Back in 2023, Infinity Train creator Owen Dennis and Star Trek: Lower Decks animation studio Titmouse announced they were working on an animated series adaptation of Innersloth’s mega-popular sci-fi multiplayer deduction game, Among Us, for CBS. The following year, we learned it would have a pretty stacked cast of voice actors, including Ashley Johnson and Elijah freaking Wood. But not a peep has been heard about the show since. In its apparent absence, a new Crunchyroll show has decided, quite randomly, to step up to the plate and release what’s ostensibly anime Among Us.
Okay, technically, Gnosia, animated by studio Domerica, is an anime adaptation of an entirely different game, a visual novel of the same name. But ostensibly—it’s anime Among Us. Its premise, like the game, is a crew of strangers on a spaceship who must vote on which among them is a Gnosia.
“Gnosia” is basically the made-up anime jargon name for an Among Us imposter. There are a lot of accusations thrown at the slightest suspicious statements made by each person and so on, but the only difference is that instead of kicking the accused out of an airlock, they’re put into deep freeze. Should everyone fail, the Gnosia wins and eradicates humanity. Womp womp.
The show proper follows Yuuri, a stand-in for viewers, with the added contrivance that, despite suffering from amnesia about how he got here, he’s also stuck in a time loop where he’s forced to reenact the whole rigmarole from episode to episode, with new roles and casts of characters added to the mix. In non-anime speak: the show shoehorns a plot reason to emulate what iPad kiddos and Twitch streamers have been doing for the past eight years, insisting upon one more round of playing Innersloth’s The Thing-inspired game.
On the whole, while the show doesn’t necessarily feel like it has a ton of rewatch value by virtue of its episodes resetting—like Among Us—with secret roles shuffled about amongst its rotating slot of anime character archetypes, the show is an inoffensive time waster for those curious about how the phrase “anime Among Us” would play out.
I’m especially partial to the English dub because its cast leans heavily into how much like Among Us its premise is, with some pretty funny line reads among the screams, subterfuge, double-crosses, and gentle reassurances that oscillate from episode to episode.
Instead of each episode ending with an asspull before hitting reset, the ensuing guessing game to find out which crewmember is sus is a mystery viewers can play along with Yuuri. It also doesn’t hurt that its characters, save for a rare few, have pretty striking designs, making them appealing to any anime fan. There’s even a generic-looking alien and a talking dolphin rolling around in a little scooter thrown into the mix, adding even more suspicion on who is and isn’t “human” from episode to episode. The show is also pretty clever in how it has characters draw Danganronpa-esque conclusions and misdirects, throwing doubt on who is or isn’t the baddie.
What’s more, Gnosia is a fall 2025 anime, which, for the layman anime viewer, means the show has an ample number of episodes for folks to binge-watch, dubbed and subbed (we don’t judge), until it runs out of narrative yarn to spin.
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