Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You has become the first anime on Crunchyroll to get a perfect five-star rating on the streamer.
The series, from Asahi Productions, dropped its first six episodes on Crunchyroll as 12 'mini-episodes' on June 3. It revolves around the quirky saga of downbeat worker Sasaki and his interactions with supermarket worker Yamada and her alter-ego Tayama, who shares cigarettes with Sasaki outside the building.
As you can imagine – especially whenever something reaches the height of its popularity – the five-star rating has fluctuated slightly. It dipped to a 4.9 rating at one point before reverting back to its initial score.
If you want to read ahead, the manga – by Jinushi – has been running since 2022 and currently consists of eight volumes.
Confusingly, the full anime hasn't premiered yet, with Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You airing new episodes in July. At least it's not as bad as the Steel Ball Run release schedule and its months-long gap between episodes.
The seinen kicks off an exciting period of new anime releases this summer. The traditionally low-key window includes The Ghost in the Shell, Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War: The Calamity, Black Torch, and Young Ladies Don't Play Fighting Games arriving this July.
Among those, The Ghost in the Shell – hewing closer to the original source material than previous adaptations – promised a "new era of cyberpunk action" in its first trailer earlier this year.
For more, check out the best anime shows to watch right now and our picks for the best anime on Crunchyroll.
