The Fall Anime 2025 Preview Guide - Kakuriyo -Bed & Breakfast for Spirits- Season 2

After her supernaturally-inclined grandfather passes away, Aoi finds herself whisked away to the spirit world. She quickly learns that her grandfather had promised her as a bride to the proprietor of a bed and breakfast to cover his gambling debts! But instead of wedding the admittedly handsome ogre, she decides to take matters into her own hands—by opening up an eatery on the property to earn her keep instead. Kakuriyo -Bed and Breakfast for Spirits- follows Aoi's adventures in the spirit world, the colorful cast of ayakashi she meets, and the inventive ways she gets out of scrapes using her greatest skill: cooking delicious food.

Kakuriyo -Bed & Breakfast for Spirits- Season 2 is based on the Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi light novel series by author Midori Yūma and illustrator Laruha. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Wednesdays.

It has been far too long since we were last at Tenjin-ya, although appropriately enough for a disparity between human and ayakashi worlds, it's only been a season for Aoi and the rest. That's doubtless why this season opens with a mild reintroduction to everyone. I say “mild” because this isn't really a recap episode so much as it is a resettling one: events from the past are gone over (like how Aoi ended up at Tenjin-ya in the first place), but for the most part, it's just a natural shaking out after Aoi returns from Oriyo-ya. Of course she has people to reconnect with, just as being back at Moonflower means that she has time to think about her relationship with Master and the events of spring and summer. It's impressively smooth, a calm reintroduction to the characters and world without beating viewers over the head with it.

It also brings the question of marriage back into the foreground. (Not that it was ever far in the background; Master's intentions have never changed despite Aoi's refusal.) With Kasuga revealed to be engaged, Aoi is forced to confront the idea of marriage as more than abstract. She's not quite sure what to think – she doesn't love that Kasuga's marriage is political, but she's reassured by the fact that her friend has known the tanuki in question since childhood, and that he was her first love. She's both happy and uncomfortable with Kasuga's situation, no doubt because it makes her think about her own. People keep bringing up her hypothetical engagement to Master as if it were a done deal; Aoi likely feels that she's being pushed into a similarly political union, especially after Ginji reveals that people she knew at the other inn are marrying in part to secure its future. Aoi's a modern woman; political marriages aren't appealing to her and may even seem disgustingly old-fashioned. But she's also developing feelings for Master, and her wish to get to know him better indicates that if the marriage felt real, like her choice, she might not be so opposed to it.

As delightful as it is to reconnect with these characters, I do wish it looked a little better. I love the backgrounds, especially the bright autumn leaves, but Aoi's limbs often look awkwardly foreshortened, and that opening scene of her trotting to her restaurant is…I'm not even sure what the right word is. Clunky, I suppose, but it really doesn't look like human movement. Still, I'm ready to settle in for another season at the inn. It's the sort of fantasy that I need in this moment.

I'm not sure I've ever heard a truer statement than Chiaki's observation about adults. He muses that Kasuga and her fiancé, Kiyo, were once torn apart by the whims of the grown-ups in their lives, only to be forced back together in an arranged marriage later on. It drives home the idea that to some adults in positions of power, children (specifically their children) are nothing more than convenient tools. While I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that Kiyo, not his parents, had orchestrated the marriage, given that he and Kasuga were so close as little kids, the message that their parents' contradictory actions send isn't a good one. If Kiyo and Kasuga are happy, it'll be in spite of them.

That's a weightier issue than just this impending wedding. Aoi, too, was forced into an arrangement by the person who raised her, and the Master was only too pleased to take advantage of that by kidnapping her on the strength of her grandfather's promissory note. While things have worked out, and Aoi no longer balks at the notion of eventually marrying the ogre, it's clearly something at the forefront of Master's mind. Even if he didn't spell it out during their meeting in his secret garden, as he's gotten to know Aoi, he's come to want her to be with him of her own volition. That's why he now apologizes for touching her without her consent, for kidnapping her, and for the entire situation that brought them together. Like with Kasuga and Kiyo, things may work out. However, for Master to realize his own role in what, for Aoi, was a dire situation feels important.

It's a good subject to dig into, because the way that Master and Aoi's relationship started in season one wasn't a good one. Their relationship, as well as Aoi's feelings of belonging, form the backbone of this series, and watching the story unfold carefully, while incorporating some silly moments, such as the hot springs boys, makes for a good viewing experience. I wish it looked better – the art was in no way up to showing Master sitting while wearing pants, and movement continues to be awkward and stiff. It's a good thing I'm sold on the story.

It has been seven years since the first season of Kakuriyo -Bed and Breakfast for Spirits-, a Japanese folkloric twist on Beauty and the Beast. Aoi is our plucky human beauty; her beast is the eternally youthful ogre known as the Master; and the “castle” where she is ostensibly confined is Tenjin-ya, a traditional ryokan complete with hot springs. This feel-good story evokes other iyashikei supernatural anime like Natsume's Book of Friends. What sets Kakuriyo apart is its college-aged heroine and its origin in a series of otome novels marketed toward adult women, making its adaptation quite rare, even though its content—part low-key mystery and part romance—is fairly run-of-the-mill.

“Our Tanuki Is Getting Married,” the premiere for Season 2, is particularly par for the course. Like I said in my review of the season's premiere at Otakon, this is less of a new arc for Kakuriyo than it is a recap, reintroducing viewers to the anime's by-now extensive cast of spiritual hoteliers. After a who's-who rundown and where-are-they-now, this premiere puts the spotlight on Kasuga, a tanuki hostess who in Season 1 was one of Aoi's very first allies at the strange and mysterious Tenjin-ya. Kasuga was previously only explored in her support for Aoi, but now she's getting married—and happily, it seems. It's a small and simple subplot, but it suggests that even after 26 episodes, Kakuriyo still has more lore drops about characters we thought we knew well.

After that, it's the background art that does the talking in Kakuriyo. At the beginning of Season 1, Aoi and the Master had their first meeting under the cherry blossoms in full bloom. This time around, they reflect on their changed and deepening relationship beneath the falling maple leaves. When Aoi reflects that she still doesn't know very much about the Master, I see that as an indicator of what's to come: a shift from Aoi's backstory to that of the enigmatic ogre. Season 1 explored Ginji the nine-tailed fox's relationship with Aoi, both past and present, but it's been clear from the start that Ginji has only ever been a second male lead. Digging into the Master's past is going to be much juicier and have bigger implications for his relationship with Aoi. Although both seasons of Kakuriyo are produced by the same studio (Gonzo), Season 2 is noticeably more polished. Character designs, their hair in particular, look smoother and shinier, and the verdant autumnal backdrops really pop. I don't think it's going to pick up any new fans who weren't willing to stick around for the first 26 episodes, but the glossy new makeover gives new life to this standard spirit-realm isekai.

The colorful cast members of Tenjin-ya are like a big family, and each one of them has a role to play. In “I'll Make New Hot-Spring Buns,” the second episode of this season of Kakuriyo, the ensemble cast shone. As Aoi worked through the steps to develop a new souvenir food for the inn, the incongruously named Inferno Bun, she interacted with just about every character at Tenjin-ya in the process. It's the kind of episode that only an anime with 27 episodes under its belt could pull off —a low-stakes traipse around the inn to reacquaint viewers with its large cast before beginning a new arc in earnest.

If Aoi plays the role of Beauty and the Master plays the role of the Beast, then everyone else at the inn is like one of the ensorcelled servants—and just as unforgettable. The two purposes of this episode are to showcase the diverse personalities and roles of the side characters while also demonstrating how easily Aoi now fits into this bizarre group. As usual, Aoi's role in the narrative is a passive one; she is puttering around Moonflower until various characters (O-Ryo, Kasuga, and Chiaki this time around) show up at her restaurant and get the ball rolling. Aoi quickly overcomes any stumbling (if there even are any) with her incredible cooking skills. This episode is heavy on the convenience magic, from a science lab that can create disposable fluted baking cups in minutes to the Master's European-style formal garden, complete with its own manor. Just when I thought the show couldn't lean any further into the Beauty and the Beast metaphor!

The message of this episode is clear: the Master may have kidnapped Aoi to bring her here, rather than Aoi arriving of her own accord, but this is no longer a hostage situation. Aoi has resolutely become a fixture of Tenjin-ya, just as much as any of its other employees. As the large cast seen throughout the episode represents, this has certainly made her less lonely than she was in the human world. Now it would seem there's no reason for Aoi not to marry the Master, who she grows closer to by the day—but here comes Aoi's obtuse misreading of the Master's words. I didn't like the way she interpreted the Master's respect of Aoi's agency and insistence that he wasn't going to pressure her to mean “he doesn't like me anymore.” It's a transparent ploy to lengthen the romance plot, probably until the end of the time.