[QuickTidal]

Okay, I'm nearing the end of S1 of MORE THAN A MARRIED COUPLE, BUT NOT LOVERS and this is PEAK romance anime for me. Better than MY DRESS UP DARLING in fact (though I still love that one). There's just so much here. Every time I think it's going to devolve into nonsense, or that Akari is being too flippant to Jiro, the narrative shifts enough to turn it into something wholesome and wonderful. There's a moment in an episode where:

Spoiler

Jiro helps Akari tie the obi on the yukata she chose to wear to impress Minami at the festival (instead of her normal Gyaru clothes) and she kind of lays into him a bit to say "Don't go calling me tonight as I'm going to be with the man I'm after" and then she goes to the festival with her friends, finds out that Minami is not coming and working instead...so she laughs it off and leaves...then Jiro gets a phone call from her and answers to her sobbing, and his IMMEDIATE reaction is "where are you? What happened?" and he can't understand her thorough the crying and he's like "Where are you? " and he's haphazardly throwing his clothes on and shoes and he's like "Nevermind, I'll find you..." and runs out the front door to find her curled up in a ball sobbing outside their door...and he comforts her and brings her inside.

It's such a small moment but my god did my fists pump the air when without preamble he realized she was upset and was like "I'm coming, where are you?"

I was already into the series, but that bit sent me into loving it territory. And I've heard that all the best stuff comes after the anime ends in the manga, so I'm happy with my choice and nabbed both volumes of the manga to support the mangaka.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 16 June 2026 - 04:36 PM

[QuickTidal]

Finished S1 of MORE THAN A MARRIED COUPLE now and yeah this was definitely peak romance and I can’t wait to settle into the manga…I will warn anyone watching that beyond the spicier fanservice nature of moments in the show (though I would be hard pressed to sort out if it’s more or less than what’s in MDUD) mixed in with the wholesome, there’s a trip/vacation section where they all go to the beach and stay in a hotel and there are MULTIPLE fan service-y scenes played for laughs (a reportedly viral whipped cream on a drink scene that is played for audio-this-isn’t-what-it-sounds-like laughs, a women’s bath scene that hides all the pertinent things but was not exactly needed [it’s used to give info to one female character about another], and another viral scene…but man the ending of Season 1 is really sweet and conflicting for the characters. I also join the throngs of fans who now HATE Shiori. I pre-ordered the 3rd volume manga omnibus now to support the author in the hopes that she will get another season of the anime from US popularity (the show is apparently not as popular in Japan)

I trawled the streamers for another romance anime to dive into.

I want to check out GOLDEN TIME but it’s nowhere on streaming. The title card is on Crunchyroll but no eps, and about a year ago it seems to have been on Hdive (which I won’t pay for because the app is straight garbage the one time I did pay for it) but no longer, nor is it on Prime or anywhere else, not even for purchase in the Apple store.

The one I found that seemed to hit the comedy/romance vibe the best is A COUPLE OF CUCKOOS, which seems sweet and funny. I’ve only watched one ep so far, but I liked so I will be continuing.

Tried out THE KLUTZY CLASS MONITOR AND THE GIRL WITH THE SHORT SKIRT and while it was entertaining and is done by the same animation studio as MTAMC so I love that…I’m not sure about the designs, and the story so far is eh…but I DO think there’s enough there to keep watching.

MARRIAGETOXIN continues to be awesome week to week, and the world keeps getting more fleshed out as things go along.

I dropped DAEMONS OF THE SHADOW REALM as it was just not doing it for me as a week to week watch….but perhaps I’ll return when a whole season is done?

SMOKING BEHIND THE SUPERMARKET WITH YOU is on my list, but I’m waiting for the dub episodes to drop, but I hear it’s great…as I’m a dub guy.

Mark, I had to hunt for I HAVE A CRUSH AT WORK, it’s not on any streamers in Canada but I found all 12 episodes on Youtube in English dub for free….so I’ll watch it there!

[D'rek]

Maark Abbott, on 10 June 2026 - 07:41 AM, said:

QuickTidal, on 08 June 2026 - 12:08 PM, said:

D, on 18 January 2022 - 04:10 PM, said:

Maark Abbott, on 17 January 2022 - 08:54 AM, said:

Bisque Doll immediately nosedived into sauciness in episode 2. Still enjoyable enough. Comes across that she's had a secret crush on him for a while. If you can power through the very obvious fanservice, manga readers say it's very rewarding and quite sweet later on.

Yeeeeaaaaaah heard that one before. Okay I'll admit it was a funny joke/scene in this episode even if it is a suuuuper cliche scenario, but boy oh boy it did not need to take 90% of the episode repeating the flustered measurement joke over and over and over again. The last joke with grandpa was pretty funny though, having him be totally serious instead of getting flustered again.

COMMENT-SURRECTION!

I grabbed volumes 12-15 of the Manga (which is the end of the story; and will form the 3rd season if that ever happens) when I was in Montreal this weekend, and I feel like it's safe to say that very little feels like the fan service of episode 2 of season 1 (the "bikini" fitting/measuring stuff) beyond it. Sure the show and manga return to play around it as it's part of the tension between Marin and Gojo...like there's a whole episode where they rent a room in a love hotel (accidentally) to do a cosplay shoot and the whole thing is played for awkward laughs. But what I feel is really special about this is story is not just how wholesome Marin and Gojo's romantic progression is, but the side characters filling out the wings all have depth and are interesting and progressive. There's a male (possibly trans/femboy?) character who dresses in female cosplay and comes to both Gojo and Marin for help..the latter for trying to look more like a woman. There's another couple of characters who are sisters, one of whom is heavy into cosplay and the other who feared getting into it and being overshadowed by her sister. There's a very interesting interplay between Marin and someone who she thinks is too far above her, and that person thinks Marin hates her (I think this is a play on how some girl groups gossip and how that gossip can pre-ruin relationships). There Is still fan service mind you, but it never really devolves. It serves to show how free-spirited Marin is, and how constrained Gojo is. There is also the element that Marin's family is non-existent. Her father travels for work and leaves her largely to her own devices where she eats crap/junk food every day (and I feel like the secondary layer to this is immersing herself to a ridiculous degree in anime/manga/video games as a replacement for any viable family/home life)...so Gojo and his grandfather take her in as a stray to feed real meals to and to feel like part of a family unit. There's a whole episode about how Marin is sick with a cold and Gojo just comes over and makes her food to feel better and spends time with her and it's so outside what she expected that she's completely overwhelmed...just showing us HOW much she needed a familial type connection. It's stuff like that which make this story so rewarding.

Anyways, I've not finished the manga yet, but I DO hope they finish the anime. it's one of the most unexpectedly wholesome romance stories I've come across that SEEMS on the surface like Gooner stuff but isn't remotely that. Writer/artist Shinichi Fukuda being a woman adds another dimension to it as well.

Yeah it's definitely wholesome, I get the feeling what was on the surface appearing as fanservice was maybe the author trying to show the difference in attitude between the characters, to almost put up a bit of a wall between their perspectives so she could tear it down later. Either way it keeps on with the wholesome, and from my experience with the cosplay circuits, it's accurate to the support between members of a group.

There's quite a lot of wholesome romance manga by female mangaka, one that had an anime I enjoyed last year was 'I Have a Crush at Work'.

Naaaah it's totally just straight-up fanservice

But hey, that's okay, that's what a lot of the audience wants! And for what it's worth, aside from that and a few other issues I still think MDUD is a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, good show. The character animation and the direction/cinematography on it is crazy good. And even though the whole setup of the thing is very wish-fulfilly/manic pixie dream girl trope once it gets rolling the episode-by-episode writing is really good. Put those together and you get some incredible drama scenes, like Gojo stressing out about doing Marin's makeup halfway through S2. Or, heck, even though it's very fan-servicey, that hotel scene is probably the most visceral sexual tension I can think of from an anime scene. It's also really wholesome in S2 how the rest of the class actually turns out to be pretty supportive and breaks down Gojo's self-imposed preconceptions.

Other than S1 being over-indulgent in its "anime-isms" at times (the fanservice, introducing Jubei with the naked bathroom setup as if the story was headed into a tropey love triangle/harem), the only real issue I have is that I feel Gojo's side of the equation gets short-shrift. We spend tooooons of screentime and dialogue on learning all the little details and methodology of how Marin does cosplaying, modelling, acting, and later even a ton about photography techniques, all while barely ever showing or saying anything about how Gojo actually makes the clothes (or hina dolls) which must surely have just as much depth to it.

Also very slow romantic progress but the show was a huge hit so I'm sure they'll be making more seasons and it'll get there eventually.

[QuickTidal]

D, on 19 June 2026 - 07:05 PM, said:

Naaaah it's totally just straight-up fanservice

Haha, it probably is....but after viewing at least 4 different anime/manga by female author/artists (MDUD included), there's a difference to it for me compared to male written Manga...it feels less overall male gaze-y? Like I noted, the side trip to get herself lingerie that was for her. In an interview the author said she modelled Marin after herself (or what she wants to be like), and spoke with a bunch of Japanese cosplayers who reinforced how Marin is crafted, and Gojo was her ideal man so that fed into it as well. But yeah, we'd be lying if we didn't recognize the fan service. Which is fine, I'm fine with fan service as long as it's not TOO over the top. It does what every scene like that on live action shows like Vampire Diaries, or 90210, or Gossip Girl or hell even Big Bang Theory and whatever do, titilates.

D, on 19 June 2026 - 07:05 PM, said:

The character animation and the direction/cinematography on it is crazy good.

SO good, and now that I've finished the Manga, the art is juts lovely and simple and evocative.

D, on 19 June 2026 - 07:05 PM, said:

It's also really wholesome in S2 how the rest of the class actually turns out to be pretty supportive and breaks down Gojo's self-imposed preconceptions.

Yeah, and this continues and there's a huge hinging moment near the end of the story that exemplifies this fact too. You can tell she wanted to do more with it, but her apparent health problems meant she had to wrap it up, but the bones of it are there.


-------------------

So I've continued my journey of Romance/comedy/slice of life anime (and manga), after finishing MORE THAN A MARRIED COUPLE BUT NOT LOVERS (followed the mangaka on instagram too, as she posts progress on the new chapters! Huzzah!)...I have a single omnibus volume of the manga that covers the events right after the end of S1 of the anime, and delvers right before my trip to England so I'll be taking it on the plane ride. Looking forward to that as S1 DEFINITELY ended on a cliffhanger.

I checked out HOKKAIDO GALS ARE SUPER ADORABLE season 1, and the hook that makes this one solid (because make no mistake it follows the typical tropes of the genre; including a twist on the accidental bathroom scene) is that it takes place in Hokkaido, northern Japan which gets it more snow and they have heavy winter, so the MC Tsubasa shows up from Tokyo and is trying to find his way to school and ends up asking for information from a Gyaru named Minami Fuyuki (blonde hair, blue barbie eyes, long lashes, crazy nail polish and clothes; you know the type by now)...but the thing that stands out is that since it's North Japan the English dub decided (for whatever funny reason) to give most of the characters a Canadian/Michigan "eh" accent...and when I tel you I laughed! OF COURSE Northern Japanese-set anime would do an over pronounced Canadian/Michiganer accent...but I stayed for the wholesomeness. I will say the ONLY issue I have so far is that there is a TINY harem element here (which I don't care for in my romance anime; I prefer one love interest and a long will they / won't they) as there are two other girls who Tsubasa befriends and hangs out with...but the show makes a good case for Fuyuki being the main love interest by focusing on her WAY more than the other girls and she's friends with the other two. I finished season 1, and it doesn't finish on a cliffhanger...It ALMOST did, but after the credits there is a bit more episode and it alleviated the cliffhanger it would have been, so that's good. But I loved it enough to preorder the Omnibus manga for the next part of the story, comes on the same day as MTAMC juts before my trip, so I'll bring that on the plane too!

I am now on A COUPLE OF CUCKOOS, but I've not watched enough to form more of an opinion yet.

I tried out LOVE IS WAR, but the anthology (3 acts per episode) nature of it was a little irritating and I dropped it even though the narration was HILARIOUS and I liked the two leads...I may go back to it if I'm in the mood as only the structure was bothering me.

And I'm going to start RASCAL DOES NOT DREAM (OF BUNNY GIRL SENPAI) which I heard was solid, but I have no idea yet if I agree.

There are also two more anime that I'm keeping an eye out for that debut late this year or early next year, ISSHIKI WANTS TO KNOW ABOUT LOVE (a brilliant but inexperienced police inspector who fakes a relationship with her bumbling detective partner to understand love) which I think drops in Jan 2027 or late in 2026, and HAIMYA IS SCARY BUT CUTE which I don;'t even think has a release date yet but apparently something is in the offing....but both sound interesting.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 22 June 2026 - 12:29 PM

[QuickTidal]

QuickTidal, on 22 June 2026 - 12:25 PM, said:

And I'm going to start RASCAL DOES NOT DREAM (OF BUNNY GIRL SENPAI) which I heard was solid, but I have no idea yet if I agree.

Oh gods no. 3 eps in and it's giving hardcore Bakemonogatari vibes and just no...I don't want a cerebral pseudoscience talky anime disguised with the dressings of romance...thanks...

[Maark Abbott]

Oh you might also enjoy 365 Days To The Wedding.

Office co-workers try to avoid getting sent to their Alaska branch by using the couple exemption to dodge it, romance ensues

[QuickTidal]

Maark Abbott, on 23 June 2026 - 05:54 AM, said:

Oh you might also enjoy 365 Days To The Wedding.

Office co-workers try to avoid getting sent to their Alaska branch by using the couple exemption to dodge it, romance ensues

Oh yeah? I'll look it up. Thanks! Always looking for new stuff to check out.

I'm having withdrawal from HOKKAIDO GALS already as I'm comparing it to what I'm trying after and the vibes are not the same.

[QuickTidal]

Season 1 of A COUPLE OF CUCKOOS was solid fun, but it's not quite as good as the more recent romance/comedy/slice-of-life fare I've been consuming...and I think a big part of that is the clear harem nature of it...where on HOKKAIDO GALS they always make sure you know that though there are others girls around and sort of in the mix, that his end-goal love interest is 100% still always going to be Minami....on CUCKOOS the women in play are Erika (who he was swapped with at birth in a hospital accident), Sachi (his slightly younger "sister" who is not his sister since he's not really blood related to the family that raised him, and she's therefore Erika's sister IRL), and Hiro (the school academic rival he's loved for years)...and they keep them all juggling around constantly. I don't hate it mind you, as I said I just prefer a more focused single love interest with the others seen as just sort of roadblocks for misunderstandings. Like I said, it's good and I'm going to DEFINITELY keep watching thorough season 2 as the story is really good...just noting some things that drop is down the enjoyment list for me. There is also a subplot where the dad on one side (Erika's "adoptive" father who she was raised by) is the CEO of a hotel empire and he seems to be hell bent on having both Erika AND Nagi (his biological son) under his roof for personal reasons...and that storyline is super interesting. Also Nagi's adoptive parents (Erika and Sachi's real parents) are hilarious, sweet, and run a restaurant and I love how slice of life they are.

I'm also checking out DON'T TOY WITH ME , MISS NAGATORO, which seems to be about two people from different teenage social strata who are both into Shojo manga/anime, but don't like to admit it.

And MY LOVE STORY WITH YAMADA-KUN at LVL 999, which I've not watched yet, but it's ready to go when I get a chance.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 25 June 2026 - 03:07 PM

[D'rek]

QuickTidal, on 25 June 2026 - 03:05 PM, said:

And MY LOVE STORY WITH YAMADA-KUN at LVL 999, which I've not watched yet, but it's ready to go when I get a chance.

I enjoyed this one. It's cute. A bit tropey at times but not too much. Wish it had a season 2!

[QuickTidal]

D, on 26 June 2026 - 01:57 AM, said:

QuickTidal, on 25 June 2026 - 03:05 PM, said:

And MY LOVE STORY WITH YAMADA-KUN at LVL 999, which I've not watched yet, but it's ready to go when I get a chance.

I enjoyed this one. It's cute. A bit tropey at times but not too much. Wish it had a season 2!

Good to know! From what I understand a lot of these romance anime's exist as one season as a sort of ad to sell the Manga more? That's what I hear anyways, no idea how true it is, and if the manga then sells better then they make more anime, which is I guess what happened with MDUD and why it took 3 years to get the second season made?

anyways, it's worked as I've bought a bunch of manga of these shows to continue the stories.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 26 June 2026 - 11:21 AM

[D'rek]

QuickTidal, on 26 June 2026 - 11:19 AM, said:

D, on 26 June 2026 - 01:57 AM, said:

QuickTidal, on 25 June 2026 - 03:05 PM, said:

And MY LOVE STORY WITH YAMADA-KUN at LVL 999, which I've not watched yet, but it's ready to go when I get a chance.

I enjoyed this one. It's cute. A bit tropey at times but not too much. Wish it had a season 2!

Good to know! From what I understand a lot of these romance anime's exist as one season as a sort of ad to sell the Manga more? That's what I hear anyways, no idea how true it is, and if the manga then sells better then they make more anime, which is I guess what happened with MDUD and why it took 3 years to get the second season made?

anyways, it's worked as I've bought a bunch of manga of these shows to continue the stories.

Yes and no. Some fans will blather on about how it doesn't even matter if the anime makes money or not, it only exists to advertise the manga/light novel source and the producers don't care if it doesn't even make a dime, and that most certainly is not true. Most anime *are* expected to be profitable (with often a good half of the anime's direct revenue coming from licensing it to global/western streaming services), though not necessarily by very much. But yes also the publishers and other otaku companies loooove their intermodal media cross-integration, so an anime that can also hype up manga sales, that they can do tie-in merch sales, that they can spin up a "collab" with some local tourism town for promotional events, that they can do product placement in, that they can use to promote some singer signed to the music label... well, all the companies that join the production committee to finance an anime are much more likely to want to pay for *that* anime rather than for some original anime project which has none of those benefits for them.

When it comes to doing a season 2 of an anime, a lot of those cross-integration benefits are gone. Sure, you'll see some small surge in sales of the source manga/novels, but none nearly as big of one as you got from season 1, and likewise across the board. Combine that with how there's no limit to the number of anime that can be aired at a time anymore now that we're in a streaming service model rather than a TV model, and the tendency has become that publishing/etc companies nowadays go for a 'scattershot' approach of greenlighting a lot of season 1s, get the small profit and cross-modal benefits from those, but only greenlight season 2s for the very few anime with huge season 1 successes which forecast that seasons 2, 3, 4, etc will be very profitable just from the anime alone. If there's any sense of risk that a sequel season won't be profitable... well, why take the risk when you have 10 million other manga/light novels waiting to be adapted instead.

That's also why it often takes a really long time for a season 2 to come out. If the director/lead writer/studio making the show knew right from the start they were greenlit for a second season there's a ton of pre-production work they would be doing for season 2 early on while season 1 is being made, and the staff that will work on season 2 could start working on it as soon as season 1 is done. Instead, they make season 1 with no idea if it's a one-off or will be continued, the production committee waits to see how the show does, finally the committee says they want a season 2 sometime around when, say, the 7th episode is airing. By that point the writers and storyboarders have been gone off to other projects for over a year, the director's already started doing pre-production on some other show, likewise the character designer and colour designer and art director are on other jobs, the production desk team will have to make all new contracts with the voice actors and find times in their busy schedules, the studio itself couldn't take the risk of just sitting around doing nothing so it's already booked 3 new shows to produce for the next 12 months... the whole production cycle has to be started over from scratch for season 2.

[QuickTidal]

good info to know! Thanks!

[QuickTidal]

QuickTidal, on 18 June 2026 - 01:08 PM, said:

SMOKING BEHIND THE SUPERMARKET WITH YOU is on my list, but I’m waiting for the dub episodes to drop, but I hear it’s great…as I’m a dub guy.

I decided not to wait as the 12 mini-episodes dropped (the first 6 eps of the season cut in half) in Japanese and I'm SOOOOOO glad I didn't wait for the Dub...the Japanese voice acting is incredible across the board. It's such a wonderful slice-of-life anime with adults interacting. I think it may be one of the best of 2026 for me (big words considering how much I love MTAMC and HGASA), I binged all 12 mini-eps in a day and loved ever minute. I cannot wait for the rest of the season to drop. The animation is lovely with deft lines, and bright colours. Even the cantankerous and weird cast of secondary characters at Sasaki's job, or others at the supermarket bring joy to watch.

mild spoilers

Spoiler

I love that Sasaki's crush is the fake Yamada he sees in the grocery store, but the REAL Yamada is the one he's connected with behind the supermarket. It's such a small conceit for a narrative but they make it work so well.

Also, the outro for the show may be the best outro for a show in recent memory. I never skip it, I just sit and vibe with it every time.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 29 June 2026 - 11:58 AM

[champ]

I didn't think this day would ever come but I am now fully caught up with One Piece.

It's even got me into collecting the TCG, I adore this series and cannot wait for Elbaph episodes.

I was looking for another anime to watch, tried Jujutsu Kaisen but bounced off that, I couldn't really get into it, same for Demon Slayer too. I don't know if I gave them enough time or not but I then stumbled onto Shangri La Frontier and absolutely lapped this show up. At the start I was a bit meh but once it got going, I thought it was a class and watched both seasons over the space of a few days.

Roll on 2027 for season 3!

I now need to find another to watch though... Debating trying Overlord or The Rising of the Shield Hero.

[QuickTidal]

champ, on 29 June 2026 - 01:32 PM, said:

I didn't think this day would ever come but I am now fully caught up with One Piece.

It's even got me into collecting the TCG, I adore this series and cannot wait for Elbaph episodes.

I was looking for another anime to watch, tried Jujutsu Kaisen but bounced off that, I couldn't really get into it, same for Demon Slayer too. I don't know if I gave them enough time or not but I then stumbled onto Shangri La Frontier and absolutely lapped this show up. At the start I was a bit meh but once it got going, I thought it was a class and watched both seasons over the space of a few days.

Roll on 2027 for season 3!

I now need to find another to watch though... Debating trying Overlord or The Rising of the Shield Hero.

JJK takes time to get into, I wasn't REALLY into it until the back half of S1, so I can see bouncing off it.

SHANGRILA is amazing, I agree. Love that one.

I can't comment on OVERLORD, but RISING OF SHIELD HERO gets pretty crapped upon in the community, so I dunno if you'd be into that or not.

You could try RE: ZERO, it's a really good Isekai. I'd also recommend GRIMGAR FANTASY & ASH but it only ever got one season so you'd be annoyed that you can't continue it.

You might like CHAINSAW MAN if you've never seen it. I got sucked in pretty quickly to that one.

[champ]

QuickTidal, on 29 June 2026 - 02:27 PM, said:

champ, on 29 June 2026 - 01:32 PM, said:

I didn't think this day would ever come but I am now fully caught up with One Piece.

It's even got me into collecting the TCG, I adore this series and cannot wait for Elbaph episodes.

I was looking for another anime to watch, tried Jujutsu Kaisen but bounced off that, I couldn't really get into it, same for Demon Slayer too. I don't know if I gave them enough time or not but I then stumbled onto Shangri La Frontier and absolutely lapped this show up. At the start I was a bit meh but once it got going, I thought it was a class and watched both seasons over the space of a few days.

Roll on 2027 for season 3!

I now need to find another to watch though... Debating trying Overlord or The Rising of the Shield Hero.

JJK takes time to get into, I wasn't REALLY into it until the back half of S1, so I can see bouncing off it.

SHANGRILA is amazing, I agree. Love that one.

I can't comment on OVERLORD, but RISING OF SHIELD HERO gets pretty crapped upon in the community, so I dunno if you'd be into that or not.

You could try RE: ZERO, it's a really good Isekai. I'd also recommend GRIMGAR FANTASY & ASH but it only ever got one season so you'd be annoyed that you can't continue it.

You might like CHAINSAW MAN if you've never seen it. I got sucked in pretty quickly to that one.

Thank you for the recommendations, I did look at Chainsaw Man so I think I will give that a shot.

I am not sure if I have access to Re: Zero or Grimgar. I'll have to take a look.

So I was curious about Rising of Shield Hero and watched the first ep... that shit is whack! I took an instant dislike to the characters who make annoying choices that come out of nowhere.

[QuickTidal]

champ, on 30 June 2026 - 11:55 AM, said:

So I was curious about Rising of Shield Hero and watched the first ep... that shit is whack! I took an instant dislike to the characters who make annoying choices that come out of nowhere.

And it ran four seasons I think?

Same is true of Romance anime, a bunch of REALLY solid and wholesome romance anime get a single season and then nothing....and then something that's annoying fan service harem nonsense like Rent A Girlfriend gets 5 seasons...

I cannot explain it. Hope you enjoy CHAINSAW MAN!

[Maark Abbott]

QuickTidal, on 29 June 2026 - 11:56 AM, said:

QuickTidal, on 18 June 2026 - 01:08 PM, said:

SMOKING BEHIND THE SUPERMARKET WITH YOU is on my list, but I’m waiting for the dub episodes to drop, but I hear it’s great…as I’m a dub guy.

I decided not to wait as the 12 mini-episodes dropped (the first 6 eps of the season cut in half) in Japanese and I'm SOOOOOO glad I didn't wait for the Dub...the Japanese voice acting is incredible across the board. It's such a wonderful slice-of-life anime with adults interacting. I think it may be one of the best of 2026 for me (big words considering how much I love MTAMC and HGASA), I binged all 12 mini-eps in a day and loved ever minute. I cannot wait for the rest of the season to drop. The animation is lovely with deft lines, and bright colours. Even the cantankerous and weird cast of secondary characters at Sasaki's job, or others at the supermarket bring joy to watch.

mild spoilers

Spoiler

I love that Sasaki's crush is the fake Yamada he sees in the grocery store, but the REAL Yamada is the one he's connected with behind the supermarket. It's such a small conceit for a narrative but they make it work so well.

Also, the outro for the show may be the best outro for a show in recent memory. I never skip it, I just sit and vibe with it every time.

Is this just on CR? I'd rather not give my money to them tbh

[QuickTidal]

Sadly I think it is only on there. You could always find it in the high seas.

[Maark Abbott]

Yo ho fiddledee dee, found that show on the high seas it was me