Centimillimental released his new song kanawanai on 7 October 2026. It is the opening theme for the TV anime Hello, I am a Witch and my Crush Wants me to Make a Love Potion!, which began airing in Japan on 5 October and is streaming with English subtitles on Crunchyroll in the UK.
The song leads a double A-side single, kanawanai / I miss you so much it’s killing me, due in November. It also adds to a run of anime openings from a songwriter whose career started with one: his 2019 debut single Kizuato opened the anime Given.
The creditless opening sequence, published by KADOKAWAanime on YouTube.
What Kanawanai Means in Japanese
Written in hiragana, かなわない can be read two ways. As 叶わない, it describes a wish or a hope that will not be fulfilled. As 敵わない, it means being no match for someone, with no way to beat them. Keeping the word in hiragana leaves both meanings open. The official Japanese title is written かなわない、, ending in a comma.
Both readings fit the story the song opens. Rose has secretly loved the knight Harij for years, and he comes to her asking for a love potion to win someone else. Her wish cannot come true, and she cannot compete. According to his label, the lyrics follow a narrator whose feelings keep wavering, but who keeps choosing to love that person anyway.
Musically it is a bright, catchy pop song, with strings carrying much of the drama. Atsushi, the songwriter behind Centimillimental, co-arranged it with Ryo Hanai. In his comment on the tie-in, he said his first reaction to the offer was to wonder whether he was really the right person to write for a story that makes your heart flutter the way this one does.
Hello, I Am a Witch: Rose, Harij and the Love Potion
The series follows Rose, a witch who lives alone by a lake. She agrees to brew Harij’s potion, then finds herself treasuring the days they spend gathering ingredients together, and dreading the day it is finished. Crunchyroll lists it under fantasy and romance.
It is based on novels by Eiko Mutsuhana, which began as a web novel in 2019 before Futabasha published them in print. Kamada’s manga adaptation runs in Kadokawa’s Flos Comic line, and Yen Press publishes it in English as Hi, I’m a Witch, and My Crush Wants Me to Make a Love Potion.
Studio diomedéa animates the series under director Keizō Kusakawa. Series composition is by Wataru Watari, the author of the light novel series My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU. Mikako Komatsu voices Rose, with Yōhei Azakami as Harij.
In Japan it airs on Monday nights on AT-X, Tokyo MX and BS Nippon TV, and on MBS from Tuesday 6 October. In the UK it is on Crunchyroll in Japanese with English subtitles. Cast, staff and broadcast details are on the official anime site, in Japanese.
Kanawanai / I Miss You So Much It’s Killing Me, the November Single
The second lead song, I miss you so much it’s killing me (君に会いたくて死にそう), is the faster and more restless of the pair. It is driven by a full band sound with unusual rhythms, and it is about how missing someone keeps getting worse the longer you go without seeing them. The label says the lyrics use humorous metaphors to describe the chaos of falling for someone.
The full single reaches streaming services on 17 November. In Japan it is also released on CD on 18 November, as a limited edition with a Blu-ray disc and a sleeve illustration drawn for the anime, priced at ¥2,970 (catalogue numbers ESCL-6296 and ESCL-6297).
The tracklist:
- kanawanai (かなわない、)
- I miss you so much it’s killing me (君に会いたくて死にそう)
- Haizitsu (背日)
- kanawanai (Instrumental)
- I miss you so much it’s killing me (Instrumental)
- Haizitsu (Instrumental)
From Kizuato and Given to The Underworld in Camden
Centimillimental is the solo project of Atsushi (温詞), who writes the words and music and handles the vocals, piano, guitar and programming himself. He made his major debut in September 2019 with Kizuato, the opening theme for Given, which his label says has passed 50 million streams worldwide.
He also produced Fuyu no Hanashi, the song performed by the fictional band in Given, which his label puts at more than 160 million streams. Since then he has written the opening for Backflip!! and both theme songs for the Japanese dub of The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, as well as songs for other artists. Anime theme songs are one of the main ways listeners outside Japan find J-Pop, and his have built him an audience abroad.
He began touring overseas in 2024. His first European tour, ribbon, came to the UK in June 2025, with shows at The Underworld in Camden on 11 June and Rebellion in Manchester on 12 June. His Cafuné world tour then ran from November 2025 to March 2026, with dates in China, the Philippines, South Korea, Chile and Mexico.
In Japan he is on tour now. Live Tour 2026 “Behind the Highlight” opened at NHK Osaka Hall on 2 October and finishes at Kanadevia Hall in Tokyo on 20 November, two days after the CD comes out.
You can stream kanawanai now, ahead of the full single in November.
