The Winter 2026 Anime Preview Guide

'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess Season 2

A princess held captive by her kingdom's enemy, the Hellhorde, is tortured for information with delicious dishes, which are withheld until she coughs up the info they require. But the answers are never enough, and so the torment begins afresh each day.

'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess is based on Robinson Haruhara and Hirakei 's 'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess (Hime-sama, "Gōmon" no Jikan Desu) manga. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Mondays.

As I wrote in my review of 'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess' first season almost two years ago, “after twelve episodes, I feel I'm done with this now.” I wondered if time may have softened my opinion on it, but based on the evidence supplied by the first episode of the second season… no. I'm still done with this. It doesn't help that the first skit (an admittedly reasonably clever self-referential postmodern deconstruction) rehashes the exact same scene from the first season's opening episode, with the flimsy excuse the titular princess has developed random amnesia. Lead “torturer,” Torture Tortura (I guess her parents must have decided on her eventual career from the day she was born), uses the first ever tactic she used to squeeze information from the Princess: an iron maiden with a plate holding steaming hot, yummy toast and oodles of runny honey. Oh, the horror.

So the first time the show played this joke back in 2024, it was mildly amusing. Less so the second, third, and twenty-eighth times. At least on this occasion, the show is blatant enough to make a fourth-wall-shattering running joke about the Demon Lord's favorite anime getting a second season. The skit where the princess attempts to resist blowing out birthday cake candles while Tortura sings “congratulations on season two” to the tune of “Happy Birthday to You” is fairly amusing, yet drags on far too long.

That's the issue with this show for me. Comedy lives or dies by its timing, and 'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess just doesn't have it. I cracked a smile maybe twice in this episode, the rest of the time I was eyeing the runtime to check for when it would be over. It's not that I actively dislike this cute and silly show, I know that with a tighter script and snappier timing, it could be so much better. At least it looks good, possibly better than the first season did. Yet there's very little in this premiere that could tempt me to watch any more—not even the appearance of a mysterious new character. I'm afraid from now on, I'll be leaving this princess to languish in her dungeon of delights, unwatched.

God, I wish I liked “oomfie” shows more! The season two premiere of 'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess should be a slam dunk for me…and I'm not just saying that because of the extended Slam Dunk parody in this episode! This show is going for it on every level, with studio PINE JAM delivering visuals far above what I've come to expect from a shonen gag series. However, I'm just not quite vibing with it in a way that I'm certain has more to do with me than it does with the show, and that makes it really tough to review.

The opening of this episode being a reprise of the first sequence from the first season after the Princess lost her memories is a solid meta gag and a great way to connect the two seasons. The show then gets to literally have its cake and eat it too, with the Hell-Lord giving out cakes to celebrate his favorite in-universe anime getting renewed for a second season. Then comes the Hell-Hordes Slam Dunk inspired intramural basketball game — a sport all of the characters like but barely anyone knows how to play — before we get one last bit of the Princess failing during a torture session to close out the episode. Then the post credit scene is an expansion of the ninja character that the episode opened on and, if I were a betting man, I'd wager that 'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess is about to get a new straight man now that the talking sword Ex is pretty well inundated to everyone's shenanigans.

On top of being cute, funny, and the right kind of referential; I really cannot stress enough how GOOD this episode looked! This is most apparent in the opening for this season, which blows the rather limited opening from season one out of the water. Beginning with an action sequence that would be at home in an over-the-top dark fantasy anime, it then transitions into a production meeting with the characters discussing how to produce 'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess, before turning into delightful behind the scenes style cast and crew vlog. This direction for the opening is especially clever, as 'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess functionally is a workplace comedy, except everyone has fantasy jobs like “Captured Pricness,” “Demon Lord,” and “Grand Inquisitor;” and everyone is far more cute than grimdark.

I can't think of a single bad thing to say with this episode, other than none of it affected me the way I think it intended to! It got a couple of chuckles out of me and I appreciated the cute moments, but I just don't have the right constitution for this kind of show. Thankfully, it seems like plenty of others do and I hope 'Tis Time for "Torture," Princess continues to get its flowers, but I don't think I'll be able to add much to the bouquet.