The Fall Anime 2025 Preview Guide - Plus-Sized Misadventures in Love

This is the punishment for a fat, ugly girl like me falling in love with someone as beautiful as you..." Yumeko had a mountain of complexes about herself. Then, a terrible accident befalls her. Though somehow saved from the brink of death, Yumeko wakes up a completely different person. Those around her can't hide their surprise and wonderment at this 180°change... However, Yumeko's newfound hyper-positive attitude begins to alter her surroundings as well. Worries and complexes can affect anyone, and Yumeko will chop right through those of her various supporting characters.

Plus-Sized Misadventures in Love is based on a manga series by mamakari. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Mondays.

Content Warning: This first episode contains depictions of suicide.

If nothing else, Plus-Sized Misadventures in Love has its heart in the right place. When Yumeko wakes up from being rushed to the hospital, she goes from praying for death to an amnesiac with a positive outlook on life. What could have possibly made her hate herself so much? Societal fatphobia, it turns out!

Plus-Sized Misadventures in Love shines a light on just how damaging this bullying can be. The newly confident and cheerful Yumeko discovers that before her accident, she was constantly stewing in a self-loathing that occurs when you know society hates your very existence. She never spoke up in work meetings, dressed in frumpy clothing, and took creep-shots of her work crush instead of ever talking to him. The story is very clear that her issues stem not from anything internal, but from internalizing the fact that society considers fat people's lives to be lesser.

Based on the summary, my concern was that the story would act like Yumeko just needed an attitude adjustment before she could find success. However, it's actually pretty savvy about how that was only part of the problem. Sure, she speaks up at a work meeting and her idea is accepted—and she's putting effort into her appearance now—but it doesn't fix that her coworkers disrespect her just because of her size, no matter how competent she may be. Even the people who are superficially nice avoid spending time with her. It's the cruel truth about living life fat; whether they're aware of it or not, people treat you less kindly.

While I'm not opposed to the story conceptually, I found myself struggling to stay engaged with the execution. Yumeko's newfound optimism is sweet, but it's a bit too much, making her feel flat against the relatively thoughtful depiction of how Japanese culture treats fat people. While I don't demand fiction be totally realistic, her recovery from her injury and return to work are so frictionless that it feels kind of goofy. While I appreciate that there weren't many jokes at Yumeko's expense, that ended up meaning there weren't any jokes at all.

The effect is a little too didactic and stiff to work. It's too silly to be a drama, but it doesn't have enough humor for a comedy. But hey, maybe this will convince some audience members to reflect on their own fatphobia. It won't change the world, but it might make some people's lives marginally better. As of writing, the show has a rating of 2.2 stars on Crunchyroll, which kind of justifies its existence.

As Plus-Sized Misadventures in Love finds its rhythm, the second episode has it feeling less like an absurd comedy that might or might not be at Yumeko's expense and more like a workplace sitcom. This is, overall, a good thing; the premiere occupied an uncomfortable space where I couldn't quite get a bead on whether I was supposed to be laughing at Yumeko's supposedly misplaced confidence or if I was supposed to be rooting for her—or if the show was trying to have it both ways.

However, it does stumble into another challenging situation with Tamai. At the start of the episode, Tamai steals Yumeko's idea notebooks before she's supposed to pitch her Ramune-flavored chips to the company executives. She's jealous; after all, she's never had a pitch accepted before—and when she asks their boss about it, he dismisses her ideas, causing her to run off until Yumeko tracks her down and tells her just how valuable all her support is to the office.

It's very sweet, and the two form an immediate bond as they work together to prepare for the meeting. It places import on the office workhorses, who may not be brilliantly creative but are reliable and put in the work. Still, and maybe this is my unfamiliarity with the nature of office jobs working, but the two women seem to have the same position. Tamai isn't a secretary or an assistant; is it her job to support Yumeko? Does she have her own projects she's supposed to be working on? The show seems to position their partnership as empowering, with Tamai declining to make coffee for her male colleagues so that she can help Yumeko get ready for her presentation. But again, I've been a teacher for most of my adult life. I genuinely don't know how office culture works in the US, let alone Japan, so take this with a grain of salt.

The most important thing is that this episode is markedly kinder to Yumeko. She's still a bit clueless about the office's culture thanks to her amnesia, but I got less of a sense that we're supposed to be laughing at the fat girl with the temerity to think she's pretty. She dresses well, is making friends, and finding success at work. We love to see a big girl winning.

Welp. This series could definitely turn out to be one of the darkest anime I've ever seen. Don't let its upbeat tone, bright color palette, and happy-go-lucky main character deceive you. After all, this is a show about an overweight, conventionally unattractive woman with low self-esteem who was treated like a nuisance by her mother, was bullied at work by her coworkers, and tried to commit suicide was thrown off a four-story balcony by her boss. And, now that Yumeko's lost her memory, she has no idea of her own interpersonal relationships or the danger she is in. Perhaps worse still, she's in a position to be traumatized again—learning for the second time about the worst humanity has to offer just because she's got a few extra pounds. Despite the constant jokes and rom-com atmosphere, there is a ton of tension in this episode—to the point it's best described as “impending doom”.

Thematically, this anime is a look at the question of nature versus nurture. More specifically, it asks the question, if you could forget all the trauma that shaped you, what kind of person would you be? In Yumeko's case, she sees her good qualities. Her skin is smooth and her eyes are pretty. She may be overweight, but that means she gets to eat all the delicious food she wants. She's not embarrassed or self-loathing in the slightest—meaning that those were emotions that were foisted upon her by society and those close to her.

This puts her in direct contrast to Tamai, a woman with as much emotional baggage as the original Yumeko. Like Yumeko, she is judged by her looks, though on the opposite end of the spectrum. She works hard to be as attractive as possible, both physically and in personality. This has pigeonholed her as eye candy at best and the office slut at worst. It's to the point where she isn't even expected to do her job—to the point where management doesn't even believe she is capable of doing it—just because of her looks.

It's implied that, up until now, Tamai could always fall back on the fact that she was better than Yumeko in all ways. But once Yumeko's product idea is chosen, it leaves Tamai feeling like all her hard work has been useless. Even the fat, ugly girl can be valued for her mind, while she cannot. And so she lashes out at Yumeko—trying to tear her back down to where she used to be, since it seems impossible for Tamai to climb up herself.

All in all, this is an episode that masterfully plays with tone. To Yumeko, this is a rom-com—and so those are the visual trappings we experience. But behind this is a condemnation of female beauty standards and the harm they do to women across the physical spectrum. And behind even that is a murder mystery—not a who-dun-it (as we know the attempted murderer) but a why-dun-it. What is it that Yumeko discovered that nearly got her killed? Maybe we'll find out next week.

Kindness. In a single word, that's what this episode is about. Sure, Yumeko looks at the positive side to almost a delusional level, but that's only one side of things. When she finds out that Tamai is the one who stole her idea notebooks, she isn't sad or mad. She simply asks “why”—and once she hears the reason, she responds with empathy rather than negative emotions.

To be clear, she doesn't downplay her own talents—she doesn't make herself look smaller to make Tamai feel bigger. Rather, she says, “I am amazing in my own way, but so are you in yours.” Then she even gives specific examples of why Tamai is great. Yumeko lifts people up; she doesn't tear them down.

It's a fantastic message, something straight out of Mr. Rodgers. Thanks to her kindness, those in the office do actually care if she found her journals or not—they empathize with her plight. Likewise, the kindness she has shown to Keisuke in the park is returned twofold as well—first with the extension of her deadline and second with the gift of Ramune to use as inspiration.

And as for Tamai, thanks to Yumeko, she can see that, while she may not be an “ideas man” like Yumeko, she is far more than someone to simply dump menial tasks on. She is talented at her job, and working alongside Yumeko, they make an amazing team. But more than that, Tamai comes to see that there is no need to attempt to curry favor with those who can't appreciate what she brings to the table. It's far better to spend time working and playing with someone like Yumeko, who sees you not as the person you are but rather as the best possible version of yourself.

You know what? I think I've just talked myself into giving this show another half-star. The anime has heart, and that counts for a whole lot.

Wow, the whiplash of those opening minutes was so severe, I think I almost broke my neck. How do you cold open an episode with a supposed attempted suicide, only to have the subject of attempted suicide act like a goofy, ditzy, comic relief character for the rest of the episode? When it comes to shows featuring characters that don't match traditional beauty standards, it's hard not to worry about how exactly those types of characters are going to be portrayed. Anime doesn't have the most illustrious history of portraying characters positively with different body types, or at least it's not usually seen as the norm. In my experience, plus-size characters are often used as a punchline or portrayed as a way of showing that a character is at their lowest point.

There are hints that the show is actually trying to do something deeper with its plus-size character, Yumeko. Initially, it felt like the show was making a commentary on society's perception of plus-size people and body dysmorphia. The fact that our lead was so humiliated or embarrassed by their physical appearance that they broke any mirror they were in front of is telling. The closing credits also gave me a glimpse into exactly how depressed this young woman was. We see that Yumeko suffered from anxiety, despite being a pretty imaginative person. I like the idea that she is actually competent if you remove all those anxieties and judgments from her, but the show's premise approaches it in one of the laziest ways possible.

Just have her conveniently get amnesia of all of the trauma and fears that she had! Yes, it turns out that being a naturally positive and bubbly person is so easy if you forget about everything. Now this does tie into the show actually being more of a murder-mystery since this supposed suicide was actually an attempted murder, and we do get hints about the culprit. But my god, these two stories don't go together, and sometimes it feels the clash can make the show come off as being weirdly insensitive. I am not plus-sized, and I will in no shape or form try to pretend like I understand the struggles of dealing with fatphobic people. Those people still exist in our modern world, and it is a prevailing issue from various angles.

Based on this episode, I'm unsure whether the narrative is suggesting that our main character is naturally beautiful or if it really doesn't matter if she isn't. Other characters will still openly ridicule her appearance and her aggressive hunger, but she doesn't notice or ignore them. We don't really get an idea of what these types of comments mean to this version of Yumeko because she is now an entirely different person post-amnesia. The show, in various ways, tries to have its cake and eat it too by making occasional jokes at her expense while also glamorizing her in a way that would be typical in a romantic comedy or shoujo series. Oh, and let's not forget about the random bouts of somber overtones that don't come off as a joke at all.

I spent most of this premiere scratching my head, rather than enjoying any of it. It's such a weird mishmash of different stories and tones that it doesn't come together. Yumeko is pretty cute, and if she's supposed to be a positive influence on a cynical world, then I can actually get behind that. However, I think the show needs to treat her and its storylines better before I can fully get on board.

You know, when you remove the murder mystery and suicide from the story, this anime actually works a lot better. I think my problem with the premiere of Plus-Sized Misadventures was the fact that I couldn't tell what type of story it was trying to tell. There were points where the series was being overly dramatic and realistic, there were some points where it was promoting body positivity, but there were also moments where it was just aggressively making fun of the main character. The main character was also overly positive in a way that bordered on annoying but this episode cut out a lot of the fat and instead just focused on only one or two ideas. The result is something that felt a lot more focused and also something that I could genuinely get emotionally invested in.

I think what this episode was trying to promote was the idea of always looking on the bright side. The protagonist knows that she is plus-sized and that not everybody vibes with her positive attitude, but she doesn't let that distract her from acting how she wants to. This is a contrast to her coworker who lets everybody else define who she is. Yumeko gave her the confidence to not only stand up for herself, but also to start living life for herself instead of for the perceptions that other people have for her. I like that and you could argue that there's a very strong parallel with Yumeko who almost did something very dangerous due to a lot of societal preconceptions about her and her weight.

The show could have played with that parallel more but it couldn't because we're still playing the amnesia plotline so our main character can't have any flashbacks. I think the story would be that much stronger if we maybe tied in these emotional moments to her slowly gaining back her memories. I don't know if the story plans on having her regain her memory at any point because it does feel weird that we are treating this office lady like everything is completely normal when she is still in the throes of just figuring out everything that is going on. That's the part of the show that feels a little bit too wishy washy for me and maybe the whole thing could've been better paced overall. But we're already starting the show with an unreasonable premise so it's impressive it managed to draw me in to this degree despite that rough start.