The Winter 2026 Anime Preview Guide

The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife

Shizuka Yakou, a quiet and bashful woman, works at a detective agency. Her boss, Tounome, who owns the company, is the gentlemanly type —kind and dapper —though he has an extra talent—he's invisible. His special ability is perfect for detective work, but he quickly finds it doesn't work on Yakou, who is blind and always knows when he's near. Charmed, Tounome is determined to get her to date him and isn't against using his many skills. Yakou's quirky coworkers, a contrarian human man, and a sisterly beastwoman, kindly watch over her as she stumbles and blushes through the uncharted waters of office romance.

The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife is based on Iwatobineko's The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife (Tōmei Otoko to Ningen Onna: Sonouchi Fūfu ni Naru Futari) manga. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Thursdays.

This is a cute little romance anime. It's built on the idea that the person who can truly “see” the invisible man is a person who can't see at all—and not just in a romantic or metaphorical sense. To her, he “looks” just like everyone else. Fully invisible or not, she knows where he is by sound and smell.

Beyond the endearing, budding romance between Yakou and Tounome, I enjoyed that there has been at least some basic research done on the topic of how blind people live: Like how Yakou feels no need to turn on the lights in her home and she lives with zero clutter, everything in its place. She has a special keyboard and is able to use both her computer and a smartphone. Moreover, she's able to do everything from note-taking to bookkeeping for her job as well.

Better still is that no one around her babies her—tries to do things for Yakou that she is perfectly capable of doing on her own. Yet, at the same time, they are considerate of her—tell her verbally where they put things and act as her eyes when technology fails and she asks for a hand. It feels like the ideal way things like this should go.

As for the setting, the whole Private Investigator bit seems like the perfect job for an invisible man like Tounome—and I got a chuckle about the positives and negatives that come from it. Also, setting the story in a world full of monsters and aliens (where humans seem to be a minority, if anything), works well for a story about looking past superficial differences.

If you're looking for a cute romance with a bit of a peak into what it's like to be living with blindness, this is the show for you.

Are you looking for something that's just nice? That treats its characters with dignity and respect as they amble through their days, growing closer to each other? Then The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-be-Wife is the show you've been looking for, because this is probably the nicest premiere thus far.

It also does an excellent job of setting the stage. We aren't explicitly told that this takes place in a world where regular humans and fantasy people coexist; we're shown that when Tonome walks into the room with only his clothing visible and when he and Yako walk down a street populated by humans and animal people. Aliens are casually introduced as clients of the detective agency they both work for. It's mentioned that Yako is blind, but not harped on – we see her navigating her world with ease and asking for help when she needs it. Her coworker Kikira treats her gruffly, but his comments are still designed to give her information without condescension; when he tells her to take five steps back, it's so that she knows there's nothing and no one behind her. When Tonome asks her to take his arm, it's because he likes her, not because he's infantilizing her. She's treated as a person who happens to be blind, not a Blind Person.

The story, as the title suggests, is a romance, albeit a slow-paced one. Tonome and Yako are crushing on each other and trying to figure out how to proceed. The biggest obstacle to a potential relationship would typically be that he's invisible, but since she can't see anyway, that's not an issue. In fact, her lack of vision makes her see him more clearly – she can hear and smell him, and sense his presence in ways that sighted people can't. That doesn't mean she has superpowers, and it's not framed that way; she's just used to using other methods of perception. Although he doesn't say much, it's clear he appreciates it. Being invisible may make his job as a private detective easier, but it also means that he's not always treated as well as he might be. One small moment in the animation shows a potential pitfall: he takes a sip of tea, and the tea slides down his invisible throat until his clothing blocks our view. Now imagine that with chewed food. Not something a lot of invisible person stories think about, at least in my reading experience.

While this may be a bit slow for some viewers, that's sort of the point. Yako and Tonome are moving towards each other, and a relationship at their own pace, and the plot respects that. It's a sweet slice of life story, and if you need your heart warmed, give it a try.

Now isn't this just the cutest darned thing? This is a season that is already an embarrassment of riches when it comes to quality romance anime, but I've still been excited to check out The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be-Wife, because who could resist such an adorable premise? We've got a world where humans and all sorts of fantastical beings live side by side, and our titular Invisible Man has found the perfect partner in Shizuka, who is able to “look past” Akira being a person without a visible face or body because she's never had to concern herself with such things. As a blind woman, she has naturally had to get to know people through characteristics most people take for granted, like the pattern of their walk or the scents that accompany them when they enter a room. The two make for an incredibly cute pairing, and the show is smart enough to remember that Akira being invisible doesn't mean that he is literally lacking a physical form; physical intimacy is even more important to his relationship with Shizuka, because that's the primary sensation with which they can connect to and understand each other.

It's an absolutely perfect setup for a fantasy romance story, in other words, and I think The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife ends up capitalizing on a lot of that potential. Sure, the soundtrack is generic rom-com fluff, and the animation isn't the best thing we've seen all season, but what the show might lack in refinement it more than makes up for with a truly preposterous amount of personality. Shizuka comes across as gentle without being a total wallflower, which is especially important, given that a lesser story could easily have become far too cloying and condescending about her disability. Akira also projects a wealth of his own charm thanks to Yōhei Azakami's smooth but confident delivery, and thank goodness, because his is the most difficult and critical role for the show to nail. For us in the audience, Akira's voice is one of the only things we have to latch onto the character. If the Invisible Man of the title didn't make us fall for him, too, then there's just no show. It's as simple as that.

The show also benefits from its low-key but compelling worldbuilding. Shizuka's world is the kind where your best friend can be a buff beastwoman, and your clients at work could be a crew of bizarre aliens or a cyclops in a boat-necked sweater. It's the kind of setting that walks the line between cozy and relatable while still making the most of its more fantastical elements, which I really appreciate. The whole package of The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife comes together into the anime equivalent of drinking a warm mug of cocoa while snuggling up underneath a hand-stitched blanket. In my neck of the woods, the snow is already piling up, so this is the perfect thing to put on while my wife and I cuddle with our cats and enjoy a peaceful weekend at home. It might not make you laugh the most or squeal the loudest compared to the flashier competition, but for my money, The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife is almost certainly going to be the coziest anime of the winter season.

The Invisible Man and His Soon-To-Be-Wife is just like The Office, if The Office was animated, Jim was invisible, Pam was blind, it took place at a private investigation firm instead of a paper company, and it was aiming for a gentle vibe instead of jokes. Yep, just like The Office.

Oh, look, now I'm the one making jokes. Dohohohohohoho.

But in seriousness, this is our second workplace comedy of the season, and good lord is it the better option of the two. While The Daily Lives of Part-Time Torturers created incongruity by setting a viscerally unpleasant job in an ordinary setting, The Invisible Man does the opposite by creating a world populated by a wide variety of supernatural and paranormal beings and placing them in the peak of mundanity: an office job. I find the latter more pleasant largely because a lighthearted series about torture is, well, repugnant to me. On top of that, though, The Invisible Man is a much nicer time.

It took me until close to the end to buy in. Despite the title, it was all the usual office romance shenanigans: the two awkwardly shuffling around one another, blushing as they do their own jobs side-by-side. The kind of series I find nice for people who are looking for it, but not really interesting enough to invest in beyond my professional obligations. Yakou's disability and Tounome's invisibility add to the formula beyond set dressing; the episode touches lightly on how they navigate the world differently, given their unique traits, in a fairly thoughtful way. The most impressive part of the episode was how the animators rose to the challenge of depicting Tounome moving and interacting with objects without drawing the body inside the suit. It's the kind of thing that looks simple, but I imagine that figuring out how to draw gauze on a moving, invisible arm is quite tricky!

I was ready to write the show off as a nice but slightly dull romance, but then in the last few minutes of the episode, the two find themselves alone together. Suddenly, the romantic tension flies off the charts. It's such a nice little look at what it's like to be in that stage of a relationship where you like the other person, and you think they like you back. You want to ask them out, but can't stop thinking about what if you're wrong. But then again, what if you're right and you never tried?

After all, the name of the show is The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife, not The Invisible Man and His Crush who May Someday Become His Girlfriend, But Also Might Not, Why Don't You Watch and See.