The Autumn 2026 Anime Calendar, With the Simulcast Dates and the Fake Season Numbers Removed
The autumn 2026 anime calendar is full of dates that are not premiere dates and seasons that are not seasons. Here is what actually airs when, in Japan and everywhere else.
Two things go wrong in every seasonal anime calendar, and both of them are going wrong right now for autumn 2026.
The first: the date next to a title is usually the international simulcast date in US time, while the Japanese broadcast happens in a late-night slot that can land on either side of it. The second: "season 2" gets attached to what is structurally a second cour of a run already in progress.
Here is the season with both problems removed.
Japanese broadcast dates, in order
- 27 September (Sun) — Reincarnated Aristocrat season 3, CBC and TBS across 28 stations. A September start for an autumn show; Crunchyroll has the same date.
- 30 September (Wed) — The Prince of Tennis II: U-17 World Cup final-member selection arc, TV Tokyo, TV Osaka, TV Aichi. Separately titled, not a third season.
- 1 October (Thu) 23:56 — Ice Guy season 2, TBS, 28 stations.
- 2 October (Fri) 23:00 — The Apothecary Diaries season 3, Nippon TV's Friday Anime Night block, 30 stations nationally. Crunchyroll simulcasts the same day.
- 2 October (Fri) — Tokyo Revengers: Three Deities arc, MBS, TBS and CBC.
- 3 October (Sat) 23:00 — Black Clover second season, TV Tokyo network.
- 3 October (Sat) 24:55 — which is 00:55 on Sunday — Ranma 1/2 season 3, Nippon TV. Netflix internationally. This is the classic slot that makes a Saturday show a Sunday show depending on which calendar you read.
- 4 October (Sun) — Aoashi season 2, NHK E-tele. Billed by Japanese listings as Season 2, first cour.
- 5 October (Mon) 23:00 — Psyren, Tokyo MX and others in sequence. Crunchyroll lists it as coming soon with no date.
- 7 October (Wed) 23:45 — Magic Knight Rayearth, TV Asahi national network, in the IMAnimation W block. Directed by Yui Miura, series composition by Shigeru Murakoshi.
- 11 October (Sun) — Ace of the Diamond act II Second Season, second cour. Not a third season.
- 13 October (Tue) — Chitose Is in the Ramune Bottle, second cour. Also not a season 2.
The Apothecary Diaries has a platform split most listings flatten
"It's on Netflix" is true for part of Asia and false everywhere else.
Crunchyroll holds season 3 exclusively across North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East, the CIS and the Indian subcontinent. Netflix carries it in selected Asian regions only.
Its episode numbering is the other trap. Season 1 ran 24 episodes as a continuous two-cour block, and season 2 numbered its episodes continuing from 25 rather than restarting. So season 3 episode 1 will appear in some listings as episode 1 and in others somewhere in the high forties. Both are correct. Pick one convention and say which.
There is also a film — The Apothecary Diaries: Treasure of the Deceased Consort — in Japanese cinemas on 11 December 2026, with an advance screening and cast appearance on 27 September.
What nobody has published
- Simulcast times. Crunchyroll's own autumn lineup article says explicitly that exact premiere times will be added later. Anyone printing a clock time for a simulcast today invented it.
- Japanese broadcast times for the Prince of Tennis arc, the Ace of the Diamond cour, the Chitose cour and Aoashi season 2. The dates are confirmed; the slots are not.
- Whether Apothecary Diaries season 3 is a split two-cour run. One aggregator says it is. The official site states neither a cour structure nor an episode count.
- Psyren's international date. It has a Japanese broadcast date and no simulcast date, and those are two different facts that are being written as one.
Why the cour distinction is not pedantry
A cour is thirteen weeks. A split two-cour run is one production, one staff, one continuous episode count, with a gap in the middle. A genuine second season is a separate commission that may come years later with different staff.
Ace of the Diamond act II Second Season returning for its second cour on 11 October is a production resuming. Black Clover starting a second season on 3 October is a production restarting. Calling both "season 2 premieres in October" flattens the difference that tells you whether a show is healthy or merely scheduled.
Twelve titles, four weeks, one late-night Saturday slot that is really Sunday, and a Netflix exclusivity that covers about a fifth of the planet. The dates above are the Japanese broadcast dates, which is the only calendar that does not move.