Spring 2026 Five Fave New Anime

We are now a good four to five episodes into the Spring anime season, and that is more than enough to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff. Of the new anime shows that is — I assume that you are all already watching the return of Reincarnated as a Slime, Re:Zero, Ascendance of a Bookworm, and Dorohedoro and don’t need me to say whether or not they are worth your time.

The Winter season had perhaps even more returning shows, and that might have been why there was a dearth of quality new shows. This Spring season has more good new shows than last season and some absolute contenders for anime of the year — maybe the decade.

So, in no particular order aside from “best for last,” here are my five favorite new anime shows this season.

Snowball Earth

Snowball Earth should be my favorite new anime of this season; it checks so many of my interest boxes. Science fiction, post-apocalypse, giant mech, kaiju and even really good 3D animation. But the main character, Tetsuo, is so whiny and annoying he brings the whole show down for me. Set in a future in which kaiju are attacking the Earth, Tetsuo winds up (for reasons) in 10 years of suspended animation, only to find that in those years, Earth has been completely covered by glaciers. The kaiju are still around and humanity is barely hanging on. How Tetsuo deals with this new reality and how he helps the survivors fight back is the story here, and it is a good one — when Tetsuo isn’t whining about being friendless.

Marriagetoxin

What if Fable and Sakamato Days was a screwball rom-com? It would be Marriagetoxin. Hikaru Gero is a descendant of the infamous (in criminal circles) Gero clan of Poison Master assassins. When faced with an unpleasant choice if he does not produce an heir for his grandmother, the clan leader, he decides to get married and get on that assignment. Gero finds the perfect person to help his anti-social self to find a mate when he meets an assassination target, Mei Kinosaki, who is a very successful marriage swindler. For a rom-com, the action is outstanding and the characters are a blast to watch.

Daemons of the Shadow Realm

If the art style looks familiar in the image above, that is because the animators of Daemons of the Shadow Realm have faithfully reproduced the look of the manga, made by the creator of Fullmetal Alchemist. And so far, the story and action in this new anime is every bit as compelling as that classic, while being nothing like it at all. I am hesitant to describe much of the story, because the first episode has a really interesting twist, but I can say that the main character, Yuru, is one of a set of twins with Yuru the Child of Night and his sister the Child of Day. Things happen (twist) and he discovers he is the master of a pair of powerful spirits, Left and Right. They help him survive against people who attack him and his family, and unravel the mystery of his suddenly different world. Like its predecessor, Daemons of the Shadow Realm looks to be peak shonen anime with real depth to its world and story.

Nippon Sangoku

Just based on the name and the teaser image, I had dismissed this anime, until I watched Mother’s Basement’s Spring Ones to Watch video, and discovered that it is a post-apocalypse story set after a nuclear war in a Japan broken into three states and struggling at a Meiji-era level of technology. At that point the series was three episodes in, and I binged all three immediately and was starving for more. Amazing art design and animation, with a brutal and innovative story that isn’t like anything I can think of. The main character, Aoteru Misumi, gives off Maomao vibes, if Maomao was as politically astute as Jinshi, and as devious as Loulan. You’ll find yourself fascinated by agricultural policies in a world of a burgeoning nuclear winter.

Witch Hat Atelier

Beautiful. Like, art design and animation that is every bit as amazing as either Mushoku Tensei or Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. The world is one of the most creative and well-realized fictional worlds I’ve seen in a long time. The magic system that is the core of the story is just as creative and innovative, even if it stretches credulity that its secret has remained hidden for so long up to the start of the story. Coco is an excellent balance of hopeful optimism and serious self-doubt (take a lesson, Snowball Earth‘s Tetsuo), and Qifrey, her magic teacher, is just now at Ep. 5 showing himself to be a character of real unplumbed depths. Definitely a possible anime of the year, and if it gets into those character depths and keeps up the quality, maybe of the decade.

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