The Spring 2026 anime season is almost over, and preparations for Summer are already underway. Crunchyroll, by far the biggest anime streaming platform, is also gearing up for the next season. In fact, those preparations have already begun with a bang, as the platform surprisingly released a peculiar Summer 2026 anime early through a special release featuring half of the content originally planned for its seasonal run. The anime in question is Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You, a mature take on the anime industry that, as the title suggests, places smoking at the center of its appeal.
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Crunchyroll released a total of 12 mini-episodes of Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You, covering the material from what would have been the anime’s first six episodes in its seemingly 12-episode run plan. Since its surprise debut on the platform, the series has quietly built a dedicated audience thanks to its intriguing premise and mature themes, offering a refreshing perspective within the slice-of-life and romance genres. The reception has been particularly impressive, with nearly 15,000 user ratings at the time of writing and a perfect 5-star score, making it one of the highest-rated anime series of the year so far.
Crunchyroll’s Surprise Summer 2026 Release Offers a Broader Perspective on Anime
Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You does nothing extraordinary on the surface, instead presenting a down-to-earth narrative centered on Sasaki, a man in his 40s who dreads his corporate job. One of his few “pick-me-up” activities is visiting the supermarket clerk Yamada, a woman in her 20s whose bubbly personality is enough to brighten his day. As a result, Sasaki frequently visits the store to buy something, even when he doesn’t need anything. However, one day, after failing to find Yamada at the store, Sasaki meets another woman behind the supermarket, where he smokes with her. The surprising twist is that this mysterious, hipster-like woman is actually Tayama, another side of Yamada.
Thus begins Sasaki’s journey of looking forward to meeting two different women who are, in reality, the same person, giving him two new “pick-me-up” moments in his life. The premise is incredibly grounded, yet it is something anime has been missing for a long time. While there are many great slice-of-life anime, almost all of them focus on teenage romance, with high school serving as the primary setting. As a result, older audiences can often feel disconnected from the genre.
Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You fills that exact void by using adult themes to draw viewers in while depicting a grounded narrative that adult audiences can easily resonate with. Another factor contributing to the anime’s appeal is how little investment it requires from viewers. Thanks to the surprise drop, it currently consists of only 12 mini-episodes, making it easy to binge in a single sitting or watch casually while doing other tasks. All of this has helped the series emerge as one of the highest-rated anime of 2026 on Crunchyroll, and it seems likely to continue climbing the charts as more episodes are released during its Summer run.
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