What to Watch This Fall: The Most Anticipated Anime of Fall 2026

A Stacked Season Ahead

The Fall 2026 anime season kicks off in early October, and this year's lineup leans heavily into big returns rather than untested newcomers — sequels to fan favorites, a long-awaited game adaptation, and a genre-defining film hitting theaters. Here's where to focus your watchlist.

Blue Box Season 2

The sports-romance hit returns to continue Taiki's story as he juggles competitive ambition with the messy, slow-burn feelings that made the first season such a breakout hit. If season one hooked you on its mix of gym-class nerves and genuine athletic tension, the sequel picks up exactly where that energy left off.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners — Season 2

Studio Trigger returns to Night City with a completely new cast for a standalone follow-up season. The original run became one of the most acclaimed anime adaptations of a video game property in years, and expectations for this sequel are enormous — especially for fans still not emotionally recovered from the first season's ending.

Suikoden II: The Anime Adaptation

One of the most beloved RPGs of its era finally gets an anime treatment, following two former friends pulled to opposite sides of a brutal regional war. For longtime fans of the game, it's a decades-overdue adaptation of a story many consider the series' creative peak.

Made in Abyss: Awakening Mystery

The franchise's next chapter arrives in Japanese theaters in October, continuing one of anime's most emotionally punishing — and visually stunning — descents into its title Abyss. Newcomers should be warned: this series is infamous for pairing beautiful art with genuinely brutal storytelling.

Still Going Strong

The season also brings The Apothecary Diaries into its third arc, continuing Maomao and Jinshi's slow-burn mystery inside the imperial palace, while Jujutsu Kaisen's ongoing Culling Game arc keeps escalating into some of the series' highest-stakes territory yet. For JoJo fans, the Steel Ball Run arc adaptation is also arriving this season — long considered by many longtime readers to be the franchise's finest arc. If you've fallen behind on any of these, fall is a great excuse to catch up before the next big moment airs.