# Feel free to ignore my reviews, I wrote them for myself and anyone who wants to read them. I know not everyone wants to read so much.

# Notes:

This is only for shows that released their first season during the Spring 2026 season. Any continuing seasons are not included.

I always want to give a show a solid chance so if I start a season I will finish it even if I don’t like it at first. Some exceptions may apply, but I haven’t encountered any that I refuse to give at least one season yet. This means the score I give is based of the entire season and not just the first couple episodes.

I have tried to review these without many spoilers. There are some that might have some slight/unimportant/obvious spoilers (ex. personality traits, timelines, and love interests) visible, but any major spoilers will be hidden.

# Witch Hat Atelier:

This was my favorite of the spring season. I love fantasy anime which definitely made this one super appealing to watch and it definitely proved itself to be amazing.

I love all the characters (yes even >!Euini!<) so much. They’re all fun and interesting, the kids feel like real kids and not just mini adults, the villains are intriguing, and I absolutely love how the witches have a parental side for the kids. I also loved the different sides to some of the characters since it didn’t feel over the top different, but still felt very different from the personality they tried to portray in front of the others.

The animation is beautiful. It’s some of the best animation I’ve ever seen in anime. The character design is also amazing. I love how different and recognizable all the characters look and each of their designs really match their personality.

The story in this season seems very similar to a slice of life which I absolutely love since that’s my favorite anime genre, but I am also really excited for the plot to progress as well since it seems like they’re building up to something really interesting.

I highly recommend this one. It’s fun, it’s interesting, and there’s nothing in it I can genuinely say I didn’t like. The creators did an amazing job with making it and I’m really excited for season 2 to come out.

# Go For It Nakamura-kun:

This was definitely one of my favorites of the Spring season. It’s a simple concept, but it’s very successful in what it aims to do. It’s definitely not for everyone, but if you’re okay with same sex romance, an incredibly awkward main character, 80s/90s style animation, and some comedic second hand embarrassment then I highly recommend it.

It is a boys love (bl) technically, but really I would describe it more as a coming of age than a romance. My biggest piece of advice is to not go into this show expecting a classic romance because that’s not really what it is. I actually think labeling it as a bl hurt it, because the people who only watched it for the bl didn’t entirely get what they expected and the people who didn’t watch it just because it’s labeled as a bl missed out on something they might’ve really enjoyed.

A big aspect of the show is the main character getting into comedic and/or mundane situations while trying to get closer to his crush not just in a romantic way, but also in a platonic/friendship way. This creates a different feeling than some romances where the whole story focuses completely on the romantic aspect. 

I love the characters, both the main characters and the side characters are great. The anime does have scenes and episodes that focus more on the side characters so they have some depth which I really enjoyed. The main characters are also amazing, Hirose is very sweet, caring, and is a great love interest. Nakamura can be awkward, jealous, and over the top, but he also feels genuine and realistic. I also saw my teenage self in him in some ways so for me he felt relatable. Whether or not you relate to him or if you even view that as a positive thing depends on you, but he is an interesting main character regardless.

Overall the show is very cute, fun, and (mostly) lighthearted. It does do an amazing job with its more emotional moments though. It also feels like everyone involved with making it genuinely love and care about the story and the characters which really added to the show. It’s definitely something I would recommend.

# Even A Replica Can Fall in Love:

This one is definitely a lot better than I expected it to be. I was fully prepared for just a classic romance anime without too much depth -and it does have that as well- but it ended up having more thought provoking or existential moments than I expected there to be. It did start out pretty generic (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing), but ended up getting a lot more interesting the farther into the season it got.

It does have a classic romance anime storyline which is what I expected when I started this show. It also has some popular romance plotlines like going to a festival, haunted house, and aquarium. They were good scenes and they definitely helped build up the relationship between the two of them, but nothing about those scenes really stood out to me as different from other romances.

One thing I enjoyed is that they got together pretty quickly and the rest of the time was spent strengthening their bond similar to how it’s done in Horimiya. It wasn’t a “will they, won’t they” or a “who will I choose” type of story which I really liked.

The thing I really loved and that really made this show stand out was the secondary plot. They definitely focused a lot more on things related to the replicas, like who/what they are, how people react to them, why they exist, and >!what happens to the replica if something happens to them or the person they’re a replica of!< in the second half of the season. This added a lot of depth to the characters and made them and the show significantly more interesting.

This ended up being a really good romance with some great characters, some wholesome/sweet moments, some sad/intense moments and a great story. It’s something I highly encourage anyone who’s into romantic dramas to watch.

# Liar Game:

Liar Game has been an interesting one for me. If I gave a score based on the first 3 episodes alone I would’ve probably given it a 2, maybe a 3. Once I got to episode 4 it started getting better and I actually found myself enjoying it by the time I got to episode 8. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its flaws though.

First things first, the animation is bad. So are most of the character designs. Bad animation and bad character design don’t necessarily ruin my ability to enjoy a show, but it definitely doesn’t help with my enjoyment. I am aware that that’s how it looked in the manga and the budget probably wasn’t high enough for better animation so I’m not blaming the animators for it, I just wish it would have looked better.

The real thing that hurts my enjoyment of this show is one of the main characters Nao. A big part of her character is that she’s supposed to be naive and trusting, and that is something we do see. The big issue is that the way she’s portrayed isn’t just as naive and trusting, but she also looks stupid. Every time she makes a choice (especially in the first three games) she makes a bad decision without even considering what they’ve done to her in the past or what their intentions could be. She’s given opportunity after opportunity to realize that the people around her just want to hurt her and it takes her until the end of episode 9 to even begin to stop trusting the people that had repeatedly hurt her. Right now in the show she is a lot better and much more enjoyable, but it took 10 episodes of it being really hard to watch her in order to even start getting some character development.

Nao aside I really do enjoy the plot. The games and solutions aren’t too absurd and unrealistic, but they are also decently hard to figure out the answer and enjoyable to watch. This creates some good suspense and cliffhangers. Akiyama is a good co-protagonist and I like the whole idea of the competition and the people who are running it. The plot is ultimately what really brought the score up even with Nao bringing it down. The first game wasn’t very interesting but the second, third, and fourth were/are, so I’m glad I stuck around until I got to those.

With all of that together, this show is good. So far it’s not one of the best I’ve seen, but if you like psychological shows or shows with high risk/high reward games, you might enjoy it.

# Agents of the Four Seasons: Dance of Spring:

Agents of the Four Seasons is one that has its ups and downs. I love the concept, but the execution of it wasn’t great. The good things can be really good, but the bad things can make it a lot harder to watch so overall it’s just fine.

One thing I really liked is the animation, especially scenes where the characters use magic. It looks amazing and it has lots of beautiful detail. The character designs are also beautiful and unique and the characters themselves are mostly likable or interesting. I especially love the agents and guards of Summer and Autumn. The plot seems interesting and I do think if it gets another season then they could make something really good with it.

The show is very melancholy/depressing and has many sad moments in every episode. It’s not all bad, I think it could’ve been done a lot better though. They start with the sadness before you’ve had any time to connect to the characters so it’s harder to sympathize with them initially since you don’t know them. I think if they had waited a little longer before introducing the main characters backstory it would’ve been better. There were also times it felt like they were just throwing everything sad they could think of into the story to see what stuck instead of being deliberate about what sad things they wanted to portray.

The biggest flaws in my opinion are the repetitions and the pacing. A lot of scenes, flashbacks, and conflicts are shown/used over and over again to the point that I found myself saying “again?” every time stuff was repeated. I think that was part of how the pacing of the show was impacted, because with all the flashbacks and repeated conflicts the actual plot progression and the shows main conflict didn’t start until super late into the season. >!Episode 10!< to be exact. 

It’s labeled as a romance, yet the love interests don’t even see or speak to each other in current time until >!episode 10!< >!(and it was over the phone so still not seeing each other in person and it was while they were both being attacked which made me laugh at how absurd it felt.)!<. The romance itself is good though. I like Rosei and Hinagiku together and think they did a good job portraying their interactions together as kids.

I wish the romance and/or plot would’ve started a little earlier, because it would’ve made the show much better. If the show gets a second season then the flaws will be a lot more tolerable, but right now it felt like I was just watching the same episode every week for a month or two without any chance of a payoff.

The last thing to note, which may be a flaw or benefit depending on the person, is the yuri bait. They spend most of the season talking about how much the two female leads love each so much and they can’t live without each other. Then they say it’s not romantic though because they both are in love with dudes that they haven’t spoken to in a decade.

# Kusunoki’s Garden of Gods:

The best way to describe this show is balanced. There’s nothing about it that’s exceptional or stands out, but there’s also nothing about it that ruins it. 

It’s mostly very relaxing and calm, but there is also some moments of mild action. Not enough to describe it as an action show, but enough for it to be notable. It’s a great one if you just want something you don’t have to think too much about or be super invested in to enjoy.

The characters and their designs are good and the animal designs are cute. Most of the characters don’t have a lot of depth to them so they’re pretty surface level characters, but they are still enjoyable to watch.

The side plot was a little more action heavy than the main plot and it would usually switch between the two throughout the show. I think this helped my enjoyment a little because it prevented me from getting bored of the main plot, but it didn’t impact the show so much that the general feeling changed from being relaxing and nice.

If you’re looking for something chill to put on in the background or something without any real threats or suspense then this would be a good one to put on. If you’re looking for something to be super interesting and that you can be very invested in then this probably wouldn’t be the best one. It’s good for what it is, but it’s far from the best thing I’ve ever seen.

# Killed Again Mr. Detective:

This one is very average. There’s not really anything that stands out in a good way or a bad way. 

The characters are fine, but not exceptional. Their designs are pretty good, but when it comes to things like their personalities most of them feel pretty similar. I don’t really hate any of them, but there was only 2 or 3 that I could genuinely say I liked. Most of them I just felt neutral about.

The mysteries that they are trying to solve tend to fall into one of two things: either very obvious and easy to solve or an answer that comes out of nowhere >!(nobody could’ve predicted a random orca coming out of nowhere and killing the dude for example)!<. 

It seemed like they were trying to build up to a major plot point, but never got to it because they had too big a focus on the side mysteries. It also felt like they were loosely trying to build up a relationship between the two main characters, but that wasn’t done well either.

It wasn’t great, the mysteries are not good so if you want a mystery then don’t watch this. As long as you don’t expect to take anything seriously and you just want something stupid or absurd to laugh at then this one can be entertaining at times though which is why I gave it the score that I did.

# Eren the Southpaw:

This is one I really wanted to like. It sounded like a unique premise with interesting characters and I really thought I would enjoy it, I just didn’t end up liking it.

The first and biggest flaw in my opinion is the timeline. It was one of the most disjointed and  confusing timelines you could have. It jumps around so much and a big part of the problem is that it’s not just jumping back to one or two time periods, it’s that it’s jumping around anywhere between the span of around 20 years and they just expect you to keep the entire timeline straight. It feels like they go from 2013 to 2005 to 2010 all in one episode without giving any indication of things like who knows who, what’s already happened, who’s in a relationship, who’s the the main characters boss, etc. besides a year being listed.

While all the timeline stuff is happening it also switches between different points of views. Normally I’d love seeing the POV of different characters, but when it’s added onto an already confusing timeline it just makes everything more complicated. Plus the pacing can be weird at times like it feels too fast at some times and too slow at others which also affects everything else.

The other thing to note is that there’s not a lot of “good” characters to root for. I don’t think shows need to have perfect characters without flaws (I do love shows where most/all of the characters are between evil and morally gray). The biggest problem is that unlike shows like Death Note, Chainsaw Man, or Black Butler for example that have “bad” characters that you still want to succeed, Eren the Southpaw’s characters just make me want them to fail. Most of them are just assholes, obnoxious, or insufferable without anything that makes me be on their side.

That said, the characters are interesting (even if it’s in a bad way) and the plot is unique. I think this had the potential to be really good, but there was a lot of things bringing it down. I wouldn’t personally recommend it, but if you’re looking for something different and you don’t care about a jumpy timeline and unlikable characters, you might end up enjoying it.

# Haibara’s Teenage New Game+:

Am I being unnecessarily harsh on this show by giving it such a low score? Probably, yeah. This is just a generic romance and usually that would be something I’d give a score that’s closer to the middle or higher. There’s just nothing about this show that I could say I liked or that was interesting.

The characters are all boring and/or one sided. I didn’t like any of them so I couldn’t care less about their struggles and feelings. Their character designs and personalities are also boring and cookie cutter like. There were also multiple times I struggled to figure out which character was in the scene I was watching because some of them looked and acted so similar I couldn’t tell the difference between them.

The plot was boring and not what I expected. I thought it was going to be more of a generic romance with some slice of life moments and a time travel element, but then it turned into a harem/love triangle without any indication that it was going to be that. It’s also just filled with conflicts and plot lines that I either don’t care about or that have no impact on the story. Plus some of the best characters in the show were the girls who weren’t interested in the main character romantically >!at least until the end!< so the story would’ve been better if they just removed the harem/love triangle plot altogether and kept most of the girls friends instead of love interests.

The time travel element was referenced/utilized throughout the show, but they never explained why it happened other than he just woke up one day back in his teenage self’s body. I feel like they also could’ve told this story without the time travel element and just had it be he wanted to be different from his middle school self and basically nothing would’ve changed. That also would’ve removed the “mentally grown man being attracted to multiple teenage girls” element which is a criticism I saw talked about by multiple people.

I’d really recommend skipping this one, there’s nothing about it that really redeems it. It’s just boring, cliche, and lifeless. Also it seems like the message of the story is something like “if you’re handsome then everyone will like you and want to hang out with you and if you aren’t then nobody will like you and want to hang out with you” which isn’t a great message in my opinion. There’s much better romances, comedies, and romantic comedies to watch besides this one.

My Spring 2026 Tier List and Why I Put Things Where I Did