The I Made Friends with the Second Prettiest Girl in My Class TV anime has received some updates, including a 2026 release date, a teaser visual, and the reveal of its main cast and staff.
The romantic comedy will star Haruki Ishiya as Maki Maehara, Manaka Iwami as Umi Asanagi, Sayumi Suzuhiro as Yu Amami, and Ikumi Hasegawa as Nina Arata. In the director’s seat is Hideki Tachibana (Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? [Season 2 onwards], The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio), who is directing the series at CONNECT.
Also part of the staff are Keiichiro Ochi (Summer Pockets, The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio) as series composer and Shoko Takimoto (The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio) as character designer. Ochi is also credited as scriptwriter.
I Made Friends with the Second Prettiest Girl in My Class (Class de 2-banme ni Kawaii Onnanoko to Tomodachi ni Natta) is based on the Sneaker Bunko light novel series by Takata. The series follows the relationship between high school student Maehara Maki and his (only) friend Asanagi, who happens to be the second cutest girl in his class (the cutest being Asanagi’s best friend, Amami).
The light novel series began in 2021 and has seven volumes as of October 2024, with Azuri Hyuuga illustrating all but the first (which was illustrated by Tom Osabe). It was the Tsugi ni Kuru Light Novel Award 2023 winner in the bunko category and has over one million copies in circulation.
Yen Press will publish the manga adaptation by Rin Ono starting in June 2025. Its description of the premise reads:
Maki Maehara is always on his own at school. He has no friends or hobbies others share, and he doesn’t expect the upcoming academic year to be any different, even surrounded by new faces. And six months later, it seems like he was right—until he runs into his popular classmate Umi Asanagi at a video store! Always at the center of attention and called the “second prettiest in class” by the boys, Asanagi’s from a totally different world. But it turns out the two have more overlapping interests than just the B-grade movies they came to check out…and Asanagi asks Maehara to be her friend!
I Made Friends with the Second Prettiest Girl in My Class was originally a web novel published on Kakuyomu. The anime was first announced in 2023.
Source: @2ndinclass
