Kirio Fan Club

 Kirio Fan Club (霧尾ファンクラブ) is a 12 episode romantic slice of life based on the manga of the same name by Ponchan Chikyū no Osakana.  The series originally aired during the Spring of 2026.

    Miyoshi Aimi and Sometani Nami are best friends who both have a deep infatuation with their classmate Kirio Ken.  His very existence fills their day with wonder and yearning.  They have decided to fight each other to see who will be the first to ask him out on a date.  Their game borders on problematic stalking as they do things like take selfies with his sport coat or write songs about loving his body parts.  Kirio doesn't really notice their existence, interacting minimally in class, largely with his friends Momose and Satsuki.  Realizing they need to up their game, to make Kirio notice them, the employee the expertise of their occult expert classmate, Manda.  Manda, uncomfortable with the sudden attention, begins to expose the pair to his arcane knowledge.

    Their supernatural approach appears to work as they begin to be brought into Kirio's small circle via Momose inviting them.  One thing leads to another and they gain access to Kirio via messenger, unlocking their chance to confront him with their feelings.  What they don't realize is that Kirio is living in a world of darkness and pain.  Prior to high school he watched his best friend die slowly from an unspecified ailment.  Since then Kirio has existed in a state of ennui as he struggles with his loss.  He has convinced himself that he has no right to be happy when his friend can no longer be happy with him.  The interactions he has with people are school are instigated by them, as he does the minimum to exist, contemplating whether he should continue doing so.  As the girls work at getting closer to him their blindingly loving friendship begins to work against their efforts as Kirio begins to resent them.

    This was my pick for the Spring Season of the podcast and I chose it based on the apparent insanity of the trailer.  I was anticipating something as unhinged as Asobi Asobasi.  What we got instead was a story about believable teenagers, focusing largely on their awkwardly flawed nature, as they exist in their own insular realities.  While Aimi and Nami's behavior and fascinations feel exaggerated, lets be honest, we all said similar dumb stuff while teenagers.  The characters being largely blinded by their own self interests is something that usually doesn't become a major factor in similar shows.  Until the very last minute, no one really knew that something was gravely wrong, something that is far to real.

    While I was disappointed the show was not insane and off tilt, what we got was a surprisingly real story about love, friendship and grief.   It was just masked under a thick layer of antics and comedy.  The artwork is probably the weakest portion.  I was not a fan of the character designs over all and there was a lot of simplicity to the detail work.  The series did the thing I greatly enjoy, facial features were over the top to enhance certain emotions.  One other negative aspect is that out main characters don't really see any growth through the story.  How we are introduced to them in the beginning is largely how we see them at the end, which is a bit of a shame, but it only has so much room I guess.  Honestly well worth the watch if you're a fan of slice of life romantic comedies and want something a little outside of the norm.

The series is available on HiDive.