Marika's Love Meter Malfunction

Rather than man up and actually confess to his childhood friend Marika, Kanata Kitami does something deeply relatable — he wishes on a shooting star because he's too chickenshit to do it. Except the wish actually works, and now he can see love meters floating above people's heads, like he's living inside a dating sim. Cool power, right? There's just one problem: when he checks Marika's meter, it hasn't just bottomed out. It's broken. Like, plummeted-past-zero-into-the-abyss broken. Which makes no sense, because this girl is nothing but sweet to him every single day. So either his new ability is busted, or Marika is hiding something way more complicated than a simple crush or lack thereof. That gap between what he sees on the meter and how she actually treats him is where all the comedy and tension lives. This upcoming TV series from Studio LEO, based on a web manga, leans into that romantic confusion with a game-mechanic twist that keeps things fresh. The vibe lands somewhere between the mind games of Kaguya-sama: Love is War and the constant romantic misreads of Gamers!, with a little bit of Oresuki's "nothing is what it seems" energy mixed in. If you're into childhood-friend romances that actually mess with the formula instead of playing it straight, this one's worth keeping on your radar for 2026.