The Fall Anime 2025 Preview Guide - Alma-chan Wants to Be a Family!

Alma is a super high-performance girl-type weapon created by two genius scientists, Enji Kamisato and Suzume Yobane.

Alma-chan Wants to Be a Family! is based on the manga series by Yoshitoki Ōima. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Sundays.

A family can be two scientists who hate each other and their powerful robot daughter. As with so many anime at the outset, I appreciate the idea of Alma-chan at least. Mechanical superweapons in the shape of adorable children are a standby setup, so following the actual childhood development of one of those is solid, in theory. This premiere even starts out by highlighting the logistical absurdity of designing a WMD in this manner—as it's made clear that both scientists who committed to this concept might not be the most stable and sound in their genius. Alma herself is cute, and her "parents" are a pair of socially maladjusted nerds who can't stand each other. I already want to see them hate-bone, and overall it makes me want to root for the show. And Alma herself.

Good faith is the best appraisal I can assign this anime though, since it ends up entirely… "fine" by the end of this first episode. It drags a little, but keeps things shored up with punch lines enough to feel like there's a rhythm to the bits and humor. Granted, those punch lines in the form of the "Alama-chan Reports" do make it feel like this show might've worked just as well, if not better, as a short anime. It also calls to mind the endings for segments in Kaguya-sama: Love is War, which this show also feels informed by. This is best seen in the competitive feeling between Enji and Suzume (Hey M.A.O!) which calls to mind the aggressive anti-flirting of Kaguya-sama—or possibly even the prior scientist-themed anime Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It. Combined with the tropes at the core of this story, it doesn't feel super-original, even if it wears its influences and base appeal okay.

Also: doesn't look that great! To be fair, Alma-chan is a simple-premise comedy show, it doesn't need to look amazing. But cutting to yukkuri-style disembodied heads for several scenes doesn't just look cheap—it undercuts some of the comedic action antics the show is supposedly trying to convey. You can't do slapstick if you show neither the stick nor the slapping! It's not like the character designs are especially complex or cool enough to demand that many resources to render. Alma's cute enough, but the scientist parents are getting by purely on personality.

Still, like I said, I have an odd inclination to root for Alma-chan. Some of the more sputter-worthy moments, like Alma marrying her parents on the spot, work in their timing. And it is, at its core, about relationships in a way I think it understands. Alma's mom and dad do care for her, as their creation, in their own way. They follow her efforts scientifically—even through the episode-ending My First Errand riff. It's heartening on the show's own terms to see them point out how failure isn't just a failure, it's a chance to learn from that previous attempt and grow—just like in science. It's simple and cheap and a poor man's Kaguya-sama in moments, but I can't bring myself to hate Alma-chan Wants to Be a Family!. More just like I shrugged and wondered when that diminutive shark-toothed scientist from the OP might appear in the show. Perhaps that's the only reason I was convincing myself to give it the benefit of the doubt.

I can't believe I initially compared Alma-chan Wants to Be a Family! to Kaguya-sama when it being a poor man's SPY x FAMILY was right there. Don't get me wrong, I still think there's plenty of Kaguya-sama in the DNA, glimpsed in this second episode's first segment about Suzume trying to cook to get one over on Enji, and the personality sparring that frames it. Putting aside that I think these two, like most anime couples, are at their best when they're actively antagonizing each other. This does nothing special or unique for this show however—it's just a collection of sketchy segments to fill with rather stock cooking bits. The most remarkable thing that comes out of this segment is finding out that Alma couldn't eat people's food before, but gets equipped to do so afterward.

Alma-chan Wants to Be a Family! retreating to the well-tread ground of "woman can't cook" humor should make clear the level of comedy cleverness this series is operating on. Appropriately enough, much of the humor in this show feels like a robot trying to decipher the human concept of jokes. The whole last segment of the episode proper revolves around what should be a hijinks-filled visit from Enji's sister Toki. But what follows is a mostly dry, awkward arrangement centered on Suzume and Alma standing still in the middle of the room to stay invisible and unnoticed. It falls flat and only shows the slightest bits of life when scientist mom and robot daughter are revealed, and the unusual family stuff can put itself out there.

But there is just enough earnest cuteness to the setup of Alma-chan, to the point that I still can't outright hate it. The whole segment in the middle with Alma wrangling a Roomba to keep things down for Enji is almost a nothingburger, but the resulting resolution that the robot vacuum is her "big brother" worked for me on its face—least of all because they brought it back in a couple of bits that worked well. The whole introductory segment with Toki is an odd sketch, but her pureness and resulting provocations of Enji make me look forward to seeing her interact with the rest of the "family" at other points.

I think it's important to clarify that while I find Alma-chan perfectly "tolerable," that does not mean it technically qualifies as "good". It's a rough-looking show, for one, which means competing with artistic powerhouses like Kaguya-sama and SPY x FAMILY makes it basically a non-starter. And any enjoyment I juiced from it comes from an acceptance that the premise, characters, and/or relationships are cute. If that doesn't click for a viewer, this show is going to be disposable. A cute kid playing with a Roomba is not going to be enough to make this must-watch material, and while I hold no ill will toward Alma-chan after two episodes, I can't say I'm jonesing to watch the rest of it either.

Marie may be a girl pretending to be a robot, so now we have the reverse: Alma is a robot attempting to be a girl. Whether or not she's deliberately trying to mimic humanity isn't actually important, though, because this is, at its heart, a found-family comedy. And really, Enji and Suzume, the scientists who created Autonomous Learning Military Android (ALMA) only have themselves to blame - they're the ones who gave her internet access, after all.

Although they may have implemented some parental controls while they were at it, because Alma has a remarkably PG idea of what a mommy and daddy do. She's sure that Enji and Suzume are her parents because they're a man and a woman who created her, but she's a little fuzzy on the how. She's also a touch confused about why the parents sleep next to each other rather than having the child in the center in a shared family bed, so I have to think that her internet access has been limited in some way. That's just as well, though; I think Suzume and Enji would actually die if Alma mentioned sex. They can't even say the word in each other's presence, after all.

That's just part of the plot here, though. Although Suzume and Enji can't quite bring themselves to admit it, they really are Alma's parents, and they really do seem to be moving towards being a family. Even without the whole “one family, one futon” bit, their interactions with their daughter are remarkably wholesome and mimic a lot of important childrearing moments. Their not-so-secret surveillance of Alma's first errand is the big one, but they also bicker about who installed certain pieces of her personality (i.e. raised her), figure out ways to get her to go to sleep, and even discuss whether or not she needs to wear something – pajamas, in this case, but it certainly sounds like a regular parent conversation that more typically revolves around coats and weather. Sure, most people's children don't hack into municipal records to create a marriage registry for their parents, but Alma's no ordinary kid and they're just going to have to find ways to cope with that.

The art and animation aren't anything special here. There are some cute details, like Alma's power button choker and the way the lights on her headpieces flash when she's online, but this feels like a show you watch for the cute emotions rather than the stunning visuals. Alma's no Anya, but watching her bring her parents together could still be a lot of sweet fun.

I just finished writing about the new isekai, Dad is a Hero, Mom is a Spirit, I'm a Reincarnator, where I gave the show credit for not trying too hard to play the cutesy-poo angle with its eight-year-old protagonist. How funny it is, then, that the very next premiere on my docket is Alma-chan Wants to Be a Family!, where my biggest issue with the show is how hard it leans into the classic moe character and story tropes. It's not a terrible show, to be clear, and I can imagine plenty of folks will adore little Alma, just as the show intends. I'm just the kind of guy who instinctively starts to reject a cartoon that feels so desperate to earn my precious “Awwwwwwwwwws” without actually putting into the work to stand apart from the usual fare. For context's sake, I'm the guy on the ANN team that is constantly proselytizing the perfection of Paddington Bear. I love adorable little scamps who get into mischief but also make the world a better place thanks to their particular world view. The difference between Alma and Paddington, I think, is that there is only one marmalade loving Peruvian bear who wears a cute bucket hat and institutes meaningful reform across London's Dickensian criminal-justice system. When it comes to monotone little robot girls with themed hair accessories and a desire to be treated like a real human being, Alma is one amongst a sea of Persocoms, Metal Idols, Bioroids, and Aigises. That is to say nothing of the technically distinct but functionally identical Monotone Clone Girls, Monotone Alien Girls, and Monotone Normal-Human-But-Very-Shy Girls.

The point is that the whole gimmick of Alma doesn't feel very interesting or unique on its own at all, which is not a crime, but it doesn't do her show any favors. Instead, the appeal of the story has to come from her interactions with the two awkward science dorks that made Alma, which is where the show is more successful, I think. Usually, Alma would be the adoptive little sister, or maid, or daughter figure of a single dad or older brother type, and her cuteness would lead him to the woman of his dreams over time (unless the point is for the guy to fall in love with the robot herself, but I digress). What I like about Alma-chan Wants to Be a Family! is the fact that Enji and Suzume are being put through their rom-com paces from the opening scene. The “forced family” routine is usually a more interesting and funny setup than the “found family” route, at least in my experience.

Now, could you easily argue that Alma-chan Wants to Be a Family! is just a science-themed riff on the much better SPY x FAMILY? Oh yes, absolutely. Still, the SPY x FAMILY template is one that hasn't yet been done to death, and the shows that do feel like they're playing in the same sandbox have been great fun (I miss you, Buddy Daddies). Alma-chan is hardly must-watch material, but it's a cute way to pass a half-hour while you're waiting for the next episode of Loid, Anya, and Yor's adventures to arrive.

I worked in kitchens and food-prep for several years, so you'll have to forgive me for being perhaps unreasonably irritated with the first skit of this second episode of Alma-chan Wants to Be a Family!. The whole “Isn't it funny that the woman in the rom-com can't cook like a woman should?” shtick is one of the laziest cliches in the anime book, so the show was already setting up more work for itself if it wanted to impress—but then the only way that it could think to take advantage of Alma being a robot was for her to use her super internet powers to teach her “mother” incorrectly! That isn't how you properly grip a knife, and trying to brute-force an onion chop like that without actually slicing the membrane of the vegetable is just going to cause tear-inducing particulates to fly everywhere (nevermind how inefficient it is). Sorry, but it's one of those occasions where mediocre comedy just makes me think about all of the logistical issues that are going on in a scene, when I should just be chuckling at all the bits. The same thing happens whenever I watch a show or movie about teaching. Don't even get me started about stories that involve unlicensed randos just walking into a school and getting a long-term substitute position without so much as a background check.

Anyways, the first half of this episode didn't work for me on account of entirely personal biases that clashed with the fact that it just wasn't particularly funny or inventive. The second half of the episode is…better? I guess? Once again, the show is content to fall back on a tired old trope without doing anything to spice things up a little, but at least the “overprotective and cutesy little sister” bit forces Alma-chan to introduce a new character. Toki is a flat and lifeless character, to be sure, but she's something—since Enji and Suzume clearly aren't getting the job done on their own. The scene also makes slightly more creative use of Alma's robot abilities, forcing her and Suzume to hide in optic-camouflage mode to hide from Toki. That is, until—you'll never guess—Suzume gets too embarrassed by her stray underwear to keep up the deception. Sure, whatever.

It's not a good sign that the only part of the episode that elicited a real chuckle from me was the short intermission where Alma discovers her “big brother”, which is just a busted Roomba that the scientists invented together before Alma came along. It's not even that funny, outside of the absurdity of Alma calling a Roomba “big brother.” You know things are dire when the best joke in an entire episode can be completely explained in a single sentence. I don't feel any need to trudge through any more of Alma-chan's unfunny shenanigans this season. I have plenty of SPY x FAMILY to catch up on, instead.