Are You a Landmine, Chihara-san? finally has a premiere date. The anime will debut January 7 in the Super Animeism Turbo block on MBS, TBS and 26 affiliated channels, airing in the Thursday 00:26 slot, which is 12:26 a.m. JST. The staff had previously said the show would arrive in 2026, so this pushes it into the new year.
The staff
Yasuaki Fujii directs at SynergySP. He has episode-direction credits on Teasing Master Takagi-san, Too Cute Crisis and Aikatsu!, and this is a step up in responsibility for him. Keiichirō Ōchi is handling series scripts after work on Aikatsu!, Summer Pockets and The Quintessential Quintuplets. Majiro designs the characters, with Macross Delta and UniteUp! on the resume. Arisa Okehazama composes the music at King Records, and her credits include The Apothecary Diaries, Jujutsu Kaisen and DIGIMON BEATBREAK.
The story
Seven Seas Entertainment has licensed the manga for English release. High school junior Kuroki starts the new semester seated next to the girl everyone whispers about, Mai Chihara. She dresses gothic, wears her hair jet black and has a stare that does the heavy lifting. The rumour is that she is a “landmine” girl, or jirai-kei, a label built around a hyper-feminine, dark aesthetic that people associate with unstable personalities and yandere tendencies.
Then Kuroki accidentally draws her attention and finds out the reputation is mostly noise. Under the intimidating exterior is a girl who is sweet, if a little strange. That gap between reputation and reality is the whole hook, and it is a familiar one for anyone who reads in this lane.
On paper the setup is well worn: scary-looking girl, ordinary guy, rumours that slowly fall apart. What keeps the manga readable is Chihara herself. Ryon lets her be genuinely odd without turning her into a case study or a punchline, and Kuroki’s deadpan reactions do the rest.
Ryon launched the manga on the GANMA! service in June 2021. It picked up a “Next Impact Comic” award at the second Rakuten Kobo E-book Awards in 2024.
Why the date matters
January is turning into a real problem for anyone trying to keep up. The same week already has The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn’t a Guy at All landing on January 8, and the winter slate overall is heavier than usual, including Hirayasumi.
What separates this one from the pack is the source. Jirai-kei romances have a dedicated readership and very little anime competition so far, so the show has room to be the definitive adaptation of the subgenre rather than one entry in a crowded field. The studio behind it is not a big name, but the staff list reads like people who understand comedy with a soft centre, which is what the manga needs.
Seven Seas has not announced a volume release date tied to the anime, and there is no streaming confirmation yet either. Those two details usually follow a month or so before a premiere.
Source: Anime News Network
Featured image: Key visual for Are You a Landmine, Chihara-san?, via Anime News Network.
