I’ve been an avid anime watcher for longer than I’d care to publicly admit. And yet, even with those dozen-plus years of seasonal anime consumption under my belt, I don’t think I’ve seen a stronger seasonal line-up than the current winter 2026 cour. You’ve got your obvious bangers, such as Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End and Jujutsu Kaisen, but there are at least twenty weekly releases currently airing that are worth watching. Hell’s Paradise, Fate/Strange Fake, Oshi no Ko, Sentenced to Be a Hero, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, Trigun Stargaze, Golden Kamuy– I could go on, and that’s without including the stuff that just finished airing, such as Spy x Family and To Your Eternity.
Now, I’m not complaining, but the dedicated anime fans among you may have noticed an issue with the majority of the shows I just spent the better part of a paragraph listing: they’re almost exclusively returning series. That’s par for the course as far as the industry is concerned, as the manga series they’re adapted from have a tendency to go on for hundreds if not thousands of chapters. My worry here is that the overabundance of returning series this season might be overwhelming for folks who have other hobbies or social lives, which doesn’t exactly leave much room for trying out something new. That’s why this impassioned plea disguised as an article exists, because I don’t want any of you to miss out on Ikoku Nikki (and, more importantly, because I need it to be renewed for a second season).
Ikoku Nikki, known as Journal with Witch in English, is referred to as a “josei” manga in Japan. That quite literally translates to “women’s comic” or “lady comic,” but, in much the same way that the “shōnen” manga tag (meaning “boy comic”) can come across as a little reductive sometimes, I can’t help but feel like it’s doing Ikoku Nikki a disservice. At a glance, maybe the genre tag does fit, considering it features two female protagonists and one of its primary themes is the exploration of motherhood. However, as far as I’m concerned, that would be akin to referring to Heated Rivalry as just a “sports” show, because Ikoku Nikki should appeal to everyone. Perhaps this mislabelling stems from the topics explored beyond its introductory episode, although, saying that, I’m getting slightly ahead of myself here.
Ironically, in giving you the narrative setup, I’ll have to be reductive myself for a moment, so as not to spoil things for you. Ikoku Nikki opens with the death of Makio Kōdai’s sister and brother-in-law. Makio’s apathetic reaction to the news is immediately contradicted by her vehement, borderline forceful request to take in her orphaned fifteen-year-old niece, Asa. While this might seem like the framework of a story that primarily focuses on grief, which it still partially is, it’s actually an excuse to tell a story about something more obscure: conflicting personalities.
Makio is reserved, to put it lightly. She’s a borderline shut-in who forces herself to interact with people only when necessary. Asa is sociable, bright, inquisitive, and very, very talkative. That last trait promptly becomes a point of contention between the two, as Makio refuses to tell Asa why she detests her deceased sister. Without spoiling too much, even though I believe this should be apparent from the very first episode, it’s immediately clear that Makio is on the spectrum. The fanbase believes she’s autistic, but, to me, she specifically presents as AuDHD; the informally named combination of someone with both ADHD and autism.
American media has a terrible history of portraying those with autism or ADHD incorrectly at best, or offensively at worst. The Big Bang Theory, Rain Man, The Good Doctor, and Music: all of these portray neurodivergent people as savants, unfeeling robots, or over-exaggerated stereotypes. Makio is none of these things. She’s a refreshing, honestly portrayed mess. She can hold a conversation and does her best to mask, but she just prefers being alone. She can look after herself and even Asa, but sometimes gets hyper-focused on tasks for too long. She’s a brilliant, well-regarded writer, but it’s not a superpower; it’s a skill she’s learned and cultivated, and still a craft she struggles to perfect. Makio is easily one of the best examples of a neurodivergent character I’ve ever seen, and part of why this portrayal succeeds is the narrative excuse Ikoku Nikki uses to explore her character: Asa.
In the same way that Makio feels like a true portrayal of someone on the spectrum, Asa is written as a faithful, honest representation of a neurotypical high school student. She’s not some honor student or an underachiever, and she’s not the most popular kid in school or a friendless delinquent either. Asa is an ordinary young girl with interests and desires, whose life has been upended by an unprecedented loss. She feels real. She feels authentic in a way that no other teenager in modern media has in recent memory, reminding me of my nieces and my friends’ kids. Asa’s efforts to understand Makio, and vice versa, wouldn’t work if these characters weren’t written with care and in such great detail. It also definitely helps that Miyuki Sawashiro and Fuko Mori, Makio and Asa’s respective voice actors, are giving the best performances this side of the winter 2026 anime schedule (a statement I don’t make lightly, considering the talent they’re up against).
And all of this is simply what I can tell you without spoiling things. I could go into great detail about Ikoku Nikki’s incredible portrayal of men’s mental health, its deft deconstruction of motherhood, its gentle, honest depiction of asexuality, and just how goddamn cool Shingo Kasamachi is. Honestly, calling this a josei anime feels extra ridiculous whenever the story chooses to focus on Shingo, because that is the man I’m visualizing becoming when I look at myself in the mirror.
Trust me when I say I get it; I get why Frieren and Jujutsu Kaisen are at the top of the anime charts every week. They’re brilliant, and I’m just as excited as everyone else when Thursday and Friday roll around. I’m just always slightly more excited for Sunday at the moment, which is why I hope I’ve done a decent job of convincing you to fit Ikoku Nikki day into your already packed anime schedule, because I will never forgive you all if the best anime of winter 2026 ends on an unrenewed cliffhanger.
