Duolingo Drops Five-Part Anime With Duo as a Sailor Moon–Inspired Villain—Your Move, Demon Slayer and One-Punch Man

So, the biggest new anime of 2025 might be... Duolingo. Yes, the owl. While Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle is busy printing money at the box office, Duolingo just announced a short animated series dropping in a few days, and it looks exactly as bizarre as you are imagining.

What this thing actually is

Duolingo put out a quick teaser that sets up the premise: a group of people is stuck in a challenge course run by a very two-faced Duo, who claims the whole ordeal is just beta-testing a new feature. The contestants have to push through dungeon-like stages and language puzzles to move forward. It is part game show, part escape room, part ad campaign.

'Welcome to... THE FINAL TEST.'

That line is from the official synopsis. Also in the teaser: one of the heroes appears to be an anthropomorphic bear, and at some point Duo does a full-on magical girl transformation straight out of Sailor Moon. I am not anti-magic-wand sequence, but this is a stretch even by mascot standards.

The rollout

• Format: 5-episode short series
• Where: Duolingo's official YouTube channel
• Premiere: October 13 at 8am PST / 11am EST / 4pm GMT
• Release cadence: future episodes are not dated yet, but weekly feels likely, not confirmed
• Credits: no studio or staff have been listed

The catch

There is a reason the comments are already side-eyeing this. Earlier this year, Duolingo floated the idea of replacing contract workers with AI, which blew up in their face enough that they reversed course about a month later. That recent history is coloring how people are reading this show, which, to be fair, is also clearly a marketing play.

As publicity swings go, I am not convinced this one moves the needle much. And no, One-Punch Man season 3 is not losing sleep over a green owl with a transformation sequence.

If your curiosity is stronger than your skepticism, Duolingo's first anime lands on YouTube October 13.