A website opened on Monday and announced the television anime adaptation of Mayo Momoyo‘s Always a Catch! (Nigashita Sakana wa Ōkikatta ga Tsuriageta Sakana ga Ōkisugita Ken) light novel series, which will premiere in spring 2026. The website also revealed the anime’s teaser visual, teaser trailer video, main cast, and staff.
©ももよ万葉・三登いつき・ながと牡蠣／SQUARE ENIX・逃げ釣り製作委員会
The light novels’ illustrator Itsuki Mito and the manga adaptation’s Kaki Nagato both drew illustrations to commemorate the anime announcement and the series’ cumulative sales exceeding 1 million copies:
©Itsuki Mito
©Kaki Nagato
The anime will star:
Yū Serizawa as Maria Annovazzi
©ももよ万葉・三登いつき・ながと牡蠣／SQUARE ENIX・逃げ釣り製作委員会
Atsushi Tamaru as Renato di Rubini
©ももよ万葉・三登いつき・ながと牡蠣／SQUARE ENIX・逃げ釣り製作委員会
Saori Hayami as Aida Amethis
©ももよ万葉・三登いつき・ながと牡蠣／SQUARE ENIX・逃げ釣り製作委員会
Shūichirō Umeda as Placido di Rubini
©ももよ万葉・三登いつき・ながと牡蠣／SQUARE ENIX・逃げ釣り製作委員会
Taku Yashiro as Raimondo Cigata
©ももよ万葉・三登いつき・ながと牡蠣／SQUARE ENIX・逃げ釣り製作委員会
Akira Oguro (Giant Beasts of Ars, Namu Amida Butsu! -Rendai Utena-) is directing the anime at TROYCA. Michiko Yokote (Ao-chan Can’t Study!, Call of the Night) is in charge of series scripts and Isamu Suzuki (Shinobi no Ittoki) is designing the characters.
©Mayo Momoyo, Itsuki Mito, Kaki Nagato
Square Enix Manga & Books publishes the manga adaptation in English and describes the story:
A zany romantic comedy starring a duke’s daughter, who’s more of a fighter than a lady, and a prince who happens to be into that!
Maria, the daughter of a duke, grew up believing she would one day inherit her father’s dukedom. Accordingly, she focused her attentions on honing her martial arts prowess, while thoughts of marriage fell by the wayside. But the arrival of a baby brother in her family means she’s losing her role as heir! Now that she’s decided it’s time to marry after all, she’s arrived a little late to the game! Are there even any eligible bachelors left?
Upon going to study abroad in a neighboring country where she might still stand a chance at getting hitched, she’s bewildered when the crown prince there declares before all that his engagement to her is null and void! Wait…what engagement?!
Apparently, he’s mistaken her for the wrong girl! But once that’s all cleared up and he catches sight of her knocking out a whole pack of bandits, it turns out that this prince may have a thing for ass-kicking young ladies after all…
Momoyo launched Nigashita Sakana wa Ōkikatta ga Tsuriageta Sakana ga Ōkisugita Ken as a short story on the “Shōsetsuka ni Narō” (Let’s Become Novelists) website in 2020. Momoyo started the story’s sequel series on the website in 2020.
Square Enix started publishing the novels with illustration by Mito in 2021. The novels’ sixth volume will ship on November 7.
Nagato launched the manga adaptation on Square Enix‘s Manga UP! service in April 2022. The manga’s ninth compiled book volume will also ship on November 7.
Square Enix‘s Manga UP! Global, Kadokawa‘s BookWalker Global Store, and Comikey publish the manga digitally in English.
Sources: Always a Catch! anime’s website, Comic Natalie
