The Fall 2026 Anime Preview Guide

Uncle's Obsession with Cute Things

Mitsutaka Oji is a 40-year-old man who, by all appearances, is attractive and cool and is excellent at his job. However, he has a secret: he absolutely loves small and cute things.

Uncle’s Obsession with Cute Things is based on the Ojisan wa Kawaii Mono ga Osuki. manga series by Tsutomu. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Sundays.

I'm sorry, I know we're supposed to feel bad about the way that Mitsutaka has felt forced to hide his personality-defining love for “cute things” his entire life, but I just think it's hilarious. One of the very first things we learn about this guy is that when his wife divorced him, it apparently wasn't because she found out about his obsession with mascot characters and whatnot, got creeped out, and then split. No, we're meant to believe that the overwhelming burden of keeping his hobby a secret just made Mitsutaka so emotionally withdrawn and stunted that it drove his wife away as if he were carrying on some kind of illicit affair. Did Mitsutaka never once think, “Okay, I'm embarrassed about loving cartoon animals and plushies, but maybe it's worth the risk of telling my wife so she doesn't end our marriage?”

Then, after recollecting the time that he got lightly bullied and teased for bringing a cutesy charm to school, the guy has the gall to compare himself to the hidden Christians of the Edo period. You know, the ones who were brutally tortured and massacred in droves by being crucified, burned alive, and buried upside-down in corpse-pits?

That is insane. And hilarious. Though, I don't think it's the kind of hilarious that Uncle’s Obsession with Cute Things is going for. As far as I know, this is not some darkly ironic and exaggerated Japanese spin-off of I Think You Should Leave. We are meant to empathize with this older businessman and his penchant for cute chotzkies, and that's all well and good, but the show is really shooting itself in the foot by playing up the persecution and shame of the hobby. Cultural differences aside, we're all living in 2026, and I can go onto any social media site and find evidence from all over the world that it honestly is not that hard or uncommon to be a grown adult who also likes childish knick-knacks. There are, in fact, so many people who haven't just made that their entire personality; entire influencer empires have been over collecting toys and obsessing over children's media.

If I look beyond this socio-cognitive dissonance, though, and judge Uncle’s Obsession with Cute Things on its merits as a laid-back cartoon about an older guy who is obsessed with cute things, then…honestly, it doesn't have much going for it on that front, either. It's fine. It has that soft, pastel-colored look that most of these hobby-comedies go for, so it's easy enough on the eyes—and you'll get to look at a bunch of shots of that cute Puggtaro doll, if that's your thing. There are some cats, too, so I'll throw in an extra half-star. Just know that I'm doing it for the kitties, and not for… the other guy.

Mitsutaka is just such a broad and generally difficult-to-like character that the show struggles to settle into any genuinely cozy vibes. Being around the title character is more stressful than it is anything else. If the show has any chance at all, it will come if Mr. Uncle here can settle down a bit and make some interesting friends that will give the script something more to do than repeat the same joke over and over.

I know that this is supposed to be a comedic series, but all I could think about was how sad it is. The adult men in this show have been made to feel so insecure about liking what they like that it flies right past comedy and into tragic territory. And it's one thing for the eponymous uncle, Mitsutaka, to be afraid of people learning about his love for children's mascot characters, but Naruto is worried about people learning that he likes cats? We have officially gone too far when liking an entire species is gendered, because guess what? There are male cats, too. Are they meant to be ashamed of being cats? (There are also intersex cats, which I know because science exists, but also because I had one.)

That's obviously taking things too far, but it's the sort of criticism this episode invites to a degree. Mitsutaka is fully aware that he's been socialized into thinking it's not okay to be into cute characters. He knows that his experiences in the bad old days and earlier expectations of masculinity made him afraid to let anyone, even his eighteen-year-old nephew, know that he's a major Pugtaro fan. He just can't seem to break free of that burden. The contortions he goes through to hide his love of Pugtaro and similar characters make this feel more depressing than humorous, because a part of him knows he doesn't really have to do this. He's just been scared into not being able to do otherwise.

What's particularly interesting is the entire cat café debacle in the final third of the episode. That's when Mitsutaka and his hardass coworker Naruto accidentally bump into each other at a cat café. Naruto is there because he longs to be a crazy cat gentleman but feels he oughtn't like cats; Mitsutaka is there for a Kitty Red Riding Hood collab. Naruto is excruciatingly horrified to see Mitsutaka there, and even more upset when all the cats, sensing that Mitsutaka doesn't actually care about them, flock to him. But Mitsutaka doesn't care that Naruto loves kitties. He's upset with himself for brushing him off, because he'd hate it if someone did the same to him about Pugtaro. The entire scene shows how stupid all of this is and how Mitsutaka knows that – he just can't overcome it when it pertains to himself.

I hope that things can move in a more positive direction for both men. I think they will, especially since Mitsutaka's nephew Masumi gives him a Pugtaro sweatshirt, and if this finds a better balance, it could be very much like the charming My New Boss Is Goofy. But this episode didn't work for me, perfect cat behavior and funny faces aside. I hope it can do better in episode two.

I have such a hard time with these “person is into a hobby that's not 'for'them” kind of shows. For one thing, I've made anime a big part of my personal and professional life, and have long made my peace with the fact that I just won't be able to share this niche hobby with some people close to me and that assumptions may be made due to bad actors and stereotypes about the anime fan community. It's also 2026, and people are more into niche hobbies and have more off-type interests now than ever before. Hell, I remember having lengthy conversations with kids on the football team back in high school about Skyrim, Zelda, and other overtly nerdy pieces of media. I just don't believe these social divisions exist anymore the way this show insists, and as such, I have a hard time engaging with its core premise.

That being said, the premiere of Uncle’s Obsession with Cute Things is a pretty good execution of this concept. Over a couple of days in the life of Mitsutaka Oji, a forty-something divorcee hiding his love of the adorable mascot Pugtaro from his live-in nephew and coworkers, this episode has him repeatedly navigate scenarios where he worries his special interest might be outed. While the majority of the tension in this show is a result of Oji's own anxiety, I did get a good laugh out of a buzzkill coworker of his insisting that cutesy office decorations and supplies were a distraction, only to run into that same coworker in a cat cafe the next day.

However, I worry the central gag doesn't have enough gas in the tank to last a full season. Watching an adult man get anxious and invent problems for himself for twelve episodes doesn't seem like a great use of time to me. Also, while I know that the intent of this show is to ultimately normalize people having hobbies that they aren't the target demographic for, I can't help but think that this kind of media normalizes that anxiety and invented isolation. Especially with how many of these “secret hobby” anime we get nowadays, with Gals Can’t Be Kind to Otaku!? dropping earlier this year and having similar problems, I'm always left more frustrated than encouraged by these kinds of shows.

All in all though, Uncle’s Obsession with Cute Things is inoffensive and hides its more limited animation well. This is gonna be a middle-of-the-pack show for this season, and I guess if even one person is encouraged to open up about their hobby because of it, then it's a worthwhile endeavor.