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 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.