BLESS anime premieres January 8 on Noitamina, and Crunchyroll will stream it as it airs

A makeup drama is getting the Noitamina treatment this winter. The TV anime of Yukino Sonoyama's BLESS now has a firm start date: January 8, 2027, airing Fridays at 23:30 JST on Fuji TV's Noitamina block. Crunchyroll has confirmed it will stream the series as it airs, so overseas viewers won't be waiting around.

The new key visual and first trailer

The fresh key visual is styled like the inside of an eyeshadow palette, with the two leads, Aia Utagawa and Jun Sumisaki, looking straight out at you while props hinting at the rest of the cast float around them. Alongside it came the first full trailer, built from actual episode footage, and it gives a first taste of the ending theme, "New Page" by HIKKA. The singer said she sees a lot of herself in Aia and wrote the lyrics for the version of herself who was still searching for who she was.

Who is making it

• Studio: A-1 Pictures
• Director: Shotaro Kitamura (Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines!)
• Series composition and scripts: Fukuro Kamiza
• Character design: Honoka Yokoyama
• Music: Ryo Yoshimata

The supporting cast includes Nobuhiko Okamoto, Koki Uchiyama, Yoshiki Nakajima, Yoshino Aoyama and Kentaro Kumagai.

Why I am watching this one

The manga runs in Kodansha's Monthly Shonen Sirius and has passed 1.25 million copies in circulation, and Kodansha USA already publishes it in English. The premise is simple and warm: Aia gave up on becoming a makeup artist, Jun never dared to chase modelling, and a school festival contest pulls them both back toward what they actually want. With Kitamura's eye for character work after Makeine, I expect the makeup scenes and the quiet moments to be the real highlights.

More details are on the official BLESS site, and the series page is on anime.day.