Spring 2026 end of season anime round up
These ones are just beyond reproach for me, obvious top tiers of the season
Of course it's the top tier. Of course. Faithful adaptation of one of the best most thoughtful series in manga, with just as much love letter to the medium of animation as the manga is to manga. The English dub in particular is one of the best dubs in the history of the medium, with masterful use of the accents to add depth to the characterization and worldbuilding.
The other thematic powerhouse of the season. I am a fucking girlfaggot for Kinosaki and no I did not stutter. The series is literally front to back all about taking on the institution of heterosexual marriage as the enemy and every antagonist specifically, precisely targets Kinosaki as their nemesis and tells Gero to forget about her and yeet her and her teachings from his life in a targeted way that does not feel nearly as fitting unless she's transfem and not just a cross dresser.
It's the "forget everything that marriage swindler told you to do" part of it that really cinches it for me. Like, all of Gero's enemies and opponents are constantly telling him to forget the lies that this swindler told him to swindle him and those lies literally just amount to "Women Do Exist". Think about her feelings, don't make it all about getting your dick wet, if you enjoy her hobby with her then it's a good day. Etc. It is completely on point for the series' main thesis against the compulsory misogyny of institutional heterosexuality and it kind of doesn't hit as perfect with cis boy Kinosaki as with a precious egg.
Anyway as you can very well tell I was instantly upsold on catching up to the latest chapter in the manga before the Ureshino arc even first started airing. Marriagetoxin very definitely lands in that space of "anime that is just as good as its manga source material," with special shout outs to its voice work -- Kinosaki has the cutest expression when she's gushing about the gourmet dinner she's gonna have Gero take her out on during the Ureshino mission, and Kimie's VA perfectly nails the swing from her forced bravado to crying weepy snotty tears about her own worthless life forcing Gero into a trap.
The knockout most lesbian anime of the season. Technically there's nothing explicitly lesbian and romantic about any of the scenes on display until the Taiwanese exchange student shows up and calls it out in so many words, but oh my god this animation team manages to render the most sesbian lex ever animated on screen.
This series goes insanely hard like holy shit. Toei just gives them infinite budget to animate the most gorgeous weekly loops (transformations, final attacks, etc) and it's gotten especially gorgeous for the solo finishers. What can I say, the show is just a joy to watch every week from the silly and cute shenanigans to the opening and ending songs that are perfect to watch in full every time. This has just been a really consistently high quality production.
Stuff I've been enjoying this season!
Ranma 2024 🤝 Fist of the North Star 2026
New 2020s, more manga-accurate anime adaptations of martial arts romances whose previous anime adaptation four decades prior was immensely popular and iconic but had a budget of "lol" and for whom fidelity to the source material was just a suggestion
On top of nailing animation in 3D so that it doesn't have to be another disgrace like the infamous Berserk anime, this series is doing a really great job of showcasing the familiar story in higher quality than the original anime. The Devil's Rebirth arc has been a great epitome of this, between the character deaths landing with more impact than the original anime and the fight with the big man himself having hilariously bad low-budget animations in the '84 anime but nice quality animation in 2026.
Another really high-quality anime adaptation. They even had the VAs train in real-life rakugo so that they could nail it in the studio! Haven't caught up on the manga to sink my teeth into its depths like with marriagetoxin so I can't evaluate and vibe it on that deep of a level but I very obviously like what I've seen so far.
Deliciously toxic cynical streaming culture anime yay
Though I might be too much not a teenager anymore for this to hit with me like I've seen it hit with some other anime fans on Twitter
The Karamazov episodes have been extremely fucking lesbian all over as we approach the season finale, so that was a pleasant surprise
Ghost Concert: Missing Songs
The half battle anime, half musical has a pretty damn weak first half of it but after they reached the final boss area it started picking up the pace to where I'm annoyingly locked in to finding out what happens next. It's kind of really weak at trying to sell emotional, heartfelt dialogue and moments and the opening animation is like. Non existent?
But oh my fucking god it has the gayest yearner ever in Kaede and her crush Seria has a crush back and that was enough to keep me checking back in until it got competent.
Right now the plot actually has an excuse to put the team into more hand-to-hand fights, which is kind of where this anime's production shines as it has pretty good choreography and animation when it comes time to making its characters throw hands. But the unique gimmick of the series is that the main character fights and conquers by singing, and for the first half of the series she spent just about every episode singing an original new duet with a title card for the song for every new ghost who possesses her, so it's a little bit of a bummer that that gimmick is ended now that we're in the second half. Still, the show is kind of objectively better on this half of the run, lol.
Magical Sisters Lulutto Lilly!
Cutest fucking buttons to ever do it with an opening song to make your heart sing. It was a little bit slow at the start but the gimmick of the little sister's wishes having monkey's paw consequences sets up for a nice hook every week. The two best friends who started the idol group are high key high key in yuri with each other, they straight up paralleled the svtfoe starco moment with the truth or dare cube when lulutto lilly did the hell quiz episode.
annaxmalina
titsay
gummygunk
germansingergirl
