MAO – Episode 1
With long-running titles like this one, the question becomes less “is the story interesting?” and more “do you want to hang out with these characters for the next 100 episodes?” And, you know, Mao just might have the juice there.
Spring 2026 Tag
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Daemons of the Shadow Realm – Episode 1
Daemons of the Shadow Realm comes out of the gate swinging with a first episode that’s gory, thrilling, and sets up plenty of intriguing and feminist-minded world-building questions.
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My Ribdiculous Reincarnation – Episode 1
This is a visually creative send-up of isekai slop; the main hurdle will be whether you want to be around the protagonist long enough to watch him fail spectacularly.
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Killed Again, Mr. Detective? – Episode 1
I want to be entranced by the supernatural cliffhanger we’re left on, but I’m simply too distracted by the silliness around the female characters.
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Eren the Southpaw – Episode 1
It’s never bad—and sometimes it’s pretty good—but it doesn’t seem to have found its voice yet.
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Pardon the Intrusion, I’m Home! – Episode 1
This wants to be an upbeat comedy, but it feels more like a horror story about men taking over a woman’s precious personal space.
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Witch Hat Atelier – Episodes 1-2
Witch Hat Atelier is a masterful adaptation that captures the beauty and terror of the sublime. Run, don’t walk, to watch it.
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The Klutzy Class Monitor and the Girl with the Short Skirt – Episode 1
This episode is working very hard to be engaging, energetic, colorful, and fun, but it simply can’t recover from the acidic awfulness of its opening joke.
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LIAR GAME – Episode 1
I won’t lie: LIAR GAME is about as tepid as premieres come, promising a really curious plot but coupling it with a college student who feels almost infantilizingly naive.
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NEEDY GIRL OVERDOSE – Episode 1
Chiaki is just the right level of quirky to catastrophically find the traumatized girls in Needy Girl Overdose “#relatable”
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Akane-banashi – Episode 1
The story is off to a very promising start with its themes about gender roles and performance told through rakugo, but it needs to give its visuals time to breathe.
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Kusunoki’s Garden of Gods – Episode 1
It’s not a terrible show, but when you are competing with a beautiful story like Natsume’s Book of Friends it just feels narratively empty.
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GHOST CONCERT: missing songs – Episode 1
What could have been a fairly standard music anime goes in hard as a sci-fi/fantasy mash-up about humans being crowded out of music in favor of generic AI slop.
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Petals of Reincarnation – Episode 1
Edgy vibes and genuinely interesting animation can’t make up for a story that pits history’s finest and worst against each other in a time where facism is ever present.
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An Observation Log of My Fiancée Who Calls Herself a Villainess – Episode 1
If it’s going to be so dull and mean-spirited about its core characters, how can I expect it to have anything interesting or meaningful to say in its broader plot?
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Kirio Fan Club – Episode 1
A fantastic josei premiere about pining, weird girls, and pining for weird girls.
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The Ramparts of Ice – Episode 1
Melt your heart with an excellent premiere that sets the foundation for one girl’s healing through the genuine power of friendship.
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Snowball Earth – Episode 1
It’s watchable sci-fi, but the apocalyptic stakes aren’t well balanced against the wacky social anxiety shenanigans.
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Haibara’s Teenage New Game+ – Episode 1
It’s not bad but it’s also no standout, treading the same footsteps of male second-chance series that I’ve seen before—ones that especially revolve around guys getting the girl as a band-aid for solving their personality issues.
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Always a Catch! – Episode 1
Allow yourself to get swept up in the start of a hilarious adventure into elite society through the view of a girl they’re definitely not prepared for.
