The Spring 2026 Anime Preview Guide

- Kusunoki's Garden of Gods

Deep in the countryside, Minato Kusunoki is left in charge of a terrifying house overflowing with evil spirits―or at least it was, until his extraordinary ability cleared them all out. Instead, a procession of unique and peculiar gods is drawn to the comfort of the purified Kusunoki residence, and Minato spends his days relaxing in the company of his spiritual neighbors.

Kusunoki's Garden of Gods is based on the light novel series by author Enju and illustrator ox. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Saturdays.

Man, imagine how much easier little Haley Joel Osemont's life would have been if, in The Sixth Sense, he'd turned to Bruce Willis and whispered, “I see all sorts of adorable Japanese spirit critters, and they're all my best friends.” That's basically what our title character has going on in Kusonoki's Garden of Gods, and it's working out just splendidly for him. Sure, there's the occasional evil spirit that still needs exorcising, but that's what conveniently magical handwriting powers are for. Besides, any amount of minor exorcist detail is worth getting to be best buds with an adorable buddy like Yamagami.He's big, he's fluffy, he brings all sorts of gifts, and he sounds just like that tough-guy partner character from the Judgement games that spun-off from Like a Dragon! I mean, how could you possibly not fall in love with him?

From the get-go, Kusonoki's Garden of Gods makes no secret of its ambitions (or lack thereof). This is nothing more and nothing less than a cozy little slice-of-life show about a decent dude who moves out to the Japanese countryside and makes friends with adorable spirits. It doesn't have the depth of worldbuilding or complex characters that we saw in 2024's similarly comfy Tonari no Yōkai-san, but that's okay. While Buchio remains the crown prince of impossibly squishable yokai friends, Yamagami and Kusonoki make for a fun pair in their own right. The charm of their friendship does a lot of heavy lifting for this show, to be honest, especially since the production values are pretty mediocre. It's easier to ignore the limited artistic resources when the artists are clearly having fun making Yamagami as cute as possible in scenes like the one where he tries sparkling water for the first time.

The weak art and anonymous direction hurt the show more in moments like the brief, failed attack on Kusonoki by a mischievous evil spirit, or the scene where Kusonoki is supposed to be wowed by Yamagami's cleanup job in the garden. They are small enough beats that they don't ruin the premiere or anything, but it's obvious that the show's attempts at being atmospheric or impressive will be heavily limited by this lack of visual personality. In the end, I don't expect anyone to be floored by Kusonoki's Garden of Gods, and I highly doubt it will end up on anyone's end-of-year lists for best or most memorable series. Still, so far as simple comfort viewing is concerned, you could do far worse. If nothing else, it will be worth checking in on the show every now and then to nab some more excellent screenshots of Yamagami being a big ol' fluffer-pupper.

Handwriting may not necessarily be a prized commodity anymore (although my mother spent two summers working with me on mine), but Kusunoki's Garden of Gods makes a good case for why maybe it should be. Minato Kusunoki has the power to imbue anything he writes by hand with the power to purify or exorcise evil spirits. Imagine if your grocery list could save someone just by virtue of you having written it down. Chirographiles should love this show on that basis alone.

But even if handwriting isn't your thing, there's something that's just very slow and sweet about this episode. Minato inherits a huge house in the mountains, and before he's even fully settled in, he's banishing evil with his hand-drawn map. This not only makes his new home a joy to live in, but also alerts the local mountain god to his presence. There's a pastoral charm to the entire situation, not the least because Minato is so calm about it. When Yamagami (which just means “mountain god”) leaves him gifts, Minato returns them, largely unfazed by a giant fluffy wolf showing up in his garden. He's just easy-going enough that not much bothers him, and that takes a lot of unnecessary tension out of the story. Gods in the garden? Zashiki-warashi in the house? Eh, just give 'em some cake and bottled water and it'll be fine.

Tension is reserved for Harima, an onmyouji who accidentally discovers Minato's power. Harima and two other onmyouji are trying to clear a nearby site of evil spirits and utterly failing, so when Minato's grocery list and a hastily drawn magic marker pentagram does the trick, he's not sure what to think. It's clear he's not thrilled that this random guy has so much power, but he's also very okay with it if he can just buy grocery lists from him to use in exorcisms. To call him conflicted might be a bit precipitous, but he's definitely headed there.

The art for this episode is very nice, with clean, bright spaces, lush greens, and some very cute animal-shaped gods. Animation is less wonderful; Minato's face is weirdly inexpressive, and walking is remarkably stiff. Still, despite my memories of the first light novel being overwritten and a bit dull, I enjoyed this episode. It's just pleasant, and I can appreciate that.

Is it worse to be annoying? Or to be boring? It's a question I end up asking myself every season at some point or another, and today is that day for this spring. I like to discuss my star ratings with my assistant… I mean husband before writing my reviews, and we were in disagreement about whether Kusunoki's Garden of Gods should get a lower rating than Mistress Kanan is Devilishly Easy. He argued that Kusunoki was boring, therefore it should get a lower rating; I said that Mistress Kanan is annoying, therefore it should be lower. We did not come to an agreement.

But guess what, Jared? I'm the one writing this review, not you, so Kusunoki gets a half star higher. Suck it.

Oh, I'm sorry. Did that little anecdote about a minor philosophical disagreement about my spouse bore you? I spent 25 minutes sitting through Kusunoki for you, you can stand to read 100 words about my marriage. Keep complaining, and I'll find an excuse to shoehorn 200 words about my adorable cat into my MAO review!

If that sounds appealing to you, you might actually enjoy Kusunoki's Garden of Gods, much of which amounts to an entire episode of a guy with no personality and really good handwriting hanging out with his talking dog and snacking. He can only see good spirits, so the evil ones don't harsh his vibe. His handwriting is so nice that it defeats powerful evil spirits on contact, attracts good vibes, and probably cures cancer. His dog is a mountain god named Mountain God. That really goes to show the level of creativity this show is operating on.

It is further harmed by an utterly sauceless adaptation where the characters barely move, thanks to the Young Studio JUVENAGE. And yes, I did check this time to make sure it wasn't actually Gainax in a trenchcoat. To add insult to injury, the credits sequence at the end of the episode, which I assume was actually the OP, was absolutely gorgeous. Properly representing a sun-dappled garden with interesting creature designs would have gone a long way toward giving the episode the right kind of atmosphere instead of being a snoozefest.

But hey, one woman's trash is another woman's cozy/wholesome/chill vibes/whatever word you want to use that doesn't actually mean anything. There's a big dog that could easily be converted into a plushie or Nendoroid, and for some people, that makes all the difference.

Let's start with what I like about this anime: I like how chill Kusunoki is about his ability to see spirits and gods. It's not treated as if it's something he forgot about as he grew up and is rediscovering. Rather, it's just a thing he is used to and has lived with all his life. Giving regular offerings to a mountain god who appears in the form of a wolf? It's just something you do. Oh, it multiplied into a trio of ferrets? Sure, that happens sometimes.

Then there's the rest of the episode—and none of it really works for me. The action, what little of it there is, feels flat and without tension. The comedy, on the other hand, is basically just a single joke told again and again: Kusunoki's shopping lists and memos to himself keep killing evil spirits with a single hit (which inconveniences him as the writing disappears along with the evil spirits).

But the real telling bit about this show? I haven't written a single thing for five minutes since finishing the above paragraph. There's just not much to say beyond the fact that it simply exists. There's no danger, no stakes, no personal drama. It's basically just a guy sitting on his porch eating snacks with a big dog or going shopping.

If you just want to turn your brain off and lightly chuckle about a dog glowing a bit too brightly or a man struggling to remember that he needs to buy trash bags, this is the show for you. If not, I can assure you there're plenty of better anime to watch this season.