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Haibara's Teenage New Game+ (TV).




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Edjwald



Joined: 03 Aug 2017
Posts: 3507
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2026 6:13 pm Reply with quote


Haibara's Teenage New Game+ (TV)

Source: Light Novel (ongoing @ 10 volumes, written by Kazuki Amamiya, illustrated by Gin)

Demographic:

Animation Studio: Studio Comet

Genres: comedy, romance

Themes: childhood friends, school, social anxiety, time travel

Plot Summary: When socially anxious college senior Natsuki Haibara thinks back on his high school life, all he has are fleeting fantasies of a happy adolescence that could have been. Imagine his bewilderment and surprise, then, when he inexplicably finds himself seven years in the past—one month before his first year of high school. He'll need all the help he can get to succeed, from a workout regimen to online how-to guides, a childhood friend, and plenty of sheer willpower.

Air Date & Platform:
April 02, 2026 (Thursday)
Available on: Crunchyroll

Episode Count / Runtime: Pending

Trailer

[EDIT: Fancy opener stuff edited. -TK]
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Edjwald



Joined: 03 Aug 2017
Posts: 3507
PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 2026 4:27 pm Reply with quote
I'm a wee bit burned out on the Japanese - or at least the Japanese anime - obsession with looking back on high school as if it were the only time worth living, with every year after being just one more increasingly exhausting step towards death.

I only say this because I love anime, and while I've never run the actual numbers, it sometimes seems like 90% of all anime set in a modern times has high school age characters, and of that 90%, 95% of them talk about high school as if they are already missing it while they're in the middle of it. "Ah, the lost lunch break of my youth!"

And I only mention *that* (<--edited in) because Haibaru's Teenage New Life + didn't even wait to have the poor slob of a main character reach middle age before he started looking back on his lonely, largely wasted life after being half worked to death in a black company. The guy who's all sad and nostalgic is just graduating college and seems to have reasonably good prospects.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that this anime wasn't okay. I mean, I have serious questions about the whole 1-month hot body transformation - logical and philosophical questions - but I didn't hate this. The plus side of having a 20 or 21 year old go back to 16 is that it's not as creepy when he starts hitting on his old high school crush. Still a little creepy, sure, but not outright gross. The supporting characters are okay if on the bland side, with only the short, loud waifu being a complete trope, and it's not the most annoying trope. I'll probably drop this one by episode 3 if Ramparts of Ice and Kirio Fan Club continue to make it look so generic (I just saw Kirio Fan Club and edited that in).

So, yes, another one on my growing "Give it 3 episodes" pile.
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter



Joined: 07 Mar 2009
Posts: 25599
PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 2026 7:50 pm Reply with quote
Episode 1

I'll watch more but I gotta say that right now it seems like pretty smooth sailing. I'm assuming MC is going to hit a snag at some point, but the first episode didn't really drop any hints about what that might be.
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smurky turkey



Joined: 30 Jan 2022
Posts: 4990
PostPosted: Thu Apr 09, 2026 2:11 pm Reply with quote
I am a bit behind since I have just seen the first episode. I liked some parts of it while others annoyed me a fair bit. Part of the latter is me agreeing with Edjwald in that the mc had a decent life going for him yet acted like he had one foot in the grave with every day being filled with grey colored misery. The notion that everyone should get or even want a sparkly high school life is a bit much. Going from fatty to stud in one month is also something special, Yuuya would be proud.

I am hoping for a twist, like maybe the mc not truly knowing his crush all that well or other people also having time jumped.
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Edjwald



Joined: 03 Aug 2017
Posts: 3507
PostPosted: Fri Apr 10, 2026 4:41 am Reply with quote
Yah, I watched half of episode 2 and literally fell asleep (to be fair, I have a very comfortable couch, and it was after I'd been working all day) and after I woke up from that brief nap, I watched Ramparts of Ice instead of going back to see what I'd missed. That doesn't bode too well for this anime's chances of staying on my watch list.
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DuskyPredator



Joined: 10 Mar 2009
Posts: 15852
Location: Brisbane, Australia
PostPosted: Fri Apr 10, 2026 5:32 am Reply with quote
I managed to watch the full episode, but it definitely had moments that I felt like I was watching paint dry. These characters are so boring. It did for a moment make me think back to Glasslip, trying to remember if some part of that show gave warnings early on that it was best to give up.

I am in general trying to continue to find ways to watch less, so this would have to have something big to be worth watching. I thought for a second that it might have something interest, like him beating the jock at basketball could destroy his self-confidence and maybe start a theme of bad things happening at the cost of him trying to live a more personally enjoyable high school life, but then the jock smiled like he is happy that he got beaten.
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smurky turkey



Joined: 30 Jan 2022
Posts: 4990
PostPosted: Fri Apr 10, 2026 8:29 am Reply with quote
I appreciate that despite original timeline Haibara having horrifically suffered by leading a grey life that he was in fact not just doing nothing and wallowing. Him having put several years into basketball is a welcome surprise. Besides that the episode was extremely bland. It is not that content was bad but there was just nothing special or all that entertaining about it. Friends hanging out has been done so much better in other shows and the characters themselves are not interesting either.

So far the show is just there and that is not a good thing in a romance heavy season.
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smurky turkey



Joined: 30 Jan 2022
Posts: 4990
PostPosted: Mon Apr 20, 2026 2:18 pm Reply with quote
3:

The third episode did enough to keep me watching a bit longer. If the episode was simply more of Haibara being perfect and just raking in the compliments I would have dropped it. Instead he has thankfully hit a snag. An ironic snag at that since Tatsuya has problems with him now and had them with his original version. The episode also showed that Haibara indeed sucks at reading people since several other characters felt that something was off while he did not.
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