Anime romcom fans, Spring 2026 is looking packed — maybe too packed. Anime News Network’s latest This Week in Anime column rounded up the season’s new romantic comedies, and the takeaway is pretty clear: there are some interesting swings this season, especially for fans who want something beyond the usual high school confession loop.
The column, hosted as a chat-style discussion by Chris and Lucas, covered a long list of current romcom titles. Crunchyroll is streaming several of them, including Haibara’s Teenage New Game+, Mistress Kanan is Devilishly Easy, I Made Friends with the Second Prettiest Girl in My Class, Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 5, Gals Can’t Be Kind to Otaku!?, Pardon the Intrusion, I’m Home!, MARRIAGETOXIN, Botan Kamiina Fully Blossoms When Drunk, I Want to End This Love Game, The Klutzy Class Monitor and the Girl with the Short Skirt, and Always a Catch!
One other title, Ichijyoma Mankitsu Gurashi!, is listed as streaming through OceanVeil and REMOW’s It’s Anime YouTube Channel.
For Malaysian and SEA anime fans, that platform detail matters. Romcoms are usually the easiest seasonal shows to keep up with casually — watch during lunch break, Discord about it at night, maybe clip a funny scene for the group chat. But with so many titles spread across services, the real question is not just what is good, but what is actually easy to watch legally in the region. Crunchyroll access is familiar to many fans here, though catalogue availability can still vary by country, so always check your local listing before committing to a watchlist.
The standout reaction from the ANN discussion seems to be Botan Kamiina Fully Blossoms When Drunk. Based on the first episode, the show appears to focus on college girls experimenting with adult vices like drinking and smoking while flirting with each other. That alone makes it a slightly different flavour from the usual school romcom setup. College-age anime romances can hit differently because the characters are dealing with more adult spaces and messier boundaries, which could make this one worth watching if it handles the material with enough charm.
The column also points out something encouraging: this season seems to have more queer romcom energy and better politics than expected. That is a nice shift, especially for viewers who are tired of romance anime treating anything outside the standard boy-meets-girl template like a joke or side gimmick. For SEA fans who follow anime through Twitter/X, TikTok edits, and fan communities, representation and tone can make a huge difference in whether a show becomes a weekly conversation or gets dropped after episode two.
Not everything sounds like a win, though. Rent-A-Girlfriend Season 5 gets called out as very much not one of the hits. That will not shock everyone. The series has always been divisive: some fans enjoy the chaos, others feel trapped in an endless loop of awkward decisions and emotional stalling. By season five, viewers in Malaysia and SEA probably already know which camp they are in. If you are still watching, you are likely committed to the mess. If you dropped it years ago, this does not sound like the season that will pull you back in.
The bigger picture is that Spring 2026’s romcom lineup seems to be a mixed bag: plenty of filler, a few titles with real personality, and signs that the genre is slowly widening its comfort zone. That is honestly not a bad place to be. Seasonal anime always has its share of forgettable shows, but if the romcom slate is giving fans more queer stories, more adult settings, and more varied character dynamics, then the genre is at least moving in a healthier direction.
For now, the smart play is to sample the first episodes, check what is actually available in Malaysia, and let the weak ones drop naturally. No need to force yourself through every romcom just because it is trending. Your watchlist already got enough backlog, bro.
Source: Anime News Network