The following contains spoilers for Anyway, I’m Falling In Love With You Season 2, Episode 1, currently streaming on Crunchyroll this Winter 2026 anime season.
Shojo anime is my guilty pleasure. I love love. I love romance. Sometimes, I will spend an entire weekend in the warm, fuzzy comfort of a full shojo anime binge, no regrets. When I started watching Anyway, I’m Falling In Love With You last year, I was reviewing over on CBR. Sadly, I didn’t get to finish reviewing the season. I did continue watching, however, and I adored every episode.
Now that the Void exists to suck me deeper into the vast expanse of things I enjoy, I can review at my leisure. When I saw Anyway, I’m Falling In Love With You was coming back for Season 2 this Winter 2026 anime season, I got excited. It’s the perfect series for catering to my guilty, shojo pleasure.
Growing Up Together Complicates Things in Anyway, I’m Falling In Love With You
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For those new to the series in 2026, let’s catch up. First and foremost, Anyway, I’m Falling In Love With You is reverse-harem. Aspiring manga artist Mizuho Nishino is the only girl in a friend group that has been together since grammar school. Now that they are all in high school, with Mizuho’s 17th birthday marking the awkward start of things, their relationships are more complicated than ever.
Kizuki Hazawa, out of all her friends, is undeniably Mizuho’s closest bond. Sickly as a child, Mizuho had to look out for him a lot. Couple that with him being the friend she was with the day her mother died, and their future relationship was bound to get awkward. Kizuki may be one of the hottest guys in school, but he’s oblivious to the attention of other girls. The only one he can see is Mizuho, and when he starts expressing this to her, she does not know how to deal with it.
Initially, Kizuki comes on pretty strong, which completely befuddles her. The shift in their dynamic is baffling, so she finds herself avoiding him. If I’m perfectly honest, the strength with which he tries to force his feelings on her is a little off-putting in Season 1. It gets better across the first season, but he corners her often, making her (and us as viewers,) feel undeniably uncomfortable.
Kizuki’s Not the Only the Only One Pining for Mizuho
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Of the four boys in the friend group, three of them are in love with Mizuho, while the fourth boy, Airu Izumi, is crushing pretty hard on Kizuki. Airu cares about Mizuho so much, however, that he doesn’t let his feelings for Kizuki come between them. Kizuki’s stiffest competition for Mizuho’s affection is Shin Kashiwagi, while Shuugo Hoshikawa’s feelings are little more flexible.
As Shin and Kizuki begin vying for Mizuho’s affections, the rivalry ramps up significantly. The thing is, Shin puts himself exactly where he needs to be when Mizuho needs him. Set during COVID-19 in 2020, the timeline bounces back and forth. We see adult Mizuho in 2030, now working as a manga editor. While encouraging a young mangaka to grab onto the golden moments of her youth, it sends Mizuho on her own trip down memory lane.
We don’t know much about future Mizuho’s romantic prospects. Right up until the end of Season 1, it seems like she’s alone. Then Shin shows up with flowers outside her apartment. Now a doctor and ready to make a commitment to her, he still hasn’t won her yet. We’re left wondering if she and Kizuki ever get together, or if something awful happens to him in the future. Now that Season 2 is here, we can finally (maybe) get some answers.
“The Fireworks Ten Years Later” Launches Us Straight Into the Future
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In the first Season 2 episode of Anyway, I’m Falling In Love With You, we’re very grounded in the future. We see Shin at the hospital, where Mizuho brings him breakfast. His co-workers tease him when she calls, asking about the true nature of their relationship. Of course, he doesn’t answer. Instead, he meets her outside, where the two of them talk about meeting up for the fireworks festival in two days.
Before Mizuho leaves Shin at the hospital for her meeting, he asks her if she’s heard from “him.’ This is where we learn she hasn’t talked to Kizuki in 3 years. Shin then asks they can talk in private later, after the fireworks. I think he’s finally going to follow up on that proposal he asked Mizuho’s dad about back in Season 1. His career is established, his adult life stable. It’s been three years with no Kizuki standing in his way. It’s time to add the one thing that’s been missing from his life: Her.
I am going to be completely honest here: I am rooting for Shin. She will likely end up with Kizuki, somehow, I know. But Shin’s silent dedication makes him so much more… appealing. Plus he’s broody. That always gets me.
It’s a 2030 Fireworks Fiasco In Anyway, I’m Falling In Love With You’s First Season 2 Episode!
Before the fireworks, we get to see Syugo and Airu, both of whom end up grumbling about Kizuki’s disappearing act. There’s a hint that he suffered an injury, but it’s no excuse. Both are very upset about the way he hurt Mizuho.
With Shin caught up in an emergency at the hospital, Mizuho ends up at the fireworks alone. They bring back memories of the 2020 fireworks she was supposed to watch with Kizuki. When she hears a little bell like the one on the keychain she once gave Kizuki, she looks around, expecting to see him. Instead, she sees a little kid walking by with his dad. Turning her attention back to the fireworks, she scolds herself for thinking it’s him. As she lifts her gaze across the crowd, there he is. Kizuki.
Her internal dialogue explains that she knew ten years ago that Kizuki had touched every part of her life. Theirs was a love that would stretch on like the horizon.
Anyway, I’m Falling In Love With You S2E1’s Flashback Is Touching
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Mizuho’s memories of the past take us back to Christmas 2020. We first see Kizuki working hard at swim practice to make a qualifying time. As he showers and leaves practice, Mizuho’s waiting for him outside to walk to their Christmas celebration with their friends. She scolds him for coming out with wet hair. Because he’s always had poor health, she worries he’s going to make himself sick. He’s more excited by the fact that he’s made good time in swim practice, and the coach’s promise to put him on next year’s training squad. But he’s holding something back here.
With a promise of snow later, they’re on their way. We then hop over to Syugo and Airu, the former making a masterpiece Christmas cake for their party. Airu makes and admission to Syugo that he doesn’t think Kizuki and Mizuho will be coming back from their errands. The older the get, the harder it will be for them to make time for each other. This is especially true as the two of them seem to be pairing off as a couple.
As they sit with that in silence, Shin arrives late, announcing that it’s snowing. He’s got a jewelry store gift bag in his hand. I swear I’m gonna cry next episode. Especially when things shift back to the party later, and he’s just standing up against the door looking forlorn and dejected.
Kizuki Doesn’t Want to Go to the Party
With Mizuho and Kizuki sitting together at the train station, her worries about him making himself sick manifest. He sneezes, and she gets up to wrap her scarf around him, scolding him again for not having one of his own. Kizuki admits that he doesn’t want to go home, or go to the party. He just wants to be alone with her. When she seems shocked by this, he asks what she’s worried about. That they won’t be childhood friends anymore? As he confesses that he’s seen her as a woman for a long time now, she doesn’t seem to know what to say.
Admitting that he wants to spend Christmas and New Years Eve with her is a huge deal. Christmas Eve is considered a romantic, couples’ holiday in Japan. New Years Eve is a time of coming home and being with family. It says a lot about how Kizuki sees his future with Mizuho. She doesn’t know what to say, again, so she says nothing. When they finally arrive home, he tells her to go on to the party without him. He needs to go home and leave his stuff. Watching him walk away, she realizes she made him angry.
Not feeling well, he collapses onto his bed. Moments later, Mizuho arrives and discovers he has a fever. Helping him out of his coat and under the covers, she scolds him for filling her thoughts with him. It’s as close to an admission of her feelings as he’s gonna get, I think. When their friends call to find out where she is, she tells him she’ll bring him cake later, but he should rest. Then, she does the unthinkable. She climbs into the bed and kisses him. Even he’s like =O!
Anyway, I’m Falling In Love With You Season 2, Episode 1 On a Scale of 1 to 10
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I’ve rambled endlessly for far too long, but I promise next week’s review won’t be nearly so verbose. I think I’m just really excited to explore the story further. I keep thinking about reading the manga, but I might save it for after the anime. Maybe.
Anyway, I’m Falling In Love With You remains vibrant and adorable, with a cast of teen characters coming of age together. The anime always pays close attention to the shimmer of Koigahama’s seaside, the waves rolling in and out like breath. And while it’s peaceful, the sea’s vast expanse also serves as a metaphor for life itself stretching out into the unknown before main protagonist, Mizuho Nishino.
The first episode of Season 2, “The Fireworks 10 Years Later,” sucked me straight back into this twisted little love story. I can safely say I will be tuning in to this season weekly, and I’m definitely going to need to talk about things. This week’s episode gets an 8/10 from me, and I highly recommend it to fans who enjoy a complicated entanglement of emotion and romance.
