Introduction
For those who don’t know, I started doing reviews every anime season a couple years ago. At first, I was trying to be like some of my favorite anime youtubers. They always put out videos highlighting the best upcoming anime that they recommend for any and all anime fans, which helped me out a lot when I was a young padawan weeb trying to find what interested me. And since I enjoy giving my opinion on things as much as the next guy, and have a place where I can freely share them, it became a fun way to pay it forward while bragging about how much anime I watch.
Now I feel like my seasonal anime reviews are falling into a rut lately. I’m not sure what I’m doing anymore. Am I giving recommendations for what to watch? Just reacting to and talking about the ones I’m watching? Trying to review and rate them like some kind of movie critic? I think that the mentality I’ve been bringing most recently is trying to predict how good upcoming anime will be based on rating how good their respective pilot episodes are, which ties back into informing interested listeners of what I recommend to watch. Basically, I’m still looking for the next step in finding my own identity as an anime fan.
Ergo, a little experimenting is in order. I thought I’d try making my reviews funnier or something this time around, so I hope you’ll all bear with me. If you have any feedback or any thoughts on what you’d like to see from my reviews in the future, I’m all ears.
So with that, I once again watched every anime (that is available in my region and is full episode-length and that isn’t a sequel/continuation of an anime I am not caught up on or previously dropped and that isn’t hentai or BL), specifically the pilot/first episode for every new and returning anime, releasing in the Spring 2026 season. My simple rating system is from one to five stars; one being terrible, five terrific. Scores are weighted based on the anime’s storytelling aspects, overall production quality, and my own personal opinion. Since I try to be open-minded, I do adjust some scores with a *slight* counter-bias when it comes to either my favorites or genres I typically dislike - to better suit anyone who might be more interested in those genres than me. For full summary descriptions of each anime, see MAL.
Reviews
Rooster Fighter: 
This is a bizarre anime starring the most hated thing in the world - alarm clocks! Ever wanted to watch an annoying alarm clock fight some demon kaiju? Ever wanted to watch an annoying alarm clock mount a chicken? Animation isn’t terrible but isn’t anything to write home about. Would only recommend if Chainsaw Man’s demon shonen battles aren’t bizarre enough or if its characters are too three-dimensional for you. Or if you prefer to kluck instead of arf; you do you…
Agents of the Four Seasons: Dance of Spring:
The first episode felt more like a prologue, like an E0 than an E1. I can’t really tell where it’s going yet. Google says it’s based on a novel series by the author of Violet Evergarden, so it will probably be a fairy tale drama with emotional themes.
The Food Diary of Miss Maid:
Summary: Maid-san has to take her week of paid vacation but because the castle she works in literally burned to the ground the day she left, her vacation (all paid btw) got extended to a year while the castle is rebuilt. Sound like an interesting premise? Like the ultimate wish-fulfillment or slice of life setup? Well, that isn’t what this anime is about. Instead, this is a food anime, which means it is evocative of what it feels like to be your dog. Walk a mile in your best friend’s shoes―er, paws as you watch Maid-san eat all that delicious-looking food right in front of you without sharing! Now *that’s* about as slice of life as it gets!
The Strongest Job is Apparently Not a Hero or a Sage, But an Appraiser (Provisional)!:
Isekai trash comes in three main flavors. This anime’s flavor is: Number Slop! Stat screens, levels, and numbers rising galore so you can get that dopamine hit and make your brain go brrrr! With a dash of fanservice on the side, and you can’t go wrong!
Always a Catch!:
So this was a pleasantly fun watch about a charming and expressive noble young lady who was finally freed from her stifling life when she received a younger brother who could take over the role as the family head. While her antics as she lets loose around all the stiff and prim elites surrounding her are entertaining, it was the final cutaway gag that really had me in stitches at the end of episode 1. Sidenote, I love that her hairpin is a brass knuckle, I wonder if she is going to punch anybody? Maybe this should be a five-star?
Dr. Stone:
I still can’t suspend my disbelief about going to the moon but that’s not to say I don’t still enjoy Dr. Stone and its application of humanity’s greatest inventions to a blank slate stone world. Shoutout to the Artemis II mission to the Moon taking off the day before Senku and the gang lifted off into another season!
Haibara’s Teenage New Game+:
It’s about time a high school regression anime came around. Although I was hoping the content would be a *little* spicier than this… Ah but redoing my high school years has been such a specific and regularly visited fantasy of mine that I will probably watch anything that does the gimmick even remotely close. If I could redo high school, I would eat better, sleep less, play Pokemon less, weight train smarter, socialize more, date more, buy bitcoin (or Amazon or Google stock), make the soccer team, and not blow off my math classes so that I could have gotten through college in half the time that I actually took. And not bully anyone and be nicer to the unpopular kids. I regret a lot. But you know what regression stories should do that they never do? Properly apply brain science. If you went back into your past body, you would have your past brain, and your freshest memories in that brain (ie. the most recent memories of that past self) would be what you remember best, and all your knowledge and memories of the future should be concordinately fragmented and hazy to the time you are displaced from them (both future and past brain/self). That would make the drama much more interesting and create tons of potentially interesting scenarios to explore. Maybe I should write a regression light novel of my own?
Kirio Fan Club:
A girls’ talk anime (like See You Tomorrow at the Food Court) which uses a grounded artstyle that doesn’t lend a heap of cuteness to the leads. Since cute anime girls aren’t around to keep me engaged, I really wasn’t expecting to take this one past episode 1. But considering it had the most fart jokes in a single episode of anime since Gintama it surprised me and was hilarious, so I’ve officially been won over for at least one more episode. And maybe even one more after that.
The Ramparts of Ice:
I found the main character quite relatable in her awkward, impersonal interactions with her peers. She fails to notice how scary she appears to everyone and deals with my same brand of not feeling explicitly lonely but thinking it would be nice if others understood us better. Kinda looking forward to it being a good therapy watch speaking for myself. I also found out this is by the same author as my Winter 2026 romcom darling, You And I Are Polar Opposites, so that just makes me even more excited.
An Observation Log of My Fiancee Who Calls Herself a Villainess:
So if you know anything about the villainess genre you can probably guess what this anime is about based on the title, and all that remains to be answered is how well done is the execution of the jokes that you can predict to appear? Luckily that’s why reviews exist, so I’ll tell you that the jokes are in fact just as great as you could hope. We get to watch a reincarnatee from the perspective of her prince fiancé who happens to be a genius and that makes him perfectly suited to act confused to all the tropes Bakarina established not that long ago and entertain us from his and everyone else’s reactions. Like when she talks about this thing called an “otome game” or her “memories from her past life” or “becoming a villainess” or these “death flags.” I miss the Punchy Villainess but this looks to be a satisfying alternative.
Killed Again, Mr. Detective?:
Truly a wtf anime. What I mean is that literally every scene I found myself saying wtf? So many plotholes, weird character interactions, and not to mention the detective being the worst detective in the world every time he does something, I couldn’t help constantly repeating like a mantra, “wtf?” Both the anime’s title and the detective’s assistant look like they were plagiarized from The Detective is Already Dead. Wtf?
Petals of Reincarnation:
And here sitting on top of the trash pile we have an edgier Fate wannabe that smashes the action figures of historical figureheads with supernatural abilities in a sandbox together. How edgy, you ask? In order to draw out the abilities of their past lives, the characters have to (censored!) slit their own throats. They say characters can only be written as smart as the writer, and considering I felt like I had to abandon 30 of my IQ points to watch this, I have no confidence in future episodes that will bring in the reincarnations for the likes of Einstein, Newton, and… Hitler? Yeeeaaah, this is hands down the hottest “edgy-not-ecchi” mess of the season.
That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime S4:
Slime is always a classic. It may not be the best isekai or the best fantasy ever, but it’s always pretty good and a solidly entertaining watch that is chock-full with fun characters. And when it comes to fantasy politics and civilization building, few do it better.
Snowball Earth:
Summary badly explained: Man almost accidentally saves Earth by not including a remote shut-off switch on a mech built for fighting interstellar kaiju. The real plot hasn’t kicked off yet so I haven’t formed a full opinion yet. Episode 2 update: Oh I see, it’s really Bocchi the Gundam.
Mao:
From the creator of Inuyasha comes a new historical fantasy adventure. Meet Nanoko, a girl who casually goes for a stroll and travels back to the Taisho Era, kills a giant praying mantis monster, returns to modernity, thinks it was all a dream, gains superpowers, and dodges Truck-kun before finally realizing it wasn’t a dream. If you can dodge traffic, you can dodge a ball! As usual, there is a lot of good anime this season, and being good but not great, this one will be hard to cram in.
Needy Girl Overdose:
Talk about watching a mental illness. I guess it was educational in that regard. Waxes philosophical with a realist’s commentary on what social media can do to people, especially young people, while showing some of the horrible ways it ruins people’s lives. (Trigger warning!) But I have no idea what I just watched and my only takeaway is that addiction to social media is bad. Episode 2 udpate: Yeah, I still have no idea what is going on. Talk about watching a mental illness is right.
Daemons of the Shadow Realm:
Definitely the new anime I’m most hyped for this season. By the legendary mangaka behind Fullmetal Alchemist, I went in with high expectations and was not disappointed. Don’t want to spoil anything because it’s best to just go and check it out yourself. If you only have time to pick up one new anime this season, this is the one you should definitely watch.
Mistress Kanan is Devilishly Easy:
Surprisingly not ecchi. Yet. Anyways, still probably not safe to watch in public. The reactions, misunderstandings, and―let’s call them “awakenings”―of the characters get played for laughs and were pretty funny, if that’s the kind of slop you’re up for.
Kusunoki’s Garden of Gods:
This one here is slop of the lonely/validation variety. I wouldn’t say it’s that trashy, but I call it for what it is when the plot is just about making friends and hanging out with various gods or whatever you want to call these supernatural beings. Tags include slow paced, Gary Stu, slice of life, boring, cute animals.
Akane-banashi:
I learned about rakugo, a Japanese-style storytelling and performing art. I prefer anime that are more exciting but I do feel culturally broadened and expanded after watching this. Now as we all know by now, the key to getting me to watch dramas or slice of life is cute anime girls, and I have already judged this one as the best waifus of the season.
Ghost Concert: Missing Songs:
Had a genre tonal mashup that made it both interesting and weird. Seems to be equal parts musical/idol anime, futuristic sci-fi anime, and Fate ripoff. Cleopatra’s ghost possesses a girl and summons the spirits of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony to battle with her. The animation looked above average, but getting me to watch idol/musical anything is a hard sell.
Nippon Sangoku: The Three Nations of the Crimson Sun:
Went in blind, expecting nothing, and was blown away by this story about revenge and revolution. It sucked me right in Deathnote-like and got me rooting for a high concept, strategically satisfying and visually gripping anime where I least expected it. Is sure to be a hidden gem this season if the rest of the episodes turn out to also be as good.
The Klutzy Class Monitor and the Girl with the Short Skirt:
I propose the following test for trashy anime/manga which this particular anime fails: if the opening scene has a lucky pervert event (eg. panty/bra shot, butt/boob shot, tripping and landing in a provocative position, accidental kiss, see-through shirts, dialog discussing or regarding any of these or similar phenomena, etc.) the anime/manga is to be considered trash. I propose we name this test the Lucky Pervert Test. Anime/manga that fail this test are all but confirmed to contain cringey scenes, implausible scenarios, fanservice, a beach or onsen episode, idiotic characters who demonstrate a lack of agency, etc. We all know exactly where they’re going, we all know why they still exist, and we all know the trash connoisseurs who watch this slop are men of culture.
Liar Game:
Have you lost your faith in humanity yet? If not, would you like to? This protagonist is about to. She is the most gullible, naive, straightforward person you’ll find. When she is thrust into a game of lying and cheating where the winner turns disgustingly rich and the loser gets thrown into crushing debt, her only chance of survival is the help of the world’s greatest con artist. Luckily, I already figured out who is going to win using this one weird trick that screenwriters hate! Click here to find out what it is 
Gotcha! Sucker!
Witch Hat Atelier:
This is the fantasy anime everyone’s talking about, hyped to be the next Frieren or FMAB. It actually had some interesting similarities to Fullmetal Alchemist’s inciting incident, and although I’m reserved that FMA did it better, Atelier at least equals FMA’s worldbuilding and magic system depth if not exceeding it when comparing how far along the story is.
I Made Friends with the Second-Prettiest Girl in my Class:
Once upon a time, a loser loner boy with niche interests thought he would never make any friends. Then one day, a girl in his class approached him because she has the same interests and wants to be friends. She may not be the prettiest girl in the class, because that’s, like, waaay too unrealistic, but she is the second-prettiest. And she’s a bro who likes to play video games and eat pizza… *Riiip* Yeah right, like that’ll evah happen! This, class, is yet another example of loneliness/validation slop. A fantasy for losers and wusses who are too afraid to ask a girl out irl. Ah, who am I kidding? *inhales deeply* It should have been me! Not him!
Eren the Southpaw:
This anime is about an alternate timeline where Eren Yeager was not kicked out of art school―oh, wait, wrong Eren. Sorry, my bad. This Eren dropped out of art school and took up graffiti after her mother was eaten by a ti―no, that’s not right either. Anyways I don’t know what happened to her mother, but I think she is planning to wipe out 80% of all art in the world or something. Probably. Idk. All I can say is that she slapped and straddled the art club president and thereby stole him from her childhood friend and I was more interested with where the story would go with that than about anything art-related.
MarriageToxin:
Oh yeah, this guy, he’s just like me fr. A deadly assassin, an expert cultivator of aura, too bada* to get a girlfriend. So relatable. They couldn’t have written a character that was more me if they tried. (Note: that was sarcasm.) Blending together James Bond and Will Smith’s Hitch, the action scenes don’t make much sense if I’ll be honest but they ooze style and coolness like Sung Jin-woo. But while Sung Jin-woo doesn’t talk to girls cuz he doesn’t need to; this guy literally can’t. He’s like that one kinda old movie with the kid from Malcom in the Middle, what was it called… Agent Cody Banks. Yeah, the super spy who can’t talk to girls? Same premise, but anime.
My Ribdiculous Reincarnation:
Konosuba on drugs. Literally summarizes this anime perfectly. Except Konosuba is actually smart about how it satirizes isekai power fantasies. Yeah, perfect example for showing what the difference is between parody and satire.
Even a Replica Can Fall in Love:
I’m not so naive to think that if most people could summon a clone of themselves out of midair they would use it just to take their place on sick days. Most people would use it to - actually, nevermind. Forget I said anything. The anime is average so you can forget about it too if you’d like.
Pardon the Intrusion, I’m Home!:
There have been some unexpectedly funny anime this season, and this one is foremost among them. I was laughing so hard I was worried somebody was going to come knock on my door. Or smash down my wall, which is what happens when this heroine is at home watching her usual anime one night while her quiet next-door neighbor is around. She thinks at first that he just hates otaku in general, but then it turns out he is the writer of her favorite manga! Add in her next-door neighbor on the opposite side who is definitely the type of nice guy you should be wary of and we have a real comedy of errors on our hands, folks!
Re:Zero S4:
Crunchyroll sucks. Re:Zero is awesome, but Crunchyroll sucks. The subtitles AND the dub have glaring translation errors. It’s so bad. Not spoilers for if you are caught up to S4 but I tagged it anyway: Season 4 (Arc 6 in the novels) has Subaro and co. heading to the Watchtower at the edge of the world, which lies before the Great Waterfall and watches over the seal of the Witch of Envy. Legend says the Sage lives there, who may know how to return all of Bishop Lust’s victims in Pristella. Crunchyroll botched the translation as having Anastasia say that the Sage lives in the city, making it sound like they are right there nearby in Pristella. What she really said is that the Sage lives in the country, aka Lugunica. If you didn’t know that, you would be wondering what the heck is everyone doing traveling so far by carriage if the Sage is already there in the city? Oh, and the dub has this same mistake too. It’s ridiculous, I cannot fathom how Crunchyroll screwed up this bad. There are other major translation errors too, such as mistitling the Dragon and misreferencing the covenant between the Dragon and Lugunica. Who is running QC here? Every other sub has been putting the translation QC person prominently in the credits ever since the ChatGPT fiasco with Necronomico, but I noticed they weren’t in the credits for this episode. I am worried now that every time an anime just loses me, it is really because of mishandling and not bad writing or production. Because if this happened and I hadn’t already read the Re:Zero novels, I would be so confused by this. Seriously. If you watch Re:Zero and don’t understand anything just ask me and I can hopefully explain.
Gals Can’t Be Kind to Otaku?!:
Are we learning our slop flavors, everyone? The big three are Number slop, Revenge slop, and Validation slop. (Somehow this season is missing revenge slop.) Anyways, “That Time I Ripped Off Dandadan” is about an otaku discovering his shared passion for otaku things with gyarus. This puts it in the Validation slop cafeteria line and firmly slots into the “poor loner high schooler landing the cutest girl in his class trash” category alongside its season-mates “I Made Friends With the Second-Prettiest Girl in my Kaisen” and “The Rising of the Teenage New Game+ Hero.”
The Warrior Princess and the Barbaric King:
Ah, the classic setup of a lady knight getting captured in battle and brought to the enemy leader. This always goes one of two ways. Option A: the knight works herself up expecting to be tortured or killed, then gets treated nicely by her captors. Option B: it’s a chicken dressed for formal wear (aka a hen wearing a tie). You don’t have to be Nostradamus to figure it out, you can see the twist coming a mile away. All that’s left is to see which option they picked. Looks like this one will be―eh? Both? Color me shocked.
A Hundred Scenes of Awajima:
zapdosmaster145’s tip for aspiring writers: Don’t introduce your main character then spend more than half of the pilot’s runtime developing and showing the backstory of someone else. If you’re gonna do that, if someone other than your main character is more interesting, make them your main character and have the opening scene be about them. Don’t get me wrong, the characters seem complex and interesting and the drama being set up has already shown some fantastic moments. Even though I wasn’t planning to watch more than one episode of this in the first place, that one storytelling choice really took me out of it.
Kujima: Why Sing, When You Can Warble?:
Oh my bird, it’s so ugly, kill it with fire! If you are a main character in an anime and you are going to bring home a pet/mascot, why would you pick a freaky birdperson thing like that? I can understand taking in a freeloader if it’s cute and cuddly, that’s how dogs and cats evolved and became domesticated. Or if it’s an alien or magical creature, at least it’s giving you powers or a harem or plot armor or something useful. So sad I won’t be getting those 23 minutes of my life back.
Botan Kamiina Fully Blossoms When Drunk:
I don’t care for drinking anime and I don’t hate yuri at all compared to yaoi. Not for me but I considerably preferred it to the other drinking anime―
The Drops of God:
I was so bored. Anime solely about alcohol is not for me. Admittedly the story is kind of adequate in that it has plot, characters, and all the other basic elements of story, even if they’re not actually all that interesting or compelling. And the animation looks cheap.
Yowayowa Sensei:
Fails the above-proposed Lucky Pervert Test in the OP although it coasts all the way to the second scene before properly serving the fans. At least it’s not entai-hig. (That’s Pig Latin; for, you know.) Actually it was surprisingly tame compared to, for example, Mistress Kanan is Devilishly Easy. Wait, why am I listing that like it’s a positive? How did I become this desensitized to fanservice and degeneracy? Don’t answer that.
Kill Blue:
Cool assassin fights, anime BS, rule of the cool, all that same stuff but is here but not at quite as high of a production level as how it’s done in MarriageToxin. Hopefully and I say this because it always goes with the territory, hopefully this won’t try to sell any romantic interests. Normally I wouldn’t mind because as I said they usually go with the territory in these kinds of anime, but in this one he makes it a point that he has an ex-wife and a kid. So in the coming arcs I better not find this assassin-turned teenager catching whiff of his boss’s daughter or a classmate or the CEO’s daughter he is marking, which would instantly turn this anime from being whimsical over-the-top action to hot trash.
Ichijyuma Mankitsugurashi!:
I’m running out of jokes and really feeling the new anime fatigue setting in here so I’ll just say SoL girls dorm anime is already being done better by Hundred Scenes unless you prefer the cutesy artstyle. This didn’t even get picked up for distribution so you have to take to the high seas to watch it.
The Classroom of a Black Cat and a Witch:
Um… I’m kinda at a loss for words. All I can think is who comes up with this stuff? There are some pretty weird magical transformations out there but this is the first one I’ve heard of where the transformation activates by kissing your cat’s butthole . There’s gross-out gags, and then there’s this. Who comes up with this stuff?
I Want to End this Love Game:
Dandelion:
Need to catch up on list:
Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun
Ascendance of a Bookworm
Mission: Yozakura Family
Sendoff
I have traditionally been posting my seasonal reviews in airing order since that makes it easiest for myself to make sure I don’t miss anything during the writeup, but what do you think? Would it be easier to read if I switch the order around to best-to-worst so that the highest recommends are first? Or flip that and save the best for last? Should I add quick summaries so that you don’t need to cross-reference MAL to understand what I’m talking about? Or genre tags? I could also include information on where to watch to save you the trouble of finding whatever catches your eye? I’m open to suggestions here.