The Summer 2026 Anime Preview Guide

Oh Boy, Was I Wrong About Her

Hayato transfers to a high school in the city. There, he is reunited with Haruki, whom Hayato remembers as a boy he used to play with seven years ago. Only, Hayato now realizes that Haruki is actually a girl.

Oh Boy, Was I Wrong About Her is based on the Tenkō-saki no Seiso Karen na Bishōjo ga, Mukashi Danshi to Omotte light novel series by author Yu Hibari and illustrator Siso. The anime series is streaming on Crunchyroll on DAY.

The gimmick of Oh Boy, Was I Wrong About Her feels especially contrived, even for a silly young-adult romantic comedy. The whole idea is that Hayato was friends with Haruki as a kid, and only when he coincidentally reconnects with Haruki as an older teen after changes school does Hayato realize that Haruki…was a girl this entire time. Look, I get that this trope was probably born out of the days where such stories took the form of theatrical plays and skits where all of the roles were played by men, so the audience was much more inclined to just suspend their disbelief and go with it when the surprise gender reveal happened. It is currently 2026, however, and I can't help but wonder how anything about this show would change if Haruki was just, like, the typical tomboy when she used to play with Hayato, and now he's all flummoxed by how traditionally feminine she has grown up to be. It'd be the same exact degree of cheesy and juvenile, but at least fifty-percent more believable.

To be fair, it is possible that Oh Boy, Was I Wrong About Her doesn't even know what decade it is currently premiering in. Everything about the show, from its basic character designs to its flat and anonymous direction, looks like it could have come straight from an anime produced in 2005. That goes double for the cast of characters and the quality of their dialogue. If you have watched even one episode of any series about some everyday schlub who spends all of his free time hanging out with his childhood friend and a half-dozen other cute and inexplicably obsessed young ladies, then you have seen Oh Boy, Was I Wrong About Her. The only emotion this premiere is liable to inspire is an overwhelming fog of déjà vu.

Is there anything to recommend about this series, based on its first episode? If I have to give it credit for anything, I suppose Hayato and Haruki do end up demonstrating a bit of genuine chemistry by the end of the premiere, and if the show was just about them reconnecting and falling for each other, then I might be slightly more inclined to check out more. This minor success just makes the inclusion of all the other obligatory harem candidates that much more superfluous, though. I think series like You and I Are Polar Opposites have proven that you can just have a show about two characters dating. It's fine. The audience won't run away screaming if you just get to the “romance” half of the rom com right away, and you definitely don't have to dangle a flock of also-ran waifus around during every scene transition just to facilitate tired jealousy gags.