Kaya-chan Isn't Scary

A five-year-old girl gets in trouble at kindergarten every single day. She throws things, runs off during nap time, knocks over furniture — the whole staff is exhausted. Then her new teacher, Chie Hasumi, starts paying closer attention and realizes Kaya Satou isn't acting out for no reason. She's fighting things nobody else can see. That's the setup for Kaya-chan wa Kowakunai, a 12-episode TV series from East Fish Studio that takes the most innocent setting imaginable — a kindergarten — and fills it with genuinely unsettling supernatural threats. Kaya can perceive malevolent spirits that target the people around her, and her "bad behavior" is actually her trying to protect classmates who have no idea they're in danger. Chie figures this out early on, and the two of them form this oddly effective partnership where one is a concerned adult and the other is a kindergartener who can throw hands with ghosts. The tone walks a careful line between dark and weirdly heartfelt. The horror is real — Kohta Yamamoto and Shun Narita's soundtrack makes sure of that — but there's also something genuinely moving about a kid being completely misunderstood while quietly protecting everyone around her. If you liked the cursed-energy combat of Jujutsu Kaisen, the deceptive innocence of The Promised Neverland, or how Madoka Magica hid something sinister behind a cute exterior, this hits a similar nerve. Don't let the kindergarten setting fool you.