I’ve been an avid anime watcher for longer than I’d care to publicly admit. And but, even with these dozen-plus years of seasonal anime consumption underneath my belt, I don’t assume I’ve seen a stronger seasonal line-up than the present winter 2026 cour. You’ve bought your apparent bangers, equivalent to Frieren: Past Journey’s Finish and Jujutsu Kaisen, however there are no less than twenty weekly releases presently airing which are price watching. Hell’s Paradise, Destiny/Unusual Faux, Oshi no Ko, Sentenced to Be a Hero, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, Trigun Stargaze, Golden Kamuy– I may go on, and that’s with out together with the stuff that simply completed airing, equivalent to Spy x Household and To Your Eternity.
Now, I’m not complaining, however the devoted anime followers amongst you could have observed a difficulty with nearly all of the exhibits I simply spent the higher a part of a paragraph itemizing: they’re nearly completely returning sequence. That’s par for the course so far as the business is anxious, because the manga sequence they’re tailored from generally tend to go on for a whole bunch if not 1000’s of chapters. My fear right here is that the overabundance of returning sequence this season may be overwhelming for people who produce other hobbies or social lives, which doesn’t precisely go away a lot room for making an attempt out one thing new. That’s why this impassioned plea disguised as an article exists, as a result of I don’t need any of you to overlook out on Ikoku Nikki (and, extra importantly, as a result of I want it to be renewed for a second season).
Ikoku Nikki, often called Journal with Witch in English, is known as a “josei” manga in Japan. That fairly actually interprets to “girls’s comedian” or “girl comedian,” however, in a lot the identical method that the “shōnen” manga tag (that means “boy comedian”) can come throughout as somewhat reductive typically, I can’t assist however really feel prefer it’s doing Ikoku Nikki a disservice. At a look, perhaps the style tag does match, contemplating it options two feminine protagonists and certainly one of its main themes is the exploration of motherhood. Nevertheless, so far as I’m involved, that may be akin to referring to Heated Rivalry as only a “sports activities” present, as a result of Ikoku Nikki ought to attraction to everybody. Maybe this mislabelling stems from the matters explored past its introductory episode, though, saying that, I’m getting barely forward of myself right here.
Satirically, in providing you with the narrative setup, I’ll need to be reductive myself for a second, in order to not spoil issues for you. Ikoku Nikki opens with the loss of life of Makio Kōdai’s sister and brother-in-law. Makio’s apathetic response to the information is instantly contradicted by her vehement, borderline forceful request to soak up her orphaned fifteen-year-old niece, Asa. Whereas this may look like the framework of a narrative that primarily focuses on grief, which it nonetheless partially is, it’s truly an excuse to inform a narrative about one thing extra obscure: conflicting personalities.
Makio is reserved, to place it flippantly. She’s a borderline shut-in who forces herself to work together with individuals solely when obligatory. Asa is sociable, vivid, inquisitive, and really, very talkative. That final trait promptly turns into a degree of competition between the 2, as Makio refuses to inform Asa why she detests her deceased sister. With out spoiling an excessive amount of, although I consider this ought to be obvious from the very first episode, it’s instantly clear that Makio is on the spectrum. The fanbase believes she’s autistic, however, to me, she particularly presents as AuDHD; the informally named mixture of somebody with each ADHD and autism.
American media has a horrible historical past of portraying these with autism or ADHD incorrectly at finest, or offensively at worst. The Large Bang Concept, Rain Man, The Good Physician, and Music: all of those painting neurodivergent individuals as savants, unfeeling robots, or over-exaggerated stereotypes. Makio is none of these items. She’s a refreshing, truthfully portrayed mess. She will be able to maintain a dialog and does her finest to masks, however she simply prefers being alone. She will be able to take care of herself and even Asa, however typically will get hyper-focused on duties for too lengthy. She’s an excellent, well-regarded author, nevertheless it’s not a superpower; it’s a ability she’s realized and cultivated, and nonetheless a craft she struggles to good. Makio is well the most effective examples of a neurodivergent character I’ve ever seen, and a part of why this portrayal succeeds is the narrative excuse Ikoku Nikki makes use of to discover her character: Asa.
In the identical method that Makio appears like a real portrayal of somebody on the spectrum, Asa is written as a devoted, sincere illustration of a neurotypical highschool scholar. She’s not some honor scholar or an underachiever, and she or he’s not the most well-liked child at school or a friendless delinquent both. Asa is an unusual younger woman with pursuits and needs, whose life has been upended by an unprecedented loss. She feels actual. She feels genuine in a method that no different teenager in trendy media has in current reminiscence, reminding me of my nieces and my associates’ children. Asa’s efforts to grasp Makio, and vice versa, wouldn’t work if these characters weren’t written with care and in such nice element. It additionally positively helps that Miyuki Sawashiro and Fuko Mori, Makio and Asa’s respective voice actors, are giving the most effective performances this facet of the winter 2026 anime schedule (an announcement I don’t make flippantly, contemplating the expertise they’re up towards).
And all of that is merely what I can let you know with out spoiling issues. I may go into nice element about Ikoku Nikki’s unimaginable portrayal of males’s psychological well being, its deft deconstruction of motherhood, its mild, sincere depiction of asexuality, and simply how goddamn cool Shingo Kasamachi is. Truthfully, calling this a josei anime feels further ridiculous at any time when the story chooses to give attention to Shingo, as a result of that’s the man I’m visualizing changing into after I take a look at myself within the mirror.
Belief me after I say I get it; I get why Frieren and Jujutsu Kaisen are on the prime of the anime charts each week. They’re good, and I’m simply as excited as everybody else when Thursday and Friday roll round. I’m simply at all times barely extra excited for Sunday in the mean time, which is why I hope I’ve accomplished a good job of convincing you to suit Ikoku Nikki day into your already packed anime schedule, as a result of I’ll by no means forgive you all if the most effective anime of winter 2026 ends on an unrenewed cliffhanger.
