by Toussaint Egan

As a father to a newborn baby, my time nowadays is at a premium — to say nothing of the little "free" time I'm able to squeeze out a given day. Between bottle feedings, diaper changes, grocery runs, cooking, cleaning, getting up multiple times during the day and night to soothe my son to sleep, and my assorted work projects, I haven't quite found much in the way of uninterrupted time to engage with shows and movies I’d otherwise like to — which naturally includes anime. Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Jujutsu Kaisen, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, The Darwin Incident, Trigun Stargaze — these are all shows I'm interested in catching up at some point or another in the future, but for now will just have to sit patiently on my watchlist until my schedule lightens up later this year.

Which is fine with me because, while this Winter season is packed with prime tentpole premieres, it's the Spring anime season that's really got me excited to regularly check in after I've managed to wrangle my little one into his PJs. With that said, here are the shows I'm most looking forward to premiering over the next three-or-so months.

Steel Ball Run: JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure

Where to watch: Netflix
Premiere date: March 19

While this is technically still a Winter season premiere, I’m grandfathering it in as a "Spring" anime since it's arriving so late. Steel Ball Run is considered to be one of, if not the best arc of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and while I haven't read the manga, I'm liable to believe it from the description of the premise alone. Centering on Johnny Joestar, a former jockey turned paraplegic, who enters a grueling cross-country horse race in order to get closer to Gyro Zeppeli, a mysterious competitor who possesses steel balls capable of restoring Johnny's ability to walk. I don't know much else about this arc, other than that the antagonist is a fictional 23rd U.S. President hellbent on assembling the parts of a mythical corpse in a bid to elevate America's supremacy at the cost of plunging the rest of the world into chaos. Sounds fun!

For animation heads, Steel Ball Run sees the return of Hideya Takahashi and Yasuhiro Kimura, both of whom worked as co-directors on 2018's JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind before briefly departing the series to helm david production’s 2022 adaptation of Urusei Yatsura. Given the mixed reception to 2021’s JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean, it’s good to see them back.

Dorohedoro

Where to watch: TBD (Presumably Netflix)
Premiere date: April 1

I had all but lost hope of another season of MAPPA's adaptation of Q Hayashida's idiosyncratic dark action science fantasy after the first season premiered all the way back in 2020. Luckily, my fears were misplaced, as the second season is slated to premiere in early April, with most if not all of the original production staff returning with the exception of Shinji Kimura, with Miho Sugiura (an art director on Lazarus) filling the role of art director on this upcoming season. Dorohedoro is one of my favorite anime in recent years; a macabre and silly adventure about two fast-made friends fighting to survive in a world rife with mischievous sorcerers, demons, and various ne'er-do-wells. Here's hoping the series will still have room from some offbeat misadventures alongside the larger mainline plot centered on Caiman and Nikaido.

Daemons of the Shadow Realm

Where to watch: Crunchyroll
Premiere date: April 4

Two words: Fullmetal Alchemist. Hiromu Arakawa's dark fantasy adventure series was not only one of the best mangas of the 2000s, but served as the source for not one, but two of the highly acclaimed anime series of 2003 and 2009, respectively. If that's not enough for you to get excited for the upcoming adaptation of Arakwa's latest manga, can I entice you with the fact that it's being directed by Masahiro Ando, who previously directed 2007's Sword of the Stranger and 2024's Time Patrol Bon? Yeah, I thought that might.

Set in a world where humans live alongside supernatural creatures known as Daemons, the series follows Yuru and Asa, twin siblings separated at birth who must make their way back to one another to claim their birthright and rescue the world from catastrophe.

Akane-banashi

Where to watch: Crunchyroll
Premiere date: April 4

An anime adaptation of one of the most highly acclaimed Weekly Shōnen Jump manga in recent memory by the director of Komi Can't Communicate and Summer Time Rendering? Sign me up! Yuki Suenaga and Takamasa Moue's coming-of-age comedy about a father and daughter duo carrying on the time-honored Japanese tradition of rakugo theater has been lauded by critics and fans alike for its charming characters and engrossing storytelling. I'm looking forward to embracing the series for myself when it premieres this April.

Witch Hat Atelier

Where to watch: Crunchyroll
Premiere date: April 2026 (TBA)

Easily one of my most anticipated anime premieres of the year, by far. Kamome Shirahama's coming-of-age fantasy manga is one of the most beautiful series I've read in awhile, with gorgeous art nouveau-esque storybook illustrations complimented by a beautiful story of a young girl’s dream to become witch, combining her love of magic with her innate talent for artisanship. Co-directed by Ayumu Watanabe (he's booked and busy this season) and written by Hiroshi Seko (Jujutsu Kaisen, Dorohedoro, Chainsaw Man, Attack on Titan, Mob Psycho 100), the footage seen in the preview trailers alone should merit excitement for this upcoming series. If you love Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, you’re no doubt sure to enjoy Witch Hat Atelier.

/out of frame

🎭 Toussaint: It's been just over five years since Daniel Dumile, better known by his rap persona sobriquet DOOM, departed his mortal coil and there’s hardly a day that’s passed where I don’t miss his enigmatic artistry and unconventional musicality. This animated music video, directed by Olufemi Aroyewun and Franklin Okike, is a beautiful and bittersweet tribute to an artist who continues to look large over the landscape of hip-hop. All caps when you spell the man's name.

😸 Rollin: My birthday's coming up, so I've bought Tom & Jerry: The Golden Era Anthology – 114 theatrical shorts on Blu-ray – as a little treat that I'm looking forward to digging into. Literally putting money where my mouth is.

🦹 Kambole: Mostly been occupied with research (watching about 30-40 animated shorts) for an upcoming feature, but made some room to catch up on Dispatch by Adhoc Studios and some folks from Critical Role. Mostly worked for me – solid and expressive animation as well as its choice of filtering superheroics through office comedy (so kinda like superhero Patlabor) kept me engaged even with it being so hands off, aside from the light strategy sections. In other video game news, I'm really looking forward to Suda51 and Grasshopper Manufacture's Romeo Is A Dead Man, which seems to be a typically idiosyncratic leap through so many dialects of video game visual language (with different mediums of animation thrown in for good measure).