The Fall 2026 Anime Preview Guide

Even the Student Council Has Its Holes!

In a student council filled with weirdos, one new member is about to have a hell of a school year. Mizunoe Ume just wanted to avoid repeating a grade when he joined the student council. After all, it seemed like an easy fix to his current academic problems. But then, he met his fellow council members. Each of them is eccentric in their own way—one's an airhead, another's scary, one's secretly a pervert, but all in all, they're just really weird. Yet somehow, they're also oddly cute and endearing. Which means Mizunoe is stuck with them and all the chaos they bring to the table.

Even the Student Council Has Its Holes! is based on the manga series by Muchimaro. The anime series is streaming on OceanVeil on Saturdays.

I could tell that Even the Student Council Has Its Holes! was going to be good because its opening scene immediately demonstrated the show's understanding of one of the Sacred Laws of Anime Comedy: The quality of the animation must be directly proportionate to the shameless idiocy of the characters and their antics. Sure, is it funny enough to watch a girl laboriously drag herself through the streets of her neighborhood only to be suddenly and violently struck by one of those most merciless dealers of death and destruction, a random anime van? Sure. Is it ten times funnier when incredibly talented artists craft that scene, pouring everything they have into depicting each individual frame of this character's suffering? Obviously, yes.

So it goes with the rest of this very funny and very raunchy premiere, which absolutely earns its place on the frontlines of OceanVeil's NSFW streaming catalog. Our hapless hero, Ume Mizunoe, is told he has to join his school's student council or risk repeating a whole year. In a normal universe, this would be no big deal, but the grungy homeroom teacher who spends the whole opening scene clipping her toenails and loudly announcing her intentions to masturbate the night away should be the first clue that this universe is actually populated by insane freaks. If you need a more calibrated barometer to figure out whether or not this series will fall within the realms of “acceptable” bad taste for you, may I refer you to the scene where a Tan introduces “herself” to Ume by jump-scaring him with a peek down the jacket at her naked chest, with the uncensored, er, physics of the gag rendered in just as much detail as any other scene.

If the joke were merely, “Look at these underage boobies!”, well…that honestly wouldn't be a joke at all. What sets Even the Student Council Has Its Holes! apart is how it uses its raunchy setup to build to an even weirder, wilder payoff that actually lands as a joke. Case in point, Tan is a boy who seems to enjoy using his androgynous features to screw with guys like Ume, which is revealed when Tan gets a swift kick to the nuts from Treasurer Arisuru, delivered with enough force to cause internal hemorrhaging. The lesson here is that, while Even the Student Council Has Its Holes! has neither the patience nor the inclination to respect the boundaries of good taste and keep its freak flag from flying proudly, it will at least reward the viewers who can operate on its wavelength with some expertly timed and animated gags.

Its self-referential, completely irreverent tone helps some of the show's more questionable and violent jokes land a bit easier, since all these characters know they're in a crazy sex-comedy that skewers tired anime cliches. Despite all of the gags about nut-shots and bouncing boobies, one of the funniest bits of the whole episode comes from how the simple act of touching Ume's big, throbbing, meaty hand for the first time sends President Hisako into a full-on crash out of repressed sexuality. Then there's the real payoff to the jokes about Tan, which is when the show suddenly starts censoring the shots of his chest because he is now being recognized as a “girl”, either because of the irreparable damage to those testicles or because the universe itself is temporarily rewriting reality to conform to the standards of Ume's new life as harem anime protagonist. It's not a joke I am especially proud of laughing at, but I couldn't help being infected by the show's commitment to finding the strangest, most shocking route possible to its punchlines.

Watching the first episode of Even the Student Council Has Its Holes! felt like getting struck by a bolt of lightning compared to so many of the other tepid premieres we have gotten so far this season. Sure, this show's incredibly crass, raunchy humor isn't for everyone, but it's hard to deny the sheer quality of the animated craftsmanship on display. The smart use of CGI to enhance the character animation, the expert comic timing, and the willingness to go for the weirdest, rudest punchlines were all reasons to be impressed by this group of insane, horny youngsters.

While Episode 2 doesn't quite get as wild as the first episode, it makes up for it by doubling down on the student council's infectious chemistry. Arisu, Tan, Hisaki, and Ume all get chances to shine as the rapid-fire sketches keep coming. One standout sequence is a longer sketch that fits the autumn season nicely, as the group explores the empty school in the middle of the night. Naturally, this gets them properly spooked by all of Tan's stories of school mysteries and evil spirits, but Tan himself is the one who actually gets so scared by a real ghost that he damn near kills himself by leaping out of a window. Tan also receives his just punishment for trying to sell swimsuit pics of his classmates on the sly, so anyone hoping for more crossdressing Tan-service will be plenty satisfied, I reckon.

The most significant development is the arrival of the final student council member, who we've technically already met. Komaro was the shortstack Truck-kun sent flying in the premiere, but her belated, bloody proper introduction this week establishes her as a much-welcome addition to the cast's dynamic. She's too quiet and laid-back to be the kind of chaos that follows Tan everywhere, but she's also too bizarre and oblivious to be another straight man to the gang's antics. I guess the best way to describe Komaro is that she's the stray feral cat who wandered into the student council meeting room one day and the rest of the group adopted her. I like her.

I know another subscription service is the last thing anyone needs in 2026, but I hope enough people give Even the Student Council Has Its Holes! a chance this season. It's easily one of the most entertaining and well-produced anime to premiere this fall, and it shows no signs of resting on its laurels.

Given that it's animated by Passione, streaming on OceanVeil, and has "Holes" prominently in its name, I don't think I was out of line for presuming that Student Council would be more of an explicitly ecchi entry…or that it might be about the student council enacting a Mamdani-esque initiative to fill a bunch of potholes. A girl gets hit by a truck at the beginning of the episode; safe roads clearly should be a priority. But no, names and streaming platforms aside, Even the Student Council Has Its Holes! is more an entry in the grand tradition of madcap school comedies, simply sauced up with just a bit more inappropriate elements to justify that higher recommended age bracket.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I think it works! Passione have always been ones to put a lot of…passion into their projects, but it's also always even odds that they use their powers for evil (or mere banality). But in Student Council, the sheer energy on display in the character acting and animation is visible from the start. It's not just the high-energy, outlandish antics from some characters either; main man Mizunoe's stock-stiff reactions to the tasks thrown his way make him the ostensibly straight man for all this to ricochet off. Cool-ass smoking teacher Hiratsuka-sensei lazes about, shrugging off responsibility as she passes it onto her students. Even treasurer Terui pops around innocently, reacting just bluntly enough to sell why all the clubs live in fear of her impersonal budget implementation. There's a sweaty, sexually repressed student council president, and a band club seemingly made up entirely of schlubbily swaggering dirtbag lesbians; it's all great.

But when the high-energy antics and just-sexy-enough jokes get going, that's when Student Council really gets going, of course. I mentioned the outlandish antics, and they do carry things, especially from Tan Otori, a Nagatoro-esque feminine boy brat of a character whose offenses regularly lead to his peers liquidating his assets or throwing him in gay baby jail. Did I mention there are a lot of elements I like about this show? Otori actually provides an example of the OceanVeil streaming undercutting a joke: I just assumed the nipples on the character were uncensored because of the platform, not because he was a guy and they technically passed standards (never mind that the swim team gets their hoo-has out in full view as some background-gag fanservice partway through anyway). Obviously it's for fanservice purposes anyway, since Otori's nipples are a running element through this episode, but it's also not above slamming the president's prominent pillows painfully into a laptop for a gag. This really is that kind of show.

Obviously, being that kind of show means that Student Council isn't going to work for everyone. Anyone who doesn't have an appetite, or at least a tolerance, for this kind of colorful and off-color humor is going to be repelled by everything going on. It's simply too stressful or out-there for some. But it is also an utter surprise of the season, a wonderfully animated showcase of subject matter just outside the taste confines of other more typical schoolgroup comedies. Worth checking out, and maybe worth keeping that OceanVeil subscription to see the sort of askew stuff they can carry that isn't outright pornography.

Now that the Student Council has established its setup, characters, and the specific holes they fall into, it can settle into a comic rhythm. The beginning of this episode comes across especially vignette-y, unflinchingly flaunting the series' 4koma roots. It's a tight torrent of jokes and bits that works because the direction is so tight itself. Director Naoyuki Tatsuwa's time at studio SHAFT is extremely apparent here, and the cuts and inserts do such a service to material like this. Baseline bits like Otori showing off posters of himself he used to try to recruit for the Student Council, then getting owned for it, are elevated simply by the jokes. Though I admit it also helps that I love Otori and could watch him get owned all day. Thankfully there's plenty of that in this episode.

After the rapid-fire 4koma homage, things settle into a more episodic, sketch-based structure, though Tatsuwa's touch is still extremely evident, even in background gags like the persistence of Otori's posters all over the Student Council room. It's just letting everyone show off in their twisted way, which has already become so enjoyable in the Student Council. Simply dumping a computer project on them, thanks to a Swim Club full of idiots, puts them in a situation where they can show off different sides and spark new antics. President Kotobuki's search history provides an especially sputter-worthy moment, but everyone gets at least one bit where they're hilariously stymied by Microsoft Office software—except Otori, whose successful schtick only lets him fly so close to the sun that he ends up in trouble again by the end.

It's much the same story for another segment showing the council out on Night Patrol, though it's spiced up by the shifted atmosphere and the amusement of them doing it at the behest of the imposing, adorable Disciplinary Committee member Yoka. I know this show is good because it's just choc-a-bloc with side characters I want to see more and more of. It's another instance of rotating everyone's idiosyncrasies in a different situation to see them be terrible to each other (okay, mostly Otori) in new ways, and it works for the attitude of the show. It revels in the confidence of this kind of codified schlocky material—an idealized idiocy of high school.

As such, it's finally elevated with the introduction of the remaining Student Council member, General Affairs Officer Komaro. She's the one who got hit by a truck in the first episode and has been all over the other marketing for the show. How could she not be? She's a helplessly pathetic, tiny shortstack of a scrungly senpai who exposes some of the biggest gaps in this Student Council. She's positively going to hit for a lot of viewers, and for my part, I appreciate how she's already bringing out new dynamics in the established characters just two episodes in. Okay, naturally, she's largely an outlet for the other characters to get worse, with Arisu's sadistic streak coming out even more in this episode and climaxing in her irresistible harassment of Komaro. If this were any other show, this sort of thing probably wouldn't fly, but Student Council already works by reveling in hilarious torment. This comes alongside reminders of how sad it is for President Kotobuki, and the amusing inklings that Otori might genuinely have a thing for Mizunoe, something he hopelessly can't be sincere about. Everyone's an endearing mess; the title basically says it all.

The show even seems to plant possibilities for a little sincerity in its setup, with the implication that Hiratsuka might push Mizunoe and Komaro into the Student Council—maybe for their own good? It's more background vibes at this point, but it hints at depth for characters who've largely existed as personality vehicles for raunchy gags so far. It also shows that Hiratsuka keeps finding new and exciting ways to dirtbag it up, so at least I'm not expecting the show to depart too much already. That's good news for the tone of Student Council so long as it's hitting. I can see this as the sort of show that absolutely repels anyone susceptible to secondhand embarrassment; it's loud and messy and revels in characters ruining things for each other. But as someone who absolutely has a taste for this kind of terrible, this Student Council really feels like my hole. It was made for me.

As a pretty open and transparent kinkster, I was immediately endeared to Even the Student Council Has Its Holes! and how it acknowledges that some of the most competent, socially minded people you will ever meet are also dirty lil' freaks when put in social settings where it's permissible to let their freak flag fly!

Focusing on Ume Mizunoe, a gifted humanities student who's abysmal at science and math, Student Council begins when he joins the student council to avoid being held back a year. While superficially a model student council organization, every member is some kind of pervert. Treasurer Arisu Terui is quietly physically and psychologically domineering, PR Officer Tan Otori is the brattiest of femboys, and President Hisako Kotobuki is simultaneously super innocent but also super horny. Add Ume's gluttenous, lethargic, and perverse homeroom teacher, Satomi Hiratsuka, to the mix, and you immediately get a cast of colorful characters I hope don't wear out their welcome anytime soon!

Beyond being raunchy, the humor of Student Council is extremely gag-a-minute, with multiple familiar scenarios playing out over the course of this first episode and wonderfully building out the world and cast in the process. Of particular note, I'm immediately obsessed with the all-girl band club that's obviously a lesbian polycule, and I want to see nothing but good things for them…even as it's hilarious to watch their cool frontwoman grow embarrassed to the point of tears when Ume confiscates some pornography from her.

Beyond its frenetic energy, which is sure to pull any viewer into its pace, the visuals of this anime are surprisingly affecting! The simplified character designs allow for more detailed and complicated animation sequences, like Satomi lighting up a cig in the middle of the teacher's lounge in the opening moments. The detailed interstitial images of familiar sights on a school campus, like a bike rack and an empty gymnasium, also make this work feel grounded enough that its hijinks feel all the more ridiculous. I also appreciate the uncommented sight gags in this episode, like the student council somehow ending up with multiple DVDs, a Nintendo Switch, and three PlayStation 5s in their possession after checking for contraband not allowed on campus at the start of the day.

With so much happening in this first episode of Even the Student Council Has Its Holes!, I'm a little worried the series will run out of gas as it goes on, but this is the most fun I've had with a raunchy anime in a minute, and I hope it can keep up this pace! While OceanVeil's catalog has been quietly impressive for a while now, Even the Student Council Has Its Holes! is worth the hassle of adding one more subscription for folks who have been hesitating to join the new streaming service.

So, I have no idea if teenagers are actually like this in 2026, but my god, Even the Student Council Has Its Holes! is making me more nostalgic for my high school years than any of the dozen or so anime that drop every season trying to romanticize late adolescence. Everyone in this anime is weird, horny, some kind of egomaniac, and way too loud; just like I remember my classmates (and probably myself) being during that part of my life. Even with this episode getting a bit more exaggerated, and the series likely to get even more absurd as it goes on, it's a kernel of fun familiarity that will keep me coming back for more this season!

Once again, too gag-a-minute to capture fully in any episode synopsis, this episode features the student council heading to the school at night at the behest of the (very cute) head of the disciplinary committee, plus the proper introduction of Komaro Michinoku after her truck-kun cameo in the premiere.

A testament to the incredible character writing in Holes! The moments between characters and their growing idiosyncrasies stick with me more than the moment-to-moment story beats. Finding out that Arisu Terui's wealthy parents are in a dom-sub relationship, which explains her casually domineering presence and her lack of awareness of how she comes off, is both really funny and mirrors my own experiences engaging with the kids of professional dominatrixes. Finding out that the accident-prone Komaro Michinoku is literally just a cat in human form is also a great gag, and the way she just plops onto Ume's lap while he's working is far cuter than it has any right to be.

The comedy also continues to be top-notch and feels very informed by how young people actually engage the idea of intimacy and their own sexuality. The gag of Hisako's search auto-fill stalling out at something like “does having sex for the first time hurt?” got a vocal laugh out of me, which is a rare accomplishment for anime, and is absolutely the kind of thing a young woman this pent-up but this Type-A would think about. Also, calling it here, Tan Otari is about to be the new “gremlin” anime character for the next several years, which means that we're about to see a lot of amazing fan art of him and also that some of the worst social media accounts are going to use his likeness in their avatars.

There are plenty of reasons to have an OceanVeil account right now, but Even the Student Council Has Its Holes! is rapidly becoming the best reason to subscribe to what's quickly become the best anime streaming service around.