Let’s have a look at what ANN readers consider the best (and worst) of the season,
based on the polls you can find in our Daily Streaming Reviews
and on the Your Score page with the latest simulcasts.

Keep in mind that these rankings are based on how people rated individual episodes of the current season, not on the overall quality or popularity of the series.
Only the titles legally streaming in North America and popular enough are being ranked, so the bottom of the list might represent ‘watchable’ rather than ‘bad’.
Series that lack enough user votes will not qualify for the ranking.
See the notes for further details.

Don’t forget to head over to Your Score to rate the episodes you’ve watched this week

Episode Rankings for the week of April 29-May 5

Along the actual ranking for this week’s episodes, this graph chronicles the change in position from week to week.
While some series are stable, others swing wildly in the rankings depending on the strength of each episode.
When a series has no episode for a given week, the previous week’s episode is used instead as a placeholder.
The first episode of each series is considered as part of the first week, even if it really streamed during the second week.
Click on the numbers to highlight a particular series.

Series Cumulative Ranking as of May 5

Each week’s ranking takes into account the scores given to previous weeks’ episodes.
As we reach closer to the end of the season, each series’ rank will start to solidify and we’ll get a look at the real winners and losers.
Click on the numbers to highlight a particular series.

Notes

Disclaimer: the rankings are just an average of opinions, published for entertainment and information purposes.
ANN makes no claims regarding statistical significance or invulnerability to spam.

The rankings are computed using the Ranked pairs method,
with the variation that unrated titles are considered as abstentions instead of lower than the rated titles.
This roughly means that if, out of all people who rated both A and B, 60% preferred A, it will be ranked higher than B.

The rankings indicate relative quality (A is preferred to B), not absolute quality (B is good/bad).
While the titles are ranked from ‘best’ to ‘worst’, sometimes the difference between #1 and #10 can be very thin.
So if your favorite is near the bottom of the list, don’t take it personally.
It doesn’t mean it’s a bad show, it just means that ANN readers, on average, have preferred the ones above.

If a series has no episode for a given week, we use the rating data for the previous week’s episode in order to compute the weekly ranking.
This is not officially counted as a position in the ranking (it has no impact on the cumulative ranking), but it makes it easier to compare weeks if they each have the same number of series ranked.

It should be noted that long-running series (and sequels) have an advantage in the sense that only people who like the series are still watching it, and they are likely to give each episode a high rating.
But if such a series is going through a low-quality filler arc, the season will get low rankings that are not indicative of the true overall quality of the series.
Conversely, there are fewer people rating the show so it’s less likely to have enough votes to qualify for the ranking.

The Tubi streaming service is streaming the first three episodes of Mahō no Shimai Lulutto Lilly (Magical Sisters Lulutto Lilly), Bandai Namco Filmworks‘ new magical girl television anime that it is presenting with Studio Pierrot. The series is available with Japanese audio and English subtitles. Tubi‘s stream is available in the United States and Canada.

The anime debuted on April 5 on Tokyo MX, and also airs on ABC TV, TV Aichi, BS NTV, and AT-X. The anime will run for two cours (quarter of a year), with a break in between.

Bandai Namco Filmworks is also streaming the series on YouTube, and adding new episodes weekly. The YouTube videos have subtitles in 16 languages including English.

The anime stars:

Takako Ohta and Yū Mizushima, who voiced Yū Morisawa / Creamy Mami and Toshio Ohtomo respectively in the Magical Angel Creamy Mami anime franchise, will also appear in the anime as guest cast.

Shintarō Dōge (Arknights: Perish in Frost assistant director, Pet episode director) is directing the anime at Studio Pierrot, and is credited for the original character designs. Yūko Kakihara (Blue Box, 2022 & 2024 Urusei Yatsura) is supervising and writing the series scripts. Namiko Tori (Pokémon: Paldean Winds sub-character designer), Hirono Nishiki (My Dress-Up Darling episode key animator), and Asami Sodeyama (Witchy Precure! -MIRAI DAYS-) are designing the characters.

K-pop girl group ILLIT performs the opening theme song “Bubee.” The idol unit Lulutto Lilly, which consists of the anime’s main characters Lilly Konpeto (voiced by May Tachibana) and Lulu Mashū (voiced by Nao Ojika), perform the ending theme song “Calling.”

The anime’s story centers on sisters Fū and Rui, who used to be close, but have been a bit distant from each other recently. One day, Fū encounters a mysterious spaceship and gains magical powers. At that same time, Rui also gains magical powers, and both transform into the adults they dream to be. The sisters’ powers come with two conditions: their magic powers can only be used in one year, and no one must know about it. Unaware of each other’s secrets, Fū and Rui become active as idols.

Sources: Tubi, Bandai Namco Filmworks

---

Disclosure: Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc. (Sunrise) is a non-controlling, minority shareholder in Anime News Network Inc.

The official X (formerly Twitter) account of the Yomi no Tsugai (Daemons of the Shadow Realm) television anime revealed supporting cast on Saturday. The anime series adapting Hiromu Arakawa‘s action fantasy manga began airing on Tokyo MX, BS11, and other stations at 11:30 p.m. on April 4.

Cast

Ivan Yosano: Shinichiro Miki (Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood)

Makoto Tachikawa: Reina Kondou (Kage no Jitsuryokusha ni Naritakute!)

Kenichi Hamura: Hayata Ookawa (Kaoru Hana wa Rin to Saku)

Inyou (Yin and Yang): Ayumu Murase (Black Clover)

Korihenge (Fox and Tanuki): Ayumu Murase

Masahiro Andou (Stranger: Mukou Hadan) is directing the anime at Bones Film. Noboru Takagi (Golden Kamuy) is handling the series composition. Nobuhiro Arai (Hitsugi no Chaika) is designing the characters and Kenichiro Suehiro (Goblin Slayer) is composing the music.

Arakawa began serializing the manga in Shounen Gangan in December 2021. Square Enix published the 12th volume on March 12.

Square Enix licensed the manga in English in July 2022 and published the tenth volume on April 7.

Source: animate Times, Official X