilers while the Analysis section will have direct spoilers for events of the anime. I of course encourage you to read the whole thing, but feel free to just read the part you are most interested in.
Review
To start out with, this anime is a triumph of animation. The heart and soul put into this adaptation explodes off the screen. Multiple times every episode I had to say out loud something along the lines of “This show is so freaking gorgeous!” I could never get enough of it. The way they play with colors, perspective, backgrounds, and the character designs play into different scenes is just incredible.
This is the most wonderfully stylized thing I have ever seen. The art style is beautiful and comforting. While also being extremely detailed. It manages to feel both modern and nostalgic to me. It gives me the feeling of picture books you read as a kid. When it comes to the animation and direction, you could not possibly ask for more. It is fluid, dynamic, smooth, and always perfectly fits the scene. The art style never gets in the way of the scenes with more bombastic moments. It navigates the spectrum of pacing and timing perfectly. The anime was of course made by the incredible people at Kyoto Animation aka Kyoani, which has been my favorite studio since I first got started with anime. And this is very much a Kyoani show. They excel at injecting slice of life series with so much feeling and atmosphere, and that’s what they did here. This is prime Kyoani. Another great part of the production is that the author Arawi, Keiichi was heavily involved in the anime, which shows. There was so much extra behind-the-scenes effort that made it the one-of-a-kind work of art that it is. There are so many moments in this anime of pure beauty and stunning displays of animation that I do not want to spoil for anyone who is spoiler free. The other aspects of the production are incredibly strong too. The voice acting is excellent, with everyone in both the sub and dub in my opinion putting on great performances that lend themselves well to the bombastic comedy.
This is yet another show that shows how great of a setting small locations can be. This city is a living, breathing place.
The main 3 girls in the middle along with the extended cast. The happy people representing and welcoming the viewer to their city.
Worldbuilding applies to small worlds too. It's not only for vast expansive settings. I love that over the course of this series you can actually learn the layout of the town if you really pay attention. And this just helps with how engrossing this series is. This is just one way that you really feel the interconnectedness of the city and its residents. This is a wacky, warm city filled with wacky, warm people.
This show is the epitome of quirky charm. I love all of the characters in this massive cast, they all have their own unique charm and dynamics with the other characters. There are so many memorable interactions and characters that I could see any character or moment being someone’s favorite.
The main trio are all great and have a great dynamic together than sustains a lot of the show. But in particular I love Matsuri and Eri the most.
They are the most precious single brain cell sharing goober babies to ever exist. Their play-acting back and forth banter is so cute and silly. Seeing them again is what I looked forward to the most with each new episode. They really remind you of the games you would get into as a kid. I will be talking about them more later in the analysis section.
Of course we cannot talk about CITY without mentioning Nichijou. Nichijou is one of my favorite comedies ever. If you like Nichijou, you have to watch CITY and vice versa. All the great comedy, quirkiness and incredible production value are present here just like with Nichijou. I consider Nichijou a 10/10 as a comedy and did not expect to like CITY even better. But somehow that is what happened. What it really comes down to is that I consider Nichijou a pure comedy but to me CITY also manages to feel like a proper slice of life and healing show at the same time as being a comedy. It has a great setting and theming that Nichijou lacks as strongly, which pushes it to be more engaging and engrossing. It brings a bit more to the table than just impeccable comedy. CITY topping Nichijou does not make me retroactively like Nichijou any less or otherwise change my feelings though. CITY just feels like an evolution in a way. It has that zany comedy and endearing characters but puts them in a properly built setting with more going on with them. It really encapsulates life itself, which is why I consider it a true slice of life while I do not for Nichijou. Again, I would like to be clear that I am not insulting Nichijou. I just have so much more to think about and say when it comes to CITY, which gives me a stronger appreciation for it.
It is absolutely hilarious, visually stunning, has a great setting, endearing characters, and as I will get into next, has a lot of theming and messages that go beyond just comedy. Experiencing this anime felt like I was getting a warm hug. Watching an episode of CITY each week genuinely cheered me up so much. Every time I finished an episode I felt like I got revitalized. This is a peak example of the effect iyashikei / healing shows can have. I would recommend this show to absolutely anyone who enjoys comedy and good vibes.
Analysis (reminder that there are direct spoilers in this section)
But what is this goofy gag comedy actually about? When you put everything together and dig a little deeper past its goofy nonsense, you see that it is actually trying to tell us something. CITY is about the joy and fun you can have every day in life if you approach it with positivity.
One place this is showcased is in the opening; The opening is about people laughing together. It's not about showing future events of the show or getting you hyped up. It sets up the mood and themes of the show beautifully. CITY is a show about people enjoying life together in their shared home. How we can all laugh together. In the show itself, you really see this in episode 5 with the big celebration.
Initially, all of these people and interactions are in their own separate bubbles.
But then as more people arrive and the event comes alive, all of these bubbles fuse together into a stunning aerial moving shot of the entire event.
All of these separate lives come together to share in food and fun. These aren’t a bunch of separate people, this is a community. With hindsight, this scene even further speaks to the memorability of the characters. I can recognize most of the people here. We may have a ton of characters here who don’t get the same amount of screentime, but these are all people. In this shot everyone is pretty much the same size, and they are all here occupying the same space. This represents how despite all of their differences in role or importance, everyone here is an equal member of this community. We also see pretty much all of these people interacting with someone in one way or another, whether that be talking to them, looking at them, etc. Tanabe may have been the one to set up the party, but it is only possible because of everyone else contributing and coming. The race finale is another incredible sequence of animation that further hits on the connectedness of people’s lives. Each of the teams may have (mostly) been running for themselves, but they are all in that race together. In the long seamless cut at the tail end of the race, we see all of these people going about their own race in real time. And in the very last episode we return to pretty much the entire cast being present. Everyone matters and has influence on the world.
Another concept is that we can get so lost in the big things going on in our lives that we forget about the little moments of joy. Like messing around with your friends or getting a lucky little win. We really see this with Izumi. Izumi quite literally laughs through pretty much everything.
Whether something good or bad happens to her, she approaches it with a smile on her face and a positive outlook.
The exaggeration used for the comedy works for the themes as well. The exaggeration plays into the message of how exciting simple things in life can be if you embrace them. Even something as simple as eating raw ramen packets can feel like achieving nirvana.
As crazy and out of control life can be, it’s yours to enjoy. Find what makes you happy, even if it’s as simple as eating dry ramen the wrong way and indulge in it. Celebrate the small wins and little moments of joy as much as the big ones. We have to do our best to take the good with the bad of life while remaining full of joy and hope.
It is important to take life day by day while keeping the big picture in mind. Nagumo and Niikura have a lot of squabbles over the course of the show, but they always remained friends after. Because those petty squabbles are just that, little moments that don’t compare to the strength of their friendship. And their friendship has a lot of meaning to it. Niikura’s goal of revitalizing Nagumo’s drive plays into how we should try to get as much out of life as we can and do our best to support others in their own pursuits. Niikura recognizes Nagumo’s ridiculous talent and wants to see her achieve more than lazing around in a room. Her motivation is also part of the desire to give back to someone who has helped you. Being a fan of Nagumo helped Niikura make her first proper friend and motivated her. People are meant to support each other. And we constantly see this in CITY, where people may tease each other (like telling someone to put on a skirt for good luck) but they never have real ill intent. Part of the reason why CITY feels so warm and wholesome is because it feels like we are glimpsing into a world of true optimism.
Eri and Matsuri’s story also plays into the themes about approaching life and change. When they revealed that she is moving to the US I genuinely felt like I got stabbed in the heart out of nowhere. This incredibly funny and warm show got sad out of nowhere. But this is a show about life and the joy you can get from it. Sad things will happen and can change your daily life out of nowhere. But that doesn’t mean it is bad. Matsuri moving away is sad, but it led to them creating many new memories together in Japan. Every day is a new chance to do something memorable, and that is what they set out to do. Which we see succeeds through their victory in the race being memorable and rewarding them with money they could use to visit each other in the future. Their parting is one of the most powerful moments of the show. Matsuri wanted to keep the status quo and part ways on a gag, but in the end, they embraced a sad but heartfelt goodbye instead. We see this point again with Nagumo and Niikura’s conversation along the river about summer ending. There’s no need to feel sad over summer ending, because it’ll be back next year. Instead, focus on the fun you had while it was here and look forward to what comes next. This is how we should approach life, facing its difficulties with a warm heart. We should not be afraid of life changing, we should embrace it in the best way possible.
Eri and Matsuri also represent how we should embrace who we are. When they both entered the same class, they had different approaches to friendship. Eri stuck to being her totally weird self, but that led to people distancing themselves from her for being different. Meanwhile, Matsuri played at being the normal girl despite being interested in Eri. It successfully got her friends but not real ones. Neither were happy. But then they came together and became the best of friends. They may have only had each other in school, but that was all they needed. Because being your true self will bring you more satisfaction than wearing a mask in a pursuit for validation.
Last little analytical point: it was not lost on me that this show about the enjoyment people have over the course of a summer was aired during the summer anime season.
Conclusion
This show is a work of art that celebrates life itself. I hoped the analytical section helped y’all appreciate how much meaning this show has for me. This is my anime of the year without a doubt and one of my favorite anime of all time. It is an actual 10/10 for me. This show really touched my heart. Please watch it! I know I will be coming back to it a lot, especially when I need a pick me up. Thanks for reading!
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If you’d like to hear more about the production behind CITY the Animation, here are some links.
