In late 2024, when Kyoto Animation, one of the industry's most celebrated studios, announced that they were bringing Keiichi Arawi's manga series CITY to our screens with an animated series, the excitement was palpable. Not only was this Kyoto Animation's first entirely new production since the tragic arson attack of 2019, but it was also a throwback for anyone already familiar with Keiichi Arawi's other Kyoto Animation adaptation Nichijou - My Ordinary Life, marking CITY THE ANIMATION as something many of us have been waiting a very long time for.

For those uninitiated in the works of Keiichi Arawi, CITY was originally serialized in September 2016 as a 4-koma manga series building off the formula perfected in his previous work Nichijou. It's a bombastic look at the mundane, pitched as a curveball straight into the reader's face – what you're reading are very normal, real scenarios with the script flipped in the most outlandish ways. Anyone familiar with Nichijou, whether manga or anime, should be intimately familiar with this and should be excited to know that this continues in CITY.

Released today on Amazon Prime globally, where the series is exclusively streaming, and after over half a year of teasers, we've finally received our first look at just how Arawi Keiichi's 4-koma manga translates to a full 28-minute episode. The result? One of the most stylistically gorgeous anime releases in recent memory. It would not matter where in the show you paused, every frame presents you with a vibrant depiction of Arawi's work that feels lifted and colorized straight out of the manga. Kyoto Animation proved their chops in bringing life to Arawi's works with their adaptation of Nichijou - My Ordinary Life, but CITY THE ANIMATION reflects just how far the studio has come in those fifteen years since.

While many anime this season clamor for ultra-detailed backgrounds and character designs that promote excess, CITY THE ANIMATION trades that all in for vibrant, colorful, and ultra-flat backgrounds that emphasize movement and comedic timing above anything else. Characters composed of minimal amounts of colors and shadings, their designs stripped to the bare bones, accented by Arawi Keiichi's instantly recognizable stylings, are made to pop on any screen, building on this premise of an ordinary world.

But instead of just lifting the contents of the manga, CITY THE ANIMATION finds ways to build off the comedic nature by utilizing the anime medium to its fullest. High-speed moments, of which the series is full of, are given full range of motion, accented by simple, high-intensity line strokes without overloading viewers with information. Animation is never used as a way to distract from the comedy, but to simply develop it further, ensuring that no beat is missed in delivery.

Without getting into too many details within the first episode, as it's something I hope you'll watch yourself, the anime's take on the "Crispy Noodles" scene, followed by the mayhem that ensues, is a textbook example of the anime delivering comedy in a way only the medium could.

Capping all of this off is the incredible claymation-style ending that further accentuates the simple stylings and playful nature of the series. It's instantly recognizable, offering a unique look at the city of CITY without detracting from the visual style built throughout the episode. Gliding over the top of this all is the laidback stylings of Japanese singer-songwriter TOMOO with her song "LUCKY." It's less poppy than something like Sasaki Sayaka's "Zzz," which was used for the ending of Nichijou - My Ordinary Life, but this laidback nature certainly fits the mood of CITY THE ANIMATION a whole lot more.

While we've currently seen just one episode deep into this thirteen-episode season, if the delivery of the first episode continues, CITY THE ANIMATION is already shaping up to be a worthy successor to Nichijou - My Ordinary Life, and a must-watch addition to Kyoto Animation's incredible lineup of anime.

Streaming globally on Amazon Prime, CITY THE ANIMATION is a series I can't recommend getting added to your watchlist soon enough. For those interested in checking out additional information, be sure to visit CITY THE ANIMATION's official website.