The Summer 2026 Anime Preview Guide

GROW UP SHOW -Sunflower Circus-

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, during the height of Japan's economic boom, the circus was a major form of entertainment. Different circus troupes travel throughout Japan to perform and compete for a chance to participate in the world-renowned festival called "Circus Collection." One troupe called the "Sunflower Circus," led by its ringmaster Maria, travels around Japan to perform, despite struggling with financial difficulties. However, they meet a circus prodigy named Mizuka Tsurumaki. This is the story of a one-of-a-kind circus show of young girls with big dreams.

Grow Up Show: Sunflower Circus is an original anime project by A-1 Pictures' newly-established Psyde Kick Studio. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on Saturdays.

RED ALERT! GROW UP SHOW IS A LEVEL 10 HOT ANIME DAD SITUATION. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

Okay, so Mizuka's trapeze dads probably won't be much beyond a background element as she lives out her sparkling youth with the all-female Sunflower Circus troupe or whatever. Still, they caught my attention at the episode's outset. Not only because they're attractive men in skintight jumpsuits (though that didn't hurt) but also because their trapeze act was genuinely impressive.

It's no surprise that the show has beautiful animation, coming from A-1, but it's striking nonetheless. Anime focusing on highly physical pursuits like trapeze can be a risky endeavor; creating a sense of weight is one of the hardest tasks for an animator, and that's one of the most important parts of making the trapeze scenes work. In order for the audience to be impressed with the characters defying gravity, you must build the sense that gravity first exists. I worried that they would rely too heavily on CG, and there is some of that, but the most impactful cuts are hand-drawn. On top of that, the show builds itself a strong visual identity through its use of warm reds and yellows.

I have to admit, as impressed as I was by the animation, I found the character designs to be less inspired. They're more or less off-the-rack cute girl anime designs, holdovers from the moe era that still pervade anime with primarily female casts made with an intended adult male audience. I also raised an eyebrow at the scene where Ouka comes to inspect Mizuka's body in the bath; not only was it a violation of her personal space, she kept remarking on Mizuka's muscle tone while holding up a perfectly unremarkable limb. If you're going to describe a character as muscular, have the guts to back it up!

Nonetheless, the beauty of the animation and the story pulled me back in. I can only describe it as the spiritual successor of P.A. Works' Working Women metaseries, despite coming from a different studio and having no main staff in common. I want to watch these girls and their circus grow and improve, to watch the wonders of the circus mediated through skilled animators. I love a slightly abrasive heroine who is drafted into an established team and takes time to be integrated.

My seasonal list is already too long! I need fewer good anime! But unfortunately, Grow Up Show: Sunflower Circus- may just have made the list.

I have to say, of all of the anime premises that are out there, I haven't really watched anything that revolved around an up-and-coming circus—so this show already gets a point and a half from me for being original compared to most other things out there. It also gets points for having a really funny, despicable father figure who is barely on screen (but his presence can be felt throughout the whole episode).

Despite having a surprisingly cynical sense of humor, I actually really did like this premiere as it set up this sort of underdog story with a traveling circus. This idea of this young girl named Mizuka wanting nothing to do with the circus due to her upbringing while now being forced to be the one to show people just how much further they can go with the profession is interesting. I know absolutely nothing about what it means to put on act in the circus—but that's part of the reason why I look forward to watching shows like this. It's not just because I think I'll get a solid slice-of-life out of the deal, but I also get to walk away potentially learning more things that I didn't know before.

I will say though, the animation goes above and beyond to really showcase just how elaborate some of these acrobatic stunts are. Surprisingly, it didn't look like there was any CG yet the staff were able to communicate both the speed as well as the weight of flying through the air on these ropes. I do feel like the end of the episode could've done a better job of communicating exactly what some of the issues were with some of the performances. That felt like a case where the show was telling me something without fully showing it—which can be an issue that some shows like this run into.

I also appreciate that the dub not only had a solid sense of timing, but was also pretty direct in the way that it broke things down. Although, I do wonder if there was a translation issue with the running joke with Mizuka and how she described her dad. Either I'm not understanding the joke or it's supposed to be based on a play on words that is not really being communicated to me as well as I would have hoped. Still, I think there's a lot of potential here both in the style and presentation. I'm curious to know how this group of girls continue to build their careers and just how far they can go—especially since all of them seem to have a story revolving around how they got here in the first place.

Is there a trope more overused than the Debt Dad? Probably, but for some reason, that one always sticks in my mind, possibly because it plays such an outsize role in a lot of shoujo manga. Mizuka, the primary protagonist of Grow-Up Show, is saddled with one, although she doesn't know it until episode's end, which actually makes it worse: her dad, a famous circus performer, has blatantly disregarded her wishes about being under the big top herself and sold her to a tiny all-girls' operation. And once ringmaster Maria has Mizuka in her clutches, the poor girl is stuck.

But even with the Debt Dad, there's a larger issue that I have with this episode: for a show about performing, it features woefully few circus tricks. There are some trapeze scenes, but they're generally shown from a distance, and when we do get a close up, the movements are far from fluid – and usually done against a plain square of color, which not only robs the acrobatics of their awe but also smacks of an animation shortcut. I get it, this isn't easy to animate, but that doesn't stop me from being disappointed, especially since “characters against a solid color background” seems to be a stand-by for this episode. There's also the fact that the trapeze act is the only one we see; at one point Mizuka offers feedback on the troupe's performances, but we never get to see them. That's an issue for a show set in a circus. At least we get to see Mizuka's stretch routine?

There are good elements here. Mizuka's disregard for circus life after her childhood makes perfect sense, and I love the scene when she gets on the trapeze and automatically slaps a rictus grin on her face; I've known dancers who had strict teachers who do the same. Maria's decision to create a troupe made up entirely of orphaned girls is also a nice touch. The show takes place after World War II, when there were plenty of orphans with nowhere to go, and few options for girls. The circus provides a safe place for them to be while teaching them skills – maybe not skills useful in the everyday world, but something they can fall back on nonetheless. That takes a bit of the sting out of Adult Woman Who Looks Like a Child and Stoic Silver-Haired Russian Girl both popping up alongside Debt Dad.

I'm disappointed to see that the troupe acquires an elephant in the ending theme – circus animals historically haven't been treated well – but I think this show has its heart in the right place. Even if it's just teasing us on the GL front, I'm curious to see if it can shape up in episode two.

Grow Up Show is a premiere full of contradictions for me. On the one hand, I freaking love circuses, and stories about weird show-biz families and troupes in general, so the basic premise of the series is made for me. On the other hand, the “Show” in the title is meant to be a pun on the Showa Era setting of the story; in particular, it takes place in the 1950s. You'd hardly know it looking at the cast of generically cute anime idol-group types. The fashion I suppose looks inspired by the fit of the 50s, what with the baggy shorts and all, but you could drop this cast into the middle of any modern anime about cute girls doing cute things, and nobody would tell the difference. It seems like a bit of a waste of a great and underutilized time period, if you ask me.

If you can look past the surface-level aesthetic issues, though, Grow Up Show is a pretty fun look into the world of acrobats and trapeze acts. Our heroine, Mizuka, has been somewhat traumatized by the high-pressure childhood she experienced with her father, who is ran the renowned Lotus Circus, so it's pretty silly that she ends up in the care of a completely different circus filled with adorable weirdos, but I guess those are the dots the show has to connect to get us from Point A to Point B. The whole point is to showcase the cast of gals who are trying to make the Hiwamari Circus a world-class act.

In that regard, I think Grow Up Show scores perfectly fine marks. I watched the show in its English dub, and all of the actresses are putting in game performances with the usual vocal archetypes you'd expect. Lizzie Freeman plays Mizuka's reserved, professional attitude well; Christina Vee sells Ouka's earnest enthusiasm to do her best for the sake of the troupe; Cassandra Lee Morris captures the age and experience that Maria possesses in spite of her inexplicably childlike appearance (though I found myself distracted by the fact that this performance just sounds identical to the one Morris gave as Morgana from Persona 5). It's solid character work across the board.

I wish I could say this premiere went beyond merely being “solid,” but if Grow Up Show has more dazzling and inspiring spectacle in store for us, it is saving those tricks for future episodes. On its own, this first episode plays things awfully safe, sticking to all of the tropes and conflicts that you'd expect from any idol anime, which is functionally what this show is, just with the circus trappings laid on top instead of the usual pop-star routines. It's a good premiere, but not a great one. Hopefully the next chapters of this circus' story will be able to turn up the excitement and really grab our attention.