🌸 Roughly four weeks into the Spring 2026 anime season, Japan has spoken — and what fans there pick as "the show I'm currently most into" looks remarkably different from what international audiences are voting for. In Japan, Daemons of the Shadow Realm took #1, Ascendance of a Bookworm: Adopted Daughter of an Archduke took #2, and three titles tied for #3: Dr.STONE SCIENCE FUTURE Cour 3, Nippon Sangoku, and Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun Season 4. Meanwhile, the global Anime Corner weekly poll has Re:Zero Season 4 firmly on top, with Witch Hat Atelier as the breakout new series. Same shows, same week — wildly different favorites.

What the Japanese poll actually measured

From April 23 to 27, 2026, Anime!Anime! — one of Japan's largest anime news sites — ran a reader survey titled "Spring 2026 Anime: Which Show Are You Most Into Right Now?" and gathered 144 responses. Gender split was nearly even, and ages ranged from teens through people in their sixties.

The key thing here is that this is a post-broadcast survey. Anime!Anime! ran a "most anticipated" poll back in March, where rankings tend to reflect promotional trailers and source-material recognition. This new poll captures something different: which shows actually delivered after viewers watched the first three or four episodes. Hype gets stripped out; "I expected to love this but didn't" and "this caught me off guard" both get reflected.

Here's the result:

  • #1: Daemons of the Shadow Realm (about 8% of votes)
  • #2: Ascendance of a Bookworm: Adopted Daughter of an Archduke (about 6%)
  • #3 (tied): Dr.STONE SCIENCE FUTURE Cour 3 / Nippon Sangoku / Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun Season 4
  • #6: God's Garden Apartment (Kami no Niwatsuki Kusunoki-tei)
  • #7 (tied): The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten 2 / Ice Wall (Koori no Joheki) / Dorohedoro Season 2 / Mission: Yozakura Family Season 2

Vote percentages are low and tightly bunched because — with around 80 anime airing this spring — viewer attention is genuinely scattered.

1: Daemons of the Shadow Realm — Hiromu Arakawa returns

Topping the chart is Daemons of the Shadow Realm, an adaptation of the dark fantasy manga by Hiromu Arakawa, the creator of Fullmetal Alchemist. It follows Yuru, a young hunter raised in a remote mountain village, who gets pulled into a fight involving his twin sister Asa and supernatural paired beings called Tsugai (Daemons).

The studio behind it is Bones Film, the new offshoot of the studio that produced Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, with director Masahiro Andō (Sword of the Stranger) at the helm. The "Arakawa × Bones" reunion is the main hook, both at home and overseas.

Survey comments highlighted the show's unpredictability: "I thought it would be set in a sealed-off otherworld but the situation flipped completely from episode one." Action sequences using the Tsugai battle system have also drawn praise. The opening "Tobu Toki" by Vaundy and ending "Tobō yo" by yama add a contemporary J-pop edge.

Where to watch internationally: Crunchyroll worldwide (excluding a few regions), with same-day English dub. The original manga is published in English by Square Enix.

2: Ascendance of a Bookworm — Long-running fans show up

Ranked second is Ascendance of a Bookworm: Adopted Daughter of an Archduke, the long-anticipated fourth season based on Miya Kazuki's reincarnation fantasy novels. The series follows Myne, now operating as Rozemyne in noble society, as she fights to bring books to a world that barely has them.

The franchise has over 11 million novels in print. What makes this season interesting is the production change: animation has shifted from Ajia-do Animation Works to Wit Studio (the studio behind Attack on Titan and SPY×FAMILY), with Yoshiaki Iwasaki taking over as director. The visual upgrade is significant while the soul of the series remains intact.

Many of the votes came from people who said they had been following the original light novels for years.

Where to watch internationally: Crunchyroll worldwide, except Japan, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Macao, and Taiwan. New episodes drop Saturdays at 1:30 a.m. PT / 4:30 a.m. ET.

The three-way tie at #3

Dr.STONE SCIENCE FUTURE Cour 3

The final cour of Dr.STONE, adapting the conclusion of Riichiro Inagaki and Boichi's hit science adventure manga. Senku and the Kingdom of Science head to the Americas to gather materials for their moon mission. This third part runs 12 episodes and brings the series total to 36, ending the saga that started in 2019.

Where to watch: Crunchyroll across North America, Central and South America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East, CIS countries, India, and Southeast Asia. New episodes Thursdays at 7:00 a.m. PT.

Nippon Sangoku (NIPPON SANGOKU: The Three Nations of the Crimson Sun)

An original-feeling historical fantasy based on Ikka Matsuki's manga. Set in a near-future Japan that has collapsed into three rival nations after nuclear war, natural disasters, and political mismanagement, it follows Aoteru Misumi, a low-ranking agricultural officer whose tactical brilliance pushes him toward a vision of reunifying the country.

This is one of the more unusual production setups of the season: animated by Studio Kafka and co-produced with Amazon MGM Studios, with music by Kevin Penkin (the Australian composer behind Made in Abyss). The international co-production is reflected in distribution.

Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, with worldwide simulcast that actually beats the Japanese TV broadcast by a couple of days.

Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun Season 4

A three-year wait pays off as the NHK demon-academy comedy returns. Season 4 covers the Music Festival arc and finally puts the spotlight on Purson Soi — the silent classmate fans have been wondering about for three full seasons.

Where to watch: Crunchyroll across North America, Central and South America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East, CIS, and India. Same-day English dub. New episodes Saturdays at 2:25 a.m. PT.

The international rankings tell a completely different story

Here is where it gets interesting. The Anime Corner weekly poll, which has tens of thousands of international fans voting, has had Re:Zero Season 4 in first place for three straight weeks. New character Reid Astrea (voiced by Tomokazu Sugita, of Gintama fame) is part of what's driving Japanese excitement too — but in the Anime!Anime! ranking, Re:Zero doesn't appear in the top 10 at all.

Second place internationally has consistently been Witch Hat Atelier, which CBR called one of the obvious hits of the season alongside Daemons of the Shadow Realm, citing its "movie-quality" visuals. In Japan's ranking, Witch Hat Atelier didn't crack the top 10 — it appears only in the "other comments" section.

So the contrast is roughly:

  • Japanese top 3: Daemons of the Shadow Realm / Ascendance of a Bookworm / Dr.STONE, Nippon Sangoku, Iruma-kun
  • International top 3: Re:Zero S4 / Witch Hat Atelier / Classroom of the Elite IV or Daemons of the Shadow Realm

The only real overlap is Daemons of the Shadow Realm. Almost everything else diverges.

Why the gap?

A few patterns emerge:

Sequel loyalty cuts both ways. Re:Zero has held a near-religious fanbase in English-speaking and Latin American territories for almost a decade. In Japan, some viewers reportedly fell off during Season 3, citing complexity, and the fourth season hasn't fully rebuilt that lapsed audience. Overseas, no such drop-off — every new arc is treated like a major event.

What "fantasy" means in each market. Witch Hat Atelier is being positioned overseas as something close to Frieren's successor: prestige-tier high fantasy. Japanese viewers, however, gravitate toward continuing series like Bookworm — same genre, but a known quantity that's already been refined over multiple seasons.

Local context matters. Nippon Sangoku and Iruma-kun both lean heavily on Japan-specific reference points — a near-future Japanese civil war, an NHK Sunday-evening family slot. They land harder at home. That said, Nippon Sangoku is also performing surprisingly well overseas — Reddit threads have repeatedly thrown around "anime of the year" as early as episode 1, comparing Studio Kafka's art style to Ping Pong The Animation and Vinland Saga.

Streaming cheat sheet

Title International streaming
Daemons of the Shadow Realm Crunchyroll (same-day English dub)
Ascendance of a Bookworm S4 Crunchyroll
Dr.STONE SCIENCE FUTURE Cour 3 Crunchyroll
Nippon Sangoku Amazon Prime Video
Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun S4 Crunchyroll
Re:Zero Season 4 Crunchyroll / Amazon Prime Video
Witch Hat Atelier Crunchyroll
Dorohedoro Season 2 Netflix

The split between Crunchyroll, Amazon Prime Video (which now holds Nippon Sangoku as part of its co-production deal), and Netflix (with Dorohedoro and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run) is sharper this season than usual. The favorites of Japanese vs. international viewers actually map onto where each show lives.

So what does this mean?

Spring 2026 is one of the most divergent seasons in recent memory between Japanese reception and international reception. The single point of agreement, basically, is that Hiromu Arakawa is back and people care. Beyond that, almost every show that Japanese viewers love is either lower-ranked or absent overseas — and the inverse is also true.

It's a useful reminder that "global anime fandom" isn't really one community responding the same way to one set of releases. Different regions arrive at the same season with different histories, different sequel attachments, and different ideas of what a great anime is supposed to feel like.

In your country, which spring anime is leading the conversation? Is it the same as Japan's picks, or are international fans rallying around a totally different show?

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