How’s your anime backlog looking? Never-ending, I presume? You’ve barely managed to get through everything that was released over the summer, you say? Yeah—trust me, I sympathize.
Well, I’ve got good news and bad news in that respect. The good news is that the fall 2026 anime line-up is nowhere near as stacked as summer 2026’s offerings. The bad news is that it’s still pretty stacked, so if you’re still struggling to make it through the last season, you won’t get much of a breather.
Surprisingly, there’s not an awful lot in the way of massively popular returning series, either. The Apothecary Diaries is back for season 3, the incredibly underrated The Ramparts of Ice is returning for a second season, and Black Clover’s second season is finally dropping after a five-year-long hiatus.
But this isn’t a list of returning anime you should be excited about—it’s a list of new anime, so no second or third seasons here. Look, I know we’re struggling to keep up at the moment, so the last thing we need is more new stuff, but…hey, you clicked on the article, man.
The Vermilion Mask (Shuiro no Kamen)
All right, let’s start off strong, because I have high hopes for this one. The Vermilion Mask has the makings of an anime that could prove to be wildly popular, because it’s hitting all the same kinds of notes as Jujutsu Kaisen.
For starters, while the manga was serialized by Shōnen Gahōsha, this is actually a seinen. That’s my way of saying that this is more Attack on Titan than My Hero Academia; darker, gorier, and most definitely aimed at older audiences. I don’t wanna spoil anything, because I think the manga is very well written, but let’s just say the first episode isn’t going to be a wholesome and jolly affair.
While the relatively young animation team behind The Vermilion Mask, 100studio, isn’t an A-lister by any stretch of the imagination, what little they have produced thus far has been pretty impressive. I might be one of the only people who actually watched Quality Assurance in Another World, so take it from me; 100studio has the sauce, and I think The Vermilion Mask might be its first breakout hit.
Tank Chair
OK, this one might be my biggest “hear me out” entry on this list, but it’s also the one I’m the most excited about. Tank Chair is a manga that I never thought would get adapted into an anime. It’s a bizarre premise, but that’s not why I didn’t think it would be adapted; it’s more because it’s only moderately popular, yet it would be wildly expensive to animate.
For context, Tank Chair is about a disabled assassin named Nagi who murders people using his motorized, mecha wheelchair. It’s awesome. Easily has some of the coolest fight scenes I’ve ever seen in a manga…but here’s the rub: the anime adaptation is gonna be 3D computer-generated.
I know, I know—3DCG is a dirty word in the anime world, but given how much this would cost to animate otherwise, I understand the decision for Tank Chair. On the plus side, when it comes to 3DCG, you don’t get much better than Polygon Pictures. This is the studio behind the likes of Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence; Love, Death & Robots; and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, so if something has to be 3DCG, these are the guys you want on the job.
Firefly Wedding (Hotaru no Yomeiri)
I’ve not read Oreco Tachibana’s historical romance manga Firefly Wedding, yet I am immediately on board with this one after reading the premise. The story is set in the 1800s and follows Satoko, a young woman with a heart disease who wants to get married before she dies.
Then she’s kidnapped, which leads to her proposing to her would-be executor: an assassin named Shinpei. From there it sounds like a bit of a Bonnie and Clyde kinda deal; a story about two people murdering their way across the country in a bid to evade capture. Shinpei also sounds like he’s got a few screws loose, so that sounds fun.
More importantly, though, the animation studio for this one is David Production; the studio behind almost every single JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure adaptation, Fire Force, and Undead Unluck. For that alone, I’m in.
Super Psychic Policeman Chojo (Choujun! Choujou Senpai)
Super Psychic Policeman Chojo is amazing. Shun Numa’s buddy cop comedy manga is ridiculously funny, and the chunky art style is unnecessarily beautiful considering how goofy it is. It’s also…been cancelled.
I know this is a weird lead-in to an entry on this list, but it’s a weird situation. The Super Psychic Policeman Chojo manga was cancelled in June 2025, and then, a few months later in October 2025, news broke that it was getting adapted. To clarify, I’ve read the manga, and it does kind of just end abruptly, so I don’t really know what the plan is here if this proves to be popular.
I also have really high hopes for the animation team on this. Arvo Animation is pretty young, yet the studio’s work on Kowloon Generic Romance was impressive, and the trailers for Super Psychic Policeman Chojo look great so far. At the very least, I hope this proves to be a massive hit, just so the story can get a proper ending.
Sgt. Frog (Keroro Gunsō)
I’m sorry, but I love Sgt. Frog. I watched the dub of the original 2004 series as a kid, and while I may have been the exact target audience for it at the time, I still find it weirdly charming as a grown-ass man. If you’ve never heard of or watched Sgt. Frog, it’s oddly similar to Invader Zim in some ways (doubly so if you watch the batshit-insane, borderline-improv’d Funimation dub).
It’s a silly comedy about an alien frog named Sergeant Keroro, who is sent to Earth to conquer it, but gets constantly sidetracked by doing stuff like building Gundam figurines and reading manga. Highly relatable. Based on what little we’ve seen of the 2026 remake in trailers, it seems to be following the manga a bit more faithfully than the original 2004 series did.
The 2026 remake is being produced by Bandai Namco’s in-house animation studio BN Pictures, and they’re a fine choice for a Sgt. Frog adaptation. While BN Pictures isn’t the most technically impressive anime studio around, it has a proven track record of adapting gag manga, as it’s the studio behind the Gintama anime. I just hope they bring back the original Funimation voice cast for the English dub and let them go wild with the remake.
Magic Knight Rayearth (Majikku Naito Reiāsu)
If you ask an assortment of anime oldheads about the origins of the isekai genre, you’re likely to get a different answer every time. You might get a glib answer like The Wizard of Oz or The Nutcracker; you might get a somewhat uninformed answer like Sword Art Online; or you might even get a surprisingly well-researched answer like Sally the Witch.
But if you ask me, the modern obsession with isekai can be traced back to Magic Knight Rayearth. While Clamp’s original 1993 manga certainly isn’t the first isekai manga, the 1994 anime adaptation of Magic Knight Rayearth is one of the earliest examples of a Japanese isekai that proved to be popular outside of Japan.
In light of this, it’s actually sort of weird that it took so long for Magic Knight Rayearth to get a remake. There is an elephant in the room we have to address here, though: the animation studio behind the remake, E&H Production. That name might set alarm bells ringing for some of you, as it’s the team behind Ninja Kamui; the infamous Sunghoo Park-directed anime that started off incredibly strong and then suddenly went to shit halfway through after pivoting to 3DCG. However, the trailers for the 2026 remake of Magic Knight Rayearth have looked beautiful so far, and really manage to capture Clamp’s famous big-eyed art style, so I’m tentatively hopeful for this one.
Suikoden: The Anime (Gensou Suikoden)
All right, c’mon—how could I not include this one? If you’ve never played Konami’s Suikoden games, then you’re missing out. For the most part, all of the stories in the franchise are great, but, let’s be real: the best one is clearly Suikoden II.
And guess which game in the series Suikoden: The Anime is set to adapt? It might seem weird that the first Suikoden anime adaptation is skipping over the first Suikoden game, but the second game’s story of eternally destined rivals Riou and Jowy is beloved for a good reason. It might get weird when the writers have to reference some of the events of the first game, considering it does directly tie into Suikoden II, but I’m sure they’ll figure it out.
The only real issue here is the animation team, as Konami has decided to use its in-house team, which they creatively named Konami Animation, for Suikoden: The Anime. It’s not that Konami Animation sucks; it’s just that it doesn’t have much experience under its belt. Still, what little they have produced, such as the Yu-Gi-Oh! The Chronicles shorts, has been impressive. I just hope they’re up to the challenge, or else Suikoden fans will never forgive them.
FX Fighter Kurumi-chan
Have you ever wondered why there’s never been an anime about the stock market? No, of course you haven’t, because surely nobody would actually want to watch a story about a 20-year-old cutesy anime girl with a passion for foreign exchange trading, right?
To be completely honest with you, I’m not entirely sure what to make of FX Fighter Kurumi-chan. It’s apparently a “psychological drama,” but I have a hard time believing this isn’t the anime equivalent of a shitpost, because what do you mean there’s a long-running manga about a woman who sounds like a moderator for r/WallStreetBets? And it’s good? Seriously?
The other strange wrinkle here is the animation studio: Passione. These guys genuinely seem pretty talented, but they almost exclusively devote said talent to making horny stuff like High School DxD and Mato Seihei no Slave. Again, I’m still not convinced that FX Fighter Kurumi-chan isn’t just a long-winded practical joke, but you better believe I’m gonna give it a shot out of pure curiosity.
Psyren
Full transparency: I’ve not read Toshiaki Iwashiro’s supernatural sci-fi battle shonen Psyren, but yes, I am aware of how beloved it is. It’s one of those manga I always intended to get around to and, considering it’s almost two decades old now, I kinda figured I didn’t have to rush.
Well, maybe I should have rushed a little bit, because Psyren’s anime adaptation is almost finally upon us—unfortunately, I might end up reading the manga anyway because of who is set to produce said adaptation.
Satelight is an odd duck as far as animation studios go. As far as I can tell, they’ve never produced anything offensively terrible; it’s just that they’ve never really produced anything great, either. It’s a very safe choice of studio, and while the animation in Psyren’s trailers looks good in parts, it looks a bit meh at others. Temper your expectations for this one, even if the manga is apparently incredible.
Fool Night (Fūru Naito)
A close friend of mine relentlessly pestered me into reading Kasumi Yasuda’s eco-horror manga Fool Night a couple of years ago. They would not shut up about it, constantly saying stuff like “It’s the best manga I’ve read in years!” and “Bro, this gonna be huge when they finally adapt it!”
So, I gave in and read it. Turns out that my friend has extremely good taste; I dunno if I’d say this is the best manga I’ve read in the last decade, but it’s up there for sure. It’s an odd mix of morbid and curiously hopeful, yet its strength lies in balancing the two. Look, I’m trying not to spoil anything, so just trust me on this one; it’s very much worth your time.
On the animation side, this is a dual production, as it’s being animated by the legendary studio Sunrise and the team behind the Monogatari franchise, Shaft. Really, though, you don’t need to know who animated this, because the trailers for Fool Night are all the proof that you’ll need. This one has everything going for it so far, and I think there’s a solid chance it’s going to end up on the majority of “Top Anime of 2026” lists once the year is through.
