Spring season is rapidly approaching! It’s time to start looking ahead to the next season and thinking about what is worth watching vs. what isn’t. This is also the official thread where I will watch for shows that you mention and will enable threads for those shows to be made by our resident bot, @rikka@ani.social.
Please feel free to use this thread as a normal weekly discussion thread as well! Anything that would normally be in the weekly discussion thread any other week is welcome here.
As always, remember to be mindful of spoilers. If you want to know more about how to handle spoilers in this community, check the guide here (also linked in the sidebar).
Seasonal Animes to Watch - Spring 2026
- Ganso! BanG Dream Chan - their humor is on point. I don’t mind the short length. The theme song grew on me too.
- Witch Hat Atelier - Finally. I hope it lives to the hype. It’s one of my favorite mangas
Huh…
Well first, to get it out of the way:
Started the week finishing up my rewatch of Trinity Blood, which, to my relief, was pretty much as I remembered it. I had forgotten a lot of the details, but broadly remembered that I enjoyed it all in all, and I did this time through too. It’s definitely a product of its era and not without flaws, but still worth it all in all.
Then about midweek, I watched an excellent movie - Sarusuberi: Miss Hokusai. It’s a sort of stylized biography of the daughter of the artist Hokusai (of Great Wave Off Kanagawa fame), and it was very, very good. The story was more or less accurate, or at least appropriate (it couldn’t be entirely accurate since there just aren’t records detailed enough), but the art style was modern, which was a nice combination - it made it sort of simultaneously exotic and familiar. It’s not particularly plot-driven - more in the nature of a slice of her life with her father - but it was very well done and satisfying.
Then I watched a fairly impressive but sort of uncomfortable series I just happened to stumble across - Just Because. It’s a mostly melancholy and bittersweet sort of romance. I say “sort of” because while it was largely centered around romance, most of the love was undeclared and/or unrequited, so it was a lot of awkwardness and longing and hope and doubt. It was mostly good all in all though - the characters were well rendered and sincere, and while many of the situations were sort of sad and frustrating (and one absolutely devastating scene in the last episode), it mostly (though not entirely) didn’t come across as contrived, as so many awkward romances do.
Current series:
Release That Witch - I’m quite impressed so far with this one. I started off watching it mostly because it was a donghua with an art style that I actually appreciated and a broad concept that I found ironically amusing, but it’s actually turning out to be entertaining in and of itself.
Shiboyugi - a sort of oddity about this series is that since the violence is generally obscured, the more violence there is in an episode, the less there is actually going on on-camera. I was expecting this episode to be brutal, and in a sense it was, but only sort of by implication. In another sense, it was actually even more serene and surreal than most, since mostly it was just Yuki wandering through rooms full of broken but otherwise clean and featureless bodies (the lineless cel-shading art style obscures most of the details) and lots and lots of white fluff (the producers of the games use some miracle chemical that instantly turns blood exposed to air into white fluff). So since I’ve gotten acclimated to the way the show works, it was just as awful as I expected - we’re talking carnage on a battlefield scale (the exposed ribs poking up out of some of the bodies were especially effective as far as that goes). But in a more immediate sense, it was just colorful vaguely human-shaped lumps and lots and lots and lots of white fluff. And a sort of cliffhanger, but since we’ve already seen Yuki after this game, it’s more just a question of how rather than if she’ll survive.
MF Ghost - frustrating as this series has become, I have to admit that I really enjoyed watching Kitahara getting her chance to shine. I knew she had it in her. And it’s going to be interesting seeing how this race works out, since it started so surprisingly. Unfortunately, unless I read the manga (which I might have to do), it’s going to be at least a year or two before I find out.
Roll Over and Die - still enjoying this, though this episode was mostly transitional - detailing Flum starting to become aware of the events we already saw last week and setting about responding (plus some really disurbing but not particularly surprising revelations about Ink). It was a bit frustrating, since part of the set-up for what’s to come was Flum acting uncharacteristically stupid in order to make the creation of a situation possible, but I’m expecting this one to finish strong. Though I think it’s only barely scratched the surface of a much larger story.
Champignon Witch - another irritatingly disjointed episode, and in the course of it, I figured out another thing that I think has been bothering me all along. Too much of each episode is spent retracing the same tired emotional loops - Luna being meek and self-effacing, Lize being whiney and self-doubting, Claude being a crude asshole, Minos being tediously and loudly naive and whichever council witch(es) are present being casually sociopathic. Lize in particular is really starting to annoy me, though still not as much as Claude. And broadly, it still doesn’t feel like it’s going much of anywhere - there’s almost no sense of progress toward a goal, and that in spite of the fact that they started the series with the introduction of a literal life or death goal. But in the face of that, it’s still mostly just this repeating loop of Lize being whiney and Claude being an asshole and Luna being meekly silent and nothing being accomplished by any of it.
Frieren - Thank god it pulled itself out of that arc as quickly as it did - I was actually considering dropping it, and if it had been the standard shounen action “mostly get their asses kicked but then right in the nick of time there’s a faint ray of hope so tune in next week” dreck, I just might have. But instead they put together a satisfying set of fights and got it out of the way, and the journey continues.
Scum of the Brave - After this episode I checked to be sure, and this is scheduled for 24 episodes, which is good, because it still has a long way to go. I like the way it’s headed though.
You and I Are Polar Opposites - another adorable episode. This series has been a revelation. I loved the manga, but didn’t expect a whole lot from the series just for that reason - at best, I thought it might manage to equal the manga. But it’s really standing out on its own, with very good animation, voice acting and music in addition to the already good characters and story.
Journal With Witch- somewhere along the way, I’m pretty sure this has become my all-time favorite anime, full stop. It’s just so astonishingly good. This episode was going along, already impressing me (notably Asa almost accidentally sorting out some of her issues even as she created new ones and Makio showing that she’s learning to be patient) when it switched to one of those scenes of Asa in her desert, except that for the first time, she wasn’t alone - Makio was standing next to her. That was a huge moment, and brilliantly just sort of slipped in along the way.
And I can’t wait to see Asa’s audition - she’s going to shine.
And I’m already counting on and looking forward to season 2.
Sequels:
- Re:ZERO Season 4 - I liked S1 and S2 but S3 left me somewhat disappointed. I hope this one will be better.
- That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 4 - Yay! More meetings! (please, don’t)
- Classroom of the Elite IV - I don’t remember much about it. I’m gonna need a recap
- Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 4 - Aside from season 1, this was rather underwhelming, but hopefully the change of the studio will bring some improvements. The trailer looked promising.
Definitely watching:
- Witch Hat Atelier - The trailer was beautiful and everyone hypes this as something of the caliber of Frieren. I’m a sucker for some good fantasy, so inject it into my veins
- Agents of the Four Seasons: Dance of Spring - by the author of Violet Evergarden + studio WIT. Definitely worth a shot.
- Scenes from Awajima - Drama, I love drama. Trailer looks awesome, I heard good things about it
- Daemons of the Shadow Realm - Made by studio Bones, by the author of FMA. Probably I don’t need to say more, even though I wasn’t a big fan of FMA. Worth a shot
- The Ramparts of Ice - it’s the earlier work of the same author that made You And I Are Polar Opposites, so I’m definitely watching this, because Polar Opposites is 🔥
- Marriagetoxin - action show by Bones, trailer looks great, worth a try
- Akane-banashi - after seeing Showa Genroku Rakugo I’m curious what others can bring to the table when it comes to Rakugo. I’ve heard good things about it
- Eren the Southpaw - adult cast, performing arts, premise looks interesting
- Mistress Kanan is Devilishly Easy - looks fun, and has Kaguya’s VA as MC
- Nippon Sangoku: The Three Nations of the Crimson Sun - interesting art style, interesting premise, the director did The Ancient Magus’ Bride before, which I liked
- Kirio Fanclub - trailer looks fun
- Goddess: “What do you want to be in your next life in another world?” Me: “The ribs of the Hero” - the title and the synopsis make it sound like an absolute trash, but the trailer looks like a fever dream, mixing different art styles, so it may actually turn out to be some wacky comedy
- Dandelion - adaptation of one-shot by Gintama’s creator
- Mononoke Movie 3: Hebigami - A single movie on my list. I’ve watched the series and the two previous movies. They were all great, very unique art style, great direction, stacked cast. Part 2 would be my movie of the year if not for the 100 meters. Looking forward to this one (although I probably won’t see it for a year, because it’s a movie, duh)
I’ll try them out but I expect to drop them, unless they surprise me:
- Mao - I like the style, but I liked the style of Ass Stats too and it turned out to be trash. Let’s see what Sunrise is cooking this time, but I don’t have high hopes.
- The Warrior Princess and the Barbaric King - It looks rather rough and synopsis suggest it’s slop, but I probably decided to give it a try after reading some comments from manga readers (I know I’m gonna regret this)
- I Made Friends with the Second Prettiest Girl in My Class - My gut tells me it’s gonna be trash but it has nice character designs. I hope I’m wrong.
- Liar Game - looks very rough, but has an adult cast and it’s not yet another isekai or romcom, so at least I gotta try
- Botan Kamiina Fully Blossoms When Drunk - I can sense trash from miles away, but let’s see, maybe it’s fun
- An Observation Log of My Fiancée Who Calls Herself a Villainess - I have no idea how this made onto my list, but I guess there must have been some reason
Agents of the Four Seasons: Dance of Spring - by the author of Violet Evergarden
Hmm? That’s interesting, and promising.
Akane-banashi
I recognized the name, but that was it. And I only made it about halfway through the synopsis before I lost interest, so I didn’t know it was centered on rakugo specifically. That’s sort of intriguing, since the only exposure I’ve had to it so far is through Joshiraku, which is only sort of peripherally about rakugo and more about… whatever happens to catch their attention at any given moment.
The ribs of the Hero
From the description, I thought it just sounded awful - the combination of animation and live-action put me in mind of the awful tinted live action backgrounds studios use as a cheap substitute for complex scenes and the awful rotoscoping in Aku no Hana. But after reading that, I watched the trailer, and… yeah. It’s nothing like that, or at least doesn’t appear to be, because there are so many different things all going on at the same time. It could still be awful, but there’s a chance that it isn’t, and how cool would it be if it wasn’t?
I forgot to mention that Agents of the Four Seasons will have Kensuke Ushio doing the music, so there’s another reason to try it
I actually pay only scant attention to soundtracks (anime, movie, game, whatever). Generally, so long as they’re serving their purpose well, I just don’t really notice.
A sort of nice side effect of that though is that when they are especially good, I do notice. So while I didn’t recognize the name Kensuke Ushio, a quick google showed that that’s a hell of a recommendation, since among the notably good soundtracks I’ve noticed at one time or another are Ikoku Nikki, Dandadan, Heike Monogatari, Boogiepop wa Warawanai, Tengoku Daimakyou and Kimi no Iru.
Definitely watching:
- Witch Hat Atelier - Hot take, this is actually a way better fantasy manga than Frieren. Might be a somewhat less hot take once they get around to animating later seasons of Frieren. It has actual thought and effort put into its worldbuilding, which I think is essential for any fantasy story.
- Daemons of the Shadow Realm - I’ve read the first 10 volumes of the manga, and so far I’m actually liking it a little more than Fullmetal Alchemist - and I loved Fullmetal Alchemist.
Probably watching:
- The Ramparts of Ice - My wife and I have been enjoying You and I Are Polar Opposites this season, so we’ll definitely be taking a look at a new thing written by the same mangaka.
- Akane-banashi - The manga has been fun, so it’s a matter of whether the anime adaptation is good enough to elevate the experience beyond what the manga already delivers. I’m very curious to see how they portray the rakugo performances.
- Re:ZERO Season 4 - I liked Re:ZERO seasons 1 & 2 quite a lot, but by the time season 3 came around I couldn’t remember half of what had already happened. Whether I watch this basically depends on whether I can scrounge up the time to watch the first 3 seasons first somehow, which is gonna be tough since I have a lot going on right now both in life and in terms of other anime I want to watch and manga I want to read.
Definitely watching:
Witch Hat Atelier
Daemons of the Shadow Realm
I love when this sort of thing happens. Those were the two that most caught my attention, though I’m only familiar with Witch Hat Atelier by reputation and had never even heard of Daemons of the Shadow Realm before, so it wasn’t as if I made a considered choice. To some degree, necessarily, I just sort of guessed.
But then boom - just the next post down, there’s the same two titles. So maybe I guessed reasonably well.
The Ramparts of Ice
I had no idea that was from the mangaka of You and I Are Polar Opposites. It briefly caught my attention, but didn’t hold it, but with that additional information, I’ll definitely be giving it a shot too.
I had no idea that was from the mangaka of You and I Are Polar Opposites
Worth noting that they made The Ramparts of Ice before they made You and I Are Polar Opposites. It might not be as good since they were less experienced at the time. Or maybe it will be. I have no idea; I haven’t read it.
Yeah - I noticed that, and thought the same thing.
Amusingly enough, I just got in a discussion last week about Call of the Night, which is a great example of the hazards there. I loved that manga so much when I finally read it (about three months before it ended) that I went in search of other things by the same author, which led me to Dagashi Kashi.
So… yeah.
Next season hmm…
Witch Hat Atelier - this has been on my radar as a manga for quite some time now, so I’ll undoubtedly give the first episode a shot and see what I think.
Re:Zero sucks.
Daemons of the Shadow Realm looks interesting - I’ll undoubtedly give it a shot.
Even with a synopsis, I can’t figure out what Needy Girl Overdose is going to be, but it looks potentially interesting.
I like the manga of Gals Can’t Be Kind to Otaku?, so I’ll try the adaptation.
I followed the Ichijouma Mankitsu Gurashi manga for a while and it was okay, so I’ll likely give that one a try too.
And that seems to be about it. Something else might catch my attention along the way, but that’s all that does right off.
Spring Season
Definitely Watching
- Dorohedoro Season 2 - I❤Hole.
- Witch Hat Atelier - excited to relive the beginning of the story in a different format this time. I hope the adaptation does justice to Kamome Shirahama’s gorgeous art. My only concern for now is that I didn’t imagine Qifrey and Olruggio sounding like Natsuki Hanae and Yuuichi Nakamura; I’ll get used to it eventually.
- Ace of Diamond Act II Season 2 - I don’t get enough baseball in my anime these days.
- Go For It, Nakamura! - I like its art style. May Chiaki Kobayashi continue voicing black-haired queer boys.
- Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 4 - more Myne is always a good idea; I’ve missed her.
- Daemons of the Shadow Realm - Hiromu Arakawa’s story and Bones adapting it. The soundtrack already sounds epic.
- Dandelion - can’t miss it as a Gintama fan.
- Dr. Stone: Science Future Part 3 - I hope this season doesn’t make me regret not dropping it after the first one like Fire Force did.
Interested In
- Scenes from Awajima - may be a good drama; I have hopes for this one.
- Nippon Sangoku - the synopsis didn’t sound like something I’d enjoy and I was pondering if I should watch it just because it’s visually interesting, but then the latest PV introduced a fascinating guy voiced by Jun Fukuyama, so I feel like watching it now.
- The Ramparts of Ice - from the creator of You and I Are Polar Opposites, which has a nice ensemble cast. The PV did pique my interest.
- Akane-banashi - the source material readers hyped this up, and I like anime about traditional art. However, the demographic is shounen, which doesn’t make it very exciting for me.
- Kirio Fanclub - there are two girls, who are friends AND rivals in love. And the love interest in question doesn’t even have eyes, like he isn’t actually important to their dynamic at all. How very fascinating.
Yuri potential. - Tadaima, Ojamasaremasu! - an adult cast and otaku culture? Sign me up. Based on the synopsis and the PV, though, I can tell it’s going to be very silly.
- Kujima: Why Sing, When You Can Warble? - What is this creature?
- Agents of the Four Seasons - moderately interested in it. It will be either a surprise or a disappointment.
All in all spring looks promising in the fantasy and slice-of-life departments, but I’m once again devastated by the sheer lack of originals. If I’m not mistaken, winter had none. Spring has just one, it seems.
This Season
The moment Beastars final final season was released, I sped through it like I did previous seasons. The story is too compelling; can’t stop picking up the next episode.
As a whole, Beastars is essentially a crossover of The Dark Knight trilogy and Zootopia. These are two of my favourite movie series, so it stands to reason that I would enjoy Beastars just as much.
Also, it’s not everyday that we see a complete story in anime. I love the closure that comes with the completion of a story.
This final season is not without its flaws (e.g. I felt the last bit was a tad too rushed), but the positives far outweigh the negatives for me. That means that as a whole, it has now earned a permanent spot among my peaks.
Next Season
In stark contrast to this season, the next season is shaping up to be rather light for me. There are only two anime that I would definitely check out:
- Hero’s Rib - The infamous one that everyone is going to check out. Zany bullshit can be very fun to watch. I hope it won’t be a miss.
- Botan Kamiina Fully Blossoms When Drunk - Don’t know anything about it except that it is yuri romcom; I love yuri, and I love romcom.
I am familiar with the manga for Gals Can’t Be Kind to Otaku!? and The Classroom of a Black Cat and a Witch, but
meta spoiler
nothing really happens in these manga. At most, there are some cliche developments that don’t drive the plot forward.
So the anime aren’t worth picking up IMO. I would still continue reading the manga though.
I might pick a few more new anime up, only if they are popular and good enough to get plenty of people singing their praises.
I’m only on episode 3 but I can’t believe they’ve shown
Beastars Final Season Part 2 E3
a rabbit giving wolf a handjob 😂
Wow, it’s that time already?
Picking for sure, no need for intro:
- Re:Zero s4
- TenSura s4
- Mairimashita! Iruma-kun s4
- Dr. Stone: Science Future p3
Picking for sure, but might as well say something about them:
- The Barbarians’ Bride (Hime Kishi wa Barbaroi no Yome) - I used to follow this manga, but I grew a bit bored with it. Basically: empire fights barbarians, barbarians imprison female knight, the leader of the barbarians ask the knight’s hand in marriage. He gets to slowly gain her trust, and she gets to slowly learn about the barbarians, their living style, and the world as a whole.
- Bertia (Jishou Akuyaku Reijou…) - Bakarina plus more baka minus harem. The manga series is rather short, but the main character is lovable and there are surprisingly touching moments. If they animate it properly, I can see it becoming really popular.
- Pride (Higeki no Genkyou…) s2 - animation of s1 was poor, but… the manga is fun, so I’m giving it another try. It’s another “reincarnated as a villainess” story, like the above; but instead of the villainess being dumb, she’s guilt-ridden to the point of being silly. I like in special the moments where it shows how the current timeline diverged from the one of the otome game, they’re often full of emotion.
- Saikyou no Ousama s2 - Frankly I don’t remember where s1 ends, because it made me follow the manga. The premise is someone who reached the top in a past life at a fantasy world, got killed, reincarnated into another fantasy world, and now tries to both fix his mistakes and save the new world. A good mix of fantasy and adventure.
- Isekai Nonbiri Nouka s2 - it’s also city-building like TenSura, but way more slice of life. Fun to watch.
Probably picking:
- Ascendance of a Bookworm (Honzuki no Gekokujou: Ryoushu no Youjo) - the LN series is amazing, but I need to admit I didn’t watch the earlier anime seasons, so I’ll need to binge watch them before this one. Another isekai series; this one about a book-addicted woman reincarnated into a world where there’s barely any book, so she needs to leverage her knowledge of a more advanced society to become again the nerdy librarian she used to be.
- Reincarnation no Kaben - I don’t know the series, but “slit your throat to get powers from your past life” sounds fun, so why not?
- Megami "Isekai Tensei Nani… - ditto as above.
This season is full of very popular, high budget shows (I don’t think we ever had this many in one season). Spring 2026 tones things down quite a bit in that regard but I think I’ll watch even more shows than I watch now. There’s a lot of smaller budget shows that I think I’ll really enjoy. I won’t list everything since it’s more than 25 series and listing everything would take too much time but the most interesting ones will be forwarded to rikka.
Alright, here is the list of things I have my eye on for next season:
Definitely Watching
- Witch Hat Atelier - basically all the source readers are saying this is a must-watch.
- Kirio Fanclub - I love this manga and I cannot wait to see these delightful weirdos on screen
Watch Curious
- Akane-banashi - I have heard good things about the manga, so I want to check this out time depending
- Needy Girl Overdose - I have a friend that was really into the game this was based on. I will be interested to see how this gets adapted.
- Marika’s Love Meter Malfunction - This is a short anime, but the manga it is based on is absolutely nonsensically silly (in the best way). Might try to keep going with this since it will be quick.
Might Watch
- Daemons of the Shadow Realm - Same author as Fullmetal Alchemist…it deserves a shot
- Goddess: “What Do You Want to Turn Into When You’re Reincarnated in Another World?” Me: “Into a Hero’s Rib” - I mean…this sounds just crazy enough to work…
Marika’s Love Meter Malfunction
This one didn’t even catch my attention the first time through the list, but in the course of browsing for other thread responses, I finally really focused on it, and yeah - it looks like it could well have potential.
I was looking at “Yuusha No Rokkotsu”/Hero’s Rib and forgot to add it to my list.
It looks crazy enough with its mix of animation, live action, and crazy art styles to actually be entertaining.
Some obvious no brainers:
- Dorohedoro S2
- Witch Hat Atelier
- Re:Zero S4
- Classroom Of The Elite S4
- Dr. Stone Science Future Pt 3
Maybe these will be good:
- MARRIAGETOXIN - Because Studio Bones
- Liar Game - Because MadHouse
- Agents of the Four Seasons: Dance of Spring - Because Studio WIT
Others I’ll try a couple of episodes:
- Fist Of The Northstar reboot
- Beginning After The End S2 - I’m just weird and actually watched S1
- Rooster Fighter - Too weird a concept not to watch
- Nippon Sangoku - Sounds interesting, a very interesting seinen(?) look
- Love Through A Prism - Looks fabulously drawn and animated, but it’s a romance which isn’t my thing
- Snowball Earth - Visually very interesting with mechs, dinosaurs, monsters on apocalyptic frozen Earth
- Kill Blue/Kill Ao - Crazy Assassins
- Petals Of Reincarnation - Get powers and skills by slitting your throat! Only in Japan…
- Hero’s Rib/Yuusha No Rokkotsu - Crazy mix of anime, live action, and cartoon art.
There are a ton of interesting concepts this coming season, which gives me hope.
This is as opposed to the frankly disappointing big franchises this current season.
The TBATE novel is damn good. I hope the anime gets better.
Re zero s4 is coming out this spring? Hell yeah, was worried the wait would be as long as the wait for s3
