The Fall Season is just about here…and honestly that means winter isn’t far off and that has me wondering where the year went! But the summer anime are just about done and that means a brand new batch of shows to dive into. There’s always change and few shows keep on going for the whole year.

Summer was a total blast. Bleach was everything I could’ve asked for in terms of a final season and then some. Mushoku Tensei S3 was masterfully crafted and it’s easy to see how good things are going to get in the second half of it. There were so many positive surprises like KAIJU GIRL CARAMELISE which showed how great a romcom with a kaiju girl could be. Maybe the biggest wild card for me was My Stepmother and Stepsisters Aren’t Wicked which gave a really sweet story and honestly one of the best anime mothers I’ve seen in a very long time!

As usual I’ll be using both AniList and LiveChart to get an idea about what shows are coming and generally when they’ll actually start. This isn’t going to have every show since…that’s more than I can manage to comment on. But it is just laying out what shows have caught my attention in some way or another. I would love to hear what has people excited from this season since I know many hyped shows won’t be on my personal watch list.

Series of Highest Interest

These are the shows I’m the most excited about. Odds are that’s because I’m familiar enough with a previous season/source material. But I may just have gotten excited by the summary or trailer. If these don’t turn out to be good that will be rather disappointing.

Psyren is one of the shows that had me hyped the second it was announced. I remember reading this manga a long time ago and long since giving up hope on ever seeing it adapted. The story was great, but you could feel them needing to hurry the story to a conclusion at a certain point. But if they do this one justice…it could be amazing. It’s hard to say that much without giving away too much of the story so I won’t. But it should make for an adventure with great action and a good mystery to unravel.

I’m happy with Satelight handling it. They can handle action just fine and certainly know how to bring some passion to producing a show. And yes being the animation company that handled Symphogear allows me to be really biased in terms of expectations.

Fran is back! I do remember the end of the last season at times bugging me slightly because I did want to see a bit more struggle and setback for this duo. But honestly, it’s great to see Fran and Sensei back once more. The badass black cat girl that is utterly merciless to her enemies and yet completely adorable at the same time. They definitely are building up the hype in the trailers with a new challenge being presented before them. If nothing else the action is going to be a treat. But I’m curious to see how Fran will continue to grow as a character through all this.

This might be the first show of the season where I’m not familiar with a previous season or source material that has me hyped. There’s something truly awesome and hilarious with this. It’s another reincarnated character story. But I think the fact that the main character is a battle junkie loli just makes it pure gold. Plus if they actually tap into her having an illness/frail body that should balance her out a bit more than this type of story generally does. We don’t see much of that frailty in the trailer so not sure if it’s legitimate or not.

This is such a classic to be getting back. Sometimes the remakes can be unnecessary and just a waste. But I don’t mind seeing a 30 year old classic getting that fresh polish and a chance to capture a new audience. It’s one of those shows that was a big isekai story before it became too over saturated. Throw in badass magical girls, alongside classic swords/bows and you’ve got a great combo. It’s one of those shows that is hard to describe why it’s so exciting to have it back. They clearly nailed the voice cast, the visuals look great, and I think this will be one of the better shows of the year if they do it right. Welcome back Magic Knight Rayearth!

Series of Moderate Interest

These are the shows I’m somewhat excited for. While not as excited about these as the category above, I’m still pretty interested in watching these. Some have intriguing premises that if done right could make for great shows. While some have source materials that I’m sort of familiar with, but not extremely interested in. Some of these could easily turn into my favorites. That uncertainty factor can turn into a positive surprise.

It’s Cyberpunk. There’s no way I couldn’t acknowledge this to some degree! It’s tough to get quite as hyped since I don’t have any real attachment to this new cast and on some level I presume it’ll have a “almost everyone dies” journey similar to the last one. But it’s Trigger, they are going to make a show that looks incredible. It’ll be loud, crazy, and likely to be memorable. Happy to see that they are doing another one of these since this kind of wild science fiction series is worth having more of out there.

This is the show that I think has best handled the “hero goes back in time to try again” story. We really got to see how painful the journey was for Desir in his original life and how much he lost as a result. His desperation to make his friends stronger and to really prepare the world for what’s coming was palpable. The only thing I really wondered was whether he’d lose the kind of connections he had in the past since he’s much more of a leader now than he would’ve been before he had to step up. I am curious to see how far Desir can push things in his effort to avoid the worst case scenario.

This is a show I can rely on for being stable and easy to enjoy. It’s one of those isekai shows that very much drops the isekai as soon as it gets started. It probably was just there to get the story approved or accepted and then thrown away right after. But I like the story of this young noble with the ability to see the “stats” of people trying to survive a global conflict and protect the lives of those who live in his homeland.

This is a show that took a while for me to really get int, but I am excited to see another season of it. The main character is a bit of an unusual girl but her talents and personality definitely push the story forward. The aftermath of the wild season 2 should be interesting to follow even as things clearly are ready to move towards the next dramatic event. OLM is a good studio so I’m sure the show’s visuals will be fine and can always count on Aoi Yuuki to provide some top tier voice work as the lead.

Series of Minor Interest

These are the shows I’m still interested in, but it’s a lot weaker than the tiers above. Either the previous seasons were mixed bags for me or I just don’t have enough to work. They still get mentioned because I still think the potential is there to really surprise me. Which is more than the shows I’m not going to mention at all.

Should be fun to return to the romance anime about two young athletes. I still can’t say it’s a sports anime with romance since the sports side really does take a back seat. But the first season was a beautiful show and I expect season 2 won’t disappoint either. This is the point where I did fall off with the manga since I wasn’t quite as engaged so that’s partly why it isn’t higher up on my list. It should be one of the more enjoyed shows this season so I’ll definitely follow along. Just not a show that has grabbed me as much as others.

I think if the best girl hadn’t been killed before the show began this show would be way higher on my list. Siesta was so great. I’m sure we’ll get more in terms of flashbacks and such, but it’s still such a sad loss. Not that Nagisa isn’t a great girl or that the supporting cast is terrible. I’m even willing to trick myself into thinking the trailers are implying Siesta could return. Either way, I’ll at least follow along and see where the second season goes. All while hoping that the story will make me wish I’d put this on a higher tier.

Dragon Ball remains a true classic of anime that has shaped many lives. But I can’t actually put this any higher than the lowest tier of excitement. The Beerus introduction will now have been done…four times! The manga did it, the original movie did it, the original Super anime did it, and here were are again in 2026 doing this all over again. I’m sure it’ll be an improvement over the original anime which was sloppy and looked terrible. But will it be so good that we couldn’t have just suggested people watch the original movie? I don’t know. But I do hope this is the last time we need to see Beerus knock around SSJ3 Goku.

The reincarnated saint/hero story has certainly been done plenty. To say nothing about the betrayed hero cliché. But I do like the approach this show appears to be taking. Most times a reincarnated badass hiding their identity feels annoying if not simply selfish. But in this case she was betrayed and killed as a result. It actually makes total sense to keep her secrets while trying to build up trustworthy allies that can help her avoid repeating the past. It’s not about not caring about people (or doesn’t appear to be). The goal is simply to survive and be ready for what’ll come for her.

I think it’s good to have a pure sugar romance in a given season. It doesn’t appear like there’s anything too dramatic or crazy involved here. Just two likable characters falling for each other and deepening their relationship over time. That’s good enough for me! The voices fit, the visuals are perfectly decent, and the supporting cast seems ready to tease and joke around regarding the main couple. So in that sense it’ll be a nice comfort show if I don’t have too many series to watch!

Cute girls…do stock trading!? We will truly never run out of possibilities for shows. I mean why not? Even the ups and terrible downs of trading stocks can have some appeal so long as a cute anime girl is the one doing it! And it sure seems like there will be quite some fluctuations between those highs and lows! Not like the over the top reactions are truly all that over the top either. I mean…that kind of thing is a scary world. You can ride some great highs, but if it goes bad it’s disastrous.

Speaking of cute girls doing cute things…how about traveling around a zombie apocalypse!? Seriously, they will never run out of possibilities! It honestly does have an interesting premise to it. The story focusing on people born after a massive zombie apocalypse and are now making their way into a wider world. And apparently the main character seeks to find the zombie of her father in that bigger world. There’s almost not too much to say, but I like the idea. Lot of ways you can take a story with zombies. Sometimes it’s intense drama, but in this case it’s almost a story of self-discovery.

This does have a lot of similar elements with the main character being betrayed and abandoned. But I like the overall focus this seems to have. Even after all she suffered she can see that winning the war doesn’t mean everything is fine. That the true war will be to deal with the aftermath and secure the peace their victory has allowed the possibility of. Some of the official summaries are pretty bad at getting that across, but the trailer and a few other sources helped get the feel of what this will be about. And since it’s adapting a completed light novel they should be able to pace themselves however they need to tell the story right.

I think it’s nice to have more game adaptations or anime inspired by them out there. Lot of great stories in games that are untapped in that sense. Suikoden is a classic game series and I like the idea of focusing on Suikoden II and telling as much of that story as they can. Should be a show with some nice action and a nice hero’s story. Well, I say that but it’s been forever since I played any of the Suikoden games. So the story isn’t as clear in my mind, but I expect it will be an enjoyable one to see play out.

The world could use a few more mecha series. A pair of siblings as the main focus seems good as well. All the more so when you have their different situations. One that has inherited a special power and one that hasn’t gotten the same power but still has a drive to do something. Being an original show they can do just about anything with this. But it seems worth checking out.

I think the real world concept for this show is as hilarious as anything else. In the story Dandivine defeated the great threat and a company made bank on selling merchandise for years afterwards. Then people get tired of it, sales fail, and they pray for the robot to come back. But alongside the giant robot you get that old threat. It just has me laughing that Good Smile Company is the producer of this show since…they sell anime merchandise. I don’t know if this show will be any good, but the concept has me wanting to talk about it at least.

The title really doesn’t leave any room to say much else! A cute witch is in love, but that person shows up requesting she make them a love potion for a third party. Can certainly imagine where this story will go. As she works to make the love potion they can spend more time together and actually fall in love before he can actually go and use that love potion. If done well that can be a cute show.

Conclusion

My first impression was that this season was going to be rather bottom heavy. Winter and Summer in particular had shows I was so hyped for that it was enough to make it not even matter how many mildly exciting shows were also coming out. Fall does have some shows that should be great, but it’s not quite the same as even Summer. But when I take a step back it’s a good looking season. Even with some of the more widely anticipated shows like Black Clover not being on my personal radar at all.

In that sense it leaves me curious how this season will turn out. Fall season has such an advantage in how a year is remembered or how top 10 lists play out because it is the last impression you get. But I could see the year being dominated much more by the earlier seasons. There are only a few Fall shows I could see really competing for space in my own top 10 by the end of the year.

I’m curious how others are viewing this season honestly. There are probably shows I didn’t even touch on that some are truly hyped about. I hope this season provides more than enough for everyone. At the very least I’m excited to see some old shows/stories getting adaptations even in 2026. I don’t know if anything can compete with how amazing Summer or Winter have been this year, but it’ll be worth it.