Bunny Drop and the Beginning of the Winter 2026 Anime Season

So I just finished Bunny Drop, the first of four shows I wanted to for sure watch this year. I'm also once again descending into madness with anime this season, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Bunny Drop starts out with a guy named Daikichi going to his grandpa's funeral and finding out he had a six-year-old daughter named Rin. After the funeral, everybody asks the obvious question of what to do with her. Nobody wants to take her in and when they start talking about putting her in a care facility, Daikichi says, "Screw you guys, I'll take her!"

I want to say, I genuinely love this show, but while there is some very light drama, there's not nearly as much as the premise might imply. Most of Daikichi's family is not seen again after this, but he does visit his parents with Rin multiple times and both Daikichi and Rin seem to be on good terms with them. This after the first episode paints them pretty negatively. There's also a plot thread with Rin's mother that doesn't end super satisfyingly. Speaking of plot threads that don't end satisfyingly, Daikichi seems to have a thing with a fellow single parent, Yukari, but we don't get to see them have a relationship. This show could really use an epilogue or something...

Yes, yes, elephant in the room, the manga has an epilogue that is basically the worst thing ever. If you've somehow never heard, in the manga's epilogue, Daikichi and Rin get married. Yes, really. Somehow, the mangaka thought having Daikichi do a Woody Allen with Rin was a good idea, except not only is she basically his daughter, she's also his great aunt. Fucking ew. Literally nobody liked this, and the anime producers wisely decided not to adapt it. It all seems even more insane after watching the show because, like I said, Daikichi really seemed to have a thing for that Yukari lady.

All that aside, again, I really loved this show. It doesn't go for the obvious drama, but it's not that kind of show. It's a cute little slice of life show, and that's fine. As a cute slice of life show, it's a damn good one and I can highly recommend it. At only 11 episodes, it definitely doesn't overstay its welcome, either.

The next show on my list that I'm going to watch is Kyousou Giga. I've already watched the first episode and found it very intriguing! My kind of weird, as they say.

Unfortunately, I seem to have gone off the deep end, as not only am I picking up Kyousou Giga, I am also picking up four seasonals. This will bring my total number of currently watching shows to 11, and I'm still playing catch-up with three of them! The last time I watched this many shows was in spring of 2021 and it kinda burned me out a little, as I said in my post about my anime watching habits. I'm hoping that doesn't happen this time, but I think I've got a better roster of shows this time around. Well, that, and Kyousou Giga won't be week to week, so I won't have 11 shows for long. Beastars will also drop later this season, hopefully after I've finished Kyousou Giga. Out of these 11 shows, two are classics (Turn A Gundam and Kyousou Giga, of course), five are sequels (and one of those sequels is a leftover from last season!), and the four I'm picking up are originals.

First up is Journal with Witch. I think I'll really, really like this one. In fact, I've already thoroughly enjoyed the two episodes I've watched! The premise is somewhat similar to Bunny Drop, actually. A girl's parents die in a car wreck, and her aunt takes her in because, again, the rest of her family sucks. It's definitely a departure from the iyashikei sweetness of Bunny Drop, so if you were disappointed by that show or just want a show that seems like it'll follow the natural questions of the premise better, try this one.

The next show I picked up is Sentenced to be a Hero. I actually ended up watching all three episodes that were out for this one. The first episode was excellent, but then by the second, I realized that the MC was basically like Kirito, or Ayato from The Asterisk War. He's just this edgy guy, but he actually cares a lot, but like, these two sides are in complete conflict with each other. I know the setting itself is edgy, and this isn't the worst example I've heard tell of, but maybe they'll remedy this somehow. Still, I liked it enough I watched all that was available in one sitting. I can see this one either going really well or falling off hard, we'll see.

You and I are Polar Opposites, I only watched one episode of. In fact, I almost didn't pick this one up at all, but I'm glad I did. Excellent first episode of this adorable and hilarious romantic comedy, and I can't wait to watch more.

Finally, I tried Champignon Witch. This show is, unfortunately, let down by its poor production values. In the OP, you can see an outline on the titular witch where they failed to properly composite the image. This is the OP, we're going to see it every episode, you need to get it right! I didn't see any other such errors in the rest of the first episode, but again, the show just isn't animated super well. It's not ugly, though! The character designs are super cute, and the backgrounds are pretty. What I really liked about the show is that it feels like a fairy tale. There's a sense of melancholy and sadness here that I like. I look forward to getting caught up on this one.

I really shouldn't be afraid to try new shows. The reason I was so late on these series is because I waited until Mother's Basement put out his Ones to Watch. I already knew Sentenced to be a Hero looked really cool, why did I need old Geoffy to tell me to watch it? I was already interested in Champignon Witch, why didn't I just start watching it? I wouldn't have watched Journal with Witch on my own, nor would I have watched You and I are Polar Opposites without Geoff's recommendation, but still, it would've saved me two shows worth of catching up. From now on, I think I'll start more shows on my own.