Dandadan season three has a first look and a confirmed 2027 window. No month, no episode count.

Put the schedule in a line and the shape becomes clear:

• Season 1 — 12 episodes, 4 October to 20 December 2024.
• Season 2 — 12 episodes, 4 July to 19 September 2025.
• Season 3 — 2027.

Six and a half months between the end of season one and the start of season two. Somewhere between fifteen and twenty-seven months between the end of season two and the start of season three, depending where in 2027 it lands.

The announcement is a year old and is being reported as news

Season three was announced immediately after the season two finale in September 2025. What arrived this month is a first-look image and the confirmation of the year — useful, but not the announcement, and a good deal of the coverage is framing it as one.

The distinction matters because it changes what you are waiting for. A show announced a year ago with a year-level window is a show in production. A show announced this week would be a show in pre-production. Those are different amounts of waiting.

The director changed between seasons and almost nobody mentions it

Season one was directed by Fuga Yamashiro at Science Saru. Season two was co-directed by Abel Gongora alongside Yamashiro.

That is a meaningful shift for a show whose entire reputation rests on how it moves, and it happened quietly between two cours that most people experienced as continuous. Coverage of season three has so far said nothing about who is directing it.

The manga has not slowed down at all

• Serialised on Shonen Jump+ since 6 April 2021.
• 25 tankobon volumes as of September 2026.
• Over 10 million copies in circulation by March 2025.
• More than 360 million views on Shonen Jump+ as of November 2023.
• Won Best Shonen at the 31st Manga Barcelona Awards in 2025 and the 71st Shogakukan Manga Award in 2026.
• Second in the 2021 Next Manga Award web category; first on Japan's nationwide bookstore employees' 2022 recommendations.

Twenty-five volumes against twenty-four animated episodes. Whatever the gap between seasons costs the anime, it is not a source problem.

What is still unknown

The month. The episode count. The director. Whether season three is a single cour like its predecessors or something longer, which is the question the eighteen-month gap actually raises — a longer production usually means more episodes, and nobody has said either way.

A show that went from first episode to twenty-fourth in under a year will take longer to deliver its next twelve than it took to deliver its first twenty-four. That is what a hit looks like from the inside when the schedule stops being the priority.

If you have seen 17 September 2027 attached to Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle Part 2 this week, here is where it came from.

Sony's release schedule carries an entry reading "Untitled Sony Pictures Film, distributed by Crunchyroll" on that date. No title. No confirmation. A placeholder of exactly the kind studios park on calendars to hold a corridor.

Meanwhile Crunchyroll's chief executive, Rahul Purini, has said on the record that "our partners at Aniplex and Ufotable haven't decided on dates yet," while describing an "urgency for all of us to bring more Demon Slayer to fans."

That is the distributor saying there is no date, next to a date the internet has assigned to the distributor.

Ufotable's own reel filed it under future projects

The second piece of evidence being used is a Ufotable highlight reel, which placed Part 2 among future projects rather than among 2026 releases. That is real and it is informative — it rules 2026 out. It does not rule 2027 in, and it certainly does not specify a September Friday.

A third strand, that Part 3 might land in 2029, is sourced to nothing at all beyond repetition.

What the two remaining films actually have to adapt

• Part 2 takes chapters 158–183 — the rest of the Infinity Castle arc, the Hashira against the Upper Ranks, and Tanjiro closing on Muzan.
• Part 3 takes the Sunrise Countdown arc, chapters 184–205, which ends the story.

That is 26 chapters and 22 chapters. Roughly comparable loads, which is the only structural argument available for guessing a gap between them, and it is not much of one.

Why a placeholder gets mistaken for an announcement

Studio release calendars are booking systems. A distributor reserves a date before it knows what will fill it, because the date is the scarce resource and the film is not. Sony does this constantly. So do Universal, Disney and Warner Bros.

What makes this one convert into a rumour is the descriptor: "distributed by Crunchyroll" narrows the field to a very small number of possible titles, and Demon Slayer is by far the largest of them. The inference is reasonable. It is still an inference, and it is being reported as a date.

The test is simple. An announced date comes with a title, a poster or a press release from Aniplex. A calendar slot comes with none of those. This one has none of those.

What is still unknown

Everything, essentially. No release window for Part 2. No release window for Part 3. No confirmation that the Sony slot is a Demon Slayer film rather than another Crunchyroll title. No word on whether the two remaining parts will be spaced a year apart, two years apart, or something else.

What is known: Ufotable is making them, the manga ends at chapter 205, and the distributor says the dates are not set.

The most anticipated anime release of the next three years currently exists, publicly, as a line on a spreadsheet with no title on it. Everything else is people reading a calendar very carefully.

Season three of The Apothecary Diaries premieres on 2 October, with a new trailer, a new key visual and an opening theme by Yorushika all revealed last week. Maomao is back, Nippon TV has the Friday slot, and Crunchyroll has it worldwide outside Asia.

The credit on the schedules reads: OLM. That is correct, and it is a change.

Two studios made the first two seasons. One is making this one.

Seasons one and two were a joint production of TOHO animation STUDIO and OLM. Season three is OLM alone.

Crunchyroll's autumn line-up lists the premiere with OLM attached and no note that the arrangement has changed, which reads as continuity rather than a handover. For a show whose visual identity is one of its selling points, a studio dropping off the production is not a footnote.

And the studio that dropped off has not gone anywhere. TOHO animation STUDIO is producing the feature film arriving on 11 December. So the franchise has split its two houses between its two formats, in the same season, in opposite directions.

The obvious explanation — that one studio took the film and the other took the series because both could not do both — is not stated by anyone involved. It is the reading the calendar invites, and it should be labelled as a reading.

Toho Animation and TOHO animation STUDIO are not the same thing

This trips up English coverage constantly and is worth stating plainly. Toho Animation is Toho's production and licensing label — a production-committee entity that puts money and rights together. TOHO animation STUDIO is an animation house that actually draws things.

A title can carry the first without involving the second. When a schedule says a Toho name is attached, that tells you nothing about who is animating until you check which name it is.

The season numbering has its own problem

Season two ran 24 episodes across two cours, from 10 January to 4 July 2025, marketed in Japan as a single season. A good deal of English writing treats the second cour as "season three", which makes the run starting Friday the fourth season by that count and the third by the official one.

Season three is itself split-cour: part one from 2 October, part two from April 2027. Expect the same argument again in the spring.

What is confirmed

• Premiere 2 October 2026 on Nippon TV; Crunchyroll streams outside Asia, Netflix in select Asian territories.
• Animation production: OLM.
• Director Akinori Fudesaka; series composition Norihiro Naganuma, who directed season one; character design Yukiko Nakatani.
• Music by Satoru Kosaki, Kevin Penkin and Alisa Okehazama. Opening theme by Yorushika.
• Season one: 24 episodes, 22 October 2023 to 24 March 2024. Season two: 24 episodes, 10 January to 4 July 2025.
• A feature film follows on 11 December 2026, produced by TOHO animation STUDIO. The season and the film were announced together in October 2025.

What is still unknown

The episode count for part one. Whether the film's English title is settled — at least two renderings are circulating in listings, and no distributor has locked one. And whether OLM working alone changes anything a viewer will notice, which is the only version of this question that matters and the only one nobody can answer until Friday.

A series about reading what is actually written on the label returns with a production credit that quietly lost a name. Nobody has printed the correction, because nobody printed the original.

MAPPA is making the Assassins arc. That much is settled, announced at Jump Festa in December 2025 with a teaser, and confirmed again in June 2026 with the staff attached.

What is not settled is the number in front of it.

Calling it season two skips an entire film

The anime's run so far goes: a twelve-episode television season from 12 October to 28 December 2022, and then Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, released in Japanese cinemas on 19 September 2025. The film is a direct continuation. It adapts the next arc of the manga in order. It is not a recap, not a side story and not optional.

The Assassins arc picks up after it. That makes it the third instalment of the anime and the second television one, which is presumably where "season two" comes from — but the phrase quietly tells a new viewer that they can go from episode 12 to the new series without watching a feature film that sits between them.

This is the same numbering habit that turns cours into seasons and compilation films into nothing at all. It is harmless right up to the moment somebody starts watching.

The director changed, and the phrase used to announce it hides that

The June 2026 confirmation said that series director Tatsuya Yoshihara and the original series staff were reprising their roles. Read quickly, that says the band is back together.

Season one was directed by Ryu Nakayama. Yoshihara took over for the Reze Arc film and has kept the chair. So the person being described as returning is returning from the film, not from the television season, and the director of the television season is not involved.

Both men are at MAPPA's disposal and neither departure was framed as a dispute. But "the original series staff" is doing a lot of work in a sentence about a show whose most-discussed creative question in 2022 was its direction.

What is confirmed

• Studio: MAPPA, returning.
• Series director: Tatsuya Yoshihara, confirmed 19 June 2026 along with returning staff.
• Arc: Assassins, adapted from the manga.
• Announced: December 2025, at Jump Festa '26, with a teaser.
• Season one: 12 episodes, 12 October to 28 December 2022, directed by Ryu Nakayama.
• Reze Arc: announced at Jump Festa '24 in December 2023, released 19 September 2025, Yoshihara directing, most cast and crew reprising.

What is still unknown, nine months on

No release window. Not a year, not a season, not a quarter. Announced in December 2025, staffed in June 2026, and as of the end of September 2026 there is no date.

No format. Nobody has said whether Assassins is a television season, a split-cour, or another film. Given that the last instalment was a film, that is not a rhetorical question — and "season two" is being used by people who do not know the answer either.

No episode count, which follows from the above.

An anime that has gone twelve episodes, one feature film and four years without a second television season is about to get one, some time, in some shape. Everyone has agreed to call it season two. Nobody has checked whether it is a season.

Dragon Ball Super: Beerus premieres in Japan on Sunday 11 October, with episode one screening first at New York Comic Con on 8 October. It is the franchise's biggest television event since Dragon Ball Super ended in March 2018, and the expectation attached to it is that the story finally moves forward from the Granolah and Black Frieza arcs.

It does not. Toei has been completely straightforward about this and almost nobody has read the sentence.

Toei calls it an enhanced edition, in English, on its own site

The official description reads: "The ENHANCED edition of the TV anime Dragon Ball Super." The accompanying copy specifies extensive new cuts, revisions to existing scenes, a complete re-rendering of all footage, newly recorded dubbing and a full reconstruction of the story.

The story being reconstructed is the God of Destruction arc, which Dragon Ball Super broadcast from July 2015 — itself a television retelling of the Battle of Gods and Resurrection 'F' films.

So this is a remake of an adaptation of two films. That is a legitimate thing to make, Toei has said exactly what it is, and the gap between that description and the discourse around it is entirely the discourse's problem.

The episode range is quoted wrong too

You will see the Beerus arc given as episodes 1 to 14. The commonly catalogued bracket for the God of Destruction arc is episodes 1 to 27, which folds in the Resurrection 'F' material. The narrower figure covers only the Battle of Gods portion.

The original series ran 131 episodes on Fuji TV between 5 July 2015 and 25 March 2018. How many episodes Beerus runs has not been announced anywhere.

Akira Toriyama's credit is not new authorship

Toriyama is credited as Original Work, Story and Character Design. He died in March 2024. That credit is the legacy Dragon Ball Super credit carried across, and every headline framing this as a new Toriyama story is doing something the credit does not support.

Which sits awkwardly beside one line in Toei's own copy: the promise of "new characters that threaten the fate of Earth." A remaster with new characters is either a remaster with additions or something else wearing the word, and Toei has not reconciled the two. It is the open question of the whole project and it should be reported as an open question rather than resolved in either direction.

The staff

• Composition and direction: Matsuto Seya
• Animation character design: Tadayoshi Yamamuro
• Music: Norihito Sumitomo
• Editing: Eichi Nishimura
• Compositing director: Yosuke Motoki
• Studio: Toei Animation
• The project was announced during the franchise's 40th anniversary programme

For the New York screening on 8 October, Jason Douglas returns as Beerus and Ian Sinclair as Whis, with Monica Rial hosting.

What is still unknown

The episode count. Any international streaming home — none had been announced as of early September, which for a franchise of this size two weeks out is genuinely unusual. How much of the "new characters" line survives contact with the broadcast. And whether the arcs Toei has signalled beyond Beerus continue the remaster or finally move past 2018, since the only sourcing for further arcs is a trailer tag read by one outlet.

A series whose entire premise is that its heroes keep fighting stronger versions of fights they have already had is returning as a stronger version of a fight it has already had. Toei wrote that down. Everyone read past it.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie – Walpurgisnacht: Rising opened in Japan on 28 August and did ¥1,018,375,620 with 583,638 admissions in four days. By 13 September it had passed a million admissions and ¥1.8 billion. Dolby Cinema screenings were added from 18 September.

Rebellion, the last film in the main continuity, finished its 2013 run on ¥2.08 billion.

So the new film is close, and on its current curve it will get there. It has not got there yet — no Japanese trade has reported the crossover, and the most recent institutionally sourced figure is the ¥1.8 billion from mid-September. Anyone telling you this weekend that it is already the franchise's biggest film is running ahead of the reporting.

The "first in thirteen years" line is doing a lot of quiet work

Japanese coverage used the phrase 「シリーズ約13年ぶりの最新作」 — roughly, the newest work in the series in about thirteen years. English aggregation flattened that into "the first new Madoka Magica anime in thirteen years."

That version is false. Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story ran as television anime across three seasons from 2020. A recompiled television edit of the 2012 films began airing in October 2025, ten months before this film opened.

The accurate claim is narrower and still impressive: the first film in the main continuity since Rebellion premiered on 26 October 2013. One qualifier, and the sentence stops erasing three seasons of a spin-off that a lot of people worked on.

It was delayed three times, which is the other number nobody prints

The sequel was announced on 25 April 2021, with SHAFT returning and Gen Urobuchi writing. Oricon's coverage of the opening weekend noted it arrived after three postponements, which is the detail that explains why a thirteen-year gap exists at all.

A film announced in 2021 and released in 2026 is not a franchise that went quiet. It is a franchise that kept saying it was coming.

The numbers, in order

• 28 August 2026 — opens on a reported 292 screens.
• Three days — ¥930 million and around 530,000 admissions; some outlets rounded to ¥9.3 hundred million.
• Four days — ¥1,018,375,620 and 583,638 admissions.
• 13 September, day 17 — one million admissions, ¥1.8 billion.
• Rebellion, 2013 — ¥2.08 billion final, on 129 screens, with over 1.45 million admissions by the end of that year.
• The 2012 compilation films — ¥590 million and ¥560 million, about ¥1.15 billion combined from roughly 800,000 admissions on 43 screens each.

Two of those lines are worth setting against each other. Rebellion reached 1.45 million admissions across a full run on 129 screens. This film hit one million in seventeen days on more than twice as many. The screen counts are not comparable and the pace is not either, which is why "biggest ever" needs the final number rather than the current one.

A credit worth checking before you repeat it

At least one Japanese entertainment outlet describes the film as directed by Akiyuki Shinbo. On the previous three films Shinbo was credited as chief director, with Yukihiro Miyamoto as director. That split is standard at SHAFT and it is routinely collapsed in English-language coverage into a single name.

What is still unknown

The exact date it passes ¥2.08 billion, which no wire has reported. Where the final gross lands, since a seventeen-day million-admission pace says nothing certain about week six. And whether the screen count of 292 is the studio's figure or an enthusiast tally — it comes from a box-office tracking blog rather than from a distributor release.

A franchise built entirely on the idea that the story has already happened several times before is having its comeback described as though nothing happened in between. There were three seasons in between.

Kohei Kadowaki's We Are Aliens opens nationwide in Japan today, 117 minutes long, from a first-time feature director who wrote, directed and cut it himself. It is one of the more interesting animated films of the year and it does not need the sales copy it has been given.

Its Australian distributor's page carries a laurel reading: "OFFICIAL SELECTION – 2026 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL (Directors' Fortnight)."

That is a sentence at war with its own parenthesis.

The Quinzaine is not part of Cannes' Official Selection, by design

The Quinzaine des Cineastes — Directors' Fortnight in English — is run by the Societe des Realisateurs de Films, an independent organisation of French directors. It was founded as a parallel event and it programmes its own slate. Cannes' Official Selection is a different list, chosen by different people, with its own competition and its own jury.

A film in the Quinzaine premieres during Cannes, in Cannes, to the Cannes press corps. That is real and it is worth something. It is not Official Selection, and putting both phrases on one laurel produces a credit that cannot be true as written.

The outlets that covered the premiere got it right — they reported a world premiere at Directors' Fortnight, without the Cannes-badge framing. The laurel is a distribution asset, and distribution assets travel further than reviews.

It competed at Annecy and won nothing

The same page carries a second laurel: Annecy 2026, in competition. Also true. What neither laurel says, because laurels never do, is that the film left Annecy empty-handed. The Cristal for Best Feature went to The Violinist, directed by Ervin Han and Raul Garcia.

"In competition at Annecy" is a genuine distinction for a debut feature. It is being used in a position where readers will assume it means a win.

The film underneath the laurels

• Two inseparable childhood friends in a quiet Japanese town — awkward third-grader Tsubasa and gregarious Gyotaro — are separated by a single event, and the film follows the consequences through adolescence into adulthood.
• Ryota Bando voices the adult Tsubasa, Amane Okayama the adult Gyotaro, with Ten Yamasaki, Kemuri Matsui, Gaku Sano, Arisa Sasaki and Edo Harumi in support.
• Music by Yaffle; theme song "Sasakure" performed by Adieu.
• Planned and produced by Nothing New, with production cooperation from Miyu Productions in France. Toho Next and Nothing New distribute in Japan.
• It runs 117 minutes and took roughly five years from concept to completion, about three and a half of those in production.

The technique is the story nobody is selling

Kadowaki built the film as a hybrid: rotoscope for body weight and facial nuance, traditional hand animation for hair and clothing. He has said the two approaches are linked rather than alternated.

The detail that makes this worth reading twice: most of the animation crew had little or no prior animation experience. Rotoscoping a feature with a team that has not animated one before is a staffing solution as much as an aesthetic choice, and the film is being praised for a look that came out of that constraint. Kadowaki has not framed it as necessity, and it would be unfair to claim he did — but the two facts sit next to each other and neither has been reported alongside the other.

One more credit that is wrong somewhere

At least one review names the producer as "Nowness." Every other source, including the Japanese production itself, says Nothing New. Two English words, one of them right.

What is still unknown

Whether the Quinzaine laurel gets corrected before the film's Australian dates — currently 7 October at the Japanese Film Festival and 19 October at Adelaide. What it cost. And whether a rotoscoped two-hour drama from a debut director finds an audience in a Japanese market whose autumn is otherwise wall-to-wall franchise sequels.

A film about the unreliability of memory has been sold with a credit that misremembers which festival selected it. Nobody planned that, which is the only thing that makes it funny.

Magic Knight Rayearth returns on 7 October, Wednesdays at 23:45 on the TV Asahi network, in the IMAnimation W slot, as a 連続2クール — two consecutive cours, with no episode total announced.

Two things are being repeated about it that the official credits do not support.

TMS is not the animation studio

From the official staff page, the credit block reads:

• 企画プロデュース — UNLIMITED PRODUCE by TMS
• アニメーション制作 — E&H production
• 製作 — TMS Entertainment, Kodansha, TV Asahi

So the accurate sentence is not "TMS has nothing to do with it" — TMS is a production and rights party, and it is on the copyright line. The accurate sentence is that TMS is not animating it. E&H production is. TMS's creative credit is planning and production through its UNLIMITED PRODUCE label, which is a different job from the one it did in 1994, when Tokyo Movie Shinsha made the original series itself.

The last Rayearth anime was 1997

The "first in thirty years" framing measures from the 1994 television premiere and skips a release.

• 1994–95 TV series: 49 episodes, 17 October 1994 to 27 November 1995, Yomiuri TV on the Nippon TV network, Mondays at 19:30, produced by Tokyo Movie Shinsha.
• 1997 OVA: three episodes, released on home video between 25 July and 10 December 1997. Not a broadcast, and a substantially different retelling — but it is Rayearth animation, and it is twenty-nine years old, not thirty-one.

"The first new Rayearth anime since the 1997 OVA" is the phrasing that survives checking.

Forty-nine episodes, split 20 and 29

The original run is often described as two broadcast series of 24 and 25 episodes. The production's own records split it elsewhere: the series composition credit reads まるおけいこ for episodes 1–20 and 大川七瀬 for episodes 21–49, and episode 21 opens with a new title sequence.

So: one continuous 49-episode run in two arcs of 20 and 29. Anyone printing 24 and 25 is splitting it down the middle rather than where the show splits.

The 2026 credits, as published

• 監督 — 三浦唯 (Yui Miura); 副監督 — 佐野誉幸
• シリーズ構成 — 村越繁 (Shigeru Murakoshi)
• キャラクターデザイン・総作画監督 — 渡部里美 (Satomi Watanabe) — note the credit is character design and chief animation director, not design alone
• 音楽 — 桜浦由記 (Yuki Kajiura), 尾澤拓実, 寺田志保. Three composers, in that order. Kajiura alone is the version in circulation.
• クリエイティブプロデューサー — 朴性厚

The leads: 佐倉綾音 (Ayane Sakura) as Hikaru, 大久保瑠美 (Rumi Okubo) as Umi, 高橋李依 (Rie Takahashi) as Fuu. Around them: Saori Hayami as Emeraude, Yuki Ono as Zagato, Mika Kikuchi as Mokona, Yuki Kaji as Clef, Emiri Kato as Presea, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Ferio, Mamiko Noto as Alcyone, Ayumu Murase as Ascot, Hitomi Ueda as Caldina, Hiroki Yasumoto as Lafarga.

Opening theme by 十明, 「乙女の剣」.

Not announced

• The episode count. Two cours is stated; a number is not.
• Whether it adapts both manga arcs, or only the first.
• Whether the 1997 OVA gets a reissue alongside it.

The manga is three years old and the anime outlived it by a decade

CLAMP serialised Magic Knight Rayearth in Kodansha's Nakayoshi from November 1993 to April 1996 — two parts, six volumes. The television series started thirteen months into that run and finished before the manga did.

Thirty-two years later the property comes back on a different network, from a different studio, with a chief animation director doing the character designs and three composers where there used to be one.

The only thing carried over intact is Kajiura, and even she is now first of three.

Youjo Senki II ends tonight with episode 12, 「出口」, on TOKYO MX at 23:30. The first season finished on 31 March 2017. The gap is nine and a half years, and almost every English database describing the season that just ran has the wrong name in the director's slot.

One seat changed, and it is the one everyone carried forward

From the official site's own staff block for season two:

• 監督 — 山本貴之 (Takayuki Yamamoto)
• シリーズ構成・脚本 — 猪原健太 (Kenta Ihara)
• キャラクターデザイン・総作画監督 — 細越裕治 (Yuji Hosokoshi)
• 音楽 — 片山修志 (Shuji Katayama)
• 音響監督 — 岩浪美和 (Yoshikazu Iwanami)
• アニメーション制作 — NUT

Everything below the director carried over from 2017. The director did not. Season one and the 2019 film were both directed by 上村泰 (Yutaka Uemura), and he is not credited on season two at all.

A warning if you are checking this yourself: at least one film database's automatic romanisation renders 上村泰 as "Yasushi Kamimura," which is wrong on both halves of the name.

Twelve episodes, thirteen weeks — and the same was true in 2017

Season two began on 8 July 2026 and ran weekly without a break: 8, 15, 22 and 29 July, 5, 12, 19 and 26 August, 2, 9, 16 and 23 September. Twelve.

Season one looks like it should not work — 6 January to 31 March 2017 is thirteen weeks for twelve numbered episodes — and it does, because a recap episode, 総集編 6.5話 「戦況報告」, went out mid-run. Anyone subtracting dates to get an episode count will come up one short.

The home video release confirms the shape: three volumes, four episodes each, the first on 27 November 2026 and the last on 27 January 2027.

The wait was five years from the announcement, not nine

The nine-year figure everyone is using measures from the end of season one. The production was announced on 19 June 2021, during a streaming special celebrating the franchise, which makes the gap between "season two is happening" and season two happening five years and three weeks.

That is the more interesting number, and it is the one that never appears.

The film's yen figure, with its metric attached

The 2019 feature, 劇場版 幼女戦記, opened on 8 February 2019, ran 101 minutes, was directed by Uemura and animated by NUT.

• 興行収入 (box office gross) over ¥300 million as of mid-March 2019, reported by the publisher's own outlet.
• ¥400 million crossed in late April 2019, announced by the official account.
• ¥420 million as a final figure — that is ¥4.2億 — sourced to a single line in a trade annual's industry statistics issue. It is the number in circulation and it rests on one citation.

¥4.2億 is ¥420 million, not ¥4.2 billion. That distinction survives roughly half the trips through automatic translation, which is why any English figure for this film is worth re-checking before you print it.

Where it actually aired, which is five different times

The broadcast schedule is the sort of thing that produces two different premiere dates in English listings, because Japanese late-night slots run past midnight and keep the previous day's date:

• AT-X — Wednesdays 21:30
• TOKYO MX — Wednesdays 23:30
• Sun TV — Wednesdays 25:00, which is 1:00 on Thursday morning
• KBS Kyoto, BS11, TV Aichi — Wednesdays 25:30, i.e. 1:30 Thursday
• Streaming — Wednesdays 23:00, ahead of terrestrial

Three of those five are technically Thursday. Every one of them is listed under Wednesday.

NUT has made this and almost nothing else

The studio was founded in 2015 and Youjo Senki is the property it is known for — season one in 2017, the film in 2019, season two in 2026. Three productions, one franchise, across nine years, with the core staff block intact apart from the chair at the top.

Which makes the director change the only real personnel story here, and it is the one detail the English-language record has backwards.

Open questions after tonight

• Whether a third season or a second film is announced at the end of the episode. Nothing has been trailed.
• Whether season two ran an extra recap the way season one did. The three-volume disc split covering episodes 1 to 12 suggests not.
• The film's final gross, which nobody has confirmed against the publisher.

A war story that took longer to greenlight than to fight

The series is about an office worker reincarnated into a European war as a small girl with an artillery officer's temperament, and it has now spent longer in the gap between seasons than the fictional conflict lasted.

Tonight it ends with an episode called "Exit," which is either a promise or a title, and the credits will roll on a different director from the one the internet thinks made it.

Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc started streaming on Prime Video on Saturday 19 September, as a subscription exclusive, and every write-up carries the same figure: ¥297億 worldwide.

Which is ¥29.7 billion. Not ¥297 billion. The 億 counter is a hundred million, so an English writer reading ¥297億 as "297 billion yen" inflates the number tenfold.

One outlet managed to get it wrong in the other direction, in its own headline, directly above its own correct sentence.

The headline and the body, from the same page

Headline: 「世界興収200億円超」 — worldwide box office over ¥20 billion.

Body: 「世界興行収入297億円（2026年6月19日時点）を突破し」 — worldwide box office of ¥29.7 billion, as of 19 June 2026.

A gap of roughly ¥9.7 billion, on one page, published the day the film hit streaming. "Over ¥20 billion" is technically true of a film on ¥29.7 billion. It is also the kind of true that costs a film a third of its result.

What the figures actually are

Every number below is 興行収入 — box office gross, the modern Japanese standard. None of it is 配給収入, and none of it should be converted at a single spot rate.

• Worldwide: ¥297億, as of 19 June 2026. That date matters: it is three months old, and every September article still quotes it.
• Japan: ¥108.1億, as of 29 March 2026, per Kogyo Tsushinsha — 45th on Japan's all-time chart, having passed Toy Story 3's ¥108億. The next rung is Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End at ¥109億.
• Six days earlier it stood at ¥107.9億, 46th all-time, 185 days into its run.
• It cleared ¥100億 within 103 days of its 19 September 2025 opening — so around 30 December 2025, not in January — on about 6.55 million admissions, from 421 screens including 60 IMAX.
• Toho's initial target was ¥50億. It passed that inside a month.

No newer domestic figure has been published since March. September's coverage quotes only the worldwide number, and the worldwide number is from June.

Rungs that do not exist

Three milestone figures circulate in English write-ups of this film's run and none of them turned up in any Japanese source: ¥35.8億 in October 2025, ¥102.8億 tied for 48th with Evangelion: 3.0+1.0, and ¥104.3億 at 47th.

They may be real. They are not sourced. What is sourced at that stage of the run is ¥107.9億 at 46th, which is a different rung entirely.

Credits, with the one name to be careful about

• Director: Tatsuya Yoshihara (吉原達矢). Studio: MAPPA. Original manga: Tatsuki Fujimoto. Screenplay: Koji Seko. Distributor: Toho.
• Makima: Tomori Kusunoki. Reze: Reina Ueda.
• Denji: 戸谷菊之介. English credits generally render this as Kikunosuke Toya; a second reading circulates and no official English credit page was reachable to settle it. Given the choice, print the kanji or use Toya.
• Opening: 「IRIS OUT」 by Kenshi Yonezu. Ending: 「JANE DOE」 by Kenshi Yonezu and Hikaru Utada. An insert song by Maximum the Hormone also appears, single-sourced.

Streaming before disc

The Prime Video release arrived with no Blu-ray on shelves — the streaming window opened first, which for a Toho theatrical anime with this kind of result is not the usual order.

A year and a day from its 19 September 2025 opening, the film went from cinemas to subscription streaming without passing through a physical release. That is the actual news in the announcement, and it is the part nobody led with.

Still open

• Any domestic figure newer than ¥108.1億 from March.
• Any worldwide figure newer than ¥297億 from June.
• A territory breakdown of the worldwide total. None published.
• A Blu-ray date.

The counter that keeps eating a zero

億 is the unit that breaks English-language anime coverage, reliably, every time a Japanese film does well. ¥297億 is a large number written compactly. Read it as billions and you have a film out-grossing anything ever released anywhere; read it correctly and you have a very successful adaptation sitting somewhere in Japan's all-time top fifty.

The outlet that got it backwards did not misread the counter. It read it correctly in the body and then wrote a headline off a number that was three rungs down. Which is the more interesting failure: not arithmetic, just nobody checking the top of the page against the middle of it.

The 4K restoration of Roujin Z was announced on 20 September for a one-week run in December. The Japanese copy bills it the way it has always been billed: 大友克洋 × 江口寿史 × 北久保弘之. Three names, in that order, with the director's at the end.

English coverage will compress that to "Katsuhiro Otomo's Roujin Z," because Otomo is the name that sells, and because Akira trained everyone to assume he directed anything with his name on it.

The credit block, as announced

• 原作・脚本・メカニックデザイン — Katsuhiro Otomo (original story, screenplay, mechanical design)
• 監督 — Hiroyuki Kitakubo (director)
• Hisashi Eguchi on the character designs

Otomo wrote it and designed the machine. He did not direct it. Kitakubo did, at thirty, five years before he made Blood: The Last Vampire.

One wrinkle worth knowing if you are quoting the Japanese: some outlets give Eguchi as キャラクターデザイン and others as キャラクター原案, which is closer to original character concept. "Character designs by Hisashi Eguchi" is supported either way; the exact Japanese credit is not settled between sources.

The screening

• Friday 18 December 2026, one week only, at Theatre Shinjuku in Tokyo and Theatre Umeda in Osaka.
• Nationwide from spring 2027.
• Part of Tokyo Theatres' 80th-anniversary programme — by one account the third instalment of it.
• The official teaser spells the whole thing out in its own title: 2026.12.18 (Fri), Theatre Shinjuku and Theatre Umeda, one week limited, nationwide spring 2027.

The 1991 film

• Released 14 September 1991. Eighty minutes.
• Won the Animation Film Award at the 46th Mainichi Film Concours.
• Premise: an experimental hospital bed with an onboard AI, assigned to a bedridden pensioner, which grows a mind and then a body and then goes through Tokyo.
• Original distributor was Babit — not Tokyo Theatres, which handles the restoration. Do not merge the two.

What is not confirmed

• Whether the 4K master came from the original negative. None of the announcements name a source element, a scan resolution, or an audio remix. Anyone writing "scanned from the original negative" is filling in a blank.
• The animation studio. A.P.P.P. is the studio commonly credited and appears on one film database, but no 2026 announcement names a studio at all. Hedge it.
• Any box office figure. Japanese theatrical earnings in 1991 were reported as 配給収入, distributor income, not 興行収入 — and no 配給収入 figure for this film surfaced anywhere. It is better to print nothing than to attach a modern gross metric to a 1991 release.
• The restoration's runtime, rating, and the theatre count for the spring rollout.

1991 was a strange year to make this film

Japan's animation industry in 1991 was three years past Akira and deep into a period where every serious production was being asked to be the next one. Roujin Z went the other way: a small film, an eighty-minute running time, a premise built out of an ageing population and a health ministry rather than out of psychic children and a ruined city.

It won the Mainichi animation prize and then spent three decades as the film enthusiasts recommend to people who think they have finished with Otomo.

The joke that has aged strangely is the machine itself. The Z-001 is sold as a solution to elder care: a bed that feeds, washes, medicates and entertains its occupant without a human ever entering the room, and which its ministry sponsors describe in the language of dignity. The film's position is that nobody asked the man in the bed.

Japan's population was 12 percent over 65 when the film came out. It is roughly thirty percent now. Very little in the script needed updating; the restoration is the only thing being modernised.

What a 4K restoration actually changes, and what it doesn't

For cel animation of this period, a restoration is mostly a scan and a clean: the artwork exists at a fixed resolution on physical cels and 35mm negative, and a 4K pass recovers line detail and colour that prints and home video lost, rather than inventing anything.

Which is why the unanswered question about the source element is not a technicality. A scan from an original negative and a scan from an interpositive produce visibly different films, and the announcement says neither.

The December run is one week in two cinemas. The wide release is five months later, in spring 2027, on a theatre count nobody has published.

Why the credit matters more here than usual

Roujin Z is the film people reach for when they want to argue that Otomo is a satirist as well as a stylist — the elder-care system, the ministry, the nurses' union, the machine that will care for you whether or not you consent. All of that is in the script, and the script is his.

The reason it plays as comedy rather than as a lecture is a directorial choice, and that choice belongs to Kitakubo. Collapsing the two into one name erases the half of the film that makes the other half bearable.

Thirty-five years on, a story about a health system solving old age with an unasked-for machine is going back into cinemas. It will be written up under one name. There were three.

Toshiaki Iwashiro's Psyren ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from the 2008 first issue to the 2010 fifty-second, finished at sixteen volumes, and has been described ever since as a series that got cut down before it could land.

There is no source for that. Not the Japanese encyclopedia entry, not the fan reference sites, not the retrospectives written when the anime was announced. None of them describes a cancellation. What there is instead is a compressed final arc and a reader population that drew a conclusion from it.

On 5 October it gets an anime, which is a strange fate for a series everyone agrees was killed.

The chapter count is wrong in English

English sources repeat 161 chapters. Shueisha's own digital platform, Shonen Jump+, hosts the series marked as completed, and its final chapter is 145, titled "Connected Worlds" — the same title as volume 16, the last volume. There is no chapter 146.

• 145 chapters, 16 volumes, per the publisher's archive and the major Japanese reference entries.
• 161 appears in English-language reference material and is not supported by anything Shueisha publishes.
• The only way the two reconcile is if the digital archive merges instalments, and no evidence of that turned up. If you print 161, hedge it.

The dates, and why two of them are both correct

Jump issues are cover-dated ahead of their on-sale date, which produces two defensible date pairs for the same run:

• By issue: 2008 issue 1 to 2010 issue 52.
• By on-sale date: 3 December 2007 to 29 November 2010.
• Final volume: volume 16, "Connected Worlds," 4 March 2011.

Three years, near enough to the week. Say which convention you are using and both are fine.

What Iwashiro has actually said

Not what the fandom attributes to him. The only sourced statement available is his comment on the anime announcement in December 2025, and it is about gratitude rather than grievance: that after roughly fifteen years he can finally tell his parents and family there is an anime, and that the young editors and animation staff making it read Psyren as teenagers.

No interview in which he describes the ending as forced or early exists in any reachable source. "Iwashiro said it was cancelled" is not a quote. It is a thing people believe.

Why it was not animated for sixteen years

One Japanese retrospective offers a straightforward answer: timing. Dark fantasy with a jump-to-a-ruined-future structure had not yet become standard anime material, and the protagonist's hard-edged characterisation sat awkwardly with the shonen audience of the late 2000s.

Which is to say the series was not too unpopular to animate. It was too early.

The 2026 anime

• Premieres 5 October 2026, 23:00 JST, on Tokyo MX, rolling out to other stations, with BS11 also listed.
• Studio Satelight. Directed by Katsumi Ono, series composition by Shin Yoshida, character design by Okuma — whose given name is romanized inconsistently across sources.
• Music credited to three composers: Takashi Omama, Tatsuhiko Saiki and Shu Kanematsu. Licensed by Remow.
• Cast: Rikuya Yasuda as Ageha Yoshina, Mayuko Kazama as Sakurako Amamiya.
• Announced 15 December 2025 — the first and only adaptation in the property's history, roughly fifteen years after serialization ended.

Unresolved

• Episode count. Not published anywhere. The production's line about adapting the complete story is an intention, not an episode order, and does not imply two cours.
• Crunchyroll date. Listed as coming soon. A Japanese broadcast date is not a streaming date.
• The character designer's romanization.
• Whether Shueisha's digital archive merges any original instalments, which is the only route by which 161 could be right.

A series that ended on schedule and was remembered as a casualty

Sixteen volumes over three years in Weekly Shonen Jump is a completed run by any measure the magazine uses. Series that are genuinely cut short do not usually get sixteen volumes and a final chapter sharing its title with the final volume.

What Psyren got was an ending that arrives faster than its middle, in a magazine where pacing is a weekly survival calculation, and a readership that has spent sixteen years reading that acceleration as a death notice.

In October it becomes an anime, made by people who were reading it at the time, at a moment when its premise is no longer ahead of anything.

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.

Norio Sakurai finished The Dangers in My Heart on 15 September 2026 with a graduation ceremony, which is the only way that series was ever going to end. It began on 8 March 2018. That is eight years and six months, and Oricon's Japanese headline says so plainly — eight and a half years.

Several outlets rounded it to eight. Sakurai's own comment says "more than eight years," which is both accurate and the sort of thing that gets rounded down in translation.

The magazine it ran in is a three-link chain

Anything describing this as the end of a long Weekly Shonen Champion run is wrong by about eight years and four months.

• March 2018 — starts in Weekly Shonen Champion, the print magazine, issue 15. It runs there for four issues.
• April 2018 — moves to Champion Cross, Akita Shoten's web platform.
• July 2018 — Champion Cross merges with Champion Tap! and the series continues on the combined site, Manga Cross.
• 23 April 2024 — Akita Shoten relaunches Manga Cross and renames it Champion Cross again. The series finishes there.

Four print instalments, then eight years on a website that reverted to its original name six years later. The publisher's own announcement of the 2024 relaunch is the only clean record of that last step, and it is the one most English summaries stop short of.

It ended. It was not cut.

Sakurai's comment on the final chapter: thanks to everyone who supported the series, and relief at having brought more than eight years of serialization to a safe and healthy close. The final volume was flagged as final well in advance. There is no cancellation anywhere in this.

Worth stating because a series that ends on a graduation, at volume fourteen, with the leads' arc closed, still attracts the reflex reading that it was wrapped early.

The verifiable ledger

• Start: Weekly Shonen Champion 2018 issue 15, on sale 8 March 2018.
• End: 15 September 2026, on Champion Cross.
• Final chapter: numbered 199, per one outlet. Only one source states the number; everyone else gives the date and stops. Safe form: "the final chapter, published 15 September."
• Volumes: 14. The last one is not out yet — it arrives 6 November 2026, with a special edition bundling a graduation-album art booklet.
• Circulation: more than 7 million copies through volume 13. That is copies in circulation, which is a printing figure, not a sales figure.

The anime is not finished either

• Season 1: 12 episodes, spring 2023. Season 2: 13 episodes, winter 2024. Twenty-five total.
• A compilation film opened on 13 February 2026 and drew around 170,000 admissions. It is a recap feature, not a third season, and not an episode.
• Season 3 was confirmed on 14 March 2026, for broadcast in 2027. Shin-Ei Animation returns, with character design by Masato Katsumata, series composition by Juki Hanada and music by Kensuke Ushio. The director's name has been rendered inconsistently across sources and is best left out until the official site confirms it.

Loose ends

• Chapter 199 is single-sourced.
• The 8 March 2018 on-sale date is derived from the issue number rather than from a publisher page.
• Episode counts come from two listings that agree with each other and disagree with one encyclopedia entry.

Eight and a half years of one school year, roughly

The series covers a stretch of middle school and high school that a real student would clear in a fraction of the time it took to draw. That is normal for the genre and it is also the reason the ending lands: readers who started in 2018 have aged nearly a decade watching two characters get from one term to a graduation.

The manga is finished on 15 September 2026. The final volume arrives in November. The anime returns in 2027. Nothing about that is an ending, except the part that is.

A film about a small anxious white creature and its two friends has taken ¥14.66 billion at the Japanese box office and drawn roughly ten million admissions, as of day 52 of its release on 13 September.

The number circulating in English is ¥13.9 billion. It was accurate in early September and has been superseded three times since.

Which yen figure this is

Japanese box office reporting uses two different measures and they differ by roughly a factor of two.

• 兴行収入 — gross box office, what the cinemas take. This is what every figure in modern Japanese reporting means, and it is what ¥14.66 billion is.
• 配給収入 — distributor income, the older standard, roughly half of gross. Records quoted from before 2000 are often in this currency.

Put a modern gross figure next to a pre-2000 distributor figure and the modern film wins by default, without anyone lying. It is the single most common error in English-language coverage of Japanese box office, and the reason to say which metric you are using every time.

What "biggest of 2026" actually means

On 6 September the film passed Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway at ¥13.7 billion to become the highest-grossing film released in Japan in 2026. Not the highest-grossing anime film of 2026, not the highest-grossing Japanese film — all releases, foreign titles included.

That is the strongest true version of the claim, and it is strong. It is also not an all-time record, or close to one:

• At ¥13.9 billion it sat around 23rd on Japan's all-time chart, just under Jujutsu Kaisen 0 at ¥13.89 billion. Its exact placing at ¥14.66 billion has not been published.
• Demon Slayer: Mugen Train is at roughly ¥40.7 billion. Nothing released this decade is within sight of it.

The run, in order

• 24 July 2026 — released. Opening day ¥990 million, beating Detective Conan: The Million Dollar Pentagram's ¥960 million opening day. First three days: 1,508,538 admissions, ¥2.24 billion.
• 23 August, day 30 — crosses ¥10 billion. The fourth anime film among 2026 Japanese releases to do it, after Zootopia 2, the Conan film and Toy Story 5.
• 6 September — passes ¥13.8 billion and takes the year.
• 11–13 September — still number one, 10.09 million admissions, ¥14.6 billion cumulative. Second that weekend was The Odyssey.

Title: Chiikawa the Movie: The Secret of the Mermaid Island. 99 minutes, directed by Kei Oikawa, original work and screenplay by Nagano. Distributed by Toho.

The comparison that makes the number legible

Ten million admissions in a country of 123 million is about one person in twelve, for a film based on a four-panel strip about characters who mostly work, eat, and worry. It has now outgrossed, in its home market, a Christopher Nolan epic that is simultaneously breaking records in South Korea.

It did it in 52 days, at number one every weekend, with no franchise history longer than a few years.

What has not been published

• Any cumulative figure newer than 13 September. The following weekend's chart may have moved it again.
• Its exact all-time rank at ¥14.66 billion. The 23rd-place figure was measured at ¥13.9 billion and comes from a single source.
• Overseas grosses, which exist in Taiwan and Hong Kong and should never be added to the yen total.

The number will move again before anyone updates it

¥13.9 billion was correct for about four days. It has been reprinted in English for two weeks, which is roughly how long it takes for a Japanese box office figure to cross into English-language coverage, stop updating, and become the canonical number.

The figure today is ¥14.66 billion in gross box office, as of 13 September, still at number one. All three of those clauses matter, and the version travelling abroad has none of them.

Trigger returns to Night City on 20 October with ten episodes. The official title is Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2. Not season two.

That looks like pedantry until you notice what the number is doing. This is not a continuation. The 2022 series told a complete story with an ending that foreclosed a sequel, and what arrives next month is a new story with an entirely new cast of characters — the official description promises a new story, fresh characters, and a rawer take on the same world.

The numeral is doing anthology work. Headlines and article URLs across the English-language press have quietly converted it back to "season 2" anyway, which reintroduces exactly the expectation the title was built to avoid: that David's story continues. It does not.

Imaishi is not directing it

The second assumption worth killing early. Hiroyuki Imaishi directed the 2022 series and is not directing this one.

Edgerunners 2 is directed by Kai Ikarashi, with Bartosz Sztybor returning as writer and showrunner and Masahiko Otsuka back on scripts. Trigger is still the studio and CD Projekt Red is still the partner, so the continuity is institutional rather than authorial.

Given that the first series' visual identity is usually credited to Imaishi's sensibility, a new director on a new cast in the same city is a much larger change than "season two" implies. Which, again, is presumably why nobody involved called it that.

The cast claim that is going around, and where it actually comes from

Giancarlo Esposito is being attached to this in places. He is not in the announced cast.

The interesting part is why the error is so persistent, because the usual explanation — that people are confusing the anime with the video game — is wrong. Esposito did voice a character in the English dub of the 2022 Edgerunners series. He played Faraday. It is a real credit on the real show.

So when an outlet runs a headline about Esposito's wild Cyberpunk series returning to Netflix, it is technically defensible about the franchise and reads as a cast confirmation for a production he has not been announced for. That is a better and more honest account of how the claim spread than "somebody mixed up a game and a cartoon."

The announced leads are Kentarō Tone and Clancy Brown as Weak Kingsley, Kōki Uchiyama and Nazeeh Tarsha as D, Momoka Terasawa and Valeria Rodriguez as Roman Carax, and Akari Kitō and Kimoy Lee as Talia Yang, with Akemi Okamura, Takashi Matsuyama and Miho Okasaki also cast.

What it is following

The 2022 series holds a perfect critical record on the major aggregator across sixteen reviews, averaging 8.8 out of 10, with public endorsements from Hideo Kojima and from Cyberpunk's original creator Mike Pondsmith.

Its viewership figure is worth quoting with its unit attached, because it usually isn't: 14.88 million hours viewed in its first week on the platform's Top 10. Hours, not viewers, not households — a title with ten roughly twenty-five-minute episodes converts hours into people very differently from a film, and the two numbers are not interchangeable.

And the durable measure of what that series did is not on any chart: it is credited with driving the game it was based on to twenty million copies sold, eighteen months after that game's launch had gone badly enough to be pulled from a storefront.

An anime rescued a video game. The sequel is a different story with different people and a different director, released under a number rather than a season, and it will be reported as season two anyway.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run resumes on Netflix on 25 September, six months after it started. Almost every preview describes what is coming as season two, following a first season in March.

There was no first season. There was one episode.

The 1st Stage was a single 47-minute instalment

On 19 March 2026, Netflix released one episode of Steel Ball Run, running forty-seven minutes. That was the entirety of what the production calls the 1st Stage. Not a cour, not a truncated season, not a two-parter. One long episode, and then a six-month gap.

Anyone writing that season one had twelve episodes has invented eleven of them.

The production's own terminology is Stage — 1st, 2nd, 3rd — and there are three planned. "Season" is journalist shorthand imposed from outside, and the trades describing the release pattern as split-cours are using a scheduling word rather than the official label. Neither is wrong as description. Both become wrong the moment somebody counts episodes with them.

The episode count is being reported backwards

The figure in circulation is eleven episodes for the 2nd Stage. That is not what was announced.

The announcement says eleven episodes in total for the 2nd and 3rd stages combined. Netflix's own promotional wording carries the bundling explicitly — second and third stage, eleven new episodes premiering weekly from 25 September.

So eleven is the number for the rest of the adaptation as currently ordered, not for the run starting this month. Coverage that compresses "2nd and 3rd" into "2nd" doubles the apparent size of what is about to air.

Twelve episodes total, then, across all three stages: one in March, eleven from September. For a manga that runs ninety-five chapters and is widely considered its author's most ambitious work, that is an extremely compressed adaptation, and it is worth knowing before anyone starts describing the pacing as rushed without checking what was ordered.

Who is actually making it

David production returns, with Toshiyuki Kato as series director and Yasuhiro Kimura and Hideya Takahashi directing — the pairing that co-directed Golden Wind. Yasuko Kobayashi handles series composition and scripts, Daisuke Tsumagari character design, Yūgo Kanno the music, Yoshikazu Iwanami sound direction.

Japanese cast: Shōgo Sakata as Johnny Joestar, Yōhei Azakami as Gyro Zeppeli, Kaito Ishikawa as Diego Brando, Rie Takahashi as Lucy Steel. The English dub has Daman Mills, Kaiji Tang, Damien Haas, Frankie Kevich and Jamieson Price.

Weekly, Fridays, from 25 September.

And a small calendar oddity

That date sits before October, which is where the autumn broadcast season conventionally begins. Every seasonal chart files this as a Fall 2026 title anyway, and nobody appears to be arguing about it.

But it is a neat illustration of how little the broadcast-season grid means for a streaming-native release. Steel Ball Run is not on a Japanese television slot; it is on a Friday, on a platform, on whatever date the platform chose. The season charts are still organising it as though it were waiting for a network to have room — which is the same instinct that made everyone count a forty-seven-minute episode as a season.

The final two episodes of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War have been delayed to the late-night slots of 19 and 26 October — which, under Japanese broadcast convention, means they air at midnight on the 20th and 27th. Both dates are correct. Most outlets have picked one without saying which.

The production's stated reason is quality: wanting to improve the episodes as the series reaches its climax and deliver the work in the best possible form. Episode 48 aired on 12 September, so the audience hit the wall mid-arc, five weeks from an ending twenty years in the making.

This is a delay. It is not a cancellation, and the franchise is not finishing — a new mobile game with two Tite Kubo-designed characters and a Kubo-worked scenario picking up immediately after this arc was shown in July.

Four numbering systems, one episode

Here is where reporting this becomes genuinely difficult, because Bleach is counted four different ways simultaneously and all four are in active use:

• The adaptation's own count, 1 to 50. The delayed pair are episodes 49 and 50. This is what the official announcement uses. There is also a recap special numbered 21.5
• The per-cour count. The 12 September episode is Part 4, Episode 8; the delayed pair are Part 4 episodes 9 and 10
• The continuous count inherited from the 2004 series, in which this adaptation begins at episode 367 and ends at 416, with a recap special at 387.5
• The part boundaries within that continuous count: Part 1 runs 367 to 379, Part 2 380 to 392, Part 3 393 to 406, Part 4 407 to 416

So episode 50, Part 4 episode 10, and episode 416 are the same broadcast. And the 12 September episode is simultaneously 48, Part 4 episode 8, and 414.

Which produces a specific, checkable trap. Reference pages currently end their episode tables at the last aired instalment, so an automated read returns "final episode: 414." That is episode 48. The finale is 416. Anyone eyeballing a table this month will get this wrong by two.

The cours are not the same length, either

The other assumption worth killing is that each part runs thirteen episodes. They do not:

• Part 1, The Blood Warfare — 13
• Part 2, The Separation — 13
• Part 3, The Conflict — 14
• Part 4, The Calamity — 10

Fifty in total. The final part is the shortest by four episodes, which is its own small piece of information about how the adaptation budgeted its ending — and which vanishes entirely if you assume uniform cours.

The system nobody at the studio uses

The most interesting thing about the continuous 367-to-416 numbering is that it appears to be a fan and reference-work construction rather than anything the production, the studio or the official site employs in its own materials.

It exists because the 2004 series stopped at 366 and this one resumed the same story eighteen years later, and somebody needed a way to express the relationship between them. So the community built a numbering the rights-holders never asked for, it became the default on every reference page, and now international coverage routinely cites episode numbers that appear nowhere in any official document.

Which is a very Bleach problem. A series that spent its entire run on the question of how many names one thing can have ends with its own episodes carrying four.

The live-action Akira is dead, and almost nobody noticed how it died. Not cancelled — cancellation requires a decision. In June 2025 Warner Bros. simply declined to renew its option, and the rights went back to Kodansha, where they have now sat for fourteen months with no announced buyer, no director, and no writer.

Twenty-three years. Five directors. At least nine writers. Two shut-down productions. An eighteen-and-a-half-million-dollar tax credit surrendered unused. Spending that the trade press describes as millions, well into the eight figures. Not one frame of film exposed.

Meanwhile, on 4 September, the 1988 film returned to cinemas in 4K and IMAX and took 2.7 million dollars across 787 screens in a weekend — reportedly close to five times what every previous North American release of it had earned combined.

The budget story is being told backwards

The line you will read everywhere, including in the outlet that originally broke it, is that the Vancouver production was shut down in 2012 when the budget reached ninety million dollars. It implies a runaway.

The contemporaneous reporting — same journalist, same publication, January 2012 — says something close to the opposite. Under the Hughes Brothers the budget had been around 180 million. Under Jaume Collet-Serra it had already been cut to ninety. Warner Bros. shut it down because it wanted the film at sixty to seventy million.

So ninety million was not the ceiling that killed it. It was the compromise the studio rejected as still too expensive. The film died going down, not up. The phrasing everyone repeats is a 2025 compression of 2012 reporting, and it reverses the causality.

The director list, in order

Warner Bros. acquired the rights in April 2002 in a seven-figure deal. What followed:

• Stephen Norrington, 2002. Gone within the year
• Ruairi Robinson, 2008-2009. A two-film plan that collapsed
• Albert and Allen Hughes, 2010-2011. Departed after a script leak, citing creative differences
• Jaume Collet-Serra, 2011-2012. Shut down weeks from a Vancouver shoot. Briefly reattached in 2013, then quietly gone
• Taika Waititi, from 2017, confirmed 2019. Never formally exited

The Waititi version is worth dwelling on because it got closest and its collapse was the most banal. It had a release date of 21 May 2021. It had seventy-one scheduled shooting days in California. It had an eighteen-and-a-half-million-dollar state tax credit — the largest of eighteen allocations in that round — against ninety-two million in qualified in-state spending, budgeted for two hundred below-the-line crew, more than five thousand extras, and forty-three million dollars in wages.

In July 2019, Waititi took Thor: Love and Thunder. In December, the film came off the schedule. The credit went unused. He has said nothing publicly about Akira since.

Otomo never blocked anything

The most durable myth about this project is that Katsuhiro Otomo held a veto and kept using it. Its entire source is a single 2017 interview in which he said he had given one major condition — that he had to check and approve the scenario.

In that same conversation he said he was generally fine with whatever they wanted to do with it. He had earlier told one of the screenwriters not to be afraid to change things.

There is no reported instance of Otomo blocking, rejecting or killing any version. Every documented failure traces to a Warner Bros. budget decision or a director's scheduling conflict. Hollywood spent twenty-three years and eight figures failing to make a film whose author had already given it permission to change.

Why the arithmetic was always going to win

The manga is roughly two thousand pages across 120 chapters and six volumes — the narrative mass of a multi-season prestige series. Otomo, adapting his own unfinished work in 1988, solved this by amputation: he cut the back half and invented an ending, while the manga carried on serialising for nearly two more years afterward.

Which means the canonical Akira film is already a compression its own author did not treat as complete. It is exactly why he came back in 2019 promising a new anime that would incorporate the entirety of the manga's story.

Every live-action attempt inherited a fork with no good branch:

• Adapt the manga and you need a destroyed megacity, competing military factions, biker gangs and a psychic body-horror climax — which is what the budget ledger shows. 180 million, cut to 90, with the studio demanding 60 to 70. A seventy-million-dollar Akira is not a smaller Akira. It is a different and worse film
• Adapt the 1988 film and you are remaking a work widely regarded as definitive, in the medium it was made to escape, with nothing to add

The 2011 version is the demonstration case. It solved the budget by shrinking the story and solved the setting by relocating to "Neo-Manhattan" and renaming Tetsuo as Travis. The cheap reading is that Hollywood could not stop whitewashing it. The truer one is that the relocation was a cost-and-casting solution to a scope problem, and it made the film simultaneously cheaper and pointless.

Waititi's plan — the full manga, an Asian and Asian-American teenage cast — was the first to refuse both branches. It never reached a budget conversation.

One casting myth worth retiring

The names actually in negotiation in late 2011 were Garrett Hedlund, frontrunner for Kaneda, and Kristen Stewart, offered the Kei role. Paul Dano, Alden Ehrenreich and Toby Kebbell screen-tested for Tetsuo.

The endlessly circulated claim that Chris Evans was cast as Kaneda and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tetsuo appears to originate in fan concept art from around 2008. There is no evidence either was ever offered a role.

Where it all ends up

The rights are with Kodansha. The Sunrise anime Otomo announced at Anime Expo in July 2019 — the one meant to cover the whole manga — has had no substantive update in seven years, and is now dormant longer than it was ever active. In May, Otomo founded his own Tokyo animation studio, built to pass on his methods to a new generation. Its first production has not been identified.

And in the middle of all this, the film he made in 1988 for about five and a half million dollars — released in Japan on 16 July, the exact in-story date the explosion levels the city — went back into IMAX and out-earned its entire American history in three days, exactly as he made it.

The phrasing from inside the Vancouver shutdown in January 2012 remains the most economical summary anyone has produced. Everybody is being sent home.

Hunter × Hunter published chapter 420 on 6 September and went straight back on indefinite hiatus. Ten chapters this time, starting 29 June, ending ten weeks later. No return date.

The joke writes itself and has been writing itself for twenty years. The actual numbers are more interesting than the joke, and they say something the joke gets wrong.

Do the arithmetic

Serialisation began in the 14th issue of Weekly Shonen Jump for 1998, on sale 16 March. From that date to chapter 420 is 10,401 days — roughly 1,486 weeks, or 28 years and about six months.

In that span the series has published 420 chapters. One chapter per issue means roughly 420 weeks of publication.

• Weeks with a new chapter: 420
• Weeks without: 1,066
• Published: 28.3 percent. Not published: 71.7 percent
• For every week Hunter × Hunter has appeared, roughly 2.5 weeks have passed without it

Cross-check it against issues rather than calendar weeks and it holds. Jump prints around 48 or 49 issues a year, so 28.5 years is roughly 1,381 possible issues. Togashi appeared in 420 of them — about 30 percent. He has been absent from something in the region of 960 issues of a magazine he has been a serialised author of, continuously, since 1998.

So the claim that circulates as hyperbole — that he has been on hiatus longer than he has been publishing — is true, and it understates the case by a factor of two.

The rate collapse, by era

The averages hide what actually happened, which is that the series has three distinct speeds:

• 1998 to 2006: around 33 chapters a year. A normal weekly serial
• 2006 to 2026: around 7.8 a year
• 2018 to now: around 3.8 a year — thirty chapters in eight years

Thirty chapters is what a healthy weekly Jump title produces in about seven months. At the current pace it is one chapter every ninety-five days.

It stopped being a weekly serial, officially, in 2022

This is the fact that reframes everything and it is almost absent from English coverage. Chapter 400, in December 2022, formally ended weekly serialisation. The format was changed in consideration of the author's physical condition. It is a documented publishing decision, not a fan reconstruction.

What replaced it is visible in the pattern, and the pattern is remarkably tidy:

• 391-400 — October to December 2022. Then 22 months of nothing
• 401-410 — October to December 2024. Then 18 months of nothing
• 411-420 — June to September 2026. Now indefinite

Ten chapters, roughly every twenty months, three times running. Hunter × Hunter is not a weekly manga that keeps stopping. It is a batch-release title that publishes about six chapters a year, and it has been one for four years without anyone quite saying so.

What the number does not measure

Here is the caveat that keeps the arithmetic honest, and it is not a small one.

"On hiatus" above means "no chapter in that week's magazine." That bucket includes ordinary scheduled off-weeks every Jump serial takes. More importantly, it counts storyboarding, revision and inking as hiatus — which the documented record shows they plainly are not.

In December 2024, during what the ledger records as a gap, Togashi posted that he had completed a storyboard for a chapter, that he had been bedridden for several days, and that he had recovered enough to walk around the house. He mentioned retrieving his own work phone because he finds it difficult to ask for help. Days later he said he was reviewing dialogue and timelines across the next fifty chapters.

The 71.7 percent measures the magazine's output. It does not measure the author's.

On the record, and only on the record

Three registers get collapsed into one constantly, so:

What Togashi has said. He opened a social media account in May 2022 and used it mainly to photograph un-inked manuscript pages with chapter numbers written in the corner. In July 2022 he stated he had been unable to sit in a chair for around two years because of back and hip problems and had adapted by drawing lying down. In August 2022 he said he had increased his staff.

What the publisher has said. Almost nothing beyond scheduling — hiatus notices, resumption dates, volume dates, and the 2022 format change. Shueisha has never published a diagnosis. "Chronic back pain" is Togashi's own characterisation of his own situation, not a medical statement from anyone.

What has been invented. That he has lost interest. That the ending is finished and locked in a drawer. That assistants or family will complete it. That his wife has been drawing pages — she added screentone briefly in 1998, before they married, and that is the entire documented extent of it.

And the durable one: that the hiatuses are about video games. There is a biographical note that he enjoys board-game-style video games and bowling with his family. There is no statement, from him or from his publisher, attributing any hiatus to gaming. The story is fan inference stitched together from a hobby remark, and it has outlived every correction.

Two things that are not an ending

Both currently being reported as one:

• Togashi's reference to reviewing "the upcoming fifty chapters" — a working block he was revising, not a declared endpoint
• The report that chapters 428 to 430 are in late production, with drafts running to roughly 429

Neither is an announced conclusion, because there isn't one. If you want the arithmetic anyway, clearly labelled as arithmetic and not as prediction: at ten chapters every twenty months, fifty chapters is about eight years.

The rest of the franchise does not wait

The 2011 anime stopped in September 2014 at the end of the Chairman Election arc. In the twelve years since, the manga has produced 81 chapters — about seven and a half volumes, the entire Dark Continent and succession material. An adaptation greenlit today would have roughly forty episodes of material and an arc that has not finished, which is the standing structural reason no continuation exists.

Meanwhile the series passed 100 million copies in circulation this June, volume 39 arrived in July after a 22-month gap, and the same week the manga stopped, a fourth stage play was announced, adapting the Chimera Ant arc.

The franchise moves. The serial waits. And somewhere in that gap is a man photographing pencil roughs to prove the work exists, which is a stranger and better story than the one about the video games.

Kore-eda Hirokazu's Look Back opens in Japan today. It premiered in competition at Venice five days ago, it was shot entirely on 35mm across four seasons in Akita, and it runs 99 minutes.

Two years and two months ago, Kiyotaka Oshiyama's animated version of the same 143-page manga opened in Japan on 119 screens, passed a billion yen in under three weeks, won the Japan Academy Film Prize for Best Animated Picture, and currently sits at 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes across 25 reviews.

Which raises the question the entire Venice press corps has been circling: what is this for?

It is not a remake, whatever you are about to read

One review filed from Venice already describes the film as "this live-action adaptation of the 2024 animated film." It is not. It is an independent adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto's 2021 manga, under a different rights arrangement, with a different distributor, and structured differently.

The structural difference is the interesting part. Kore-eda covers the pair's thirteen-year arc from elementary school onward and casts four young actors across two ages — Natsuki Deguchi and Furi Nanase as the adult and child Fujino, Aju Makita and Rokka Okada as Kyomoto. Animation does not need to do that; a drawing simply ages. Live action has to solve it with bodies, and Kore-eda chose to solve it by doubling every role.

Expect the remake framing to propagate anyway. It is easier to type.

The revision nobody remembers correctly

The manga's climax involves an attack on an art school, and readers in July 2021 immediately read it against a real mass-casualty event. Psychiatrists objected publicly that the assailant's depiction risked reinforcing prejudice against people living with schizophrenia. Shueisha's stated reason for what followed was to avoid fostering discrimination against patients.

What is almost always reported as one change was two:

• 19 July 2021. The original web release. The attacker's stated grievance was plagiarism — that his work had been stolen
• 2 August 2021. Editorial altered the dialogue and an accompanying news caption. The replacement grievance was about uselessness, about not being of value to society
• 3 September 2021. The collected volume reverted the line back toward the original plagiarism framing

So the version currently in print is closer to what Fujimoto first published than to the August revision. The story everyone tells — that the manga was sanitised and stayed sanitised — has the ending backwards. Worth noting too that the changes were made by the platform's editorial team; "Fujimoto caved" overstates what is actually documented about who decided what.

The readership record, with the metric attached

You will see Look Back described as the most-read one-shot in the platform's history. The verified numbers are page views on a free service: about 1.2 million the first night, 2.5 million within 24 hours, over 4 million in two days, 5 million by the end of that July.

Those are real and they are enormous. They are also views, not readers, not purchases, and a free web page is not commensurable with any sales figure. "2.5 million views in its first 24 hours" is the honest sentence. "Most-read manga ever" is the one that travels.

For what it is worth, it converted: the collected volume did roughly 74,000 copies in week one and 80,000 in week two, and has passed a million in circulation.

Venice did not agree with itself

The reviews out of the premiere split hard, and the split is not about quality so much as about whether the transposition was a good idea at all.

• One outlet called the characters thinly sketched and the film all sugar with no nutritional value
• Another headlined its report with the word "disappoints"
• A third gave it an A-minus and called it a tender sensory ode to youth
• A fourth, giving it three and a half stars, put its finger on the actual problem: in live action there is less escape from the tragedy than animation allowed

That last observation is the whole argument in one line. Oshiyama made a film about drawing, in drawings, in under an hour. Kore-eda made it in live action, on film stock, at nearly twice the length — and spent a good deal of that extra runtime, by several accounts, watching actors draw.

What Fujimoto's work is worth now

The context for a Palme d'Or winner adapting a free web comic is that Fujimoto has become, in about five years, one of the most commercially significant properties in the medium. Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, released last September, took ¥10.81 billion in Japan and 191.4 million dollars worldwide, and topped the American box office on its opening weekend.

Against that, Look Back has now been adapted twice in 26 months, in two media, by two directors, for two distributors. That is not a normal thing to happen to 143 pages given away for free.

The line worth keeping

Kore-eda's own explanation, from the Venice selection materials, is the least promotional thing anyone has said about this film. The manga reached him during the pandemic, at a point when he was not certain the work mattered — and, as he put it, it gave him back his posture.

A director who had lost his footing adapting a comic about two girls who draw because they cannot stop is, whatever the reviews say, a coherent reason for the film to exist. Venice hands out its awards tomorrow, which means as of this morning nobody knows whether the festival agrees.

Black Clover comes back on Saturday 3 October at 23:00 on TV Tokyo, and the official site calls it the 2nd Season. Which is a tidy label for something that is not tidy at all, because the run it is numbering as the first went 170 episodes and was never divided into seasons in the first place.

Not "was divided differently." Was not divided. The original aired continuously from October 2017 to March 2021, year-round, with no seasonal breaks in Japan. The seasons everyone refers to are a Western home-video construction — which is why English-language reference sites host standalone articles for a third and fourth season that, in the country where the show was made, did not exist.

Four official numbering systems, all incompatible

Count the same 170 episodes and you can arrive at four different answers, each of them official somewhere:

• One continuous run. The Japanese broadcast — 170 episodes, no divisions, and now retroactively "1st Season"
• Sixteen chapters. The Japanese home-video release numbered the run in Chapters; episodes 155-170 shipped as Chapter XVI
• Four seasons. The Western streaming and home-media split, under which the new run is logically season five
• Two television series. How the reference encyclopedias file it, sidestepping season counting entirely

There is a nice contradiction sitting inside the English-language record on this. The Wikipedia article on the 2023 film places its events "during the fourth season" of the anime — using precisely the seasonal division that its own episode-list article states does not officially exist.

And this is not a case of English coverage inventing something. The retrofit came from Japan: the official site says 2nd Season, and Japanese trade press already describes the returning director as the man who worked on "1st Season" and the film. English outlets mostly followed. The split is between official usage and reference infrastructure, not between countries.

The film is not where the story got to

The most repeated error about the gap is that the story moved to the film and now moves back to television. It did not.

Sword of the Wizard King, released June 2023 in Japanese cinemas and on Netflix worldwide the same day, is an anime-original story — not a manga adaptation, and set earlier in the timeline than where the series stopped, in the six-month gap between two arcs the show had already covered. Tabata was chief supervisor and original character designer; the screenplay was by other hands.

So the new run picks up from episode 170, mid-arc, in the Spade Kingdom material — not from the film. Any sentence describing the film as a bridge is describing something that never happened.

The 11 percent filler figure is doing a magic trick

Black Clover has a reputation as an unusually filler-light shonen adaptation, and the number attached to that reputation is 11 percent. It comes from a fan-maintained filler database, not from Shueisha or the studio, and its own breakdown of the same 170 episodes reads:

• 112 episodes of straight manga canon
• 6 mixed canon and filler
• 18 filler
• 34 "anime canon" — original material made with the author's involvement

Which means about 66 percent of the original run is direct manga adaptation, and roughly a third — fifty-eight episodes — is not. The tidy 11 percent is achieved by excluding those 34 episodes from the numerator, using a category boundary the site invented. Episodes 155 to 157 are an original arc explicitly supervised by Tabata; episodes 142 to 149 are a solid eight-episode original block.

None of this makes the show worse. It makes the statistic a piece of taxonomy rather than a measurement.

The manga finished five months ago

Here is the fact that reframes the entire return, and that a startling amount of coverage is writing around.

Black Clover is over. Tabata ended it on 1 May 2026, publishing chapters 390, 391 and 392 simultaneously in Jump Giga. Anything describing his serialisation in the present tense is describing something that stopped four months before this announcement.

The path there is worth having straight, because it is routinely misreported as a demotion. The manga began in Weekly Shōnen Jump in February 2015, took a three-month break in 2022 to prepare the final arc, ran that arc from August 2022, left the weekly magazine in August 2023, and resumed in the quarterly Jump Giga that December — a schedule change made to pace the ending, not a punishment.

Which means that for the first time in the franchise's history, the adaptation has a finish line in front of it. Whether it intends to reach it, nobody has said.

What the circulation figures show about why this is happening

The commercial argument for reviving a finished manga is visible in the sales curve, and it is blunt:

• March 2021, as the anime ended: 12 million copies in circulation
• June 2023, around the film: 19 million
• September 2025: 24 million
• June 2026: 24.5 million

Seven million added in the two years bracketing the anime's finale and the film. Five and a half million across the three years of quarterly publication that followed. The anime was the engine, and it has been switched off since 2021.

The parts that are actually new

Studio Pierrot returns. Ayataka Tanemura, who took over the back half of the original run and directed the film, directs. Itsuko Takeda is back on character design, Minako Seki on music. Gakuto Kajiwara, Nobunaga Shimazaki, Jun'ichi Suwabe, Kana Yuuki and Hiro Shimono all reprise.

The one significant new hire is Keiichiro Ochi on series composition. WANIMA take the opening; ONE OR EIGHT perform the ending, "Yellow Brick Road."

Nobody has announced how many episodes it runs, which is the only number that would tell you whether "2nd Season" is a genuine structural change or a marketing label attached to another open-ended run. And the premiere date is 3 October — nine years to the day since the original debuted, same date, same network. Whether that is deliberate or not, it makes the retroactive renaming look less like a revival and more like a continuity someone staged carefully after the fact.

The plausible-sounding version, which is already circulating, is that 9 September is the day the Colossal Titan comes over Wall Maria. It is a good story. Nine-nine, the Nine Titans, the day the world ends in the first chapter.

It is not true. The manga dates the fall of Shiganshina to the year 845 and gives no month and no day, anywhere. The in-universe chronology carries years and nothing else. There is no canonical date for the breach, which means there is nothing for an anniversary to attach itself to.

What 9 September actually marks is a magazine going on sale. Attack on Titan debuted on 9 September 2009 in the very first issue of Kodansha's Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine — a new title, untested, and this was one of its launch serials. Attack on Titan Day is, strictly speaking, the anniversary of a publishing gamble.

It is also one week old

The second thing missing from most write-ups: this is not a long-running fan tradition being formalised. Kodansha registered the date with Japan's anniversary association and announced it on 2 September 2026. Today is the first observance there has ever been.

The programme is built entirely on nines, and the publisher is not being subtle about it:

• 99 chapters free for 99 hours on Magazine Pocket, running to the small hours of 13 September
• A commemorative key visual using the Nine Titans motif with the Founding Titan logo
• A livestream at 21:30 JST with Yuki Kaji, Yui Ishikawa and Hiro Shimono, billed as carrying announcements
• Merchandise built around newly drawn Isayama art — Eren, Levi and Erwin in formal wear

That last one deserves a second look. Isayama has drawn three men in dress suits for a party, and two of them do not survive the story.

The 140 million figure is nearly three years old and does not mean what it says

Every anniversary piece will carry it: 140 million copies sold worldwide. Two problems.

First, the number is from November 2023 and has not moved since. It was still being quoted in January 2026. Every outlet is recycling a figure from the year before last.

Second, and more interesting, it is not a sales figure. The Japanese term is hakkō busū — copies printed and put into circulation, including reprints and unsold stock. The franchise's own English-language portal renders it as "sold," which means the official site is mistranslating its own publisher's language. The honest phrasing is "more than 140 million copies in circulation as of November 2023," and it is nobody's favourite sentence, which is presumably why it never gets used.

For scale on the trajectory: 50 million in 2015, 100 million in 2019 at thirty volumes, 140 million by late 2023.

There is no single day this thing ended

Ask when Attack on Titan finished and you will get five defensible answers, which is a strange property for a work so preoccupied with endings.

• 9 April 2021 — the final manga chapter, 139 of them across 34 volumes
• 4 March 2023 — the first feature-length Final Chapters special
• The night of 4/5 November 2023 — the second special, and the actual end of the television anime. Japanese late-night scheduling means English sources split between the two dates and both are correct
• 8 November 2024 — The Last Attack, the theatrical conclusion, opening at number one in Japan and passing a billion yen
• Early 2025 — the international theatrical release, which is when the ending finally reached most of the world, four years after the manga had finished

The episode count has the same problem. Eighty-seven episodes were broadcast weekly. Add the two specials as one instalment each and you get 89, which is what most databases use. Split those specials back into episode-length pieces for streaming and home release — which is what actually happened, in November 2023 — and you get 94, which is the official figure. All three numbers are citable. Printing any of them without saying which convention you are using is where the error lives.

The studio handover was a scheduling matter

The fan reconstruction is that Wit Studio was underpaid, burned out, or pushed aside for the final season. It has hardened into common knowledge and there is nothing on the record supporting it.

What is on the record: a producer stating that Wit declined the final season over scheduling, and Wit's president saying, in a 2024 interview, that the timing of a manga's popularity and the timing of when a studio can actually produce the anime do not always line up — and calling MAPPA a wonderful studio. No sourced quote from anyone involved mentions budget.

What the franchise is doing now

The Last Attack came back to Japanese cinemas this January in a new 4K HDR master with Dolby Atmos — the first Dolby Cinema presentation the franchise has had. Its director credited the fans who bought tickets more than once during the original run.

Beyond that: an anniversary café running in Shinjuku until mid-October, a theme-park collaboration on Awaji Island running most of the year, and a concert tour announced for the United States. The Hollywood live-action film has had a director attached since October 2018 and no substantive news item since, which after seven years is best described as dormant rather than in development.

What there is not, as of this morning, is any announced new anime production. Which makes tonight's livestream the obvious place to put one, and makes this anniversary — a week old, attached to a magazine's first day on sale, celebrating a series that has ended five separate times — look rather less like nostalgia and rather more like a runway.

The film opened in Japan on 18 July 2025 and in North America on 12 September. It has been streaming on Crunchyroll worldwide since 28 July 2026, in seventeen audio languages. It won Film of the Year at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards in May, plus Best Anime Score and five voice-acting awards. It was nominated for a Golden Globe and a Producers Guild Award.

It is also part one of three, and parts two and three have no release date. Not a window. Not a year.

The records, with the caveat the trackers force on you

Box Office Mojo and The-Numbers do not agree on this film, and the gap is not small:

• The-Numbers: $793.5 million worldwide.
• Box Office Mojo: $739.0 million on its all-time chart, $723.2 million on the film's own page.

Call it roughly $740–795 million and cite whichever source you use. The gap between the two — about $55 million — is larger than the entire worldwide gross of Jujutsu Kaisen: Execution, another of 2025's big anime releases. For the highest-grossing anime film ever made, the industry's two standard references are further apart than a rival franchise's whole theatrical run. (Anime measurement has a habit of this — the two biggest seasonal polls cannot agree on who won the summer either.)

The domestic figures are solid and converge at roughly $134.5–136.9 million, including the March 2026 re-release. And the American opening was the story of the autumn: $70.6 million across the first weekend, which broke a twenty-six-year-old record set by Pokemon: The First Movie at $31 million, on 3,315 screens, after a $33 million opening day.

Against the field, on Box Office Mojo's numbers throughout:

• Infinity Castle — $739.0M
• Mugen Train (2020) — $486.5M
• Your Name (2016) — $405.3M
• Spirited Away (2001) — $359.2M
• The First Slam Dunk (2022) — $246.9M
• Suzume (2022) — $221.2M

Rotten Tomatoes: 98% from critics and 98% from audiences. MyAnimeList: 8.65, ranked 87th of all anime.

It broke the record without ever beating the film it replaced at home

This is the detail almost nobody prints. Mugen Train's 40.75 billion yen remains the all-time Japanese box office record. Infinity Castle did not break it.

In dollars the gap looks like a rout — roughly $392.7 million in Japan for Mugen Train against $259.9 million for Infinity Castle, a 34% fall. But the trackers convert Mugen Train's yen at around 104 to the dollar and Infinity Castle's at closer to 148. In yen the two films are far nearer than that. The Japanese box office did not shrink by a third; the yen did.

So the "highest-grossing Japanese film of all time" title was won abroad, and partly on the currency markets.

The franchise conquered America in the years its home market stopped mattering

Mugen Train took roughly 77% of its worldwide gross in Japan. Infinity Castle took about 33% — while nearly tripling its American take, from $50.3 million to $136.9 million, on more than double the screens.

Same director, same studio, same characters, five years apart, completely inverted business. The sequel that broke the American record is the one that stopped needing Japan.

An R-rated subtitled cartoon beat Marvel, and was still only the year's second-biggest animated film

Infinity Castle finished seventh among all 2025 worldwide releases, ahead of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Thunderbolts, Captain America: Brave New World and Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning. It outgrossed Marvel's entire 2025 output with a subtitled, R-rated animated sequel to a television series.

And it was still beaten, by nearly three to one, by Ne Zha 2, which did $2.26 billion — of which just $23.3 million came from the United States, roughly 17% of what Infinity Castle took there. Two animated juggernauts, perfect mirror images. One conquered the West and could not crack China. The other conquered China and never registered in the West.

Sony hired a movie star for the dub. The award went to the working actor.

Six weeks before the American release, the marquee dub announcement was Channing Tatum, billed in Sony's own release as a "Demon Slayer superfan," voicing the minor character Keizo.

When the Crunchyroll Anime Awards handed out Best English Voice Artist Performance in May 2026, it went to Lucien Dodge for Akaza — the character in the film's own subtitle, Akaza Returns. The star got the headline. The specialist got the trophy, and the title.

The 2026 hangover

No anime film appears in the worldwide top twenty for 2026 releases. The highest is Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway at around $97.1 million, all of it international. Demon Slayer's entire 2026 American contribution was $2.46 million, from the March re-release that added ScreenX screenings.

And the date that does not exist

Crunchyroll chief executive Rahul Purini, to The Hollywood Reporter in September 2025:

"We've announced that it will be a trilogy of movies, but our partners at Aniplex and Ufotable haven't decided on dates yet."

"There's definitely urgency for all of us to bring more Demon Slayer to fans as soon as we can."

Nothing has changed since. The official Japanese and English sites, ufotable's own site, Aniplex's news feed, MyAnimeList and LiveChart all list chapters two and three as undated.

There is one number in circulation, and it should not be. In January 2026 a British newspaper reported that the second and third films would arrive in 2027 and 2029, attributing it to a Crunchyroll executive. Crunchyroll issued a correction stating it had disclosed no such windows and that "anything to the contrary is speculative." The newspaper removed the reference. If you see 2027 attached to chapter two, that is where it came from, and it was withdrawn.

So: the highest-grossing Japanese film ever made, Film of the Year, streaming in seventeen languages, on disc in Japan since 29 July — and the only publication date its sequel has ever had was retracted by the company that was supposed to have given it.

Episode 1176 aired on 30 August. Episode 1177 arrives on 6 September. That is the whole rhythm of One Piece now — a weekly show that is no longer really weekly, in a year that ends whenever Toei decides it does.

The Elbaph arc began on 5 April 2026 with episode 1156, the first under a production model announced the previous October: a hard cap of 26 episodes a year, split across two cours. Series producer Ryuta Koike gave the reason in Toei's press release — the new episodes would "incorporate more content, tempo, and pacing of the manga while continuing to leverage the unique storytelling that is only possible with animation."

The anime slowed down to keep up with a manga that had just sped up

Six weeks after that announcement, at Jump Festa in December 2025, Oda sent a written message to fans:

"The story will be moving at a breakneck speed, but since I've aged — much to my chagrin — I'll take the liberty of maintaining my own health as we continue sailing next year at the fastest One Piece speed."

He also said he thought the coming year would be "a year of encounters," and teased the arrival of "the man with the burn scar."

So the adaptation halved its output in order to track a source that had just announced it was accelerating. And the gap being closed was never really a content gap — even before the change, episodes were adapting roughly one manga chapter apiece. Toei's fix for pacing is fewer episodes that each cover about the same ground. Both halves of the franchise now move in opposite directions, for the same stated reason.

A show that never stopped, now stopping on a schedule

One Piece premiered on 20 October 1999 and ran near-continuously for twenty-six years. Endurance was the identity. Then it stopped twice in fifteen months:

• October 2024 – March 2025: six months off after episode 1122. Toei called it a charging period, aimed at higher quality.
• January – March 2026: three months off after episode 1155.

Episode 1155, which aired 28 December 2025 and closed the Egghead arc, is now routinely described as the end of "Season 1" — a season that lasted twenty-six years and 1,155 episodes.

The best detail is what filled the first break. Toei ran One Piece Log: Fish-Man Island Saga, a remastered re-edit of episodes it had already made. The show took a break from producing One Piece by broadcasting One Piece. (Production reshuffles are having a busy autumn generally — two of the season's biggest sequels swapped studios on the same Sunday.)

Six hundred million copies, and the ending thrown into the sea

In March 2026, with volume 114, the manga passed 600 million copies in worldwide circulation — roughly 450 million in Japan and 150 million abroad. It had hit 500 million at volume 103 in August 2022, which set the Guinness record for most copies published for the same comic series by a single author. That is 100 million copies in about three and a half years.

Shueisha marked the milestone with a video in which Oda wrote down what the One Piece is and what awaits Luffy at the end — and dropped the paper into the ocean.

Which is funny, in the way only a very long serial can be. The final saga began at chapter 1054 in June 2022. The manga is now at chapter 1191. That is 137 chapters of ending — more than the entire East Blue saga that Wit Studio's THE ONE PIECE remake will compress into seven episodes and about five hours when it arrives in February 2027.

The live-action is the best-reviewed One Piece on Netflix, and fewer people watched it

Season 2, "Into the Grand Line," landed on 10 March 2026. Eight episodes, Loguetown through Baroque Works, Little Garden and Drum Kingdom, setting up Alabasta.

• Rotten Tomatoes: Season 1, 86% from 63 critics. Season 2, 100% from 30 critics. Audience score held at 95% both times.
• Views in four days: Season 1, 18.5 million. Season 2, 16.8 million.
• No. 1 in: 46 countries, then 43.

A perfect score is easier to hold with a smaller, more self-selecting critical pool — 30 reviews is not 63, and that caveat is real. But the shape is unmistakable: the adaptation the fandom was braced to hate is now the best-reviewed thing carrying the name, and slightly fewer people turned up for it.

Season 3 shot in Cape Town from late November 2025 and wrapped in June 2026. It covers Alabasta, with Xolo Mariduena as Ace and Cole Escola as Mr. 2 Bon Clay joining. Joe Tracz and Ian Stokes showrun. Expected 2027; no date.

Tracz on the note Oda kept giving him: "A note he'd often give, and I think it's a really great note, is to not forget we're telling a fantasy." On Chopper's design, Oda's guidance was reportedly two words — "Think teddy bear."

The giants arrived twice in five weeks

On 10 March 2026 the live-action series put the Straw Hats on Little Garden, their first encounter with giants. On 5 April, four weeks later, the anime finally reached Elbaph — the giants' homeland the story has been pointing at since almost the beginning. Two adaptations of the same manga, decades apart in story time, hit the setup and the payoff of the same thread within a month of each other.

What is still not known

• When the 2026 anime run ends. Outlets have variously claimed 27 September and 25 October; Toei has confirmed nothing beyond "26 episodes in 2027 as well."
• How long Elbaph runs. At 26 episodes a year, any serious arc is a multi-year commitment.
• Whether the two-cour model outlasts 2027.
• When the manga ends. Every percentage Oda has ever given — 65% in 2016, 80% in 2018, five more years as of 2019 — is now historical fiction.
• Whether Netflix orders a fourth live-action season.

By February 2027 the same service will carry three simultaneous versions of this story: the live-action series, the simulcast of Toei's ongoing anime, and Wit Studio's remake racing through East Blue. Wit's president has promised "tighter pacing without unnecessary padding" — a phrase that lands differently when it appears on the same platform as the show it is politely not naming.

Here is the autumn worth clearing your evenings for, with the dates that are actually confirmed and the ones that are not.

Before October even starts

• 25 September — STEEL BALL RUN: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, 11 episodes weekly on Netflix. It premiered on 19 March with one episode and then went dark for six months, which is why it appears on almost no Fall chart despite being the biggest thing starting this autumn.
• 27 September — As a Reincarnated Aristocrat S3, from a brand-new studio, GeyeG Pictures.

And the show everyone assumes is returning this season is leaving it: One Piece came back on 5 April and its 26-episode Elbaph run finishes around 27 September, four days before autumn begins.

2 October: the headliner

The Apothecary Diaries S3, part one — OLM, directed by Akinori Fudesaka, on Crunchyroll, with a Yorushika opening. Season two scored 8.90 on MyAnimeList and ranks 25th of all anime; season one is 33rd. It took Best Drama, Best Director and a lead-performance award at this year's Crunchyroll Anime Awards from thirteen nominations.

The credit worth squinting at: Toho Animation Studio, which co-animated the first two seasons, has dropped off season three. It is busy. Norihiro Naganuma, who directed season one, handed the TV chair to Fudesaka and is directing the film instead — 11 December, at Toho, from an original story by Natsu Hyūga. He still writes the series composition for the show. He is functionally the absentee author-director: writing the season, directing the movie, and sharing a Best Director trophy for a season somebody else directed.

Same day: Tokyo Revengers: War of the Three Titans Arc (Liden Films, Disney+ and Hulu) and Overgeared (J.C.Staff, Crunchyroll).

4 October: two prestige sequels swap studios in opposite directions

• Aoashi S2 moves to TMS Entertainment from Production I.G, with Kazuki Yokoyama replacing Akira Satō. 24 episodes planned, NHK E.
• Blue Box S2 moves away from Telecom Animation Film — TMS's own subsidiary — to Electric Circus, with Daisuke Sakō replacing Yūichirō Yano. Netflix worldwide, aiko on the opening.

In one afternoon TMS gains a football drama and loses a romance, and neither show is being made by the people who made it. Both previous seasons scored 8.15. Blue Box also has something unusual going for it: its manga finished on 13 July, so for the first time the anime is adapting a known, complete ending with no source race.

The rest of the calendar

• 3 October — Ranma ½ S3 (MAPPA, Netflix weekly). Worth noting the remake now scores below the thing it modernises: 7.96 then 7.74, against the 1989 series' 7.78 across 161 episodes.
• 7 October — Magic Knight Rayearth, a full remake of CLAMP's 1993 manga at E&H production, music by Yuki Kajiura. Western streaming still unannounced.
• 7 October (24:00 JST, so 8 October for most of us) — Reincarnated as a Sword II, C2C, on HIDIVE.
• 9 October — Firefly Wedding, David Production, noitaminA, Crunchyroll.
• 11 October — Mission: Yozakura Family S2 Part 2, and Dragon Ball Super: Beerus from Toei, which world-premieres at New York Comic Con on 8 October, three days ahead of Japan.
• 20 October — Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2, Trigger, 10 episodes, Netflix.
• Black Clover S2 is coming back after roughly five years away, but the official word is still just "October." The 3 October date circulating is inference, not announcement.

One date convention that will ruin your calendar

Japanese late-night anime is announced by the day the broadcast starts — "3 October, 24:00 JST" — while Wikipedia and MyAnimeList roll it forward a day. About half the date conflicts you will see in Fall listings are this and nothing else.

And a manga stopped this week

Medalist has gone on hiatus. Tsurumaikada announced it on Friday: serialisation in Monthly Afternoon suspended "due to production circumstances," with no return date, stopping mid-match in the Junior Grand Prix Final. The author apologised for the timing and said the aim is to come back able to run to the arc's conclusion without another break — adding that she wants the manga side "to work hard so as not to lose momentum to the film version."

The Medalist film was dated for 19 February 2027 on 30 August. The manga stopped five days later. Nobody has said one caused the other, and the stated reason is scheduling. But two Kodansha sports hits are peaking this autumn in exactly inverted positions: Blue Box's anime finally has a finished story to adapt, and Medalist's film is about to overtake a stopped one.

Also worth knowing: The World's Finest Assassin S2 is January 2027, not autumn, and Shangri-La Frontier S3 is January too. Related: The two biggest anime polls disagree about who won Summer 2026.

Anime Trending's Week 8 chart, dated 30 August from 3,663 votes, has Goodbye, Lara at No. 1 with 1,229 votes, ahead of Mushoku Tensei S3 (1,167) and Jaadugar (1,157) — three shows within 72 votes of each other. Anime Corner's Week 8 poll, published 28 August, has Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War – The Calamity at 25.75%, with Goodbye, Lara not in its top ten at all.

Anime Trending, Week 8

• 1. Goodbye, Lara — Kinema Citrus · 1,229 votes
• 2. Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation S3 — Studio Bind · 1,167
• 3. Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia — Science SARU · 1,157
• 4. Bleach TYBW – The Calamity — Pierrot Films · 1,018
• 5. You and I Are Polar Opposites S2 — Lapin Track · 896
• 6. Though I Am an Inept Villainess — Doga Kobo · 741
• 7. Love Unseen Beneath the Clear Night Sky — Makaria · 714
• 8. Re:ZERO S4 — White Fox · 651
• 9. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime S4 — 8bit · 548
• 10. KAIJU GIRL CARAMELISE — LIDENFILMS · 492

Three different shows have topped this chart across the season: Mushoku Tensei S3 in weeks 1–3, Jaadugar in weeks 4–5, Goodbye, Lara in weeks 7–8. Nobody dominated it.

Why Goodbye, Lara is the story

It is an original — no manga, no light novel — made as Kinema Citrus's 15th-anniversary project, directed by Takushi Koide, written by Anna Kawahara, 12 episodes, a modern reimagining of The Little Mermaid. It only entered the top ten in week five and took No. 1 by week seven.

Originals almost never out-poll established franchise sequels. This one is currently beating Mushoku Tensei and Bleach. MAL has it at 7.93 from 5,891 users — a lower score than everything above it in that ranking, which tells you the enthusiasm is concentrated rather than broad. It streams on Crunchyroll and ends 21 September.

The highest-rated show is not the most popular one

Bleach TYBW – The Calamity sits at MAL 9.08 from 25,580 users — ranked fourth across the entire MyAnimeList database. It is the fourth and final cour, ten episodes, from 25 July, on Hulu in the US and Disney+ internationally. If you want the season's best-reviewed show rather than its most-voted, it is this, and it is not close.

What ends this month, what carries on

• Ending: Jaadugar (12 September), Inept Villainess (20 September), Goodbye, Lara (21 September), Mushoku Tensei S3 (28 September). Bleach and Polar Opposites finish around the same week, though their end dates are not formally confirmed.
• Carrying into autumn: Please Excuse My Younger Brothers (24 eps), Red River (24), The Exiled Heavy Knight (26), plus spring carry-ins Re:ZERO S4, Slime S4, Ascendance of a Bookworm and LIAR GAME.

What to queue in October

The Apothecary Diaries S3 on 2 October is the season's headliner. Also confirmed: STEEL BALL RUN: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (2 October), Reincarnated as a Sword II (1 October), Tokyo Revengers: War of the Three Titans Arc (3 October), Ranma ½ S3, Blue Box S2 and Aoashi S2 (4 October), One Piece returning (4 October), and CLAMP's Magic Knight Rayearth remake on 7 October.

One more gap worth noticing: critics and fans are watching different seasons. The titles on three of four major critics' 2026 lists — Witch Hat Atelier, Frieren S2, Daemons of the Shadow Realm, Nippon Sangoku — barely appear on the summer fan charts. Only You and I Are Polar Opposites bridges both.

Platform note: five of Anime Trending's top six stream on Crunchyroll, which reported 21 million paid subscribers in May, up four million year on year. Bleach is the exception.

Related: One-Punch Man is going free with its dub for the first time.

Tsunekazu Ishihara, president of The Pokémon Company, revealed it at the closing ceremony of PokémonXP alongside a 39-second teaser in Japanese and English. He said the film "aims to capture the competitive spirit shared by Pokémon Trainers around the world."

What was actually confirmed

• Director: Katsuhiko Kitada. Character design: Akemi Hayashi (Banana Fish, the 2001 Fruits Basket, Lazarus).
• Animation: CloverWorks. Planning and production: STORY inc.
• Premise: a Pokémon TCG player and his partner Mimikyu. "When the time comes to put their cards on the table, will they have what it takes to achieve their goals?"
• Mimikyu is the only Pokémon confirmed. No region, no other creatures.
• No Ash Ketchum, and none of the Horizons cast.
• The logo bends the second "o" in Pokémon into a squiggle echoing Mimikyu's drawn-on smile.

Read the release wording carefully: the English teaser closes on "Coming 2027 and beyond," and The Pokémon Company is describing the release as beginning in 2027 rather than giving one worldwide date. A Japanese-first release with international dates later is the obvious reading, but it has not been said.

Why CloverWorks is the headline

OLM has animated every Pokémon production since 1997 — the TV series and all 23 features from 1998 to 2020, including Secrets of the Jungle, and the current Horizons. Wild Card ends that.

CloverWorks is an Aniplex studio, spun out of A-1 Pictures in 2018, roughly 258 staff. Its catalogue is Horimiya, My Dress-Up Darling, Bocchi the Rock!, The Promised Neverland, Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, Wonder Egg Priority, and Spy × Family as a co-production with Wit. That is a house style built on character drama for an older audience than the Pokémon TV anime aims at — which lines up with a story about a competitive card player rather than a ten-year-old and a Legendary.

One caution on the director: Kitada's record is animation direction and episode direction — chief animation director on Hal and The Rolling Girls, unit director on The First Slam Dunk, storyboards on Wind Breaker. No prior feature-directing credit is listed for him.

The number that frames this

Pokémon: The First Movie held the record for highest-grossing anime film in North America ($85.7M) for 26 years, until Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle took it in 2025. Infinity Castle did around $685–740M worldwide depending on which source you take — the first Japanese film past ¥100bn globally — and Japanese box office as a whole rose 32.6% in 2025 to about $1.78bn.

Meanwhile the Pokémon films themselves have shrunk: The First Movie $163.6M worldwide, Secrets of the Jungle in 2020 roughly $21–24M. Pokémon walks back into a theatrical market it once defined and no longer leads.

Two announcements in four days, both in the 30th-anniversary year: a global Disney+ deal on 28 August with an Aardman stop-motion series, and a new feature on 31 August from a studio that has never touched the franchise. Pokémon is changing its animation partners and its distribution at the same time.

Still unannounced

Screenwriter, voice cast, composer, exact date, region, runtime, rating, distributor, territory plans, English dub, and the protagonist's name. Reports naming the lead should be treated with suspicion — the one name circulating appears in a single outlet and looks like a garbling of "Mimikyu." No quotes from CloverWorks, STORY inc., Kitada or Hayashi have been published.

Meanwhile Horizons continues on TV Tokyo in its eighth arc, Wonder Voyage, still animated by OLM. Related: One-Punch Man is going free with its dub for the first time.

The free ad-supported service is adding It's Anime, a dub-led channel spanning current series, catalogue and simulcasts from Japan, and Big A Anime, a curated channel built around Vinland Saga, Dororo and the Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress franchise, plus fan programming including "Anime Showdown." Both launch in September.

Getting both dub and sub

• Vampire Knight — Studio Deen, 2008, 26 episodes across two cours.
• Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress — Wit Studio, Tetsuro Araki, 2016, 12 episodes. Steampunk Japan, armoured trains, the undead Kabane.
• Terror in Resonance — MAPPA, Shinichiro Watanabe, score by Yoko Kanno, 2014, 11 episodes.
• Mononoke — Toei, Kenji Nakamura, 2007, 12 episodes.
• Hikaru no Go — Studio Pierrot, 2001–2003, 75 episodes.
• Inuyashiki: Last Hero — MAPPA, 2017, 11 episodes.

Broader dub access is also coming to NARUTO, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Inuyasha, Zom 100 and Captain Tsubasa.

Which of these is actually new, and which is not

Worth knowing before you clear your evening. One-Punch Man and Hikaru no Go currently have no free ad-supported option in the US at all — it is Hulu or buy it. Those two are the genuinely new free availability, and the "first time on free streaming with an English dub" framing holds up.

Mononoke, Terror in Resonance, Kabaneri and Inuyashiki are already free somewhere — RetroCrush, Tubi, Plex, Rakuten Viki, Prime Video's ad tier — and all four are also on Crunchyroll. Kabaneri and Mononoke are on Netflix too. For those, Pluto is incremental reach, not a rescue from obscurity.

A note for Mononoke people

The 2007 series is a spin-off of the horror anthology Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales, continuing the Medicine Seller from its "Bakeneko" arc. It has since become a film trilogy: Phantom in the Rain (July 2024), The Ashes of Rage (March 2025) and Chapter 3, Hebigami, which opened in Japan on May 29, 2026, with Tomoaki Koshida directing and Nakamura as general director.

Why free services keep doing this

This is Pluto's second major anime push in sixteen months — "Ani-May" in 2025 added 800+ hours and launched Anime x HIDIVE, Pluto TV Anime Comedy and Pluto TV Anime Movies. The 2026 drop is 60% larger and the emphasis has shifted from raw catalogue volume to dubs and simulcasts.

The market explains the shift. US free ad-supported viewers reach 131.4 million in 2026, up 5.8%; FAST hours watched jumped 43% year over year to 1.8 billion in August 2025; and adults 18–49 now give 63.8% of their TV time to ad-supported content. Pluto, owned by Paramount Skydance and running around 425 channels, is at 68.6 million US viewers.

The dub emphasis is the real signal. Subs are for people already in; dubs are how a free channel converts someone who has never watched anime and is not going to read for twenty-two minutes. Pluto's own executive said as much.

Note also that Crunchyroll and HIDIVE both run free branded channels on Pluto — a rival's platform used as a funnel into their own subscriptions.

What has not been said

• No exact go-live date for individual titles — only "September" for the two channels.
• Which channel most titles land on is unspecified.
• No word on whether this is US-only or wider.
• No performance data exists publicly for Pluto's anime channels specifically.

Related: My Happy Marriage drops all three special episodes on October 25.

Releasing a three-episode special in one night rather than stringing it across three weeks is the interesting decision here, and putting it on Netflix ninety minutes after broadcast is the other one.

Who is back

• Reina Ueda and Kaito Ishikawa return as Miyo and Kudo.
• M.A.O joins as new character Kimio Nagaba.
• Takehiro Kubota directs at Kinema Citrus — he directed season one and the 2024 OVA, and co-directed season two with Masayuki Kojima. He also handles series composition.
• Mika Tanaka and Ikuho Negi write the scripts.
• Shōko Yasuda returns on character designs with Hikaru Sato and Kuniyuki Itō.
• Evan Call composes again.
• The ending theme is "Prelude no Temae ni: ~for me&you~" by Kashitarō Itō.

The shape of the release

Three episodes, one evening, broadcast and stream on the same day. For a series whose audience is heavily international, the 90-minute gap between TV Tokyo and Netflix is about as close to simulcast as a special like this gets, and it removes the usual window where the whole thing gets spoiled before anyone outside Japan can watch it.

Almost the entire staff from the previous seasons is on this — director, composer, character designer, both leads. Specials are usually where continuity goes to be quietly dropped. Not here.

October 25. Adapted from Akumi Agitogi and Tsukiho Tsukioka's light novels.

The first season aired for two consecutive cours from April 2024 and streamed on Crunchyroll, sub and dub, as a full restart of Isuna Hasekura's light novels rather than a continuation of the 2008 anime.

The staff coming back

• Takeo Takahashi returns as chief director, with Hijiri Sanpei, who directed season one.
• Nobuyoshi Nagayama (Smile Down the Runway) and Takahiro Majima direct season two at Passione.
• Koji Haneda (The Faraway Paladin) is back on character designs with Rina Sugimoto.
• Kevin Penkin (Made in Abyss, Tower of God) composes again.
• Also announced: Tomoko Koyama on color design, Morihito Ohara on art setting, Kazuhiro Inoue as art director, Yuki Okada on photography, Ayako Tan editing.

Why the cast list matters here

Jun Fukuyama and Ami Koshimizu reprised Kraft Lawrence and Holo for the 2024 reboot, sixteen years after the original series — a continuity almost nothing else in anime has. Mai Nakahara also returned as Norah Arendt. Nothing in Monday's announcement suggests that changes.

For anyone who has not read the novels: a travelling merchant finds a wolf goddess asleep in his cart. She is bored of watching over harvests, wants to go north, and offers him her instincts for business in exchange for the ride. The show is mostly the two of them talking about currency debasement, and it is genuinely thrilling.

A 2027 window on a series that ran two cours in 2024 is a normal gap by modern standards. The unusual part is that the same director, the same studio, the same composer and the same two leads are all still attached.

No cour, no month, no episode count yet — just 2027 and a new visual.

New for 2026 is a Family Zone presented by Scholastic — a dedicated area for younger fans and the parents accompanying them. Alongside it: a Destination Cosplay zone, a Japanese Food Hall, a PLAY.nyc gaming section, and the Otherworld Parade. On the music and internet-culture side, yama played a first East Coast concert and Club Ironmouse handled the VTuber showcase.

The exhibitor list reads like a full industry census: Aniplex, Shueisha, VIZ Media, Kodansha, Warner Bros. Japan, Bandai Namco Filmworks, Crunchyroll, GKIDS, HIDIVE, Yen Press, Penguin Random House and Scholastic. Netflix took the Thursday evening headline slot on the Main Stage and packed every announcement it had into one panel rather than spreading them across the weekend.

A Scholastic-branded family zone at an anime convention is the clearest available evidence that this stopped being a subculture some years ago and nobody circulated the memo.

Worth remembering that Anime NYC was launched in 2017 and drew around 20,000 people in its first year. The current figure is more than seven times that. Whatever the North American anime market is doing, it is not slowing down.

• Bungo Stray Dogs, 10 years. Friday panel with Yuto Uemura, the voice of Atsushi, and producer Chiaki Kurakane.
• Re:ZERO, 10 years. A live music concert plus a Q&A with Yusuke Kobayashi, the voice of Subaru, and artist Konomi Suzuki.
• Crunchyroll News, 15 years. The editorial team on stage discussing how the outlet evolved — a very 2026 thing for a streaming service to program at a convention.
• Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun. Saturday panel with Setsuo Ito and general director Makoto Moriwaki.

Also on the slate: the world premiere of Magical Buffs on Saturday, plus two mystery premiere screenings the company deliberately kept unnamed until the last possible moment, which is a reliable way to fill a room.

Both anniversary series premiered in 2016 and have aged in opposite directions — Bungo Stray Dogs into a stable long-running franchise with a devoted fanbase, Re:ZERO into a show whose fandom argues about it with the intensity usually reserved for religious schisms. Ten years on, both still fill a panel hall.

The tour has been circulating since July 3, hitting Anime Expo in Los Angeles, Japan Expo in Paris, AnimagiC in Mannheim, and Otakon in Washington, D.C. New York is the last North American stop, which makes this the final chance on this continent to see the footage before it goes out publicly.

The context here is genuinely funny. Takeru Hokazono's manga launched in Weekly Shonen Jump in late 2023 and immediately became an internet joke — a wave of ironic hype posts about a series almost nobody had read, treated as a bit. Then people actually read it. The bit ended, the sales came, and the property is now getting the full multi-continent anime rollout treatment normally reserved for established hits.

Casting news has been rolling out alongside the tour, including Tomokazu Seki as Kunishige. An exclusive preview at a 150,000-person convention is not a modest launch strategy, and the footage will presumably be public within days.

For a franchise that has lived almost entirely as a streaming proposition in the West — Tsutomu Sato's light novels, adapted by 8bit, following the Shiba siblings through an academy system built on magical aptitude rankings — a proper theatrical release is a real escalation. It also follows an increasingly obvious industry pattern: after Demon Slayer demonstrated what anime films can do to a box office chart, every distributor with a mid-tier franchise and a feature in hand is testing whether the audience shows up.

Specific theaters, dates and ticketing haven't gone live yet. The Yotsuba succession storyline is one the light novel readership has been waiting to see animated for years, so the built-in audience is real, if not enormous. Worth watching as a data point about how far the theatrical anime expansion actually extends beyond the top three franchises.

The premise, as presented: a depressed man elects to undergo transformation into a flower. The seed does not do what it's supposed to do. Something parasitic grows inside him instead.

What the footage sells is atmosphere. Environmental horror staged against a dense, gorgeously rendered city, with the kind of extreme facial work Shaft has been refining since the Monogatari years, now attached to material where the distortion means something. Sunrise brings the structural discipline. The combination is doing a lot.

Netflix is releasing its most upsetting title of the year during the week most of its audience is trapped in a house with relatives. Bold scheduling.

The manga has a devoted following and a reputation for being difficult to describe without sounding either pretentious or ridiculous. The trailer suggests the adaptation has found the tone. Whether a general Netflix audience follows it there in late November is a different question.

The special retells the East Blue arc from Usopp's perspective, which means Usopp is brave, bold and central to every event described, to the visible irritation of the rest of the crew. The live-action cast voices their own plastic counterparts, and the whole thing is framed as Usopp reading a story aloud to Chopper. The obvious comparison is The Princess Bride, and the special seems entirely aware of it.

The structural consequence, which I have not stopped thinking about: LEGO is now canonical to the live-action One Piece universe. A brick-built Going Merry exists inside the same continuity as Mackenyu's Zoro.

September 29. Netflix. The panel ended with a LEGO set giveaway; Romero joked that anyone who'd brought an infant would win one, and there were, in fact, infants in the room. One of those infants — well, one of those parents — now owns a LEGO One Piece set.

February 2027 is the window. That's the entirety of the confirmed information, and given the scale of what's being attempted — reanimating a series with more than a thousand existing episodes behind it, starting from East Blue — a single image plus a month is a fairly generous amount of certainty this far out.

The interesting question is pacing. The original adaptation is famous for its filler and its glacial arc structure. A modern remake produced with a defined episode count is, in theory, the version of One Piece that people who bounced off the anime in 2004 could actually finish. Wit Studio has not said a word about episode counts, and no one should expect them to for a while.

• Amane Yotsumura — a 14-year-old JCC student
• Etsuko Satoda — an exceedingly polite retired assassin, now teaching at JCC
• Satoru Yotsumura — Amane's father, and a founding member of the Order

New key art featuring Sakamoto and Shin came with it, and the show's official account put out an alternate poster the same night.

If you skipped season one: Taro Sakamoto was the most feared hitman alive, fell in love with a woman who worked at a convenience store, retired, married her, gained a substantial amount of weight, and now runs the shop. The industry does not consider retirement a valid category. The comedy comes from a man who cannot stop being lethal while also refusing to break anything in his own store or frighten his daughter.

The action animation in the first season was the argument for the whole adaptation. The character trailer suggests season two intends to keep making it.

Yuto Suzuki's manga has been running in Weekly Shonen Jump since 2020 and the source material gets meaningfully darker in the stretch this season is drawing from — so the tonal balancing act is about to get harder.

Henry voices Bass, a bounty hunter with a mechanical arm that reconfigures into a double-barrel shotgun in roughly a second, plus the disturbing history that came attached to the arm. The character takes his name and outline from Bass Reeves, the first Black U.S. marshal. The setting is a steampunk West populated with mechanical bulls and assorted bots, and the plot sends him across it dispensing justice while trying to get home to his family. The visual reference points, going by the footage: The Harder They Fall, Wild Wild West, and a dash of Mortal Engines.

The people behind it matter. Creator LeSean Thomas made Yasuke and Cannon Busters, and has spent a decade building Black-led animation inside a Japanese production pipeline. Studio Mir is animating — the house behind Skull Island, Devil May Cry, and the Witcher films.

The voice cast is stacked:

• Janelle Monáe, who also performs the opening theme
• Tati Gabrielle
• Cree Summer
• Chaske Spencer
• Currie Graham
• Starletta DuPois as Etta

Henry described the project as the first Black western anime in the medium's history, and made a point of saying he had no interest in being the kind of EP who never finds out how the sausage gets made. His words were considerably less polite than mine.

The season moves to a new set of characters in Night City. The one the trailer keeps returning to is a solo — that's a freelance gun-for-hire, in Cyberpunk's vocabulary — named Weak Kingsley, whose ability to distinguish what's actually happening from what his implants are telling him is degrading. Cyberpsychosis, in other words. Anyone who watched the first season knows what this show does with characters whose hardware starts outrunning their minds, and it is not gentle.

Attendees got the first ten minutes on the main stage: a heist that collapses because Weak glitches at the exact wrong moment. The visual register is 90s CRT distortion crossed with graphic-novel panel work, which is Trigger doing what Trigger does. The opening credits are scored to The Cure's "10:15 Saturday Night" — a needle drop so specific that someone on that production clearly fought for it.

For context on the stakes here: the 2022 first season was a ten-episode standalone tragedy about David Martinez and Lucy that did something almost no piece of licensed animation manages. It didn't just work as a show, it dragged Cyberpunk 2077 back from one of the worst launches in modern gaming and made people care about the game again. A sequel season has a very specific bar to clear, and the bar is emotional damage.

October 20. Netflix. Schedule nothing for the day after.

If Death Note scratched your brain in exactly the right way, you are very much not alone. That cat-and-mouse chess match, the morally messy lead, the constant 'who blinks first' tension — it set a bar. But it is not the only game in town. If you want more shows that live in that same headspace but come at it from different angles, these three are the ones I point people to first.

Steins;Gate

At first, it plays like a loose sci-fi hangout show about self-proclaimed mad scientist Rintarou Okabe and his oddball crew. Then they accidentally figure out how to send texts to the past, and the floor drops out: conspiracies stack up, timelines splinter, and choices start costing a lot more than anyone can afford.

What makes Steins;Gate land is how brainy it is without losing the human core. The show keeps you tracking shifting realities and cause-and-effect puzzles, while Okabe keeps throwing himself at the problem of saving people he loves and breaking himself a little more each time. Where Death Note is two geniuses trying to outplay each other, Steins;Gate is about the weight of knowing too much and the price of trying to fix fate. Also worth a nod: Steins;Gate hit its 15th anniversary on April 6, 2026 — time flies, fittingly.

Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another World

Yes, it starts like a standard isekai. Then it becomes one of the more punishing psychological thrillers in anime. Subaru Natsuki gets dropped into another world with an ability called 'Return by Death' — every time he dies, time rewinds. Sounds helpful. It is not. It traps him in a loop of trauma where he remembers every failure, every betrayal, every loss, while everyone else resets clean.

The real battles here are inside Subaru's head. Each reset chips away at him as he tries to protect people who do not remember what he has been through. If Death Note builds tension through elaborate gambits, Re:Zero stares down the psychological damage of responsibility, fear, and isolation. It is relentless, character-first, and weirdly hopeful in the way it crawls back from the edge.

Classroom of the Elite

Take a top-tier high school, turn status into currency, and make every social interaction part of a game you cannot opt out of. That is the setup. The show is all about manipulation and positioning, not fists. In the middle is Kiyotaka Ayanokoji — brilliantly capable, emotionally sealed off, and very good at staying invisible while pulling strings.

If you love Death Note for the strategy and the 'are they three moves ahead or seven?' energy, this clicks right in. Alliances shift, motives stay buried, and wins come from patience and planning. It is more grounded than supernatural death gods and notebooks, but the intellectual knife fights scratch the same itch. One timely note: on June 24, 2026, the next chapter moved closer when the franchise confirmed a fifth season.

'Classroom of the Elite Season 5 officially announced!'

Bottom line: these three are not trying to be Death Note clones. Steins;Gate goes for the heartbreak and consequences of time travel, Re:Zero turns failure into horror and growth, and Classroom of the Elite makes everyday school life feel like a pressure-cooker strategy match. Different flavors, same high-stakes buzz.

Which one do you think rivals — or even tops — Death Note? Drop your pick in the comments.

Studio Ghibli has spent 40-plus years doing the opposite of what the rest of animation keeps telling itself to do. Bigger pipelines? Faster tools? Outsource it to a thousand people and a few algorithms? Ghibli keeps shrugging and going back to pencils, paper, and small rooms full of lifers who care way too much about the way a breeze moves grass. That stubbornness is the point.

The three rules Ghibli won’t let go of

• Draw it by hand, even when the computer would be cheaper and faster.
• Keep the team small enough that the work still feels personal.
• Let one clear creative vision lead, not a room full of approvals.

1) Hand over hardware

There is a tactile, slightly obsessive quality to Ghibli’s images that you can spot instantly. Clouds in My Neighbor Totoro, the floating cities in Castle in the Sky, the churning ocean in Ponyo — they look like someone worried over them, because someone did. Producer Toshio Suzuki said back in 2008 that Hayao Miyazaki personally drew the waves in Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea because the ocean needed a human touch, not a render queue. It tracks with the rest of the filmography: the soot sprites skittering around Spirited Away, grass compressing under Totoro’s feet — tiny sensations you can almost feel because they were sketched, not simulated.

Ghibli has dabbled with digital tools. Howl’s Moving Castle mixed in CGI here and there, but Miyazaki reportedly tossed some of it when the hand-drawn version simply felt better. It’s not anti-technology for the sake of it; it’s pro-feeling. Same energy as that clip that did the rounds in 2025 of Miyazaki reacting to AI-generated art with open disgust — he’s never been shy about where he draws the line. And fans keep meeting the work on those terms too; even a Howl’s Moving Castle redraw challenge popped up a while back because those lines practically dare you to study them.

2) Small on purpose

Most big animation studios count staff in the thousands. Ghibli’s headcount has historically bounced somewhere in the ballpark of roughly 150 to 280 employees across the whole company. That scale is out of step with the rest of the industry — intentionally.

Look at The Boy and the Heron. The Oscar winner was reportedly animated by around 60 people. Sixty. Yet it’s packed with some of Miyazaki’s most intricate imagery: that swirling parakeet kingdom with its oddball momentum, the impossible tower that seems to fold space in on itself. The takeaway isn’t that smaller is automatically better; it’s that intimacy lets them sweat the right details.

3) One vision, not a committee

Plenty of modern blockbusters are built by notes and focus groups. Studio Ghibli has spent decades batting that model away. Toshio Suzuki has long described a setup where Miyazaki’s instincts set the course rather than a committee sanding every edge. Ponyo didn’t start as an IP expansion; it came out of Miyazaki living by the sea and wanting to draw a simple story about a goldfish princess, then pushing deeper into how it should feel instead of bigger into what else it could franchise.

That’s why Ghibli movies wander in ways most tentpoles don’t. Kiki’s Delivery Service stops to sit with a girl getting lonely in a new city. Princess Mononoke refuses to hand you clean-cut heroes and villains. Spirited Away just lets you ride a train across flooded tracks because the quiet is part of the spell. No one walked in and said: speed this up, flatten it out, test it again.

Maybe the real trick with Ghibli isn’t the spirits, forests, or flying machines — it’s the refusal to budge on the stuff that built the studio in the first place. Four decades on, those rules are still in every frame.

Which of these Ghibli traditions matters most to you? And what’s the one shot or moment that lives rent-free in your head? Drop it in the comments.

One Piece has been telling this story for a quarter century, and yeah, Oda has been nudging us toward the endgame. But right now, Luffy is still in the 'leveling up' phase. Gear 5 is a wild swing, his Haki is sharper than ever, and he still clearly needs another gear or two before he can stare down the final nightmare that has been hanging over this world for centuries.

Heads up: manga spoilers ahead.

Here are the heavyweights who, as of the current manga run, still sit above Luffy on the food chain. Some of this is on-page, some of it is strongly hinted, and a couple bits are the kind of deep-cut theorizing the fanbase loves. I’ll flag where things get murky.

1. Imu

   The World Government’s real top seat is finally showing their hand in the newest chapters, and it tracks why so many readers see Imu as the final boss. The God Valley flashback leaned into something downright terrifying: Imu can hijack other people’s bodies, and strength doesn’t seem to be a shield against it. Over on Elbaf, we’re watching Imu throw hands in a way that’s... not encouraging for the good guys.

   Imu’s power set reads like a Devil Fruit awakening on steroids. There’s a technique fans have labeled 'Omen' that dropped Zoro and Sanji with a single blast. And right now, Imu is taking on Gear 5 Luffy plus a fully juiced Loki and still looks in control. On top of that, there are signs Imu has a way of keeping key lieutenants around unnaturally long — 'immortal' might be an overstatement, but the vibe is there.

2. Shanks

   For years, Shanks (Figarland Shanks, if you like the full flourish) has basically been the yardstick. That shifted once Imu stepped into the spotlight and the Joy Boy myth re-centered the scale, but Shanks is still an absolute monster — comfortably ahead of current Gear 5 Luffy.

   The on-screen resume speaks for itself. Eustass Kid rolled in with a freshly awakened Devil Fruit, a role in dropping Big Mom, and a 3 billion bounty. Shanks deleted him in one swing. That’s not just a flex; that’s a punctuation mark. There’s also the off-panel chatter that Shanks handled Loki solo at some point — and Loki’s currently being framed as a peer to Gear 5 Luffy. If true, that’s obscene.

3. Blackbeard

   Since Jaya, Oda has positioned Marshall D. Teach as Luffy’s dark mirror. The inevitable clash has been baked in for ages, but power-wise, Teach still feels a step ahead.

   Blackbeard’s whole MO is playing possum until he can end you in one move. The two Devil Fruits we know he wields are nightmarishly destructive, and the series keeps hinting there’s even more he isn’t showing yet. There’s also a persistent (and very loud) theory that he’s Rocks D. Xebec’s son. Not confirmed, but if that lineage turns out to be real, it only underlines the idea that Teach has been holding back for the final curtain.

4. Dragon

   Luffy’s dad might be Oda’s greatest tease. Every time it looks like we’ll finally see Monkey D. Dragon unload, the story swerves. Which, at this point, probably means he’s cooking something devastating.

   Recent chapters finally gave him motion: Dragon is intercepting the 'heavenly tribute' from kingdoms and has effectively blockaded Mary Geoise by choking off supplies. That is not small-time rebellion. Add in the Monkey family pedigree (Garp and Luffy do not exactly set a low bar) and the Marines branding him the 'Worst Criminal in History,' and it would be bizarre if Dragon doesn’t enter the main fight as one of the most powerful figures in the series. We just haven’t seen the receipts yet.

5. Akainu

   Fleet Admiral is the Marines’ top chair, and historically it belongs to living legends. Sakazuki more than fits. He’s the face of 'absolute justice,' which for him means pirates are the root of every problem worth solving — and he solves problems with magma.

   The Mag-Mag Fruit is one of the most brutally offensive powers in the series, and Akainu’s usage is clinical and frightening. Post-timeskip, he beat Kuzan to claim the throne, which is still one of the most concrete feats on the Marine side. And Oda himself didn’t exactly downplay the guy:

   'If Akainu were the protagonist, One Piece would end within a year.'

   If he and Aokiji ever run it back, it’s hard to bet against the current top dog.

Bottom line: Luffy’s path to Pirate King still runs through some absolute nightmares. He’s going to need more fights, more growth, and probably one more scary upgrade to clear this list. Which is great news for us — it means One Piece still has room to swing big before it plants the flag on that final island.

Live-action takes on manga are having a moment. One Piece worked. Kingdom keeps racking up movies. And now Kodansha is pushing even harder into Hollywood. The latest move: a new North American series based on Hotaru's Way — a romance-comedy manga that never even got an anime. It skipped straight to live-action in Japan years ago, and now it's heading West for another go.

So, what is Hotaru's Way?

Created by Satoru Hiura, the manga started in 2004 and wrapped in 2009, then kept going with sequels and spin-offs. It follows a 27-year-old woman who drifts into a relationship with a younger co-worker. No superpowers, no apocalypses — just a slice-of-life rom-com with a sneaky amount of heart. If you want to sample it, the first chapter is up on Kodansha's site.

Why this title, and why now?

Last year, Kodansha laid out a plan to bring more of its biggest properties to Western screens and set up Kodansha Studios to make that happen. Oscar winner Chloe Zhao is among the names helping to adapt titles from the catalog. Hotaru's Way fits the push, and it's a funny outlier: despite being a major manga, it never got animated. Instead, Japan went live-action first — a TV series in 2007, a TV sequel in 2010, and a feature film in 2012 — and now the West is catching up.

• New project: A North American live-action TV series, as first reported by Deadline
• Studio: Unapologetic Projects
• Producers: Paige Hooper, Motoko Kimura, Kate Kugler
• Release timing: Not announced yet
• Previous Japanese adaptations: 2007 TV series, 2010 TV sequel, 2012 feature film
• Source material: Manga by Satoru Hiura (2004–2009) with follow-up sequels/spin-offs

What the team is saying

Producer Paige Hooper framed Hotaru's Way as the start of a bigger slate:

"We are thrilled to move forward with this new series. This is just the first of a few projects we have in progress as we are building our own unique path towards a long-term development strategy and approach. We believe we have a strong pipeline for success and are eager to get new projects out for audiences to enjoy."

Kodansha leadership has been clear about the broader strategy, too. When the company announced its West-facing push last year and launched Kodansha Studios, CEO Yoshinobu Noma put it this way:

"Guided by our corporate mission, 'Inspire Impossible Stories,' we are constantly seeking new avenues to deliver the rich, diverse narratives originating from Japan to a global audience. The establishment of Kodansha Studios represents a pivotal moment - and a new chapter - in the relationship between Japanese publishers and Hollywood. This studio is our commitment to accelerating direct partnerships with premier global artists, producers, and partner studios."

The takeaway

Hotaru's Way heading straight to Western live-action — again, without ever being animated — is a quirky, very on-brand move for Kodansha's current playbook. It is lower-key than the splashy shonen titles getting adapted, but that might be the point: character-first, rom-com storytelling travels well. Now we just need a release date.

Right, so in a move that I genuinely did not see coming, we're getting a manga adaptation of a Resident Evil film. But before anyone gets too excited – or too irritated – let's break down exactly what this is (and, honestly, what it isn't).

Which Resident Evil film are we talking about?

The manga isn't based on one of the Paul W.S. Anderson-Fast-and-the-Furious-with-zombies live-action romps, and it's not a spin-off from the upcoming reboot starring Austin Abrams either. Instead, it's an adaptation of the animated movie Resident Evil: Death Island – you know, the one that throws just about every major character from the games onto Alcatraz for a monster-filled holiday gone wrong.

Here's the basic timeline:

• 21 June 2023: Death Island premieres in Singapore
• 7 July 2023: Japanese release follows
• Also had theatrical outings in Taiwan, Malaysia, and Greece
• Eventually made its way online for everyone else
• 29 September 2026: Manga adaptation hits shelves

What's the manga actually about?

Illustrated by Zino – who does actually have a decent track record in the manga world – this isn't just some quick-and-dirty cash-in. Capcom and a group called the Death Island Film Partners are both involved, supposedly determined to "bring cinematic scale to manga panels" and mix "pulse-pounding action with atmospheric dread". (Not to be snide, but if you've ever played Resident Evil 6, you know those two vibes don't always blend.)

The official synopsis doesn't stray in a surprising direction:

"A deadly outbreak on Alcatraz Island draws DSO agent Leon S. Kennedy into a kidnapping case that unravels into a global biohazard conspiracy. As Chris Redfield uncovers a related threat in San Francisco, the world's most iconic survivors are pulled together for a desperate fight against a mutating nightmare."

Or in plain English: zombies attack an island prison, everyone from Leon to Jill to Rebecca Chambers (yes, really) gets dragged into the chaos, and by the end you'll have seen about a dozen increasingly impossible monster mutations. So, standard Resident Evil fare – not exactly reinventing the franchise, but if you just want more spectacle and high-stakes virus nonsense, you're in luck.

Release details and where you can actually buy it

The Death Island manga goes on sale 29 September 2026. You can preorder it through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, and, conveniently for the UK crowd, Forbidden Planet as well. No restrictive territory business – it'll be available for both UK and European readers.

It's being pitched as suitable for both veteran fans and anyone dipping their toe into horror manga for the first time. Whether it can really deliver that "cinematic scale" in a graphic format, though, is something we'll all have to wait to see.

Let’s be honest – if you’ve dipped your toes into anime, you’ve heard about Attack on Titan. Over the last quarter-century, there haven’t been many shows that manage to beat it at its own game, and it’s earned its reputation as a peerless genre-defining beast. At first, it looks like your standard moody dystopian survival fest, but give it a few episodes and it mutates into something much stranger and more ambitious. The frantic plot twists, the enormous swings between action, politics, and gutting emotional moments – it all makes for absolutely unskippable telly (alright, unless you really hate giant monsters or screaming teens).

Now, to be clear – there are a handful of series out there that can edge out Attack on Titan in specific areas. Some top it for animation, some for choreography, others for big-ideas plotting. If you’re on the hunt for a new anime binge – or you just fancy arguing about which is more ‘art’ – let’s break down the contenders worth knowing about.

• Demon Slayer – No offence to Attack on Titan stans, but visually, Demon Slayer is in a league of its own. Ufotable’s blend of slick 2D and 3D elevates the action scenes to, frankly, ridiculous levels of spectacle. Yes, the characters and themes aren’t quite so deep – and it’s much less interested in politics or ambiguity – but if you want to sit back and let some of the best-animated swordfights ever made burn holes in your retinas, this is where you go.
  Watch if: You want a big, glossy action anime with surprisingly dark undertones and the odd moment of actual fun. It’s got hope, it’s got tragedy, it’s got jokes.
  Skip if: You want layered, complicated characters or meaty world politics. This one’s flashy, but straightforward.
• Jujutsu Kaisen – On sheer fight choreography, Jujutsu Kaisen leaves many bruised egos behind. The plot’s good (dark, supernatural, decent banter), but it’s the fights – hand-to-hand, with moves nicked from real martial arts – that make it a standout. It’s got the wit and the charm that AoT sometimes lacks, just don’t expect the same level of twisty, high-stakes plotting.
  Watch if: You’re craving a well-designed power system, gleaming action, and enough comedy to stop you slashing your wrists.
  Skip if: Blood and endless death aren’t your thing – it doesn’t hold back.
• Chainsaw Man – Only one season and one film in, but Chainsaw Man is already a fan-favourite for how well it sketches out its messy, addictive character connections. The Denji/Power/Aki trio is painfully believable, and the show does subtlety (and toxic relationships) with a deft hand. Plot-wise, it's messy on purpose – but if you loved AoT's emotional gut-punches, you'll get plenty here, only with even more 'what the hell am I watching?' moments.
  Watch if: You don't mind your supernatural action laced with a bit of actual character study, and spot-the-movie-reference is your idea of fun.
  Skip if: If gore and crude jokes make you wince, give this one a swerve.
• Vinland Saga – Another story of trauma and revenge, but Viking-flavoured and more philosophical. Where AoT lets Eren become properly monstrous, Vinland Saga steers Thorfinn in the opposite direction, exploring not just how revenge warps a person, but what’s left when it’s all over. Season 2 is far more introspective – be warned, not non-stop violence, but it’s not dull, either.
  Watch if: You like your historical anime to ask big ethical questions without losing its edge.
  Skip if: You only want fantasy spectacle and huge world-building – it’s not that kind of show.
• One Piece – If you're measuring sheer scale – both in story and real-world influence – One Piece leaves AoT in the dust. The world-building here is grotesquely expansive (not surprising, as it’s still going after a million episodes). The plot isn’t as tightly wound, but for fans who want to lose themselves in a ridiculously detailed universe stuffed with memorable oddballs, nothing else comes close.
  Watch if: You want a fantasy world you’ll actually want to live in, and don’t mind the binge commitment.
  Skip if: You want a show that gets to the bloody point.
• Parasyte: The Maxim – Think of this as AoT in miniature: less viral, but just as existentially grim. Humans face monstrous invaders, but Parasyte narrows the focus to the psychological – what it means to merge with the thing you’re fighting, and whether that makes you less than human. Absolutely riveting if you love character-focused survival drama, though it can get under your skin, literally.
  Watch if: You wanted more introspection and body horror in AoT.
  Skip if: You’re squeamish about body horror.
• Mob Psycho 100 – AoT's cast is impressively complicated, but Mob Psycho 100 beats it for pure character writing. It slows down when it needs to – sometimes drifting into slice-of-life or comedy – but that only makes you care more about the stakes.
  Watch if: You’re up for a hopeful, surprisingly smart coming-of-age with some punk energy.
  Skip if: You want unrelenting darkness or action and not much else.
• Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion – Where AoT's ending divided enough fans to fill three walls, Code Geass is famous for sticking the landing. The ending is so well-executed it practically forces you to rewatch the whole thing just to spot the groundwork. Moral ambiguity, political drama, and the kind of closure AoT readers wish they’d got.
  Watch if: You’re in the mood for intelligent power plays, mecha spectacle, and stories where no one's really the ‘good guy’.
  Skip if: You think all anime needs a traditional hero story.
• Monster – A psychological crime thriller rather than dark fantasy, but for sheer story craft, Monster just might have AoT beat. Pacing is slower, the animation less flashy (it’s pushing twenty years, to be fair), but if you want a grown-up study in guilt, monsters, and humanity, this is top-tier stuff.
  Watch if: You like shows that make you sweat and wonder, and don’t mind a slow burn.
  Skip if: Pure realism is a turn-off.
• Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood – Here’s the one that often comes out on top in the pub debate. FMAB just does almost everything right: personal/political stakes, a chunky power system, a pace that never drags, a genuinely satisfying ending. It’s lighter in mood overall (though still more shocking than your average shōnen), and every rewatch leaves you more impressed by how well it’s all fit together.
  Watch if: You love world-building, meticulously crafted magic, and characters you actually want to root for.
  Skip if: Unrelenting bleakness is what drew you to AoT in the first place.

Big picture: whether you’re after bloody action, labyrinthine politics, or just the chance to shout ‘what WAS that?’ at your screen, there’s plenty out there to rival – or even top – Attack on Titan, depending on what you crave. As for which is the GOAT, you'll have to pick your poison (and yes, someone will argue with you about it in the comments).

Look, I'll say it: Demon Slayer is an absolute juggernaut, both for its retina-searing animation and the fact its films have become box office royalty. But is it really the best action anime out there? Personally, I think the hype is deserved... at least for the visuals. Scratch beneath the surface, though, and you'll see loads of series doing better across story, characters, or just sheer originality.

You can see why so many get invested in Tanjiro and Nezuko almost immediately — the show practically dares you not to root for these two. But let's not pretend it's flawless. Plenty of anime deliver meatier character arcs, richer settings, and stories that twist harder than Demon Slayer ever manages. The animation covers up a fair few plot clichés, but if you're looking for something that genuinely pushes the boundaries, let me run you through a selection of series that, in my entirely unsolicited opinion, often leave Demon Slayer in the dust.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood hit screens way back in 2009 and still sits at the very top of many fantasy anime rankings today.

Heavy Hitters You Shouldn't Miss

• Jujutsu Kaisen: Always compared to Demon Slayer for good reason — both supernatural shōnen, both broke out at the same time. But where Demon Slayer leans heavily on spectacle, Jujutsu Kaisen really commits to its power system and lore. The result? Action that isn’t just gorgeous, but genuinely interesting, with characters you might actually believe have lives outside the plot.
• Chainsaw Man: Another fresh-faced hit. The setup alone is a wild swing, and unlike Demon Slayer, it doesn’t play safe. Its unpredictability is half the fun — you never know who’s safe, what direction the story's going to yank you next, or if the thing is about to go way off the rails (in the best way possible).
• Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War: A final act done right. Animation is different, sure, but it's miles ahead on scale and build-up thanks to literal decades of world and character development. Demon Slayer can’t really compete on that front — hard to fault it, but facts are facts.
• Naruto: For all its filler and early-2000s quirks, Naruto just has a far superior ecosystem — more complex politics, richer world, and rivals with believable journeys. If you can get past the pacing problems (or just Google which episodes to skip), there's no shortage of memorable battles and character growth here.
• One Piece: Demon Slayer may be the flashier newcomer, but One Piece is the king of sprawling world-building. Of course, it’s got about 900 more episodes to play with, which helps. You'll get complex cultures, proper geography, a sense of scale that makes Demon Slayer's setting feel like a village green.
• Vinland Saga: If you want a protagonist who feels truly human in his grief and rage, Vinland Saga offers that with Thorfinn. Unlike eternally optimistic Tanjiro, Thorfinn's journey through loss is darker, but all the more believable for it. Just don’t expect demons and mystical powers — the series keeps things grounded and brutal.
• Mob Psycho 100: Probably the most character-focused of the lot. Across just three seasons, it builds its world, tells its story, and manages to squeeze in plenty of emotional payoff, with only a tiny fraction of Demon Slayer's unnecessary faffing about.
• My Hero Academia: Another superpowered shōnen, only this time your heroes and villains come with actual depth. Less broad strokes, more nuance, especially when it comes to motivations. If you’re craving a well-paced character study, give this a look — unless you’re allergic to superheroes these days, which, fair enough.
• Attack on Titan: The story, the tension, the twists — all on a different plane. Demon Slayer edges out on animation, but in literally every other department, Attack on Titan is the benchmark. No one does plot surprises and gut-punches quite the same.
• Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood: Starts strong, never wobbles, and offers everything from visceral fights to world-spanning conspiracies. Unlike Demon Slayer, whose story beats you've seen before, Brotherhood actually builds lore and rules you’ll care about, and you’ll still want to rewatch it even in 2026. Animation may look a bit retro, but none of the impact is lost.

Quick Notes for the Uninitiated

To be fair, there are a few things to keep in mind with these series. Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw Man are both high on the gore; Bleach's new arc only truly lands if you soldiered through the original Bleach; Naruto and One Piece demand a time commitment that'll swallow entire weekends. Vinland Saga is grounded, no fantasy bells and whistles attached. Mob Psycho 100 leans in on introspection, so if you tune out at character beats, it might not click. And if superhero fatigue is setting in, maybe skip My Hero Academia for something else. Attack on Titan is anything but lighthearted — don’t expect a cheery ending.

The short version? If Demon Slayer has you under its spell but you want more brains and bite beneath the surface gloss, any of these are well worth the watch.

If you’ve been itching to check out the new reboot of Ghost in the Shell and wondering just how closely it was going to follow Masamune Shirow’s original manga, you’ll want to know about a particular shift that’s already making waves—even if the envelopes aren’t being pushed quite as far as some might hope.

Why It Had to Change: Broadcast Rules Step In

Director Mokochan has come out and explained that, yes, the creative team behind the reboot are genuine fans of Shirow’s original work and wanted to remain as faithful as possible. But, as it turns out, Japanese TV networks have a few more nerves about certain graphic elements than Shirow did back in his manga days. Basically, since the anime is being made first and foremost for Japanese television, it’s had to dodge the more, let’s say, explicit material.

In Mokochan’s own words:

'Since this work was created primarily with television broadcast in Japan in mind, naturally, when it comes to highly extreme expressions, there are more limits and restrictions compared to theatrical films. However, as creators, we had a strong desire to keep the essence of the original as it was, so we made many creative adjustments to present it in a way that can be broadcast on TV while keeping the original feel.'

The Specific Scene (Why Fans Noticed)

The clearest change hits in Episode 2. In Shirow’s manga, Major Kusanagi isn’t shy about pushing the boundaries, especially in a certain holiday-at-home scene with two female friends—it’s a bit infamous for being extremely explicit. If you were expecting the anime to match that, you’re out of luck. The TV version dials the nudity and intensity right down to a faint echo of what’s on the page. The scene is still there in spirit, but not in letter, and definitely not in flesh.

How Much Freedom Did the Creators Actually Get?

Ironically, the crew at Science SARU—who are producing the reboot—weren’t actually being held back much by the higher-ups when it comes to adapting the story itself. They had a fair bit of creative leeway, according to Mokochan:

'How much we should base it on the original, and to what extent we should make it identical to the original, [we were] given a relatively high degree of freedom to decide. We really love Masamune Shirow’s original manga. As a result, our final direction was to keep the original manga as it was as much as possible.'

So, not every change is a result of studio interference or nervous network execs. For the most part, it came down to what you can actually get away with on Japanese TV before someone sends in a formal complaint letter.

For Reference: What’s Happened So Far?

• The new Ghost in the Shell anime launched on 7 July.
• Two episodes are out at the time of writing.
• The main takeaway is that big deviations from the manga seem to be about TV censorship, not lack of respect for the source.

Some anime thrillers don't just start strong — they actually get meatier and more intense as they motor along, rather than running out of steam. That, frankly, is rarer than you might think. There are plenty of supposedly 'must-watch' entries that either lose momentum halfway through (looking at you, Death Note past the cat-and-mouse prime) or take a total nosedive for baffling reasons (I'll never get over what happened to The Promised Neverland). But now and again you'll stumble onto a series that doesn’t just keep it together — it ramps everything up to a full boil before the finish. Even if a show gets a bit weird or divisive at the end, if it keeps raising the stakes, I call that a win. Here are several that pull it off, in very different ways.

Pacing Done Right – Or at Least With Purpose

• Erased (2016) — Just a dozen episodes long and it wastes none of them. Follows Satoru, who gets thrown backwards in time after his mother’s murder, forcing him to tackle a chain of kidnappings and deaths linked to his own childhood. It’s a textbook time-travel thriller, keeps the tension high till almost the end. The finish isn’t exactly what you’ll find in the manga (which annoys some readers), but I’d argue it does enough for closure. Even after all the loop-de-loops, it wisely slows down at the very end to give everyone their dues. Sci-fi’s there, but mostly for plot mechanics — if you want physics lectures, look elsewhere.
• Monster (2004-2005) — If you want a slow build, this is peak material. Not much flash, more simmer, and honestly, it makes the suspense even better. The story: a surgeon saves a young boy, only to see him grow into a total monster (literally and otherwise). Some complain the middle third drags, but every lull really is just tightening the coil — it all pays off. Deep, thoughtful, sometimes bleak, and if you stick out the marathon, supremely rewarding.
• Steins;Gate (2011–2015) — Here’s your mystery box that gets genuinely wild midway through. The handle on the opening is cryptic (to put it kindly), but once the time-travel starts kicking in, things escalate quickly. The mood shifts — it gets markedly darker — and suddenly everything you slogged through seems necessary. Like Monster, it actually gets better on a rewatch when you spot all the seeds you missed the first time.
• Summer Time Rendering (2022) — Looks bright and breezy on the surface, but you’re getting a much darker package than the 'summer holiday' vibe suggests. After a funeral visit, the main character tumbles into a supernatural murder-groundhog-day scenario that just keeps getting tenser by the episode. The time-loop angle is handled smartly, and there’s more bite than you expect. Criminally underrated, 25 episodes, all worth queueing up for fans of twisty thrillers — though fair warning, it does take a few comic turns now and then.
• Talentless Nana (2020) — Begins like every magic-school anime you’ve ever seen, then pulls the rug. The titular Nana starts a killing spree with everyone else in the dark, which amps up the suspense. Unfairly, it never got a Season 2, so you’re left hanging with only the manga as an option if you want proper resolution. Still, until that last credit rolls, one of the best for whiplash twists and shifty morals.
• Odd Taxi (2021) — A walrus cabbie caught up in a truly convoluted (and brilliant) missing-persons puzzle, all voiced and animated in that deadpan, anthropomorphic style. At just 13 episodes, it’s lean but absolutely loaded with twists. The ensemble cast are all animals (literally), but still manage to feel more human than plenty of live-action shows. Everything pays off in one of the most satisfying endings in recent memory — every oddball flashback actually fits by the close.
• Danganronpa: The Animation (2013) — They took the over-the-top murder mystery of the video game and made it into a rapid-fire anime thriller. Battered students, locked inside by a sadistic robot bear (I know, sounds mad) have to kill and investigate, or get axed themselves. The combination of outrageous premise and ruthless pacing means there’s never a dull moment — whether you find it exhilarating or just a bit much probably depends on your fondness for battle royale tropes.
• Attack on Titan (2013–2023) — Possibly the most intense long-form anime of the last decade. Opening salvo is giant monsters smashing up a walled city, closing acts are… well, saying would spoil it, but trust me, nothing stays static for long. Everything twists, snowballs, and almost every quiet episode only sets up something nastier around the corner. Across four seasons and a whopping 89 episodes, the plot never lets up and each fresh arc outdoes the last.

Attack on Titan aired from 2013 to 2023, tallying up 89 episodes across its run.

Final Thoughts — And a Few Disclaimers

Even the best of these have their quirks, and not every one is for everyone. If you're burnt out on time-travel mechanics (Steins;Gate, Summer Time Rendering, Erased), steer clear of those. If you want atmosphere and don’t mind your thrillers running slow, Monster will feel like a proper reward. For twisted murder puzzles, Danganronpa and Odd Taxi scratch the itch nicely. Talentless Nana will only frustrate those who can’t stand unfinished stories. And Attack on Titan… well, if you want a tidy binge, you’re looking at the wrong epic entirely.

There’s no shortage of science fiction in anime, but not every series manages to stick the landing episode after episode. If you’re someone who’s spent way too long wanting a sci-fi show that’s actually worth binging from start to finish—without being mugged by filler or forced to sit through thirty episodes of characters screaming about friendship—this list might just sort you out.

I’ve spent four years covering science fiction for MovieWeb, and that’s basically code for: I’ve seen enough anime to know most series will collapse if you push past the shiny world-building. So everything here isn’t just a winner on premise, it’s consistently excellent all the way to the credits.

Gurren Lagann’ launched in 2007 and goes from literal dirt tunnels to fighting with galaxy-sized robots—no, I’m not exaggerating.

Anime That Go Beyond Cool Concepts

First up: Gurren Lagann. Easily written off if you only catch a few minutes—giant robots punch each other while someone yells about drills—but it’s the rare show that just keeps escalating until it’s totally absurd, in the best way. By the end, it’s less about physics and more about human ambition running wild. What’s clever is that, beneath the neon brawling and shouty optimism, the show keeps hammering on grit and belief. If you want absolutely maximalist sci-fi and hate restraint, this will have you running through walls (figuratively, I hope). But if you want subtlety, it’s probably not for you—Gurren Lagann doesn’t even know the word.

Now, if you like your science fiction sprawling and loaded with politics, Legend of the Galactic Heroes (first aired in 1988) is the gold standard. The title is nonsense, but the content isn’t. This is 110 episodes of serious space opera where strategy, diplomacy, and ideology matter just as much as guns. It’s not quick viewing—the length puts most people off—but if you’re willing to dive in, it’s one of the most ambitious stories the medium has ever produced. You’ll need to keep up: it expects you to pay attention, and rewards patience with some of the best political drama in sci-fi.

Then there’s Serial Experiments Lain. Airing before the turn of the millennium, it somehow predicted the identity disasters we all now live with online. Watching Lain today is borderline uncanny: questions it raised in the dial-up era—about anxiety, reality, and the digital world—are even more pressing now. It’s a cryptic, slightly disorienting ride that shows you what anime can do when it stops worrying about answers and just leans into the weirdness. You’ll keep coming back and picking up new threads—if you like neat, event-by-event storytelling, this is probably not your basket.

Big Names Done Right

Look, Neon Genesis Evangelion is never going away, and it shouldn’t. It isn’t just the giant robots—it’s what Hideaki Anno did to the genre’s mood. Most mecha shows are power fantasies. Evangelion turns that inside out: its teenagers are visibly shattered, all while the robot fights double as metaphors for depression and trauma. If you want raw emotion and a story that lurches into introspection (sometimes literally mid-fight scene), Evangelion is unmissable. But if you’re only here for robots hitting each other? The back half might test your patience.

Another high point: Steins;Gate from 2011. Time travel usually collapses once you start prodding at its logic. This show actually cares about its rules—it makes sure the emotional fallout and consequences feel earned. The first few episodes are misleadingly silly, but by the time you notice, the stakes have quietly skyrocketed. It’s a must if you like your science fiction with a side of heartbreak, and you’re willing to endure a slightly slow beginning.

For cyberpunk obsessives, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex remains the obvious pick. It takes the brooding, philosophical roots of Mamoru Oshii’s iconic film and riffs on them as a crime series about a cyborg police unit. It should feel like a downgrade, but instead, it’s a near-perfect balance of detective work, ideas about A.I. and humanity, and the occasional spectacular action scene. Most episodes stand alone, which is rare—and oddly welcome—in the age of endless arcs.

The New, the Gritty, the Brilliant

It’s not all retro. Pluto (2023) adapts a corner of Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy and turns it into a slow-burn murder mystery about a robot detective. Naoki Urasawa, who wrote the thing, somehow transforms what could have been a simple case-of-the-week affair into a story loaded with mature ideas about grief and what it means to be human (or robot). Expect a genuinely bleak, deliberate pace: every episode feels like its own packed story, and some will absolutely gut you.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is way better than a video game tie-in has any right to be. Studio Trigger took the world of Cyberpunk 2077 and built a violent, breakneck miniseries that feels as if it was ripped straight from the grimiest parts of the game (in a good way). Across ten episodes, they manage to tell an emotionally brutal story with a cast that actually sticks in your memory. Be warned: it doesn’t hold back on body horror or downer endings, but it’s easily the best bit of cyberpunk anime the last few years have produced.

On the darker end: Psycho-Pass. This is what happens when someone wonders 'what if the police could arrest you for thinking about committing a crime?' and then decides to make a thriller out of it. The technology-versus-freedom questions are even more relevant now than when it started. Series one is the standout: well-written, morally tangled, with one of the finest antagonists I’ve seen in animated sci-fi.

And then there’s Cowboy Bebop, the one show basically everyone agrees belongs on every sci-fi watchlist. Space bounty hunters, jazz, slow-burn heartbreak—Bebop’s got it all. Each episode could stand on its own, but as a whole, it becomes a character study that’s quietly devastating by the end. It’s episodic, sure, but that’s precisely why it works—Bebop manages to genre-jump every week and never loses its footing.

• Gurren Lagann (2007): Over-the-top mecha battles that turn into a full-on celebration of human will.
• Legend of the Galactic Heroes (1988): 110 episodes of meticulously plotted political war in space.
• Serial Experiments Lain (1998): Surreal, prescient, and full of questions about how we live online (and off).
• Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995): Psychological drama disguised as a robot show.
• Steins;Gate (2011): Time travel with actual consequences and emotional payoff.
• Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2002): Intelligent cyberpunk married to a detective format that actually works.
• Pluto (2023): A robot detective’s slow, agonising battle with grief and prejudice.
• Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (2022): A surprisingly brilliant, compact cyberpunk tragedy for the Netflix era.
• Psycho-Pass (2012): Police procedural in a world where crime is predicted before it happens.
• Cowboy Bebop (1998): Unparalleled genre-mashup, cool jazz, space bounty hunting, and a big slice of existential dread.

If you’ve got a sci-fi anime you think should be here, suspiciously missing from the list, drop it in the comments—there’s always room for a bit of friendly disagreement. And if you spot a mistake, you know the drill—inbox is always open.

If you’re jumping in now, the easiest path is straight through Crunchyroll. The streamer has the run to date in the U.S., with Japanese audio and an English dub available. If you prefer to keep everything inside Amazon, you can also watch via the Crunchyroll add-on channel inside Prime Video.

All current episodes of Rent-A-Girlfriend stream in the U.S. on Crunchyroll.

Where to watch

• Crunchyroll — streaming the series with subs and English dub
• Prime Video Channels — add the Crunchyroll channel to watch inside Amazon’s app

Based on Reiji Miyajima’s hit manga, Rent-A-Girlfriend follows college student Kazuya Kinoshita, who hires Chizuru Mizuhara through a rental app after a brutal breakup — and then gets stuck in a fake-relationship spiral that keeps colliding with his real life. Season 1 (directed largely by Kazuomi Koga) runs 12 episodes and sets up the messy, funny push-pull that made the show blow up when it premiered in 2020.

Watch order at a glance

• Season 1 — 12 episodes
• Season 2 — 12 episodes
• Season 3 — 12 episodes

Want another comfort-food rom-com once you’re caught up? Toradora! pairs two classmates who team up to win their crushes and accidentally catch feelings for each other along the way. It’s a 25-episode slow-burn favorite and is currently streaming on Prime Video.

The 10th‑anniversary 4K remaster of Your Name. is headed back to North American theaters on August 14, 2026, with distributor GKIDS booking both subtitled screenings (Japanese audio with English subs) and an English‑dubbed version. It’s the first time the Makoto Shinkai hit will return to the big screen in a newly remastered 4K presentation.

Your Name. returns to North American theaters in a remastered 4K edition on August 14, 2026.

How to watch in the U.S.

If you want to revisit it before the theatrical run, you’ve got several streaming options right now:

• Crunchyroll — available to stream in the U.S.
• Prime Video Channels — accessible as an add‑on inside Amazon’s Prime Video.
• YouTube — available with a YouTube subscription.

Crunchyroll plans start at $9.99/month in the U.S., with premium tiers up to $17.99, and new users get a 7‑day free trial. If you’re going the Amazon route, Prime Video can be subscribed to on its own for $8.99/month, or as part of a full Amazon Prime membership at $14.99/month or $139/year.

For anyone who’s heard about it but never jumped in: Shinkai’s romantic fantasy follows two teenagers—Mitsuha in rural Itomori and Taki in Tokyo—who begin mysteriously swapping bodies across distance and, eventually, time. Their connection collides with a looming comet disaster and a race to change fate, which helped turn the 2016 film into a modern anime landmark.

After its limited theatrical engagement, the remaster heads to home shelves: a 4K UHD Steelbook and Blu‑ray arrive on August 25, 2026 via Shout!.

In the U.S., the complete run of Dragon Ball Z is streaming on Netflix — all the way through the Saiyan, Frieza, Cell and Buu arcs. It’s also available on Crunchyroll, and if you want to own episodes or films, you can buy them on Amazon Prime Video and Fandango at Home (formerly Vudu). On the movie side, Netflix’s U.S. selection is limited; it currently includes titles like Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods.

Where to watch in the U.S.

• Netflix — Streams the full Dragon Ball Z series; carries select movies, including Battle of Gods.
• Crunchyroll — Streams the full series.
• Buy/Rent — Episodes and films are available à la carte on Amazon Prime Video and Fandango at Home.

How much DBZ is there?

The anime runs 16 seasons and 291 episodes. The franchise also has 15 theatrical movies — 13 released during the original TV run and two later revivals that lead into Dragon Ball Super. Not all of the films are canon to the main storyline.

291 episodes across 16 seasons, plus 15 movies.

For anyone jumping in, Dragon Ball Z picks up after the original Dragon Ball and adapts later chapters of Akira Toriyama’s manga. It follows Goku into adulthood as he and Earth’s defenders take on androids, alien conquerors and cosmic threats — with the Dragon Balls still in play to undo the worst losses. The series first aired in Japan from 1989 to 1996 and went on to shape action anime worldwide.

Bottom line for U.S. viewers: the full series streams on Netflix and Crunchyroll, while Netflix’s movie shelf includes select titles like Battle of Gods; the rest can be found to buy or rent on Prime Video and Fandango at Home.

Looking to revisit the original run of Berserk (1997)? In the U.S., the classic series isn’t on the big streaming services right now. Your best bet is physical media: the show is widely available on DVD and Blu‑ray through major retailers, including Amazon. It’s a single-season story, so once you’ve got the discs, the whole thing is an easy weekend watch.

As of 2026, Berserk (1997) isn’t streaming on any major U.S. platform.

The 25-episode saga follows lone mercenary Guts as he’s pulled into the orbit of the charismatic Griffith and the Band of the Hawk, with Casca emerging as the unit’s fierce battlefield leader. What starts as a gritty medieval war drama edges into haunting dark fantasy, testing loyalty, ambition, and the cost of power.

If you’re curious about the talent behind the voices, here’s who you’ll hear on the original track and the English dub:

• Nobutoshi Canna
• Toshiyuki Morikawa
• Yūko Miyamura
• Akiko Yajima
• Akira Ishida
• Masuo Amada
• Tomohiro Nishimura
• Marc Diraison
• Kevin T. Collins
• Carrie Keranen
• Michelle Newman
• Christopher Kromer
• Jeff Ward

In short: no subscription needed, just a disc player. The original run clocks in at 25 episodes.

From wall-cracking Titans to cursed Hollows and VR death matches, anime keeps handing the blade to women who don’t just survive — they define the fight. These five standouts earned their reputations the hard way: through brutal backstories, ruthless technique, and weapons that do exactly what they need them to do.

Erza’s Heaven’s Wheel Armor can unleash more than 200 swords at once.

• Mikasa Ackerman — Attack on Titan: Traffickers killed her parents and abducted her as a child until a young Eren Yeager fought his way in to free her. When the Walls fell, she and Eren joined the 104th Training Corps, and Mikasa graduated at the very top of her class. With Ultrahard Steel blades and Vertical Maneuvering Equipment, she turns speed and angles into surgical strikes, carving Titan napes with unnerving precision. Even series creator Hajime Isayama has said the story grew so heavy it exhausted him — a measure of the world Mikasa fought through.
• Rukia Kuchiki — Bleach: She arrived in Karakura Town hunting a rogue Hollow and ended up handing her Soul Reaper powers to a high schooler named Ichigo Kurosaki, which briefly made her look like a bystander to his rise. Not for long: Rukia climbed the ranks and ultimately became captain of the Thirteenth Division. Her Zanpakutō, Sode no Shirayuki, starts as a graceful ice blade and turns deadly with a touch that can drop an enemy’s body temperature to lethal levels — a quiet, merciless edge few others carry.
• Asuna Yuuki — Sword Art Online: When 10,000 players were trapped in the game, Asuna spent her first days too terrified to leave her starter room. She chose to fight anyway, crossed paths with Kirito, and built one of the series’ core partnerships. Wielding a rapier, she earned the nickname “The Flash” for blistering multi-thrust combos that opponents couldn’t track. Later arcs crowned her with titles like Berserk Healer and Goddess Stacia, but it’s that early, pinpoint rapier work that still defines her.
• Erza Scarlet — Fairy Tail: The heart (and hammer) of her guild, Erza keeps everyone in line with equal parts discipline and loyalty. Her magic, Requip: The Knight, lets her swap among hundreds of armor sets mid-battle; the Heaven’s Wheel Armor alone summons over 200 swords she controls telekinetically. When she needs pure stopping power, Armadura Fairy pairs winged armor with twin blades — a set that matches her terrifying stubbornness stride for stride.
• Shinobu Kocho — Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: After demons killed her parents and, later, her sister fell in battle, Shinobu trained under the Stone Hashira and rose to become the Insect Hashira. She lacks the raw strength most Hashira wield, so she built a style around feints, angles, and chemistry. Her needle-thin sword hides an injection mechanism that delivers her own poisons — potent enough to kill demons outright — and she tweaks the formula via a custom sheath so nothing she fights ever builds immunity.

Scans from Yuki Tabata’s new guidebook, Perfect Grimoire, are making the rounds online, and they appear to finally show what the manga itself never did: Asta standing in the Wizard King’s robe at his coronation. It’s the image fans waited years to see, now tucked into a companion book due out in Japan next week.

Perfect Grimoire is scheduled to publish in Japan on August 4.

Black Clover ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from February 2015 through this April, an 11-year sprint that moved more than 24 million copies in print. Even as one of the magazine’s top sellers, its finale stopped short of crowning Asta on the page, making this guidebook leak feel like long-promised closure.

The moment lands because of the grind that got him there. Asta started with no magic at all, pushed constantly by rival-turned-ally Yuno, and kept climbing through some of the series’ biggest crises:

• Eye of the Midnight Sun plotline
• The elf possession arc
• The Spade Kingdom war
• Back-to-back showdowns with Lucifero and Lucius Zogratis

There’s also the symbolism: much like Naruto finally being named Hokage, seeing the Clover Kingdom’s nobles — the same people who once dismissed Asta — now answer to him gives the story a sense of payoff the main run skipped.

Loose threads

According to the leaked pages, Perfect Grimoire focuses on the ceremony itself, and several long-running mysteries still aren’t resolved. Among the open questions:

• Asta’s father remains unnamed
• Charmy’s dwarven background goes unexplained
• Yuno’s deeper ties to the Spade Kingdom get only a brief nod
• Whether Asta’s rule changes life for commoners or stays a noble title is left unclear

The official book lands in Japan on August 4. Separately, the Black Clover anime is slated to return this October.

If you‘ve ever got lost trawling anime recommendations online, you‘ll know it can be a minefield. There‘s no lack of excellent series these days, what with anime blowing up everywhere from London to Los Angeles with no sign of slowing, but finding something that delivers the goods start to finish? That narrows the field a lot. Endless arcs, half-baked endings, or just plain filler have torpedoed many a ‘must-watch’ series. But if you are after stories that are actually fully wrapped up and don‘t nosedive halfway, here you go – consider this your cheat sheet for anime worth sticking with right through the final credits. Plenty of the really famous ones don‘t quite make the cut for this reason (yes, I‘m looking at you, Death Note and The Promised Neverland), but there are a handful that actually pull it off. And no, your current TikTok favourite like Demon Slayer or Jujutsu Kaisen isn‘t done yet, so don‘t ask. Here‘s what you want if you plan on binging something solid – and why these shows are that bit special.

My Hero Academia is officially finished, and it's safe to say the superhero shōnen sticks the landing — and cements itself as a near-perfect addition to the medium.

Top picks for finished, binge-worthy anime

• Cowboy Bebop: An old favourite, with 26 episodes that never outstay their welcome. Even at a less frantic pace than some, it keeps you cheering for Spike and the rest of the Bebop lot through a weird and tragic little tour of space grit. The crew is just too good to walk away from. If you like sci-fi that‘s stylish, character-heavy, and full of jazz, you‘re sorted. But if you want one big plotline tying it all together every week, maybe look elsewhere.
• Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion: Straight into the political trenches, this is high-stakes mecha drama where the moves matter and so do the consequences. The school-life tangents get a bit of stick, but they actually remind you these genius tacticians are still just kids. Yes, the ending‘s famous – for once, in a good way. Only problem is if you can‘t stomach shady leads or endless scheming.
• Erased: Time-travel thriller that crams loads of mystery and suspense into a very tight run. Some will argue the manga did the ending better (they always do), but the anime ride remains top-tier, with every episode pushing the stakes. Perfect if you rate a proper mystery, but skip it if you don‘t fancy any fantasy in your bleak dramas.
• Odd Taxi: One season, a talking walrus cabbie, and an entangled missing-persons case. It sounds daft on paper but builds up to one of the most brilliantly layered payoffs going. The pacing is more patient than pulse-pounding, but if you‘re in it for the slow-burn and cracking twists, don‘t miss it.
• Parasyte: The Maxim: Alien invasion, body horror, moral dread – this one does the psychological sci-fi trope with more bite than most. Both gross and thoughtful, which is a nice trick if you can pull it off. If you ever wondered what it would be like if Invasion of the Body Snatchers turned the philosophy dial up to 11, this has your number.
• Assassination Classroom: Ridiculously weird premise (class has to kill their unkillable alien teacher before he destroys the world, as you do), but surprisingly packed with emotion and genuine laughs. Two solid seasons, barely a duff episode, and everyone who‘s seen it wonders why it isn‘t talked about more.
• My Hero Academia: That‘s right, Deku‘s run is done – and it‘s a rare thing for a blockbuster shōnen to actually wrap up well. The superhero stuff is straightforward, but each character arc feels properly earned, and the momentum builds rather than dragging. Even the slower spots pay off later. If you wanted proof anime superhero stories can stick the landing, here it is.
• Mob Psycho 100: Hugely underrated, this one‘s as much about emotional growth as psychic punches to the face. Somehow juggles wild superpowered battles with offbeat, introspective weirdness and top-drawer animation. If you‘ve had enough of formula schoolboy heroes, give Mob a look.
• Attack on Titan: Starts with a bang (literally: giant zombies eating everyone), never lets up, and basically reinvents itself every season. Absolutely packed with death, mayhem, and increasingly tangled lore. If you can stomach a relentlessly grim ride that puts its cast through hell and never promises a happy ending, go for it.
• Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood: Still the definition of a full-fat fantasy-adventure-payoff, Brotherhood combines big alchemy battles, brooding political machinations and some actual hope between the tragedy. Pretty much everything in the first episode is paid out in the finale, and for all the catastrophe, it somehow manages something resembling a satisfying ending. If you like your world-building tight and your leads memorable, here you go.

The Elric brothers' journey is dark, politically charged, and somehow still hopeful.

So yes, anime might be everywhere these days, but if you want to be sure your binge doesn‘t go sideways in the last act, these are the series that deliver from the word go. No filler, no saggy middle bits, and all killer on the finish.

The announcement

Kenji Kamiyama — the mind behind Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Eden of the East, and the Star Wars: Visions short "The Ninth Jedi", who most recently directed The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim — will direct and handle series composition. Sola Animation produces, and science fiction author Toh EnJoe is collaborating on the worldbuilding. The setting belongs to neither the Universal Century nor the Common Era, the two timelines that have anchored the franchise for decades.

Kamiyama admitted the brief initially left him wrestling with questions — until, as he put it in the announcement reported by Anime News Network in July 2026:

"a fresh and unexpected Gundam began to take shape."

The RG Project, in brief

RG XARX-ZERO anchors a wider multimedia initiative called the RG Project:

• The anime — Mobile Suit Gundam RG XARX-ZERO, launching in 2027 at Sola Animation.
• The game — Gundam Rogue Orbit, a high-mobility action title unveiled at Summer Game Fest on 5 June, coming to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Steam in 2027 — set some 90 years after the anime's events.
• The setting — humanity ventures beyond the solar system, unlocks a golden age of technology, then an unstoppable interstellar force dubbed the Apocalypse renders Earth uninhabitable, leaving survivors on the Moon and off-world colonies.
• The pilot — Takeo Ōtsuka voices Ray Azumi, a war orphan and the permanently assigned pilot of the Gundam Zero.

Why this is a big deal

Gundam rarely hands its keys to an outside auteur, and rarer still does it wipe the slate entirely. Kamiyama built his reputation on grounded, politically minded science fiction — exactly the register the franchise's best entries work in. A shared universe designed from day one to span anime, games, and more is also a first for the brand at this scale.

No premiere month, episode count, or broadcast details yet — 2027 is the whole timetable so far.

For the record: Bandai says the title is officially pronounced "Alex Zero", per Complex's July 2026 coverage. Nobody is going to get that right on the first try.

The drop

Jujutsu Kaisen: The Culling Game Part 1 hit Netflix on 23 July 2026. The season only finished its Japanese broadcast in March 2026, making this a roughly four-month gap — a direct payoff of Netflix's ongoing partnership with studio MAPPA. It follows the season's arrival on Hulu on 10 July, so both major platforms now carry it within a fortnight of each other.

What you're getting

• Episodes — 12, which aired in Japan from 9 January to March 2026.
• The story — picking up after Shibuya: Satoru Gojo is sealed away, the higher-ups have ordered Yuji Itadori's execution, and Kenjaku kicks off the Culling Game — a brutal, Japan-wide battle royale between sorcerers.
• The cast — Junya Enoki, Yuma Uchida, Yuichi Nakamura, Junichi Suwabe, and Mikako Komatsu all return.
• The reception — season 3 delivered some of the most technically impressive animation the series has seen, and ended on one of its most brutal cliffhangers yet.

What about Part 2?

Already in production. Season 4 — The Culling Game Part 2 — got its first teaser at MAPPA's 15th anniversary presentation on 19 June 2026, along with a notable staffing change: Takeru Sato, assistant director on season 3, steps up as series director, while season 2 director Shota Goshozono moves into a chief director role. No release date yet. MAPPA's official line, as reported by Tech Times in June 2026, was simply that the season is:

"diligently in production"

Which, for a studio famous for its punishing schedules, counts as reassurance.

For the record: Guinness World Records certified Jujutsu Kaisen as the world's most in-demand animated TV show based on 2023 data — and it held the title the following year, with Parrot Analytics measuring global demand at more than 64 times the average TV series. The Culling Game has an audience waiting.

What's been announced

The news broke via the franchise's official X account: Toei is producing a new anime film based on Leiji Matsumoto's classic, with legendary director Rintarō handling the original story draft. Matsumoto's production company, Leijisha, is also involved. No release date, no cast, and no further staff yet — this is a "the train is coming" announcement, not a timetable.

Makiko Matsumoto — the late creator's eldest daughter and Leijisha's representative director — addressed fans directly in the announcement, as reported by Anime Atelier in July 2026:

"We apologize for the long wait."

She also described the project as a long-cherished dream of her father's. Matsumoto died in February 2023, aged 85, making this the first big-screen 999 project of the post-Matsumoto era.

Why Rintarō matters

He's not a guest star — he's the reason the 1979 film is a classic. Rintarō directed the original Galaxy Express 999 movie, released on 4 August 1979, which ran roughly 130 minutes and took an estimated ¥4.2 billion at the Japanese box office. He returned for 1981's Adieu Galaxy Express 999, and later directed Metropolis, X/1999, and Harmagedon. He's now 85 — the same age Matsumoto reached — and still drafting stories for the train he helped make famous.

The story so far

• The manga — Leiji Matsumoto's original ran in Weekly Shonen King from January 1977 to November 1981, collected in 18 volumes.
• The TV series — 113 episodes, aired from 1978 to 1981, animated by Toei.
• The films — three so far: 1979, 1981, and 1998's Eternal Fantasy.
• The premise — orphan Tetsuro boards a space train alongside the mysterious Maetel, chasing a machine body and the immortality it promises.

For the record: in the story, the 999 only calls at Earth once a year. Off screen, it's been 28 years since the last film. Fashionably late — but the train is running again.

Built from the ground up as a feature, Gintama: Yoshiwara in Flames re-animates the fan-favorite arc from the 2006 anime’s episodes 139–146 with crisp new visuals. The film is directed by Naoya Ando at BN Pictures, with a screenplay by Taku Kishimoto, and first hit Japanese theaters on February 13, 2026.

Streams worldwide on Netflix August 27, 2026.

Inside Yoshiwara

The story throws Gintoki and the Odd Jobs trio into the underground pleasure district of Yoshiwara, a city sealed off from the surface and ruled by the iron-fisted Housen of the Yato Tribe. After Gintoki crosses paths with a young pickpocket named Seita, who believes the district’s revered courtesan Hinowa is his missing mother, the crew stages a high-risk rescue that pits them against Housen’s forces and the moral compromises of a city built in darkness.

Expect the franchise’s usual whiplash between dead-serious swordplay and ridiculous humor, plus a bigger spotlight on fan favorites like Tsukuyo and the Yato heavy hitters looming at the edges of the fight.

The movie also features the theme song “Sanzen” by Japanese rock band SUPER BEAVER.

Who’s in the booth

The original Japanese cast returns to their signature roles:

• Tomokazu Sugita — Gintoki Sakata
• Daisuke Sakaguchi — Shinpachi Shimura
• Rie Kugimiya — Kagura
• Yuko Kaida — Tsukuyo
• Yuko Sanpei — Seita
• Kikuko Inoue — Hinowa
• Banjo Ginga — Housen
• Satoshi Hino — Kamui
• Hochu Otsuka — Abuto
• Akira Ishida — Kotaro Katsura
• Susumu Chiba — Isao Kondo
• Kazuya Nakai — Toshiro Hijikata
• Kenichi Suzumura — Sougo Okita
• Tetsuharu Ota — Sagaru Yamazaki

From page to screen

Created by Hideaki Sorachi, the Gintama manga ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 2003 to 2019, closing out at 77 collected volumes and more than 58 million copies in circulation worldwide. The Yoshiwara arc is one of its defining runs, mixing the series’ absurdist comedy with some of its most emotional and brutal battles.

Netflix’s global launch is set for August 27, 2026; the title page is already live so viewers can add it to their list ahead of the premiere.

Clocking in at 2 hours and 4 minutes, the feature-length arc drops the Odd Jobs crew into the underground red-light district of Yoshiwara, where a rescue mission spirals into a full-scale rebellion. With a script by Hideaki Sorachi (the manga’s creator) and Taku Kishimoto, and direction from Naoya Ando, Yojiro Arai and Mamoru Enomoto, this is one of Gintama’s darkest, most action-heavy runs—pitting Gintoki and company against the brutal Yato ruler Housen and introducing the fan-favorite guardian of Yoshiwara, Tsukuyo.

The story follows Gintoki and his loyal companions as they dig into a conspiracy strangling the district’s residents. Alongside the Hyakka, the all-female assassin unit led by Tsukuyo, the team fights to protect Hinowa and help a young boy, Seita, find his mother—while Kagura’s own Yato lineage takes center stage when her fearsome brother Kamui enters the fray.

Gintama: Yoshiwara in Flames streams on Netflix in August.

Who’s who in Yoshiwara

• Tomokazu Sugita — Gintoki Sakata
• Daisuke Sakaguchi — Shinpachi Shimura
• Rie Kugimiya — Kagura
• Yuko Kaida — Tsukuyo
• Yuko Sanpei — Seita
• Kikuko Inoue — Hinowa
• Banjou Ginga — Housen

Extended roster

• Satoshi Hino — Kamui
• Houchuu Otsuka — Abuto
• Akira Ishida — Kotaro Katsura
• Susumu Chiba — Isao Kondo
• Kazuya Nakai — Toshiro Hijikata
• Kenichi Suzumura — Sogo Okita
• Tetsuharu Ota — Sagaru Yamazaki

Adapted from Sorachi’s hit manga, Gintama blends slapstick comedy with sword-swinging sci-fi, but Yoshiwara in Flames is remembered for its high stakes and emotional punches as much as its gags. Between the Hyakka’s knives-in-the-dark tactics and a towering Yato showdown, it’s a straight shot of Gintama at full throttle.

Gintama: Yoshiwara in Flames hits Netflix in August.

The details

Ten episodes, confirmed by Hulu, with Final Weapon reporting a potential one-hour grand finale to cap it off. New episodes land every Saturday at 3:30pm UK time, streaming on Hulu in the US and Disney+ internationally. Episode 1, "GOD OF THUNDER", picks up with Ichigo's crew reunited against Yhwach while Yoruichi squares off with Askin Nakk Le Vaar. Studio Pierrot animates, with Tomohisa Taguchi as chief director and Hikaru Murata directing — and the first three episodes even got an early cinema release, including UK screenings on 26 June.

The road to The Calamity

• Part 1 — premiered October 2022, ending a decade-long wait: the original 2004–2012 anime never adapted the manga's final arc.
• Part 2: The Separation — aired in 2023.
• Part 3: The Conflict — aired in 2024, ending with the truth behind Uryu joining the Wandenreich.
• Part 4: The Calamity — from 25 July 2026, adapting the manga's closing chapters (664–686).

Kubo's personal touch

Creator Tite Kubo has confirmed The Calamity carries more anime-original material than any previous part, expanding the manga's final battles. He's been just as hands-on with the music — jo0ji performs the opening theme "I-BULL", with 9Lana on the ending "Rasen" — and Kubo personally listened to and selected every Thousand-Year Blood War theme from the demo stage onwards.

"I wanted to have as many newer artists as possible perform the themes." — Tite Kubo, via Anime Corner, July 2026.

His hope, he explained, is that viewers discover those artists through the anime and become fans afterwards.

For the record: Kubo's manga ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 2001 to 2016, spans 74 volumes, and has topped 130 million copies in circulation worldwide. Ten episodes from now, the whole thing is finally animated. No pressure.

The premiere details

Season 3 starts on Saturday 3 October 2026 at 24:55 JST on Nippon TV — effectively the small hours of Sunday morning in Japan — with each episode streaming exclusively on Netflix worldwide straight after broadcast. Konosuke Uda returns to direct at MAPPA, with Kimiko Ueno on series composition, Hiromi Taniguchi on character design, and Kaoru Wada composing the music. Main animator Masahiro Kurio is back too, joined by newcomers Atsuko Ishida and Blue Box's Yoshihiro Takeda.

The new cast — two absolute legends included

• Masako Nozawa — the voice of Dragon Ball's Goku — plays the Grand Master, head of the Daimonji-ryu school of martial-arts tea ceremony.
• Jun Fukuyama — plays Sentaro Daimonji, the school's heir.
• Minami Tanaka — plays Tsubasa Kurenai, Ukyo's costume-obsessed former classmate.
• Mayumi Tanaka — One Piece's Luffy — takes a deliberately undisclosed role.
• Saori Hayami — also cast in a secret role, teased only in the new key visual.

Two mystery characters, voiced by two of the most famous performers in anime. Rumiko Takahashi's team clearly knows how to keep people guessing until October.

Where the remake stands

Season 1 premiered in October 2024, season 2 followed in October 2025, and season 3 was green-lit in March 2026. Like clockwork. The remake adapts Takahashi's manga — serialised in Weekly Shonen Sunday from 1987 to 1996 across 38 volumes — about a martial artist who turns into a girl whenever he's splashed with cold water. Studio Deen's original adaptation ran 161 episodes from 1989 to 1992, so MAPPA's version still has years of material ahead of it.

For the record: with Nozawa and Tanaka on board, Goku and Luffy are now officially in the Tendo dojo's orbit. October can't come soon enough.

Let me be honest: back in the day, if I saw the words Netflix Original stuck to an anime series, I skipped it. No hesitation, no regrets. To me, 'Netflix anime' smelled like a shortcut for people who couldn’t be bothered to hunt for the deep cuts. I cut my teeth rooting through message boards for weird OVAs, single-season misfits, and cult classics you only heard about through rumour. That was half the thrill—finding something genuinely brilliant, not whatever the algorithm spat out next to Love Is Blind. But after actually committing to a run of these 'Netflix Originals'... turns out, I'd written off a lot of absolutely top-tier anime for no good reason. Some of these genuinely belong in the all-timers list—across horror, romance, wild fantasy, and, yes, the odd sports saga that makes you start caring about school badminton. Below, you’ll find ten that I wouldn’t hesitate recommending to anyone, even if you’ve got an anime backlog that stretches back to primary school.

Season 1 of Delicious in Dungeon scored a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

What makes the cut There’s only one rule for this list: the series had to be either Netflix-produced outright, or the streaming giant has exclusive rights somewhere (I’m not turning this into a wall of imported shounen). Everything else is fair game. I dodged any show that’s just a carbon copy of something you could find on prime-time Japanese TV, and made sure the selection represents the proper range—from hyper-stylised monster slaying to slow-burn drama that quietly rearranges your brain. Here’s my current playlist, in no particular order:

• 'Dorohedoro' (2020 – Present) – This grimy, unhinged dark fantasy started out as a deeply strange manga about a bloke with a lizard head out for revenge. The anime is equal parts filthy, funny, and occasionally stomach-turning, but the perfect antidote if you think fantasy should be a bit more deranged. After six years, season two finally dropped in 2026. If you expect any character here to behave well, you’re in for a shock.
• 'Pluto' (2023) – Don’t be fooled by the Astro Boy connection; this isn’t kid stuff. Urasawa stretches a single manga arc into a seven-hour meditation on grief, war, and artificial intelligence, with more kitchen-table tension than robot carnage. The pacing is deliberate—if you demand pyrotechnics, it’s probably not for you.
• 'Devilman Crybaby' (2018) – Classic manga rebooted as a stylised trip through hell, courtesy of Masaaki Yuasa. The animation is wild, the music is a shot of adrenaline, and the overall effect is like a horror film and a rave crashed into each other. As bleak as anime gets—if you’re feeling fragile, maybe save it for later.
• 'My Happy Marriage' (2023 – Present) – Ignore the whole 'Netflix Original' confusion: Netflix just bought the worldwide streaming rights after the fact. What matters is the show itself—arranged-marriage fantasy with bloodline magic and painfully earnest romance. The drama unfolds at a glacial pace, but the chemistry between leads pays off. Expect a three-episode special later in the year; there were minor stumbles with s2’s delays but nothing fatal.
• 'Castlevania' (2017 – 2021) – The exception to the 'all video game adaptations are rubbish' rule. Warren Ellis turns a basic monsters-vs-humans premise into a witty, vicious, and even occasionally moving adult animation. Only four episodes for the first run—more of a taster than a full meal—but stick with it. Completely separate from Nocturne, too, so no need to do your homework first.
• 'Delicious in Dungeon' (2024 – Present) – Adventurers cooking and eating monsters: sounds like nonsense, plays like a genuinely clever look at fantasy ecosystems. Also, the party dynamic is a joy. Gory at points, oddly sweet elsewhere, and the lore-building is subtle. Waiting three years between seasons is irritating, though—s2 is due in October 2027, so plan your binge.
• 'Blue Box' (2024 – Present) – Sports and romance in equal measure, and not afraid to leave its central couple in limbo (a decision that made half of anime Twitter combust). If you only have patience for a 12-episode romcom, steer clear—this one takes its sweet time, with season one covering 80 manga chapters and no neat pay-off. The manga’s heading to its finish line in 2026.
• 'Violet Evergarden' (2018 – 2020) – Kyoto Animation at its most polished. Looks like a moving painting, but the real magic is in the storytelling—a trauma recovery arc told through episodic, post-war vignettes. Quiet and heartbreakingly earnest, but not the typical melodrama. Binge it too quickly and you might run out of tissues. Hats off to Netflix for making this available worldwide.
• 'Kakegurui' (2017 – 2019) – Betting, mind games, and more theatrical excess than most West End musicals. Card games have never felt so apocalyptic. It’s all style and psychological warfare, with every match a battle of ego. You’ll know within one episode if the extreme facial expressions are your cup of tea—or enough to give you nightmares.
• 'Cyberpunk: Edgerunners' (2022) – Proof that sometimes, the spin-off is better than the original. Tied to a game infamous for disaster at launch, this 10-episode cyberpunk tragedy still managed to pull in rave reviews. Fast, brutal, and unafraid to end on a gut punch, the upcoming sequel will follow an entirely new crew. If you want more of David, tough luck.

A fourth studio takes over

ENGI is now handling the animation — the fourth studio in the franchise's history:

• Seasons 1 and 2 — Studio Deen (2016 and 2017).
• The Legend of Crimson film — J.C. Staff (2019).
• Season 3 and the Explosion spin-off — Drive (2024 and 2023).
• Season 4 — ENGI, from 2027.

The continuity comes from the people rather than the building. Chief director Takaomi Kanasaki — who directed the first two seasons and the film — returns, alongside series writer Makoto Uezu and character designer Koichi Kikuta, both on board since season 1. The new director is Manabu Kurihara (The Detective Is Already Dead), with Yoshikazu Iwanami on sound and Masato Kōda on music.

The cast and the visual

All four leads reprise their roles: Jun Fukushima as Kazuma, Sora Amamiya as Aqua, Rie Takahashi as Megumin, and Ai Kayano as Darkness. The event also unveiled an "ultra teaser" visual, whose catchphrase sets the tone:

"Let's embark on a new adventure!" — the season 4 teaser visual, as translated by Otaku Mantra, July 2026.

A long time coming

Season 4 was first announced on 14 March 2025, straight after the Bonus Stage OVA episodes — so fans have waited well over a year for anything concrete. The isekai comedy, adapted from Natsume Akatsuki's light novels with illustrations by Kurone Mishima, debuted in January 2016 and last had a full season in spring 2024. No month, no episode count. But 2027 is locked in.

For the record: the anniversary slate also includes a new mobile and PC game, KonoSuba: Kono Ai Subeki Machi ni Hanei o, supervised by Akatsuki himself and due in 2026. The party stays busy.

At Crunchyroll's Anime Expo 2026 panel on 3 July, Dave Grohl appeared via video message to announce that Nirvana's "Breed" — the 1991 track from Nevermind — will be the opening theme for The Guy She Was Interested In Wasn't a Guy At All, the anime adaptation of Sumiko Arai's beloved manga, premiering in January 2027.

Why this pairing actually makes sense

The manga — nicknamed "Green Yuri" by fans — is built on rock music. As reported by Animehunch in July 2026, Grohl told Arai in a special interview that "Breed" was one of his favourite songs to open a set with, and that Kurt Cobain would have loved the story. The characters' canonical playlist is even officially available on Spotify and Apple Music.

The premise, per Yen Press's official synopsis (2025):

"Fashionable and upbeat high schooler Aya falls head over heels for an employee at a local CD shop."

The twist: the effortlessly cool, black-clad shop employee with impeccable music taste is actually Aya's quiet female classmate, Mitsuki — who sits right next to her at school and is far too aware of the crush to admit the truth.

Who's making the anime

The teaser trailer, key visual, and staff were all revealed alongside the theme announcement:

• Studio — CloverWorks, with the series streaming on Crunchyroll.
• Director — Masashi Ishihama, who previously directed Horimiya.
• Series composition — Rino Yamasaki, with character designs by Oshi no Ko's Kanna Hirayama.
• Cast — Mariya Ise as Mitsuki Koga, and Akari Kito as Aya Osawa.

From wordless tweets to a Nirvana licence

The series has one of the stranger origin stories in modern manga. Arai began posting short, dialogue-free strips to Twitter in 2021 — deliberately wordless so international readers could follow along — before Kadokawa picked the series up for publication. Five years later, a member of Nirvana is personally announcing its theme song on an American convention stage.

Quite the glow-up.

For the record: Nevermind turns 35 just a few months before the anime premieres. Somewhere, a CD-shop employee dressed head to toe in black quietly approves.

On the evening of 3 July 2026, Studio Trigger and CD Projekt Red world-premiered the first episode of Edgerunners 2 at Crypto.com Arena — home of the LA Lakers — in front of roughly 6,000 Anime Expo attendees, months ahead of the show's Netflix debut this autumn.

The premiere nobody spoiled

The screening wasn't recorded or streamed anywhere, and here's the genuinely remarkable part: days later, not one frame had leaked online. CD Projekt Red's global PR director, Radek Grabowski, publicly thanked the crowd for keeping it that way. Six thousand people with phones. Zero spoilers. In 2026, that's practically a miracle.

The panel that followed featured showrunner Bartosz Sztybor, executive producer Saya Elder, and director Kai Ikarashi, hosted by content creator Danny Motta.

A brand-new crew — no David Martinez

This is a standalone story, not a continuation. The 10-episode season introduces four new leads:

• Weak Kingsley — voiced in the English dub by Clancy Brown.
• D — a revenge-driven netrunner, voiced by Nazeeh Tarsha.
• Roman Carax — an aspiring journalist, voiced by Valeria Rodriguez.
• Talia Yang — a bloodthirsty corpo rounding out the quartet.

Early reactions describe a more grounded, grittier Night City than season 1's neon fireworks — and every bit as brutal. Sztybor set expectations himself at the premiere, as reported by Beneath the Tangles in July 2026:

"Don't get attached to anyone."

Given what season 1 did to viewers, that warning lands.

The Cyberpunk effect, again

The first season, released in September 2022, won Anime of the Year at the 2023 Crunchyroll Anime Awards and famously rescued the Cyberpunk 2077 game, which went on to pass 20 million copies sold. History is already repeating: after the season 2 trailer dropped, the game hit a peak of 87,129 concurrent Steam players — its highest figure since October 2024.

No exact premiere date yet — just "autumn 2026" on Netflix, with a full trailer and date expected later this summer.

For the record: the opening theme is a 1979 track by The Cure. Night City has taste.

At the Crunchyroll Showcase during Anime Expo 2026 in Los Angeles on 3 July, Aniplex and Crunchyroll announced Solo Leveling: Beyond the System — a theatrical anime film that picks up directly after the events of season 2. It was the loudest reveal of the convention's loudest weekend.

What was actually announced

The film is officially in production, confirmed on stage by Aleks Le — the English voice of Sung Jinwoo — alongside a new key visual and a teaser concept video. A-1 Pictures, the studio behind both seasons of the series, returns for the movie, with a production committee made up of Crunchyroll, Aniplex, Netmarble, D&C Media, and Kakao Piccoma.

No release date. No plot details. Just confirmation that the story continues, and that it continues in cinemas rather than on a weekly schedule.

How the franchise got here

Beyond the System caps a remarkably fast climb:

• The source — Chugong's South Korean web novel, set in a world where Hunters battle monsters spilling out of mysterious Gates.
• Season 1 — premiered in January 2024 and turned the story of Sung Jinwoo, humanity's weakest E-Rank Hunter, into a global phenomenon.
• Season 2 — arrived a year later, in January 2025, ending with Jinwoo a very long way from E-Rank.
• The film — a direct continuation of season 2, with the mysteries waiting beyond the System still unexplained.

What we don't know yet

The big three: when it releases, which part of the story it adapts, and whether it leads into a third season afterwards. Crunchyroll has said more information — schedules, trailers, and cast details — will come as production progresses, so expect the next proper update at a major event later this year.

The choice of a theatrical release is the real statement here. Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen have proven that event anime films can post enormous box office numbers, and Solo Leveling is one of the few modern franchises with the audience to join that club.

For the record: Solo Leveling took Anime of the Year at the 2025 Crunchyroll Anime Awards. The film has a reputation to keep — and a fandom that levels up alongside its hero.

The short answer

October 2027. Season 3 was announced on 28 March 2026, straight after the season 2 finale aired, and carries the subtitle "Golden Land Arc". Madhouse is producing again, and the season will stream on Crunchyroll. An exact premiere date hasn't been set — but the window is locked in, and the full production team was confirmed at the Frieren panel at Anime Expo 2026 on 4 July.

Every key name is back

The roster posted after the panel reads like a deliberate statement:

• Director — Tomoya Kitagawa, returning from season 2, with Daiki Harashina as assistant director.
• Director support — Keiichiro Saito, who directed season 1, staying on board.
• Series composition — Tomohiro Suzuki.
• Character design — Takase Maru and Keisuke Kojima.
• Music — Evan Call, whose score has defined the series since episode one.

Every key role unchanged from seasons 1 and 2. For a production this beloved, that continuity is the real headline.

Why is season 3 taking until October 2027?

Kitagawa has addressed the gap directly. In comments reported by CBR in July 2026, he said the Madhouse team is still deep in the early stages:

"the design, concept art and storyboard" — director Tomoya Kitagawa, via CBR, July 2026.

Context helps here. Season 2 only finished airing in March 2026, and it ran a lean 10 episodes compared with season 1's 28. Roughly eighteen months of lead time is what animation at this standard costs — and Frieren's animation is a huge part of why people watch.

Who is Macht?

The new big bad. Macht of the Golden Land is the strongest — and last surviving — of the Seven Sages of Destruction, the Demon King's elite. Season 2's finale teased the Golden Land itself, a sealed region that was once the hometown of Frieren's ally Denken, with Macht sitting calmly at the centre of the chaos. A new teaser visual unveiled at Anime Expo puts him front and centre, staring straight down the camera.

Chills, basically. The Golden Land arc is widely rated as the best stretch of Kanehito Yamada and Tsukasa Abe's manga, which is exactly why expectations for this season are so high.

For the record: there's official Frieren reading to tide you over — the English edition of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End — Prelude Vol. 2 arrives on 13 October 2026. October 2027 will come round faster than an elf thinks it will.

The short answer

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle starts streaming on Crunchyroll on 28 July 2026, at 4pm UK time (8am Pacific). The date was revealed at the film's celebration panel at Anime Expo 2026 in Los Angeles over the weekend of 4 July — almost exactly a year after the film's Japanese premiere on 18 July 2025.

Why the wait was so long

Money — and a theatrical run that refused to die. Infinity Castle earned $778.9 million worldwide as of 20 February 2026, making it the highest-grossing anime film of all time and overtaking the franchise's own Mugen Train globally. In Japan, it closed 2025 as the country's second-highest-grossing domestic release ever, and the run was extended into 2026 with special IMAX and ScreenX versions.

Crunchyroll never hid the strategy. As the company's head of theatrical, Mitchel Berger, put it in The Guardian's coverage of the film's box office run in January 2026:

"We have spent the last eight years building this fandom."

What you get on 28 July

• The full film — streaming worldwide on Crunchyroll, excluding Japan, mainland China, and France.
• Sub and dub — original Japanese audio with English subtitles, plus the English dub that played in US cinemas.
• A digital purchase option — available to buy on Apple TV and other platforms the same day, with pre-orders open since 4 July.
• Japan barely behind — the Japanese Blu-ray follows on 29 July.

What about Part 2?

Here's the frustrating bit. Infinity Castle is Part 1 of a trilogy adapting the final arc of Koyoharu Gotouge's 23-volume manga — and Part 2 still has no release date. Studio Ufotable's 2026 projects reel filed it under future work rather than this year's slate, which makes 2027 the earliest realistic window.

The Guardian initially reported 2027 for Part 2 and 2029 for the finale, then amended the piece on 2 January 2026 to clarify that no specific dates have been confirmed. Nothing official. The next likely announcement window is Jump Festa in December 2026 — and there was one quiet tell at Anime Expo: the first film's international logo has been updated to add a "I", finally admitting what Japan knew all along.

For the record: Infinity Castle scored matching 98% critic and audience ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Animated Motion Picture, and took Film of the Year at the 2026 Crunchyroll Anime Awards. And it's only the opening act.

The short answer

Yes — the end is close. Weekly Shonen Jump's 34th issue of 2026 confirmed on 20 July that Yuuto Suzuki's Sakamoto Days is heading into its climax, with the climax arc beginning in issue 35, on sale 26 July 2026. The series currently stands at 267 chapters, and no official final chapter date has been announced yet.

How we got here

• December 2019 — Suzuki publishes the one-shot "Sakamoto" in Shueisha's Jump Giga.
• November 2020 — the full series launches in Weekly Shonen Jump.
• August 2025 — the "final battle" officially begins in the magazine's combined issue 36/37.
• 20 July 2026 — Jump confirms the story is entering its climax.

Nearly six years, start to finish. That's a healthy run by modern Jump standards — and crucially, Suzuki gets to end the story on his own terms rather than being cut for low popularity.

Where the final battle stands

Sakamoto is at last facing Slur — real name Uzuki — in the confrontation the whole series has been building towards. The most recent chapters left Sakamoto gravely injured, with fellow assassin Nagumo stepping in against Gaku and Uzuki. Jump's own chapter preview isn't being subtle about where this is going:

"The Ultimate Showdown of the Strongest Hitmen Ever!" — Weekly Shonen Jump's chapter preview, as reported by ComicBook.com in July 2026.

As for the actual final chapter, ComicBook.com has floated a tidy landing at chapter 270 on 2 August 2026. Pure speculation — but manga do love a round number.

What about the anime?

Completely unaffected, and there's plenty left to adapt. The TMS Entertainment series premiered on Netflix on 11 January 2025, and season 2 arrives in January 2027, with Daisuke Nakajima taking over as director, Masaki Watanabe supervising, and Yūki Hayashi returning on music. The spin-off manga Sakamoto Holidays — drawn by Suzuki's assistant Tetsu Okawa — also carries on in Saikyō Jump, so the shop isn't shutting entirely.

For the record: Sakamoto Days will be the fifth major Weekly Shonen Jump series to finish in 2026 — Blue Box only wrapped on 12 July. Jump's line-up is about to look very different.

Looking for a new spooky-conspiracy-of-the-week fix? The summer drop 'KAMUI: He's Behind You' is exactly that kind of creepy-funny ride, and yes, it already has its streaming home lined up pretty much everywhere.

Where to watch it

Per the official site (kamuisan.deregula.com), the show is rolling out weekly and streaming internationally. The short version:

• Global: OceanVeil is the main hub, with weekly episodes and the international stream. OceanVeil holds the license for the Western simulcast.
• United States: Debuted July 3, 2026, day-and-date with Japan on OceanVeil.
• Japan: FOD.
• Asia-Pacific: iQIYI.
• Also available: GagaOOLala and Prime Video in select regions, with the option to buy on Apple TV.

What it’s about

The setup is simple and a little twisted: Shizuka calls herself an ordinary high schooler, except for the part where ghosts basically treat her like a beacon. She ends up assisting Kamui, a big-deal psychic whose exorcism methods are... unconventional, to put it mildly. Together they pinball from one bizarre haunting to the next, leaning into the comedy as much as the chills.

"Will Shizuka, tossed about by supernatural disturbances, ever find peace?"

Cast doing the heavy lifting

Tomokazu Sugita voices Kamui, which is exactly the kind of swagger you want for a smug, overpowered medium. Riko Aono plays Shizuka Mimizuka, the walking ghost magnet. Mao Ichimichi, who you might know as Hikari Yagami in 'Digimon Adventure tri. 6: Future', is Oichi. Shiori Izawa is Inagawa, and Yuuka Aisaka is Kyoko. The performances keep the tone snappy even when the show gets legitimately eerie.

Who’s making it

Directed by Tsukumotakumi with series composition from Motoshi Chujo, the show’s got a deep bench behind the curtain. Toshinari Yamashita handles character designs with sub-designs by Nana Hiiragi. There are two chief animation directors here — Takayuki Noguchi and Toshiyuki Abe — which usually means the team is dead serious about keeping cuts on-model across episodes. Art direction comes from Shinji Katahira, color design from Takuya Kawami, and sound direction from Syuhei Abe and Nankai Teioh. The score is by Chihiro Endo. Studios Zero-G and ZG-R are on animation production.

The announcement came via the June issue of Monthly Comic Dengeki Daioh, which also previewed some early artwork. The series title hasn't been revealed yet.

Nakatani confirmed the news on her Bluesky account, but didn't share further details.

This will be her first new series since God Bless the Mistaken (Kami-sama ga Machigaeru), which ran from October 2021 to November 2023 in the same magazine. Kadokawa released the fourth and final volume in January 2024.

Yen Press holds the English license and publishes both the digital simulpub and physical editions.

Nakatani first rose to prominence with Bloom Into You, which ran from 2015 to 2019. The manga inspired an anime adaptation in 2018, a stage play in 2019, and a range of spin-offs, including side-story novels by Hitoma Iruma. In North America, Seven Seas publishes the manga, novels, and anthology book.

Beyond her serialized work, Nakatani has also contributed yuri one-shots to multiple Éclair anthology volumes, and Yen Press publishes her earlier title Farewell to My Alter.

No word yet on what her new manga will be about — but given her track record, fans will be watching closely.

In June 2025, a brand-new official franchise portal quietly launched online. It's not just a retrospective archive — it's a sleek, constantly updated hub for Attack on Titan news, covering anime, manga, and everything in between. And that alone has been enough to spark serious comeback speculation.

Why now? And why build out a real-time content pipeline for a supposedly finished series?

The timing is interesting. Less than two years out from the anime's finale, fans are still actively discussing potential reanimations, cut material, and side stories that never made it to screen.

Creator Hajime Isayama has also expressed interest in exploring new perspectives within the Titan world — and this new site feels like the kind of infrastructure you'd want in place before announcing anything major.

It's also a smart global move. Attack on Titan is one of the most internationally recognized anime franchises of the last decade. A centralized, official site makes it easier to roll out worldwide news — especially if a continuation, spin-off, or even a full-scale remake is in the works.

So far, no announcements have been made. But between the site's rollout, the fandom's lingering demand, and the franchise's global momentum, the signs are all pointing in one direction: Attack on Titan might not be done just yet.

Viz Media quietly added Part 7 of the iconic manga to its Shonen Jump digital vault on June 24, marking the first full, official serialization of the arc in English.

Originally published in 2004, Steel Ball Run served as a soft reboot of the JoJo franchise. Set in the 1890s, it follows a high-stakes, cross-country horse race across America—with a $50 million prize, political conspiracies, and signature JoJo insanity along the way. The story introduces a new protagonist, Johnny Joestar, and one of the series' most beloved duos, pairing him with Gyro Zeppeli for a wild genre shift into surreal Americana and existential mayhem.

Critically, it's long been considered Hirohiko Araki's most ambitious work, but it's also been one of the hardest parts of JoJo to access officially in English—until now.

The release comes just months after the anime adaptation of Steel Ball Run was confirmed to be in development, with a teaser trailer and key visual dropping back in April. No release date has been announced, but the timing of this digital launch isn't random—Viz used a similar strategy for previous arcs, syncing up the manga's rollout with the anime hype cycle.

As of now, the first three chapters of Steel Ball Run are available to read for free through Viz's app and site, with 11 chapters live in total. The full series will continue to be published one chapter at a time, giving longtime fans—and new readers—a fresh way to experience one of the most celebrated entries in the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure saga.

On July 7, 2025, the San Francisco Giants will host Anime Day at Oracle Park during their home game against the Philadelphia Phillies — with Naruto Shippuden as the featured series.

The main draw? An exclusive Naruto-themed Giants baseball cap, available only to attendees. It features the team's logo, Naruto himself, and the Hidden Leaf Village insignia — all in one design. Tickets are on sale now through MLB's official site.

This is part of a bigger anime push from the league. Earlier this year, the Red Sox teamed up with One Piece, complete with mascots and themed apparel. Jujutsu Kaisen Night is coming July 1 to a Texas Rangers vs. Baltimore Orioles game, where fans will get limited-edition jerseys. Now it's Naruto's turn.

The game starts at 6:45 p.m. PT. Until then, fans can stream Naruto, Shippuden, and Boruto on Crunchyroll and Hulu — or catch up on the manga via VIZ Media, including the ongoing sequel Boruto: Two Blue Vortex.

It's not quite a new anime series, but for Naruto fans, baseball just got a lot more interesting.

Titled Haikyuu!! VS The Little Giant, the film picks up immediately after The Dumpster Battle and follows Karasuno as they head into the quarterfinals of the Nationals — this time, against powerhouse Kamomedai High.

So far, no release date has been announced in Japan or internationally. But if the timeline follows The Dumpster Battle (which was announced in August 2022 and premiered in February 2024), the safest bet is a late 2025 to 2026 release, depending on production and marketing rollout. The long gap between announcement and theatrical release makes a 2025 premiere unlikely, at least outside of Japan.

What Chapters Will VS The Little Giant Adapt?

The film will cover chapters 327 and 338–365 of the manga, continuing the Tokyo Nationals arc.

That includes Karasuno's clash with Kamomedai High — and Hinata's long-awaited face-off with their star player, Korai Hoshiumi, a fellow undersized but ultra-skilled "Little Giant."

For full context, another match — Fukurodani vs Mujinazaka, featuring Bokuto and Kiryu — will be covered separately in an upcoming special titled The Place Where Monsters Go. That storyline spans chapters 328–337, so it won't appear in The Little Giant movie.

Is This the Final Haikyuu!! Movie?

That's still unclear. In 2022, it was announced that Haikyuu!! would conclude with two "FINAL" movies instead of a fifth season. But since then, the word "Final" has quietly disappeared from official marketing for VS The Little Giant.

Considering that The Dumpster Battle earned over $100 million worldwide, making it one of the highest-grossing Japanese films ever, there's reason to believe more content could be coming — especially to cover the manga's post-timeskip Final Arc. Whether that turns out to be another movie, a new season, or a series of specials remains to be seen.

First Trailer and Visuals

The teaser trailer is already out and gives a quick look at both Karasuno's journey through the tournament and the arrival of Kamomedai's Hoshiumi. It's short — about a minute — but promises more of the high-energy, sharply animated action that Production I.G. is known for. A new poster has also been released, featuring players from across the tournament.

Expected Cast and Characters

All the core members of Karasuno are returning:

• Hinata – Ayumu Murase
• Kageyama – Kaito Ishikawa
• Daichi – Satoshi Hino
• Asahi – Yoshimasa Hosoya
• Nishinoya – Nobuhiko Okamoto
• Tanaka – Yu Hayashi
• Tsukishima – Koki Uchiyama
• Sugawara – Miyu Irino
• Yamaguchi – Soma Saito
• Yachi and Kiyoko will also appear on the sidelines.
• From Kamomedai, expect:
• Hoshiumi – Natsuki Hanae
• Hirugami – Yu Miyazaki
• Sawa – voice actor TBD

If this release follows the same pattern as The Dumpster Battle, Haikyuu!! VS The Little Giant will premiere in theaters first, followed by a streaming release on Crunchyroll approximately six months after its international run.

For years, fans have speculated which Straw Hats might unlock Conqueror's Haki — the rare ability that separates the top-tier from everyone else. It's been the key to beating world-shaking enemies ever since the Wano arc, and now the latest chapter strongly hints another Straw Hat is about to join the club.

In Chapter 1152, Gaban casually drops that someone besides Luffy and Zoro might have the gift. Zoro's confirmed to have it — though he didn't know — and Sanji immediately assumes Gaban means him.

Gaban doesn't say yes... but he doesn't say no either. And with dialogue conveniently obscuring Sanji's private chat with him, it feels like One Piece is deliberately hiding something.

If Sanji does have Conqueror's Haki, this is the perfect time for it to awaken. He's been due for a serious upgrade to keep pace with the story's escalating stakes — especially now that the Holy Knights and Imu are in play, and Conqueror's Haki seems to be the only way to seriously hurt them.

It also fixes a long-running imbalance. Zoro's had multiple power-ups and Conqueror's Haki.

Meanwhile, Sanji's been treated as comic relief more often than not — especially in the anime. But the two have always been framed as equals: the "Wings of the Pirate King." That doesn't work unless both are pulling equal weight.

Whether it's a delayed reveal or a slow burn, the signs are all there. Sanji unlocking Conqueror's Haki would be a major turning point — not just for his character, but for the balance of the crew as they head into the final battles of the series. And if One Piece follows through, it might be the upgrade fans have been waiting for since Wano.

Enter Gachiakuta, the long-awaited adaptation of Kei Urana's manga, coming from none other than studio Bones (Mob Psycho 100, My Hero Academia, etc). This thing's been hyped for years, and now it's finally landing — gritty, stylish, and ready to start some fights.

The story follows Rudo, a kid from a floating city called the Sphere, who gets framed for murdering his father and tossed into the Pit — a trash-filled hellhole below where society dumps its unwanted garbage and people. Down there, he finds out he's a Giver — someone who can turn treasured junk into deadly powers — and starts plotting his way back up for revenge.

It's got grime, action, supernatural junk weapons, and a furious main character with a bone to pick. The manga already built a cult following, and Bones looks like they're going all in on the animation.

No surprise then that Gachiakuta just got named the most anticipated anime of Summer 2025. Let's hope it hits as hard as it looks.

The original season dropped back in 2015, when the MCU was still figuring out Phase 3, Netflix still mailed DVDs, and Saitama punching stuff into oblivion was the coolest thing on TV. It was fast, funny, and jaw-droppingly animated. And then... nothing. For years.

So what happened?

Season 1: Lightning in a Bottle

Season 1 wasn't just a hit — it was a perfect storm. Director Shingo Natsume ignored the usual studio workflow at Madhouse and brought in his own team of top-tier freelance animators. The result looked nothing like standard TV anime — it was cinematic, detailed, and wildly expressive.

As character designer Chikashi Kubota put it, "The animation community isn't tied to one studio… they're just borrowing desks."

So when Natsume left, the whole magic team went with him. And Madhouse? They were left with desks — and no idea how to replicate what they never actually owned.

Season 2: Expectations Meet a Wall

In 2017, production shifted to J.C. Staff, with Chikara Sakurai directing. It aired in 2019, and fans immediately noticed: something was off. The backgrounds were photos, the fight scenes looked stiff, and the punch sound effects might as well have come from a stock library. When asked about the downgrade, Natsume said:

"I personally, of course, wanted to do it. But that could not be done despite myself… I wish J.C. Staff did way more with the show."

No wonder fans were bitter. Especially after Natsume later said at AnimeFest that he'd love to return.

Season 3: High Hopes, Low Trust

Now it's 2025, and J.C. Staff has had six years to get it right. In March, producer Atsushi Fujishiro said:

"Preparations for the third season are steadily progressing… we're committed to delivering a season that won't disappoint."

But fans aren't sold. Character designer Kubota hinted there may already be "problems" behind the scenes. And in December 2024, when fans were expecting a real trailer, they got a promo video made entirely by one guy — Kazunori Ozawa — who later admitted he was the "only animation director" involved. Fans called it a "PowerPoint presentation." Ozawa publicly said the backlash killed morale.

So that's where we are now: a demoralized animation team, a skeptical fanbase, and a franchise trying to recapture lightning without the guy who first bottled it.

Let's start with the obvious: Oda has made it crystal clear he doesn't want romance within the Straw Hat crew. That includes not just Luffy and Nami, but also fan-favorite pairings like Sanji and Nami, or Robin and Franky. According to Oda:

Q: Who does Nami like?

Oda: "Hmm, in a romantic sense? I don't think there will be any romance among that crew... One Piece isn't a romance. Maybe a lot of girl readers ask this kind of question. Boys are not interested at all."

That stance hasn't changed. When the live-action adaptation of One Piece launched, showrunner Steve Maeda confirmed that Oda's one non-negotiable rule was simple: no romance between Straw Hats. It was "forbidden," full stop.

So where does that leave Luffy?

Honestly, Luffy's only long-term commitment has been to freedom, meat, and the pirate life. He's never shown much interest in relationships, and settling down sounds like the opposite of what he wants. But if Oda decides to pair him off at the end, there's really only one character who fits: Boa Hancock.

Yes, the Pirate Empress herself. Hancock has had a long-standing (very one-sided) crush on Luffy, and while he's mostly been oblivious, she's the only character who's openly pursued him. And more importantly, she wouldn't get in the way of his freedom. If anything, she'd support it. Just like Gloriosa, who found love on the seas and then returned to Amazon Lily — something Hancock could easily mirror.

So, to recap:

• Nami? Nope — Oda said no Straw Hat hookups.
• Romance at all? Maybe, but definitely not the focus.
• Luffy + Hancock? If it happens, this is the safest bet.

Oh, and for those waiting on the next chapter: One Piece Chapter 1152 drops on June 22, 2025 (Sunday for most readers, technically Monday midnight in Japan). You can read it free on Manga Plus.

It's been almost six months since the first film brought the psychedelic horror vibes to Western audiences, and while a sequel always felt inevitable, Netflix took its sweet time making it official. Now that it's real, the countdown begins.

The story picks up one month after the events of the first movie, with the Medicine Seller (once again voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya) returning to the Ōoku, the inner chambers of the shogun's palace, where another malevolent spirit has popped up to ruin everyone's day. The first film pushed the Medicine Seller to the brink — this one looks ready to do it all over again.

Still no trailer (yet), but we do know the sequel sticks with the franchise's signature look — that dense, surreal, almost-hand-painted animation style that makes everything feel like a fever dream on a scroll.

Kiyotaka Suzuki (Evangelion 3.33) directs, while Kenji Nakamura (Gatchaman Crowds) returns as chief director. Visually, it's chaos in the best way: bright, layered, deliberately weird, and proudly difficult to pin down.

The script this time comes from Yasumi Atarashi, who also contributed to Star Wars: Visions, and the film is produced by Twin Engine, the same studio behind Psycho-Pass, Golden Kamuy, Zom 100, and the upcoming Witch Hat Atelier adaptation. Safe to say, the team knows what they're doing.

If you're new to the series: Mononoke originally spun off from the 2006 anthology series Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales, and got its own 12-episode run back in 2007.

Since then, it's inspired stage plays, manga adaptations, and now this movie trilogy. Chapter III is already slated to hit Japan in early 2026, so yeah — the medicine seller isn't going anywhere.

For now, fans just have to wait a little longer — and maybe rewatch Chapter I to prep for whatever cursed spirit is waiting in The Ashes of Rage. Keep an eye out for the trailer. You'll probably need time to emotionally brace anyway.

And now, we finally have a more direct answer: according to producer Noritaka Kawaguchi, the problem wasn't the film. It was the distributor.

Speaking at the "How Far Can Anime Go?" industry panel, Kawaguchi bluntly said, "[Your Name] was not nominated because the distributor was Funimation. If we had entrusted the distribution rights to Sony Pictures, we might have been nominated."

Ouch.

At the time, Funimation was the biggest name in U.S. anime distribution. It handled English dubs for mega-franchises like Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Attack on Titan. But when it came to Oscar-level prestige? Apparently not quite up to the task.

Kawaguchi stopped short of detailing what exactly went wrong, but he hinted at "political issues" that may have soured Your Name's chances with the Academy. Instead, the 2017 Best Animated Feature went to Disney's Zootopia—a fine movie, but let's just say it didn't spark the same international heartbreak as two teenagers body-swapping across time to stop a comet.

The irony? Your Name wasn't just a hit—it crushed it. It pulled in over 25 billion yen (~$172 million) at the Japanese box office, and more than $405 million worldwide, making it the top-grossing Japanese film of 2016. But clearly, box office and critical acclaim weren't enough to sway the Oscars back then.

Now, things may finally be different. Advisor Mie Onishi explained that the Academy's voting process has undergone a massive overhaul since then:

"The number of voters… has increased tenfold in the past five years. Originally… fewer than 1,000 people were voting. The system was criticized, leading to a review, and now the number is around 10,000."

That expanded pool has already shown signs of change. In 2023, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio broke Disney's streak. In 2024, Hayao Miyazaki's The Boy and the Heron beat Elemental to win Best Animated Feature. This year, a Latvian indie (Flow) even took home the top prize.

As Onishi put it:

"If you look at the award-winning works of the past 10 years, it has always been Disney Pixar that won, but… I thought, ‘Huh, things have changed a bit haven't they?... I feel that the tide is definitely changing.'"

Too late for Your Name, sure. But maybe the next time Makoto Shinkai drops a visually devastating, emotionally wrecking masterpiece, someone at the Oscars might actually notice—assuming the distributor doesn't blow it again.

It's called Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master, and it just quietly landed on Crunchyroll after airing in Japan back in spring 2024. It's produced by Studio Pierrot (yes, the Naruto and Bleach people) and originally aired on NHK, adapting the first three novels of Chisato Abe's sprawling historical fantasy series.

There are 20 episodes, all around 25 minutes each, and they're now available to stream globally. And yes, it's a fantasy anime, but don't expect fireballs and sword fights — this is all about politics, power plays, and people who can turn into three-legged crows. Literally.

What's It About?

Set in the imperial court of Yamauchi, Yatagarasu follows Wakamiya, a crown prince chosen by the mysterious Mountain God to become the next kin'u — ruler of the kingdom. His path to the throne is anything but straightforward. He's surrounded by power-hungry ministers, manipulative consorts, and four entire provinces all jockeying for influence.

Wakamiya is forced to choose a bride from among the elite daughters of the realm, but he only really trusts one person: Yukiya, the second son of a rural village chief, handpicked to serve him. Yukiya becomes our window into the court's scheming and backstabbing — and he gets put through the wringer early, both politically and physically. (Seriously. He gets beat up and still has to show up at a royal ceremony like nothing happened.)

So Why Should Apothecary Diaries Fans Care?

Like The Apothecary Diaries, this is a court intrigue story disguised as fantasy. There's transformation magic, sure — the nobles can shift into human-sized crows — but the real action is in whispered conversations, hidden agendas, and social chess.

And it plays out with the same tone fans love: thoughtful, unpredictable, and just sharp enough to catch you off guard. The show doesn't hold your hand. It gives you complex characters, a giant web of motives, and says, "Good luck keeping up."

Even minor players like Asebi, one of the consorts at the Cherry Blossom Court, get moments of depth — trying to build friendships while the rest of the room's planning her political destruction.

The anime adapts the first three volumes of Abe's 10-book light novel series (plus two side-story spin-offs). There's also a manga version published by Kodansha under the name A Raven for All Seasons.

With the entire first season now available, and no official word on a season two yet, this might be your only chance to dive into this world onscreen — at least for now.

TL;DR

• What it is: Court drama with a dash of shapeshifting crow mythology
• Studio: Pierrot (yes, Naruto Pierrot)
• Where to watch: Crunchyroll, globally
• Episodes: 20 (from Spring 2024, ~25 min each)
• Who it's for: Fans of The Apothecary Diaries, Moribito, and smart political fantasy
• Why you should care: It's beautifully animated, weirdly addictive, and much smarter than most people gave it credit for when it first aired.

If The Apothecary Diaries left a court-intrigue-shaped hole in your heart, Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master is the perfect next obsession.

While Solo Leveling builds its world around game mechanics, Shangri-La is the game. It doesn't just reference gaming—it breathes it.

The stakes in Solo Leveling are high in the typical "end of the world" sense, but Shangri-La understands the kind of stakes that make a gamer sweat: limited-time boss fights, gear drops you can't get back, raids you barely survive by the skin of your beetle helmet. It nails the one thing Solo Leveling doesn't: relatability.

A World Built by Gamers, For Gamers

MMORPG fans, this one's for you. Shangri-La Frontier gives you that rare feeling like you've actually logged into something—complete with brutal boss fights, unexpected loot drops, and those "did that just happen?" moments that feel ripped from your best gaming sessions. You're not just watching the protagonist Sunraku go through it—you're right there, sweating with him, planning strategies, dodging one-shot mechanics, and screaming when it all works.

Where Solo Leveling leans cinematic, Shangri-La leans immersive. The animation in Season 2, Episode 22 alone made some fans declare it "god-tier." Not hyperbole. It's the kind of fluid, intense action that makes you pause and rewind—not because you missed something, but because you just want to watch it again.

Stakes That Actually Feel Like Gaming

Yes, characters die in Shangri-La, but not in a grimdark, life-or-death way. It's more like real gaming—frustrating, motivating, and, weirdly, kind of fun. Defeating the Crystal Scorpions? That's not just a victory, that's a badge of honor.

And if you've ever missed a timed event in an MMO, you'll instantly get why the show's random one-off monsters and live events hit so hard. You had to be there.

Characters You Actually Care About

Sunraku and his squad aren't just vehicles for power-scaling. They're weird, flawed, determined—and somehow manage to feel like the kind of players you'd actually meet in an MMO lobby. You'll root for them, yell at them, and maybe cringe when they screw up (because let's be honest—you've done worse).

The Verdict?

Solo Leveling is a strong fantasy-action series. But Shangri-La Frontier is a love letter to gaming. It understands the grind, the hype, the joy of finally pulling off a risky strat—and the heartbreak of getting wrecked right after.

It's what Sword Art Online tried to be after episode 3 and what Solo Leveling only gestures toward.

If you game, you get it. And if you don't? Well, Crunchyroll has Shangri-La Frontier ready whenever you're curious enough to log in.

Let's talk about what's actually happening… and why this might not be the final anything.

Yes, the trailer looks clean. Bones is clearly putting effort into this. Tight animation, solid pacing, All Might is back in action, and everything's bathed in that "we're going out with a bang" energy. But under the surface, fans are already panicking.

Because this is My Hero Academia: Final Season. And we've all been trained by MAPPA, AoT, and every franchise with a misleading "final" in its title to be deeply suspicious. One user said it best: "Preceding My Hero Academia: Final Season part 2, 3 and Final Season: Last Story." That's not a joke anymore. That's PTSD.

How many episodes is this thing? Nobody knows

There's no official word on whether this is a 13-episode run or the usual 24. And that question is already splitting the fanbase.

Some argue there's not enough manga left for 13 episodes. Others insist the final chapter—yes, the 48-page monster—and Horikoshi's bonus content will fill it out. But here's the kicker: it doesn't matter unless we know how they're pacing it. If they're going full quality-over-quantity, then sure. But if this turns into "Final Season Part 1," all bets are off.

Manga readers vs. Anime-onlys – round 74

Manga readers are already posting like they've seen the face of God. "It's going to be beyond amazing." "Horikoshi cooked." And then you've got anime-only fans squinting at the teaser like it's a spoiler landmine.

One character—who will not be named—didn't show up in the teaser. That's on purpose. That fight? A massive spoiler. Which means anime-onlys are now haunted by the absence of content, and the manga folks are trying not to spoil it while barely containing their glee.

Is this actually the end?

Some fans are crossing fingers that Bones won't go full AoT and split the season into 19 confusing parts. Others… not so hopeful. To be fair, this does look like it's all wrapping up. Multiple commenters have said there's not enough left to stretch this out any further. But "not enough content" has never stopped an anime studio from milking a finale. Just ask Bleach, Naruto, Attack on Titan, or literally any shonen post-2010.

There's cautious optimism that the anime ending might feel better than the manga's. Not because the story changed, but because people are realizing most of the manga backlash came from leaks and out-of-context panels.

With Bones animating it, some fans think they can smooth things out, extend key scenes, and give us the payoff the manga didn't quite land for everyone.

October 2025. That's when it starts. And we'll see if My Hero Academia finally sticks the landing—or just adds another "part" to the pile.

At the last Tudum presentation, Netflix announced that the final season of Stranger Things will be released from November 27. The Duffer Brothers tease the grandiose finale while keeping the plot details under wraps.

The premiere is still far away, so check out anime titles with a similar vibe to pass the time.

1. Heavenly Delusion, 2023

Teenager Maru wanders through a post-apocalyptic Japan inhabited by monsters. He is searching for a mysterious person.

Meanwhile, in a high-tech city hidden from prying eyes, children live without knowing grief or fear. They study, play, and sometimes fantasize about what is happening behind the high walls. Tokio receives a letter from someone who offers her an escape from paradise.

2. Wonder Egg Priority, 2021

Fourteen-year-old Ai Ohto stopped going to school. First, she was bullied by her classmates. Then, her only friend committed suicide. She tries not to leave her room, except for lonely night walks.

One day, while enjoying the twilight views of the city, she learns about magic eggs that open portals to other worlds. These worlds are similar to ours, but negative emotions and phenomena take the form of monsters there.

By defeating these monsters, you can save girls who could not cope with social pressure, abuse, or other forms of violence.

3. Spriggan, 1998

Sixteen-year-old Yu Ominae is known as a lazy schoolboy, but he actually sleeps in class because he is busy with more important things.

He helps the secret organization Arcam search for and destroy alien artifacts before they fall into the hands of world governments or military corporations. And such situations arise more often than you might think.

4. Summer Time Rendering, 2022

Shinpei believed that he had left the godforsaken island where he was born forever. However, news of his half-sister's death forced him to return to his homeland.

There, he encountered not only the ghosts of the past but also very real demons. At the same time, he got caught in a time loop, which was the last straw in separating his loved ones from death.

5. Yurei Deco, 2022

On Tom Sawyer Island, there is a futuristic city where people live in a utopia with the help of special augmented reality devices called Deco.

With these devices and a currency called Love, you can change your appearance, design your surroundings, and make purchases. Berry, a girl who has one of these devices, will learn about the seamy side of the digital paradise when it starts to malfunction.

That's when she meets the adventurer Hack and a team of outlaw detectives. They are investigating the mystery of Phantom Zero, who resets the Love level of random citizens.

One of the most popular new shonen series is The Most Notorious Talker Runs the World's Greatest Clan, the story of Noel, a boy who dreams of becoming a great warrior despite his lack of fighting ability.

We've recalled five more anime titles with similar plots.

1. The Eminence in Shadow, 2022-2023

Since childhood, Cid has dreamed of becoming a hero. This dream has lived in his heart ever since, growing stronger every day in anticipation of the moment he can demonstrate his strength.

But reality is much crueler: Cid is hit by a truck. However, this is not the end. He is reborn in a fantasy world and begins his journey as a shadow ruler, seeking to amass as much power as possible.

2. As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I'll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World, 2024-...

An ordinary office worker dies from overwork and is reborn into an aristocratic family in a magical world. From an early age, Ars Louvent notices the strengths of others. This unique ability can be very useful because Ars must become a lord.

His analytical skill allows him to recognize the abilities of others. Now, Ars intends to gather strong people around him who will help him in the future. Big changes are coming: a war is about to break out in the kingdom, and the young hero must prepare.

3. The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat, 2021

After he dies, the strongest assassin appears before a goddess who entrusts him with a special task. He is reborn in another world and must kill a hero within eighteen years. At the same time, he will not lose his memories of his past life.

His name is now Lugh Tuatha Dé, and he was born into a family of aristocrats engaged in training assassins, so his knowledge and experience from his past life come in handy. With the help of his talents and mastery of magic, Lugh intends to fulfill his mission.

4. Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest, 2019-2025

Hajime and his classmates are transported to another world. Everyone receives a profession that is useful in fighting monsters, but the main character is not so lucky.

He becomes a craftsman, the weakest and least effective profession in battle. While conquering the dungeon, he accidentally separates from the group and falls into a trap.

Without food, he takes a desperate step and eats monsters. The consequences are not long in coming – having eaten the monsters' meat, he gains their abilities.

5. Let This Grieving Soul Retire!, 2024-...

Let This Grieving Soul Retire! is a fantasy anime about the adventures of an incompetent guildmaster whose fame far exceeds his abilities. Despite his mediocre combat skills, he leads squads of seekers.

Huge treasuries are scattered throughout the world. Brave seekers explore the ruins and take the hidden riches and weapons. However, these treasuries are guarded by dangerous monsters that are not so easy to defeat.

The Grieving Souls group is renowned among dungeon conquerors and monster fighters. Five of its members have incredible strength, while the sixth has no talent for it.

The animated movie Predator: Killer of Killers, directed by Dan Trachtenberg, who also made Prey, was recently released on Hulu. This brutal and spectacular action film received a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

For those who liked the animated movie from the Predator universe, we have compiled a list of the five best action anime.

1. Sword of the Stranger, 2007

The story follows a swordsman with no name who saves a young boy. The boy, Kotaro, is an orphan being pursued by a group of Chinese-speaking warriors.

The child asks the swordsman to protect him, and he agrees to become his bodyguard. The two then head to a Buddhist temple to find a safe place for Kotaro. But why is the child being hunted?

2. Dragon Ball Super: Broly, 2018

Dragon Ball Super: Broly is one of the best movies in the Dragon Ball franchise. Its animation, visual style, and battle scenes are all top-notch.

The movie expands the universe and introduces new characters. Taking place after the Dragon Ball Super anime series, the film tells the story of the powerful Broly.

According to the plot, Vegeta, the ruler, abandons Broly as a baby on an uninhabited planet. His father goes into the wild lands to find him. After spending many years on the deserted planet, they finally have the opportunity to seek revenge against the king.

3. Ninja Scroll, 1993

Ninja Scroll is an action anime with a gripping plot and bright main characters. Set in feudal Japan, the movie includes elements of mysticism and fantasy.

The plot follows a wandering samurai named Jubei Kibagami who comes to a village whose inhabitants have died from a disease. There, he encounters unknown monsters and rescues the ninja girl Kagero.

What are these creatures, and what caused the terrible epidemic? Jubei and Kagero decide to investigate together.

4. Ghost in the Shell, 1995

The anime transports viewers to the year 2029. Humanity has achieved unprecedented advances in cybernetics. People can now replace missing body parts with robotic prostheses.

The distinction between reality and the internet has nearly disappeared, creating a particular danger for people. Users are increasingly facing hacker attacks from a villain called the Puppet Master. A squad of cyber-enhanced police officers is assigned to the case and must find and neutralize the hacker.

5. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train, 2020

Demon Slayer is a dynamic and spectacular story about the confrontation between humans and demons. Mugen Train is a direct spinoff of the popular title.

It is an exciting anime with thrilling battles and a dramatic ending that will leave a lasting impression.

According to the plot, the main characters embark on a mission accompanied by the Flame Pillar, Kyojuro Rengoku. Their goal is to catch a demon who killed several dozen train passengers.

A couple working at the same company puts on a show for their colleagues, pretending that they can't stand each other.

This is the plot of the office rom-com I Have a Crush at Work, released by Blade Studios at the beginning of the year. We recommend taking a closer look at this new title because the screenwriter of Toradora! worked on it.

What Is I Have a Crush at Work About?

Office workers gossip that someone recently returned from vacation with the same souvenirs, which clearly means something. Masugu tries not to listen to the gossip, despite his boss' tricky questions about his thoughts on such novels.

Masugu works in the financial department and tries not to be distracted by trifles. From the outside, it may seem that, like most Japanese people, Masugu simply does not have enough time for a personal life.

However, he has a lover. He is secretly dating his colleague, Yui – viewers learn this in the first episode. Their relationship will undergo various tests, both in the office and outdoors.

I Have a Crush at Work Is a Charming Title about Office Love

I Have a Crush at Work is a screen adaptation of the manga of the same name by Enomoto Akamaru.

The artist clearly understands corporate routines and knows how to incorporate everyday life and romance into them. The characters in the series appear so genuine that they could be sitting at the next desk.

This could not have been achieved without the contribution of experienced screenwriter Masahiro Yokotani, whose résumé includes Toradora!, My New Boss Is Goofyl, and K-On!

Yui And Masugu's Relationship Develops Throughout The Entire Series

Yui and Masugu's life is full of awkward situations and rules. They agree not to call each other by name, not to drink too much at corporate parties, and to argue more often at work.

As they grow closer, the couple begins to appreciate and share each other's hobbies, learn more about each other, and fall even more in love. Each episode is dedicated to an important date, such as a vacation together, an anniversary, Christmas, or Valentine's Day.

Through these rituals, the anime demonstrates that you can always find time and energy to please your significant other or learn something new about them.

I Have a Crush at Work is far from boring. This office is filled with not only deadlines, but also inspiring love, a combination unlikely to be found in reality.

The sea is an integral part of Japanese culture and is often reflected in anime. Beach episodes are often inserted into romantic series to create awkwardness and bring the couple closer together.

However, beach scenes can also be seen in anime of other genres, such as shonen, where a vacation by the water wouldn't be complete without one or two action scenes.

1. Blue Exorcist (2011) – Season 1 Episode 11

The academy students go to the beach to relax, but it's not that easy. The guys have another dangerous mission, as well as jobs at a squid shop.

Young exorcists learn about a local monster – an urban legend says that a giant squid lives in the depths of the sea that no one can cope with. If you're tired of carefree beach games, the episode of Blue Exorcist will give you spectacular action scenes.

2. Tomo-chan Is a Girl! (2023) – Episode 7

Tomo, the main character of the romantic comedy, wants to spend time with her loved one and childhood friend, Junichiro, but she is very shy.

Two friends come to her aid. Together, they choose a swimsuit for Tomo and accompany her and Junichiro to the beach to keep an eye on things. But what if the guy is attracted to Tomo's friends? Self-doubt and jealousy could interfere, but what should Tomo do if Junichiro sees her only as a friend?

3. Black Clover (2017-2021) – Episode 40

The wizards of the Black Bull order fly on brooms to the sea. Overjoyed, Asta immediately plunges into a fantasy in which he proposes to Nun Lily.

Each wizard enjoys themselves in their own way: some sculpt sand, some splash in the water, and some run along the beach, causing chaos in the lives of carefree beachgoers.

Noelle is upset that, instead of admiring her beauty in her swimsuit, Asta is organizing Spartan training on the beach.

4. Gurren Lagann (2007) – Episode 12

In the anime Gurren Lagann, the characters see the sea for the first time and decide to swim in it. Their path to the enemy capital lies right through the sea, so missing the opportunity to have fun in the water would be a crime.

This episode contains many comedic scenes, including a game of beach volleyball and smashing a watermelon. However, the enemy could attack at any moment, so the characters must be ready for action.

5. Mashle: Magic and Muscles (2023-...) – Season 2 Episode 12

The magicians from the Academy, along with the main character, Mash, head to the beach. Despite the problems at school, everyone leaves for vacation on schedule.

Even the director of the Academy came to the beach to relax and heal his wounds. This short episode is just as funny and light-hearted as the rest of this comedy shonen series.

In April, the anime My Hero Academia received a spin-off titled My Hero Academia: Vigilantes. While the UA students prepare to return to the screens with a grand final season, fans can take a look at how the self-proclaimed heroes try to clear Tokyo's dark alleys of criminals.

What Is My Hero Academia: Vigilantes About?

Koichi Haimawari lives in a booth on the roof of an abandoned building. He doesn't get along very well with his classmates and works part-time at a supermarket. His quirk, sliding, allows him to move around the city slightly faster than a pedestrian.

From time to time, he goes out into the streets and helps people. One day, he runs into criminals who beat him up and plan to abuse a young idol named Pop Step.

Suddenly, a local vigilante named Knuckleduster appears and rescues the young man. He invites Haimawari to join him and become a real hero. It turns out that he is looking for a source of a new banned substance that enhances the power of a quirk.

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Is a Prequel to the Original Series

The events of Vigilantes take place before the main events of My Hero Academia. Izuku has not yet enrolled at UA, and All Might is still ranked number one among the best of the best.

The spin-off is based on the manga of the same name, and the adaptation is being handled by Studio Bones, which is responsible for all seasons of the original series.

Familiar characters regularly appear in the series to remind viewers that this is the universe of My Hero Academia. One problem with the original series is that there are so many interesting characters that there is often no time for their storylines.

But a prequel can highlight a familiar character and develop his story.

Vigilantes Delves Deeper into the Lore of My Hero Academia

The main source of inspiration and reference for Outlaw were stories about street vigilantes. While the main series deals with threats on the global level, the spin-off shows that the city needs protection from smaller-scale threats.

This allows you to delve deeper into the lore of My Hero Academia. Here, the main characters don't give interviews after battles, order high-tech suits, or go on internships at the best agencies in the country.

However, more time is devoted to the history of characters, their rights and responsibilities, and the question, "What does it mean to be a hero?" is explored from a different perspective.

Netflix continues to delight anime fans by offering cult classics and new hits. This list includes only the most worthy titles, including epic battles, touching dramas, captivating fantasies, and witty comedies.

1. Blue Period, 2021

High school student Yatora suddenly loses interest in life. Hanging out with friends is boring, and studying brings him no pleasure.

He stumbles upon a painting by a girl in the art club and is amazed by it. Yatora becomes interested in painting and enrolls in art school. This new hobby completely changes his life.

This anime, based on the manga of the same name, immerses viewers in the creative process, leaving with a sense of euphoria from this exciting new hobby.

2. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, 2022

In the near future, people invented cybernetic implants that increase the wearer's strength and endurance and prolong life. However, abusing this technology can cause cyberpsychosis, a form of paranoia.

After his mother's death, David Martinez, a schoolboy, decides to implant a military prosthesis to take revenge on those responsible. It is the Arasaka Corporation, and it practically controls the metropolis of Night City.

3. Dandadan, 2024-...

High school student Momo believes in ghosts. Her antisocial classmate, Ken, is fascinated by aliens. He sets out to prove to Momo that ghosts don't exist and that only aliens are real.

He goes to an old tunnel where, according to rumors, a powerful spirit lives. Momo goes to an abandoned hospital supposedly favored by aliens. As it turns out, both ghosts and UFOs are quite real, and the students find themselves in mortal danger.

4. Dorohedoro, 2020-2025

Humanity is trapped in a dirty place called the Hole. It is a testing ground for mages, a race capable of performing miracles and living in a more civilized dimension.

One day, Nikaido, the owner of a restaurant in the Hole, finds Caiman, a half-human, half-lizard creature on the verge of life and death. A mage has cursed Caiman, depriving him of his memory. With Nikaido's help, Caiman sets out to find the villain and regain his memories and former appearance.

5. Monster, 2004-2005

One day, young surgeon Tenma Kenzo saves Johan, a boy wounded in the head after his parents were brutally murdered. Several years later, Tenma witnesses Johan commit a crime.

Realizing that he had saved the life of a monster, Tenma decides to correct his mistake. Meanwhile, Nina, Johann's twin sister, is looking for her brother to finish what she started. After all, she was the one who shot him that terrible day.

Monster is one of the best detective anime series. The two main characters, Tenma and Nina, act in parallel, often interfering with each other.

During the summer, you crave light and carefree adventures without any drama. From Sherlock Holmes in ancient China to a light rom-com about cosplay, we've chosen summer anime that will lift your spirits, even on the hottest day.

1. My Dress-Up Darling, 2022-...

High school student Gojo has been interested in creating Japanese dolls since childhood. However, when he was younger, his peers made fun of him for sewing doll clothes.

Since then, he has honed his skills in secret. One day, popular student Marin catches Gojo at the sewing machine. Gojo braced himself for more humiliation, but Marin suddenly praised him and shared her secret.

She has been cosplaying for a long time, but no one in her circle takes her hobby seriously. They decide to team up, with Gojo practicing his sewing skills by creating cosplay costumes for Marin.

2. Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf, 2024

In an alternate medieval era, a traveling merchant named Lawrence meets Holo, the goddess of the harvest. Until she turns into a wolf, only her tail and ears distinguish her from an ordinary girl.

Lawrence is smart and knows his craft well. Holo can easily distinguish truth from lies and teach the merchant this skill. The goddess agrees to help Lawrence on one condition: he must accompany her to her hometown in the north.

Christianity has replaced paganism, and the inhabitants of her current haven no longer need her. Lawrence agrees, and the two set off on a measured adventure, the taste of apples and the dying of summer lingering in the air.

3. Laid-Back Camp, 2018-2024

What else do you need to be happy besides mountains, nature, and ramen by the fire? For Rin, hiking is not just a hobby, it's her life. She often travels alone – pitches a tent, collects firewood, and conquers peaks.

This time was supposed to be no different, but her solitude was interrupted by Nadeshiko, who got lost on her way to the top. The good-natured Rin can't leave Nadeshiko in the middle of the forest, so she invites her to join her on a hike.

Noodles, conversations by the fire, and picturesque mountain views in the moonlight impress Nadeshiko so much that, before leaving, she asks Rin for her phone number. Thus begins the story of their camping adventures together.

4. The Apothecary Diaries, 2023-...

Maomao is the daughter of a pharmacist. She immerses herself in science, studying plants and testing dangerous substances on herself. Her previous life comes to an end when she is kidnapped and sold to the imperial court.

There, she starts out as a laundress, but fate gives her the opportunity to pursue her passion again. The imperial children fall ill with an unknown illness, and Maomao uses her knowledge to save them.

The palace eunuch and the heirs quickly figure out who is behind it. Soon, he gives the herbalist a new task. Maomao now helps the senior imperial concubine test food and cosmetics for poison.

The spring anime season delighted us with funny comedies, series with dynamic action scenes, and even impressive 3D animation. Here are the most captivating and memorable anime series from the spring season.

1. Witch Watch, 2025-…

The mischievous witch Nico has decided that her familiar will be her childhood friend Morihito, not a black cat or a crow. Morihito comes from an ancient line of oni who, according to legend, used to be familiars of witches and could transform from animals into people.

In the modern world, familiars are also needed to protect witches. So, Nico and Morihito's parents decided the two high school students should live together. It sounds like the plot of a quirky rom-com – and it's partly true.

2. To Be Hero X, 2025-...

In this world, becoming a hero is like becoming a superstar. Sign a contract, and a team of specialists will help you quickly rise to the top and gain power. The more famous you are, the more people believe in you, and therefore, the stronger your superpower becomes.

Every two years, the most talented and worthy superpower holders compete to become the new Hero X.

Lin Ling finds himself caught up in a whirlwind of events that make him a contender in the tournament. After accidentally finding himself at the scene of a popular hero's death, he becomes his replacement.

3. Apocalypse Hotel, 2025-...

In 2057, the world was struck by a mysterious threat: the air became unbreathable, forcing people to seek salvation outside of Earth.

A hundred years later, the planet has fallen into disrepair. Buildings are destroyed, wild animals roam the streets of former cities, and plants have overtaken concrete buildings. The Gingarou Hotel in Ginza is the only remaining structure that has retained its original appearance.

Autonomous robots maintain order in the building and await the return of people, but a century later, real aliens become the first guests instead.

4. Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin Gentosho, 2025-...

At first glance, the new series may seem similar to Demon Slayer, as it tells the story of an older brother and his younger sister, who was transformed into a monster. However, with its measured atmosphere, the series is closer to Dororo.

A swordsman named Jinta left his home village to exterminate demons. This occurred after his younger sister, Suzune, killed someone important to him, revealing her demonic nature. Since that day, Jinta has traveled the world protecting ordinary people from monsters.

5. Wind Breaker Season 2, 2024-...

The plot introduces us to the reckless students of Furin High School who act as defenders of the city. Local residents turn to them for help, and other gangs try to avoid them. However, sometimes conflicts cannot be avoided.

Then, fists and the desire to put opponents in their place are used to defend their territory and reputation. The second season begins with the adaptation of the 42nd chapter of the manga, in which the Furin High School students battle the Keel gang.

How much do you know about the Japanese animation studio MAPPA? Its directors and animators created popular anime series such as Attack on Titan, Jujutsu Kaisen and Chainsaw Man.

However, MAPPA has other notable projects that have been overshadowed by the studio's biggest hits.

1. Dorohedoro, 2020-2025

The Hole is a place where unfortunate people live and evil magicians conduct cruel experiments on them. Here, stench, poverty, hunger, and destruction reign. One day, a girl named Nikaido finds the disfigured body of a man who was a victim of these experiments.

His head now resembles a crocodile's. He has lost not only his former appearance but also his memories. Together with Nikaido and the other residents of the Hole, he will challenge the magicians and put an end to their tyranny.

2. In This Corner of the World, 2016

Suzu got married and moved from her hometown of Hiroshima to Kure. In her new family, she takes on household responsibilities and cares for her husband's parents and relatives. Life becomes more difficult, but Suzu does not give up her old hobbies.

Since childhood, she has loved to draw, trying to capture the beauty around her on paper. Suddenly, her peaceful everyday life turns into a real nightmare – the war begins.

The young woman must hide from bombs, ration food, and cope with her husband being called up for service. Suzu tries not to lose her optimism and faith, but sometimes she cannot help but cry.

3. Hell's Paradise, 2023-...

Hell's Paradise is a dynamic anime series that blends fantasy and mythology with action. Gabimaru, a professional assassin, is caught and sentenced to death.

He and dozens of other criminals are gathered before the shogun, who entrusts them with an almost impossible task: complete it, and they will earn a pardon. They must go to a mysterious island where ferocious monsters live. These creatures guard the elixir of immortality. Those sentenced to death must obtain this elixir.

4. Kids on the Slope, 2012

Kids on the Slope is a heartfelt musical anime series about teenagers in the 1960s. It explores themes of friendship, romance, and jazz, which connect the characters' destinies.

The story transports viewers to the summer of 1966 when the young Kaoru transfers schools midyear. His life had always been monotonous and dull, but he was able to find friends and join a jazz band in his new place.

5. Altair: A Record of Battles, 2017

The series is set in an alternate version of Turkey. Seventeen-year-old Mahmut has risen to the rank of general. He does not tolerate war and tries to resolve conflicts peacefully without resorting to brute force.

However, the country is now facing significant challenges that could lead to bloodshed and chaos. Mahmut wants to stop the impending threat. How exactly does the young general intend to do this?

Hayao Miyazaki is world-renowned for his unique artistic style. Each of his movies invites viewers to immerse themselves in a world where fantasy and reality intertwine.

For those just beginning to explore the Japanese animator's work, we have chosen five of his best anime films.

5. The Wind Rises, 2013

The plot centers on young Jiro, a boy who dreams of designing airplanes but suffers from myopia. In a dream, Jiro meets his idol, a renowned aircraft designer, who explains the process of designing airplanes to him.

Following his subconscious's advice, Jiro enters university to study engineering. A few years later, he lands an internship at Mitsubishi and begins producing the iconic A6M fighter plane.

However, professional success does not bring him happiness. Jiro regrets that combat vehicles are used for killing, and his wife, Nahoko, is slowly fading away due to a serious illness.

4. My Neighbor Totoro, 1988

When Satsuki and Mei's mother falls ill, Satsuki is left to care for the house and her father. The family moves to a house near a mystical forest so they can be close to the hospital where their mother is being treated.

One day, while walking in the forest, the youngest daughter, Mei, meets a small spirit who accidentally leads her to the forest's guardian – a huge, fluffy Totoro.

This new acquaintance turns out to be a good-natured creature who becomes a friend to the lonely girl and, later, her older sister, Satsuki.

3. Howl's Moving Castle, 2004

The young Sophie meets the mysterious Howl, who has settled near her hometown, and immediately falls in love with him. However, Howl has many admirers, including those from another world.

One of them is the Witch of the Waste, who turns Sophie into an old woman out of jealousy. Desperate, Sophie goes to Howl's Moving Castle to lift the curse. In order to return to her former appearance and rid the inhabitants of the castle of the curse, Sophie must dispel the witch's spell.

2. Princess Mononoke, 1997

After a fight with a demon that has turned into a boar, a young warrior named Ashitaka is cursed to death. He leaves his village in search of a cure but finds himself caught in a war between the forest spirits and the people who cut down trees for iron.

Among the forest's inhabitants is San, a beautiful girl raised by a wolf goddess. She is also known as Princess Mononoke. As Ashitaka's conflict with San unfolds, their story develops into a tale of true love.

1. Spirited Away, 2001

Chihiro's parents tell her that they are moving to a new town soon. After getting lost on the way to their new home, the family ends up in the spirit world.

They discover a restaurant with numerous delicacies, but the girl's parents cannot resist the food. As punishment for their gluttony, they turn into pigs.

To save them, Chihiro gets a job at a bathhouse for the gods. There, she meets the bathhouse's eccentric owner, Yubaba, and becomes entangled in a tale involving an ancient curse and an enchanted seal.

Screen time is not infinite. Each story faces the challenge of presenting its characters in a way that allows each one to play their role.

However, some characters turn out to be more successful than others. Even though the gray characters continue to perform routine functions, only one becomes the star of the title.

1. Vinand Saga (2019-2023) – Askeladd

Not only is Askeladd from Vinland Saga a mercenary leader and an excellent fighter, he is also a first-class thief.

He so cleverly stole the role of the protagonist from Thorfinn in the second half of the first season that, by the end, you don't remember the latter – only Askeladd's difficult and unenviable fate remains in your mind.

The first season of Vinland Saga is an example of an amazing plot formula where all the events serve to reveal a single character who formally takes part in the events, but hides his true face until the end.

2. Steins;Gate (2011-2015) – Kurisu

In some ways, Steins;Gate is a unique anime because it's hard to forget such specific and eccentric secondary characters.

The title's main idea is embodied by the two protagonists, Okabe Rintaro and Kurisu Makise. However, their relationship is unequal, as all of Okabe's motivation stems from his interaction with Kurisu.

Kurisu is a very atypical character because there aren't many arrogant, brilliant young scientists in anime. However, Makise does not conform to archetypes. This is why the heroine consistently ranks among the top female anime characters.

3. Darling in the Franxx (2018) – Zero Two

There's no denying her significant role in the title. Leave Hiro, the protagonist, alone, or add Ichigo, a potential love interest, to the mix. However, the pairing isn't nearly as entertaining as Zero Two.

For her dramatic story to work as intended, Zero Two has to exist in conflict with the world around her. When every character exists to shine the spotlight on her, why shouldn't she shine?

4. Re: Zero – Starting Life in Another World (2016-...) – Echidna

Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World is surprising in that its characters don't stand out from the crowd in a typical fantasy environment.

First, Rem took the brunt of it. The humble maid suddenly eclipsed the main character, Emilia, in popularity because it turned out that she was an exemplary supporter of the protagonist, Subaru, as well as a dramatic character and a much more complete person.

Echidna, however, is on a whole different level. She brings a gray morality to Re:Zero's fairy tale narrative, taking its philosophy to another level.

Some of the most interesting characters are those who are neither good nor bad. They are characters that you want to study more deeply in order to understand their desires, motives, and way of thinking.

1. Chainsaw Man (2022-...) – Power

Power, the charming yet hot-tempered demoness with red horns from Chainsaw Man, has captivated many viewers. She is a narcissistic and selfish girl who considers herself superior to others and does not value people or other demons.

So why do viewers love her? Despite her arrogant and complex nature, as well as her passion for cruel slaughter, she is not devoid of sincere compassion.

2. Attack on Titan (2013-2023) – Hange Zoë

Hange seems sweet and harmless, but she is a contradictory character. Her insane love for the titans is both terrifying and enchanting.

She is so consumed by her love for the titans that she wants to both dissect them for experiments and understand their feelings. She names them, talks to them, and tries to communicate with them. At the same time, she stabs them with spears to expose their weaknesses.

3. Tokyo Ghoul (2014) – Juuzou

Juuzou is an interesting and attractive madman. He sees the world differently than ordinary people do. He behaves like a wild animal deprived of love and warmth, yet he still desires to experience these feelings.

He has not lost trust in people, and thanks to a caring mentor, he channels his energy and aggression toward fighting criminal ghouls.

However, like many characters in this series, he cannot be classified as either positive or negative. Though contradictory, he is still very charismatic and has won over the viewers.

4. Code Geass (2006-2008) – Lelouch Lamperouge

At first glance, Lelouch appears to be an ordinary high school student who excels in his studies and participates in student council activities. He takes care of his younger sister, has fun with his friends… and plans a real coup.

Throughout the series, viewers see the duality of him. On the one hand, he is a talented, diligent student. On the other hand, he is the heir to the throne, a political hostage, and someone who wants to end the king's tyranny to avenge his mother's death.

The power that has befallen Lelouch fuels his arrogance and sense of superiority. He begins to exploit innocent people for his own benefit, gradually becoming the same kind of monster as his father, whom he despises.

Fantasy anime often relies on familiar tropes, such as reincarnation, parallel worlds, and overpowered protagonists with cheat abilities. But what if you're looking for something different – stories with unique magic systems, underdog heroes, and dark, immersive worlds?

Here are five outstanding fantasy anime series that break the mold.

1. Black Clover, 2017–2021

In a world where magic is everything, Asta stands out because he has none. Born powerless in a society that values magical ability above all else, he is constantly ridiculed. But Asta refuses to give up. Through relentless physical training, he compensates for his lack of magic and dreams of becoming the Wizard King.

His fate changes when he obtains a rare five-leaf grimoire that grants him anti-magic, the power to nullify spells. However, this power comes with a catch: a demon is sealed within his grimoire. Now, Asta must prove that strength isn't just about magic as he battles his way to the top.

2. Hozuki's Coolheadedness, 2014

Hell isn't all fire and torture, at least not in this darkly comedic take on the afterlife. In the Japanese underworld, bureaucracy reigns supreme. The demon Hozuki serves as King Enma's right-hand man.

Ruthlessly efficient, Hozuki keeps both sinners and his lazy superiors in line, often through brutal – and hilarious – means. Whether he's punishing souls or navigating office politics, his deadpan demeanor and clever strategies give this anime a distinctive blend of fantasy, satire, and dark humor.

3. Mashle: Magic and Muscles, 2023

In a world where magic determines social hierarchy, Mash is an anomaly because he has no magical power. According to the law, he should be executed, but he survives thanks to his adoptive father's protection.

Instead of magic, Mash relies on his immense physical strength, which he honed through years of intense training. His muscles are so powerful that he can punch through spells, deflect magical attacks, and send enemies flying with a flick of his finger.

4. Ranking of Kings, 2021–2022

Bojji, the deaf and weak prince, is considered unfit to rule his kingdom. His younger brother, Daida, is stronger and more charismatic and is favored by the court. When Daida usurps the throne, while Bojji embarks on a journey to prove himself.

What Bojji doesn't know is that his weakness stems from a dark pact his father made with a demon, which stole his strength at birth. Nevertheless, Bojji's kindness, determination, and hidden giant heritage make him a truly inspiring hero.

5. Claymore, 2007

Set in a grim medieval world, humanity is terrorized by shapeshifting monsters called Yoma. To combat the monsters, an organization created Claymores: half-human, half-Yoma warriors who are all women and wield giant swords.

The story follows Clare, a Claymore seeking vengeance against the monster that destroyed her life. However, the more she fights, the closer she comes to losing her humanity and becoming the very thing she hunts.

A dark, brutal fantasy with strong female leads, Claymore is often compared to Berserk and The Witcher because of its gritty tone, intense battles, and tragic themes.

Korean manhwa, now most often released in the online webtoon format, is rapidly gaining popularity around the world — Solo Leveling being the main example. Here are five anime titles based on stories by South Korean authors.

1. Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion, 2023

After she dies, the girl is reborn as Raeliana McMillan. The life of the modest baron's daughter is very familiar to her because she is a secondary character in a novel she read during her lifetime.

She knows that Raeliana is in danger of dying at the hands of her fiancé, but everything could be different this time. Unless, of course, she falls in love with him or finds someone more dangerous to save her.

2. A Returner's Magic Should Be Special, 2023

There is little time left until the end of the world. All corners of the globe are disappearing into the Shadow Labyrinth, an alternate reality. Something has gone wrong with the universe's grand mechanism, and the bravest have gone there to find and prevent a catastrophe in the multiverse.

After another mission, only the magician Desir is left alive, but he is sent back 13 years. Now, he has a chance to stop the labyrinth from expanding and save everyone from death.

3. Doctor Elise: The Royal Lady with the Lamp, 2024

She is a talented surgeon in the present, but in the past, she was Empress Elise, who had a rather unkind and mean character. Her constant envy and thirst for power made her unbearable. On the threshold of death, however, the noblewoman realized her mistakes and decided that she would devote her future to saving people, not destroying them.

However, the surgeon tragically dies and returns to her past life. It seems that Elise is now ready to start her life over.

4. Viral Hit, 2024

Nowadays, bloggers have special powers. They are popular and earn a lot of money, yet they don't know the difficulties of life. Ho-bin, a schoolboy, is very jealous of his classmates because he can barely make ends meet.

Everything changes when a video featuring him goes viral. He and his friend then start their own channel where they try to learn how to fight. At first, Ho-bin lies on the floor helplessly, but gradually, he becomes stronger, and the number of subscribers increases.

5. The God of High School, 2020

All the high school students in Korea decided to find out who the strongest among them is. The winner will receive a special prize: the fulfillment of one wish. Mori is confident that he is the most capable and is participating in the God of High School tournament.

It seems like there will just be a big massacre, but this chaos was not cooked up for fun – there is a real search for the best.

There are probably no life situations or plotlines that aren't reflected in anime. First love is a common theme, so there are countless examples of it. Still, some titles resonate more than others.

1. Blue Spring Ride, 2014

The boys at school always liked Futaba, but because of this, the girls started to avoid her. The pressure became so intense that she couldn't even confess her feelings to the guy she liked.

In high school, she decided to change her image. Then, Tanaka – the guy she liked – came back into her life. Would they be able to make up for lost time?

This is a sweet and sincere story about first love, school difficulties, relationships with classmates, and overcoming shyness to be yourself.

2. To the Forest of Firefly Lights, 2011

The young Hotaru gets lost in a magical forest full of ghosts. A spirit named Gin helps her escape. Gin can't touch people or he'll disappear.

Hotaru can't forget the mysterious boy, so she returns to the forest to get to know him better.

3. My Love Story!!, 2015

Takeo Goda is a high school student who looks more like someone's father than a student. Despite his appearance, he is the same as everyone else inside.

Ironically, he is friends with the school's most handsome guy. Of course, it is difficult for him to compete and find a girlfriend. But that was before he saved Rinko.

Seeing the best in yourself and overcoming your complexes are probably two of the reasons why you should watch this anime at least once.

4. My Dress-Up Darling, 2022

Gojo Wakana is lonely, but he has a big dream: to become a master of Japanese dolls. One day, Marin Kitagawa, the school's beauty who secretly enjoys cosplay, finds out about his hobby.

She asks him to help her create cosplay outfits, and in the process, they grow closer and find themselves wanting to spend more time together.

5. Horimiya, 2021

Everyone at school knows that Kyouko Hori is very responsible, but they have no idea that she literally supports her entire household.

By chance, she starts talking to Izumi Miyamura. At school, he seems very decent, but outside of school, he is covered in tattoos and piercings. He is a sweetheart inside and out, which is exactly why they will start a romance.

This light and cheerful title shows that stereotypes about appearance have nothing to do with character.

The first half of 2025 was not the best for the anime industry. There were few major premieres, and some anticipated titles turned out to be disappointing. However, the summer promises to turn things around.

1. Gachiakuta

Release Date: July, 2025

One of the most highly anticipated premieres of the summer season is the anime Gachiakuta, an adaptation of a manga combining post-apocalyptic, punk, and social drama elements.

The main character, Rudo, has lived with the stigma of being the son of a murderer since childhood. However, he is eventually accused of killing his own father.

In a world where undesirable members of society are thrown into a literal garbage abyss, Rudo falls from a flying island onto a fetid landfill that turns out to be the center of real life.

2. Busamen Gachi Fighter

Release Date: July 6, 2025

As is tradition, the summer anime season of 2025 will feature a major isekai release: an anime titled Busamen Gachi Fighter.

The story centers on a 34-year-old man who is reincarnated in another world with such a repulsive appearance that everyone avoids him.

Any touch from a woman causes him physical pain. However, fate also endows him with the powers of an absolute deity, turning him into a powerful but deeply suffering character.

3. The Summer Hikaru Died

Release Date: July, 2025

One of the most intriguing premieres is an anime about Yoshiki and Hikaru, two young men who grew up together in the same village. Everything changes when Yoshiki begins to suspect that his friend has been replaced by something else.

Despite this, he decides to remain close to Hikaru as increasingly strange and disturbing events begin to occur in the village.

4. The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity

Release Date: July, 2025

The romance genre remains one of the most popular in the anime industry. However, truly high-quality projects in this category are rare.

One of the most highly anticipated premieres in this genre in the summer of 2025 is The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity.

The plot follows Kaoruko, a student at an elite girls' school, and Rintaro, a student at a neighboring institution with a completely different lifestyle. Their worlds should never intersect, but fate decrees otherwise.

5. City the Animation

Release Date: July, 2025

Among the comedic novelties of the summer season, City the Animation attracts special attention. The plot centers on Midori, a student who moves to a city where common sense ceases to be the norm and everyday life turns into continuous chaos.

City is a rare example of minimalist comedy in which the simplicity of the design is an artistic choice, not a consequence of economy.

The series relies on visual humor and animation experiments, making each episode an unpredictable performance.

In Satoshi Kon's anime, surrealism collides with real-life issues such as loneliness amidst a crowd and the impact of technology.

By blending dreams, illusions, and psychology, Kon's works often convey poignant narratives about women. His heroines face bullying, stalking, and self-loathing.

1. Millennium Actress (2001) – Chiyoko Fujiwara

Chiyoko Fujiwara was an outstanding actress. One day, her producer and chronicler visited her high-altitude villa while working on the history of her life and career. He brought with him a small, old key that unlocked the secrets of her past.

In her old age, she left the industry and locked herself away, but many fans still remember her bright roles. One such fan is director Genya Tachibana, who is making a documentary about the actress.

Chiyoko happily tells Tachibana the story of her life, intertwining real events with those experienced by her on-screen heroines.

2. Tokyo Godfathers (2003) – Miyuki

In this anime, Satoshi Kon tells the story of lost souls who have a chance at redemption and highlights the themes of growing up and parent-child relationships.

Miyuki, the youngest of the main characters, is the only one expected home. The teenage girl ran away after fighting with her father after her cat disappeared. Miyuki thought her father stole the pet out of jealousy.

Her escape is not an attempt to hide from her old life and start over, but rather a protest and a challenge to herself.

3. Perfect Blue (1997) – Mima

The young singer Mima feels stuck with her good-girl image. She found success as a member of a J-pop girl group, but she grew tired of the short dresses and simple songs. She decided to leave the group to try her hand at acting.

Mima accidentally discovers Mima's Room, an online page run in her name. When the author of Mima's Room shares an exact list of her purchases at the store and describes her room, she becomes truly scared. It seems that someone is watching her.

Mima faces the dark side of the industry: colleagues' and friends' envy, cyberbullying, and mental health issues. Throughout the movie, she fights for the right to make her own decisions and manage her own life.

4. Paprika (2006) – Chiba Atsuko

Brilliant scientists created the DC Mini to cure patients' mental disorders. This gadget allows you to invade other people's dreams or watch them.

Chiba secretly uses the DC Mini during sessions to interact with patients more effectively. She introduces her alter ego, Paprika, into their dreams to do this. One day, however, an unknown person steals three DC Mini devices and uses them to drive people crazy with one obsessive nightmare.

Now, Chiba must not only find the perpetrator and save the innocent but also understand the difference between herself and Paprika.

The second season of the action anime Shangri-La Frontier has ended. It tells the story of gamers traveling in a fantasy MMORPG world and fighting magical monsters.

The show received a 7.5 out of 10 score from IMDb users. Now, let's take a look at what happened in the finale of the second season of Shangri-La Frontier and what we can expect from the upcoming third season.

What Happened in Shangri-La Frontier Season 2 Finale?

In the final episodes of Season 2, the characters embark on a special mission to find the Ctarnidd of the Abyss. They board a ship, fight sea monsters, and fall straight into the Abyss. They end up in the capital of the Abyss, an upside-down city.

They have seven days to complete the quest, so there is no need to rush. Sunraku already has plans with Pensilgon and Kei in real life.

Kei invited them to an eSports championship where they could compete against professional players. There is still time before the tournament, which the characters are spending on joint training in a new VR game.

Sunraku has become so attached to Shangri-La that he visits the upside-down city in his free time. There, he has another adventure and fights a huge sea monster. With his skills, the help of a local NPC, and a tower that reflects attacks, Sunraku defeats the monster.

Season 2 Ends with an Important Tournament

The time has come for the eSports championship against the best team from the US. Sunraku and Pensilgon decide to hide their faces. Kei, who invited them to join the team, cannot attend the tournament because he is competing in another championship.

There is no time to find a replacement, but the characters find a way out of the situation. If they extend the length of each match, Kei will be able to participate in the final battle.

The players from both teams enter the arena, concluding the second season of the anime.

Shangri-La Frontier Season 3 Release Date

Following the release of the final episode of the second season the creators announced they are working on Season 3. The exact release date is still unknown.

The first two seasons were released a year apart. Since the C2C studio did not delay the announcement, the third season will likely be released soon. It is reasonable to assume that new episodes will begin releasing in fall 2025 or early 2026.

What Will Season 3 Be About?

Sunraku and his friends must compete against the best team from the US in the eSports championship. The events of this arc could be included in the first half of the next season.

Then, the main character will return to complete a special task in the upside-down city. This arc is too big, so it may not be fully adapted or may be significantly shortened in the third season.

We often notice anime that most people watch without considering the possibility of missing out on a really interesting work that wasn't lucky enough to catch the wave of popularity.

1. From the New World, 2012-2013

Distant future, the perfect town of Kamisu 66. The ecological situation is good and technology is practically nonexistent. The masters perform all the heavy physical work using telekinesis.

Additionally, a mysterious power enables the masters to protect the townspeople from threats. It is believed that supernatural abilities can be awakened through special rituals.

These rituals must be performed when the future master turns 12. Saki Watanabe and her friends are approaching this age, and they have questions about the structure of their hometown.

2. Sonny Boy, 2021

In the middle of summer break, 36 high school seniors find themselves back at school. They have a more serious problem than just being reluctant to return to school early: they find themselves in another dimension, drifting in cosmic darkness.

Their only refuge is the school building. In this new world, the students acquire supernatural abilities. Perhaps these powers will help them return home, but first, they must adapt to their new surroundings.

3. Akudama Drive, 2020

A long civil war in Japan divided the country into two camps, Kyoto and Kansai. The war ended in favor of Kyoto. As a result, Kansai becomes a colony within which order reigns beyond the control of the authorities.

It is filled with people who disagree with the new government's regime. These people are considered the main criminals and are called Akudama. The akudama wander around Osaka, and one day, they get lucky. At the request of an anonymous person, they must free a murderer before his execution.

The Akudama enthusiastically take on the task. Meanwhile, the akudama's actions make it clear to the customer that the newly formed mercenary squad is ready to do whatever he asks.

4. Hiiro no Kakera, 2012

Seventeen-year-old Tamaki has lived in Tokyo her whole life, so the idea of moving to a remote village to live with her grandmother does not please her at all. However, she doesn't have time to get bored in the village. Upon arrival, Tamaki encounters evil spirits in the forest.

A local boy named Takuma saves her from certain death. After learning what happened, Tamaki's grandmother tells her that she is the hereditary keeper of a magic sword designed to destroy demons.

After her grandmother dies, Tamaki must take on this mission herself because she is the next Tamayori Princess.

Can you live a new life without forgetting your past? The question is controversial, but in anime, anything is possible.

If you're looking for something with a similar plot, check out a list of five titles where the characters manage to reincarnate and try to choose a different path to avoid repeating the mistakes of their previous incarnation.

1. The Founder of Diabolism, 2018-2021

The Chinese donghua tells the story of Wei Wuxian, a master of the devil cult who died tragically in battle.

But not for long. Thirteen years later, a young sorcerer summons the legendary master, offering his body to seek revenge. Now, the founder of the dark path has the chance to see his loved ones and correct his past mistakes.

2. Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion, 2023

Rinko has the misfortune to be reincarnated in the body of Raeliana, a minor character who is destined to die at the hands of her own fiancé.

Luckily, the girl is already aware of fate's plans for her life, so now Raeliana's main goal is to break off the engagement, avoid death, and become happy at all costs.

3. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, 2018-...

White-collar worker Satoru dies while protecting a colleague in an alley. As a result, he does not die, but is reborn in another world – a magical one.

However, he is no longer a man, but rather a slime named Rimuru. This universe is home to many unusual races, and Rimuru's mission is to help achieve equality for all and, of course, have fun.

4. Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, 2021-...

The main character himself rushes to his death, trying to protect the teenagers. In the end, the man does not die, but wakes up in a fantasy world under the name of Rudeus.

He remembers his earthly life and now tries to do everything to at least live here with dignity. Fortunately, magic and knightly duels awaken in him the desire to start from scratch, and the otaku's soul rejoices as never before.

5. Oshi No Ko, 2023-...

Ai Hoshino is a young singer who has already become very popular. She becomes unexpectedly pregnant. She gave birth to twins, Aquamarine and Ruby, who became stars.

There's just one secret: they both remember their past lives. Aquamarine has the soul of the obstetrician who treated Ai during her pregnancy, and Ruby has the consciousness of the doctor's sick patient.

The biggest anime premieres are typically saved for spring, but 2025 was a bit different. Most of the highly anticipated titles will be released in the second half of the year.

Consequently, when evaluating the spring-summer season's results, it's easy to overlook projects that turned out to be impressive.

1. Medalist, 2025

This is the story of Inori, a girl who dreams of becoming a figure skater but started skating too late. A parallel storyline follows 26-year-old Tsukasa, who also became interested in figure skating too late to find a coach.

This is an amazing duo of a workaholic who dreams of helping talents blossom and a shy girl who has never experienced victory in anything she has done.

2. Kowloon Generic Romance, 2025

In an unusual city, a romance develops between Reiko and Hajime. This is a story in which the characters' personal secrets hide a layer of mysticism. This title is for those tired of teenage embarrassment, school classrooms, and sudden stutters.

With an impressive palette, detailed backgrounds, successful angles, and a narrative aimed at an adult audience, Arvo Animation Studio declares its ambitions for the first time.

3. Shoshimin: How to Become Ordinary Season 2, 2024-...

This is the story of Jogoro and Yuki, two children who set an unusual goal for themselves: to become invisible. Those who watched the first season know how difficult that is for characters like them.

The first season started slowly, but ended with an unexpected plot revelation that tied together seemingly unrelated events. The second season starts right away with a big mystery.

4. The Apothecary Diaries Season 2, 2023-...

Having finally settled into the imperial palace courtyard, Maomao continues to solve mysteries and get into trouble despite her sincere desire to avoid both.

Clouds of conspiracy gather over the imperial family, drawing the main character into new acquaintances and old intrigues. Ghosts of the past reappear, and the web of mysticism tightens its grip.

The level of danger increases, but as usual in The Apothecary Diaries, it is balanced by light and everyday episodes.

5. Solo Leveling Season 2, 2024-...

The story of a man who relies only on his willpower to descend into a world of monsters and deadly traps, overcome trials, and become stronger can already be called one of the most popular stories of this decade.

In terms of viewer engagement, Solo Leveling surpassed Frieren: Beyond Journey's End and broke all viewing records on Crunchyroll.

The new season delves deeper into the main character's inner world, and the manhwa adaptation features more diverse and spectacular animation.

Anime can be many things: meditative and intense, funny and sad, cute and cruel. But here are only five of the best anime titles in history.

1. Attack on Titan, 2013-2023

Attack on Titan became an instant classic when it first aired in 2013.

Three friends – Eren, Mikasa, and Armin – fight alongside the greatest warriors against giant Titan creatures that have lived outside the city's high walls for a long time. Humanity is fighting to defend its right to exist in this world.

Starting out as a typical shonen anime, this series has evolved into an amazing work of art touching on themes of war, class inequality, and other important social and political issues.

2. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, 2009-2010

In an attempt to resurrect their dead mother, brothers Alphonse and Edward practice forbidden alchemy, but the experiment costs Alphonse his physical body, condemning him to a ghostly existence.

Despite fate's obstacles, the brothers continue their search for a way to return Alphonse's body. Their desire to resurrect their mother propels them on a winding journey through a world of monsters, government conspiracies, and divine design.

3. One Piece, 1999-...

Over 20 years later, One Piece continues to entertain viewers worldwide with more than 1,000 episodes. It's hard for any anime to keep new and old fans engaged for as long as the pirate journey has lasted.

One Piece does just that, thanks to Eiichiro Oda's amazing mind. Its world-building, deep characters, hilarious adventures, and amazing visuals, which sometimes surpass the manga, elevate this series to the top of shonen anime history.

Oda's vision has made a strong impact on viewers over the years, and there's no sign of it slowing down anytime soon.

4. Monster, 2004-2005

This dark thriller tells the story of Kenjo Tenma, a good man and neurosurgeon who loses everything. In the past, Tenma saved a boy who grows up to become a serial killer.

The plot is an intense story of transformation and descent into the abyss of guilt. The main character must undergo a transformation and take a difficult path to correct his mistake.

5. Neon Genesis Evangelion, 1995-1996

After watching Evangelion, viewers find themselves desperately trying to understand the ending, which is still being deciphered 20 years after the anime's release.

The mythology behind Hideaki Anno's groundbreaking anime has become as much a part of its story as the anime itself. The final two episodes continue to cause controversy and spark debate.

Evangelion has stood the test of time by offering a philosophical take on the mecha anime genre and an incredibly personal exploration of depression and the unconscious.

In anime, you may come across the term hikikomori. It refers to people who have difficulty communicating, avoid others, and sometimes even lock themselves in their homes.

This list of anime series features characters who try to overcome their fears to socialize and find friends.

1. Bocchi the Rock!, 2022

Can a hobby change a person's life? Hitori Goto is afraid to look people in the eye and spends her days alone in her closet.

Since childhood, she has dreamed of making friends with whom she can have fun and perform on stage. She has played the guitar for three years, yet she has neither formed her own band nor achieved fame. Hitori's only friend is her guitar, and instead of a stage, she has her bedroom.

But miracles do happen. Suddenly, a girl comes up to Hitori and asks her to play in a band.

2. Komi Can't Communicate, 2021-2022

Komi doesn't play games or watch anime, she doesn't sit at home all the time. However, she has a hard time interacting with people. Socializing, talking to friends, and exchanging morning greetings are not her strong suits.

She freezes when someone talks to her, trembles with fear, and can't think of anything to say. Still, she looks incredibly cool. Her classmate, Hitohito Tadano, notices Komi's hidden worries and offers to help her make friends.

Komi thinks that the people around her hate her. Every day, she tries to talk to someone, but her voice fails her. But now she has one friend: Tadano. He will help her find more friends and teach her to communicate.

3. Welcome to the N.H.K., 2006

Tatsuhiro Sato doesn't work or study, and he doesn't communicate with anyone. He's afraid to leave his house. He imagines a mysterious conspiracy in which someone is deliberately forcing him and thousands of others to become hikikomori.

He believes that the N.H.K. organization is responsible for all this. But how can he fight it? How can he stop being a recluse?

Tatsuhiro accidentally meets a mysterious girl. She invites him to participate in a special project whose goal is to cure hikikomori and help them socialize.

4. Handa-kun, 2016

Handa is the son of a renowned calligrapher. The young man is also known for his talent in this art form. Although Handa is creative, he is terrible at communicating with people and understanding their feelings and emotions.

He mistakes fan letters for death threats and sees only anger and malice in the admiring glances of his classmates. Handa believes that everyone around him hates him, but he couldn't be more wrong.

He has already become a local celebrity and an object of universal adoration. But Handa himself does not know this. His classmates do not give up trying to befriend him.

Dandadan surprised viewers with eccentric and absurd scenes, charismatic characters, as well as unusual ghosts and aliens.

If you don't know what to watch after this bright shonen, we present a list of interesting anime titles that are similar in mood and concept to Dandadan.

1. Mieruko-chan, 2021

A high school girl named Miko Yotsuya suddenly gains the ability to see ghosts, spirits, and other undead creatures. And that's only half the problem. The main problem is that she shouldn't show these otherworldly creatures that she can see them.

Miko tries her best to pretend that she doesn't notice anything or anyone. But it's not so easy to live the life of a normal high school girl when ghosts are appearing all around you.

2. Space Dandy, 2014

An alien hunter named Dandy travels the universe in his spaceship, accompanied by an old robot and an alien cat. They search for unknown life forms, rare aliens and other unusual creatures to send to the Space Registration Center for a reward.

Space Dandy is a kind of parody of many space adventure anime, poking fun at the genre's most popular tropes.

3. Kill la Kill, 2013-2014

Ryuko Matoi enrolls in the Honnouji Academy to find her father's killer. Armed with half a pair of giant scissors and wearing a school uniform made of magical threads, she breaks into the academy.

But this is no ordinary school. A student's status is determined by their uniform, which gives them enormous powers. All this is run by the president of the student council, Satsuki Kiryuin, who Ryuko believes was involved in her father's death.

Kill la Kill is a confrontation between two schoolgirls, battles with club leaders, a fight for survival and the complete absurdity of what is happening.

4. Mob Psycho 100, 2016-2022

Shigeo, nicknamed Mob, is a very powerful psychic: he can lift objects with his mind, bend spoons, and so on. But Mob himself is not very happy about it.

Not only do his powers have to be constantly controlled, but they also cause problems on a regular basis. Mob cannot show emotions, because then his destructive power could break out and destroy the world.

The boy is helped by his mentor Arataka Reigen – a self-proclaimed clairvoyant without any special powers, who is more trouble than real help.

5. Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, 2023

A young and ambitious guy, Akira, has found the company of his dreams. Or so he thought, until he started working there. Who knew that employees don't have a minute to rest.

Three years have passed and Akira literally lives in the office. But one day, the man realizes that he doesn't need to go to work, because the city has been taken over by hordes of zombies.

It turns out that the zombie world is much freer than the human world, and now Akira is determined to fulfill a hundred of his wishes that he never had time to think about before.

2024 has given the anime community not only major premieres, but also a number of hidden gems. Despite their bold artistic decisions and narrative depth, these projects risk remaining in the shadow of the mainstream.

1. Girls Band Cry, 2024

Nina Iseri is a school dropout and runaway who arrives in Tokyo. To her surprise, she is not greeted warmly but with the cold indifference of the big city.

After finding herself on the street at night, the confused girl crosses paths with Momoka Kawaragi, a former member of her favorite band, Diamond Dust.

This encounter makes Nina rethink her life and exposes her emotional wounds. She is faced with a painful choice: a safe academic life or a risky career in music. Although there is no answer yet, deep in her heart, the sound of real rock is already resonating.

2. Monogatari Series: Off & Monster Season, 2024

The story begins with an unusual encounter. When high school student Koyomi Araragi's classmate, Hitagi Senjogahara, falls onto him, he is surprised to find that she is practically weightless.

Their acquaintance continues in a peculiar manner – the girl hits him on the head with a stapler. Afterward, she reveals a terrible truth, which draws Araragi into a series of supernatural events. The first event is an attempt to help Hitagi find a specialist in such anomalies.

3. Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night, 2024

Set in the bustling Shibuya district, the series follows four talented girls – an illustrator, an idol, a composer, and a VTuber – who come together to form the band JELEE.

The band's unique professions and vibrant personalities form the basis of a plot that combines creativity, modern trends, and inspiring moments.

The project stands out for its fresh approach to exploring the lives of idols, musicians, and content creators in relation to current issues.

4. Shoshimin: How to Become Ordinary, 2024-...

Following an unpleasant incident at their graduation, high school students Jogoro Kobato and Yuki Osanai made a promise to themselves.

They planned to spend their senior year quietly and unnoticed, becoming model students who avoided any trouble. However, their plans are ruined when the school's secrets and strange occurrences begin to haunt them.

Kobato tries his best to stay out of the spotlight, but his keen observational skills constantly draw him into detective stories. Meanwhile, Osanai's reserved facade clearly hides more than just a desire for a quiet life.

Are you tired of Naruto and Attack on Titan? The world of anime is full of exciting stories that have flown under the radar of the viewers.

1. Odd Taxi, 2021

A phlegmatic walrus drove a taxi and chatted with customers. One day, the daughter of a Yakuza leader hid in his house. A hired killer and the police came for the taxi driver, but he did not lose heart or abandon his favorite job. Thus, the walrus became involved in several more stories.

Oddl Taxi does not look like a typical anime. Relying on witty dialogue in the spirit of Quentin Tarantino's films, it is reminiscent of BoJack Horseman.

2. The Fable, 2024

The legendary killer Fable and his partner exceeded their plan and attracted unnecessary attention. At the boss's orders, the mercenaries assumed the identities of a brother and sister and were sent on a forced vacation to Osaka for a year. The main condition is not to kill anyone.

The Fable is the main hidden gem of 2024. The series portrays an invincible killer who adapts to ordinary life and escapes difficult situations without causing any casualties.

3. Link Click, 2021-...

Employees of the Time photo studio traveled through clients' photos and fulfilled their requests, such as finding a password or recipe.

Lu Guang directed their actions and Cheng Xiaoshi penetrated the photographers' souls, controlling them on missions no longer than 12 hours. Any mistake could alter the future.

This touching series is reminiscent of Inception, but leans closer to fantasy due to the main characters' supernatural abilities. The series captivates with its easy narrative and the friendly chemistry between Lu and Cheng.

4. Kingdom, 2012

The orphans Xin and Piao played with wooden swords and dreamed of becoming great Chinese generals. One day, a minister passed through their village.

He noticed the resemblance between Piao and the young emperor and invited the boy to the palace to serve as his double. During a riot Piao died. Xin promised to avenge his friend and fulfill their dream.

The adaptation of the popular manga had a weak start due to the questionable 3D effects, and it almost ended after two seasons. However, it made a great comeback in 2020. Kingdom is a combat shonen with battle strategies and conversations on complex topics.

5. The Tatami Galaxy, 2010

After two years at university, the unnamed main character was disappointed with student life. He unsuccessfully joined the tennis club, befriended the rude boy Ozu, and never mustered the courage to confess his feelings to Akashi.

At a noodle shop, he met the god of marriage and decided to fix his situation. However, he failed and ended up in a time loop.

In The Tatami Galaxy, the challenges of growing up are explored. The main character is fixated on his dreams but does not dare make a choice, instead blaming others.

Cyberpunk and Japan have always been closely linked. The genre's aesthetics were largely inspired by Asia's neon signs and megacorporations.

Anime has many cyberpunk plots to suit every taste, from classic stories about betrayal and corporate ethics to wild creations in which technology fades into the background.

1. No Guns Life, 2019-2020

During another war, people began upgrading their bodies, turning themselves into deadly weapons. In the case of Juzo Inui, this was quite literal; he has a giant gun instead of a head.

Although the bloodshed ended, the fashion for cyber modifications did not, and their owners tried to adapt to peaceful life. Inui became a "resolver," using his pistol to solve the problems of a metropolis filled with cyber-modernized people.

This tough loner will face off against fighters with new deadly devices, corporate conspiracies, and a young man named Tetsuro who can control people like Inui remotely.

2. Yurei Deco, 2022

In the not-so-distant future, humanity lives in a smart metropolis on an island. The defining feature of this new era is a device called a "deco," which allows you to experience a world full of virtual wealth.

You can change the appearance and "themes" of the city by earning "love," through taking successful selfies or doing boring regular work. Digital harmony is disturbed only by the mysterious Phantom Zero, who appears out of nowhere to steal citizens' accumulated "love."

Berry's malfunctioning deco leads her to track down the mysterious entity. First, she meets Hack, who prefers to live outside of algorithms. Then, she introduces Berry to a whole team of detectives struggling to catch Zero.

3. Battle Angel, 1993

The megalopolis of Zalem hovers high in the sky, literally raining waste on the residents of the post-apocalyptic city of Scrap Iron below.

One day, local cyberdoctor Ido finds a gynoid wreckage in a landfill. He fixes it and names it Gally. Gally does not remember anything about her past life, but she quickly adapts to a world where everyone has mechanical prostheses. Meanwhile, a real hunt is underway for human spines and brains.

However, nothing scares Gally, and one of the skirmishes reveals that she is a perfect killing machine.

4. The Animatrix, 2003

AI gained freedom and started a war with humanity. The Earth became a territory of eternal twilight where most people serve as batteries for the latest cyber devices and rebels hide in fortified underground cities.

On this timeline, there are stories about the duel of pragmatism and faith, the willingness to surrender, and the desire for freedom. There are noir detective stories about the pursuit of Trinity and a school hacker, as well as a story about a house where a glitch in the matrix led to a distortion of gravity.

The creators of The Matrix decided to build on the success of the franchise while paying tribute to the industry that inspired them. They made the anthology Animatrix, in which each episode tells its own story.

There are many reasons we love anime: the bright colors, the charming characters, and the incredible emotions. This time, we have collected the perfect full-length anime series to make you cry.

1. Ride Your Wave, 2019

Hinako moves to a coastal town to attend college and pursue her favorite hobby, surfing. There, she meets a young firefighter named Minato. They develop strong, sincere feelings for each other. Minato shows Hinako around town, and she teaches him how to surf.

Their happiness does not last long, however, as Minato dies saving a drowning man during a storm. Hinako is left alone in a world without love. Soon, however, something strange happens: Hinako begins to see Minato in the water.

This is not so much a love story as it is a story about accepting the inevitable and letting go of what is dearest to the heart. How does one live if their beloved has died? Can you cope with such a loss?

2. Weathering with You, 2019

Hodaka Morishima, a teenager, runs away to Tokyo without money, documents, or a place to stay. Fortunately, he finds a temporary home and a job writing for tabloids.

Since the boy arrived in the capital, it has been raining nonstop. One day, he meets Hina Amano, a young shaman who can summon the sun.

Together, they start a small business offering good weather on demand. Then, the police begin to take an interest in Hodaka. The tender relationship between the two main characters, their joint adventures, and their dramatic parting will not leave anyone indifferent.

3. Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms, 2018

Maquia is a girl from the immortal Iorph tribe. This dying, isolated tribe was engaged in producing special ribbons of life. However, due to the war between the kingdoms, Maquia's home was destroyed and her friends were killed or captured.

Desperate, Maquia unexpectedly took in an abandoned baby. Little Ariel became her new purpose. But can an immortal be a mother to someone whose life will be shorter?

This is a story about deep, unconditional, and all-encompassing maternal love, as well as human greed and its consequences.

4. A Silent Voice: The Movie, 2016

The main character, Shoya Ishida, bullies his new classmate, Nishimiya, because she is deaf. As a result, she is forced to transfer to another school. However, as often happens, the aggressor himself becomes a victim of bullying.

Ultimately, Ishida is blamed for the abuse. His classmates ostracize him, and he withdraws into himself, contemplating suicide. Before doing so, however, he wants to atone for his actions with Nishimiya. Their meeting changes both of their lives.

You will feel sorry not only for Nishimiya, who is deaf and must somehow live and socialize in a world inaccessible to her, but for everyone. This includes Ishida, who initially seems like a terrible child.

The third season of Fire Force is currently streaming on Crunchyroll, and it is one of the best anime of the spring season. We'll tell you what makes the series interesting and what lies beneath the shell of a typical shonen anime.

What Is Fire Force About?

Two centuries ago, a large-scale fire, the Great Cataclysm, fell on Earth. Civilization was saved by a man who found an untainted flame. With its help, people created Amaterasu, a thermal power plant on which the Tokyo Empire is based.

However, a new problem has emerged: spontaneous combustion transforms random individuals into infernals, or fire monsters.

The main character is Shinra Kusakabe, a rookie in the Special Fire Force Company 8 who can generate fire from his legs. Kusakabe lost his family in childhood.

His mother and brother burned to death in a fire, and society blamed him for it. During his first days of service, Shinra is approached by a mysterious man who gives him a clue about the circumstances surrounding a fire that occurred twelve years ago.

Fire Force Is Not Your Typical Shonen Title

At first glance, Fire Force is a typical shonen anime. The protagonist dreams of becoming a hero and is on a team of outsiders who fight an incredible threat. However, the series becomes much more interesting when you delve into the context.

Each of the eight special forces occupies its own niche in the state system and is unique. The First brigade is subordinate to the local church; the Second, to the Tokyo army; and the Eighth, although assigned to the church, is, in reality, a team of rebels who remain unbiased.

Fire Force Will Hook You With Its Gripping Detective Mystery

A cleverly twisted detective plot plays an important role in the series. The Tokyo Empire system is based on the power of three organizations: the church, the monopoly corporation, and the army – that is, faith, money, and force.

If even one of these pillars is broken, chaos will ensue, and each agency definitely has something to hide. The characters gradually pull on many strings, and with each arc, they get closer to a mystery rooted in the distant past.

Spontaneous combustion, the Great Cataclysm, Amaterasu, and fire abilities – what if all these things are connected? Following the investigation is extremely exciting.

Season 3 Is Even Better Than the Previous Two

So far, half of the episodes from the third season have been released. The five-year hiatus has clearly benefited the series – the animation quality has improved significantly.

Fire Force now combines 2D and 3D animation styles even more skillfully, giving the picture necessary dynamics during and outside of battle scenes.

So now is the perfect time to start watching Fire Force.

The first films about undead creatures that drink blood and are afraid of sunlight appeared as early as 100 years ago. Since then, vampires have continued to appear on screens.

Everyone knows the legendary vampire Dracula, but his image and the stories about other vampires have changed many times over the years.

1. Blood Lad, 2013

Hell is an unpleasant place, even for its inhabitants. Demon gangs rule there, and clashes between rival groups are common on the streets. Staz is the powerful leader of one of these organized crime groups.

He has long lost interest in politics and loves artifacts from the world of the living, especially games and anime. One day, an ordinary schoolgirl named Fuyumi appears in Hell and immediately attracts Staz's attention.

However, Hell is a dangerous place, and the girl quickly loses her life and turns into a ghost. Staz decides to help her get her body back and learn more about the world above at the same time.

2. Delico's Nursery, 2024

Four Victorian aristocrats must balance important government work with raising orphans. The plot of the story is based on a detective story involving vampires.

Vampire murders are occurring all over the country, and all the evidence points to the progenitor of the bloodsuckers himself. The heir to the ancient Delico family and his friends must unravel an anti-vampire conspiracy.

3. Irina: The Vampire Cosmonaut, 2021

The story takes place in an alternate era after World War II. The world is divided between two superpowers: the Union of Zirnitra Socialist Republics and the United Kingdom of Arnack.

Both countries are involved in a fierce space race. After successfully launching a dog into space, the scientists decide to send a vampire into Earth's orbit next.

The anime's main characters are the misanthropic vampire Irina and the dreamy astronaut Lev Leps. Irina hates people because they treat her like an evil spirit and dreams of escaping to the moon. Lev has dreamed of space travel since childhood and hopes to visit it someday.

4. Hellsing, 2001-2002

After encountering Dracula, Van Helsing established the Hellsing anti-vampire organization. Founded over a hundred years ago, it is now run by Lady Integra Hellsing. Dracula, who changed his name to Alucard, serves her loyally and helps her fight dark forces.

The characters learn of the Millennium Group's existence. Along with police officer Victoria Seras and the family's elderly butler, Walter, Alucard and Integra must engage in a bloody war on the streets of London.

5. Shiki, 2010-2011

A series of monstrous deaths shakes the picturesque mountain village of Sotoba. Local doctor Toshio Ozaki tries to find the cause of the epidemic and is assisted by Natsuno Yuuki, a schoolboy who recently moved to the area. They soon realize that a virus is not killing people; rather, creatures living in an old aristocratic house on a hill are responsible.

Shiki is a horror title with classic, unfriendly, bloodthirsty vampires and murders. It starts calmly and accelerates slowly, but by the end, it turns into a bloody slasher.

Many fans of Japanese culture know that anime plots can be so absurd that they lose their meaning entirely. But it's not just the stories that can be strange; the titles can be too. We discussed such titles and explained what they are really about.

1. Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks?, 2019-2020

The plot revolves around a government project aimed at improving relationships between children and their parents. The latest technology allows users to place relatives in a computer game. This is what happens to teenager Masato Oosuki and his mother, Mamako Oosuki.

They become beta testers. The only way to escape the fantasy world is to complete the main mission: finding a common language.

2. Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon, 2023

The poor young Boxxo was crushed to death by a vending machine and was reborn in a fantasy world. However, he is not reborn in a human body, but rather in the form of the vending machine that killed him.

Although he can no longer speak, Boxxo proves to be very useful in the dungeon because he possesses many skills.

3. I Want to Eat Your Pancreas, 2018

Though the title sounds like a horror synopsis, the plot actually tells the tragic story of friendship. One day, Haruki Shiga, a high school student, finds a personal diary.

It turns out that it belongs to Sakura Yamauchi, a girl with a failing pancreas. After learning about her fatal illness, Haruki decides to get closer to Sakura, even though they are very different.

4. FLCL, 2000-2001

Naoto Nandaba is an unremarkable twelve-year-old boy. He doesn't enjoy his life as a teenager until he meets someone who turns his whole life upside down.

One day, Haruko Haruhara hits Naoto with a motorcycle and hits him over the head with a guitar. As a result, she gets a job as a maid in his house. From that moment on, inexplicable things began to happen in Naoto's life.

The name of the series, which is deciphered as Fooly Cooly, does not have a specific meaning. However, this combination of sounds is associated with many similar Japanese words.

5. Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, 2018

The story follows the adventures of an ordinary schoolboy and a beautiful actress. One day, Sakuta Azusagawa meets a girl in a rabbit costume in the library – Mai Sakurajima.

She explains that she dressed provocatively to attract attention. For some reason, no one around her can see her. Sakuta decides to uncover this secret and find out why people do not notice her.

As monsters become more terrifying and cunning, anime heroes must find more ways to defeat them. To do this, they must level up themselves, study viruses, confront various gods, and find new ways to survive.

1. Solo Leveling, 2024-...

An alternate universe where magic has seeped in, and with it, bloodthirsty monsters that even the military cannot defeat. For ten years, portals to the dungeon world have been appearing all over the world.

To prevent monsters from entering the human world, you must defeat the main boss. Only hunters with supernatural powers can do this. Hunters are divided into levels, with the E rank being the lowest level, and the strongest S rank allowing hunters to change the balance of power in the world.

Jin-woo cannot even deal with a weak monster because he has the lowest level. Everything changes when he goes with a team of hunters to a low level dungeon.

2. God Eater, 2015-2016

The plot of the anime takes place in the distant future, where humanity is fighting a deadly life form, the Oracle Cells, which consume everything in their path and take the form of giant monster gods.

They cannot be killed with conventional weapons, so humanity creates the organization Fenrir. Its fighters use divine mechanisms – living weapons created from Oracle Cells.

The main character, Lenka Utsugi, becomes the bearer of a new type of living weapon. After facing death and losing a friend, he hated monsters even more. This made him focus on revenge and the desire to save the dying human race.

3. Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, 2016

Japan is infected with a dangerous virus that turns humans into aggressive undead creatures – Kabane. Defeating them is not easy: you must pierce their heart, which is hidden behind a layer of iron.

Firearms and steam weapons are useless against the evil monsters, so people build fortress cities, between which you can only travel by locomotive.

Ikoma, a young mechanic, manages to test a weapon he has developed that can pierce a monster's iron heart. He uses it when the undead succeed in breaking into the city. The attempt is unsuccessful: he is bitten and becomes a hybrid of Kabane and human.

4. Kaiju No.8, 2024

Giant Kaiju have been terrorizing Japan for decades. To fight them and protect ordinary people, an elite squad was created, as well as a cleaning team that cleans the streets after killing the monsters.

Kafka is a 32-year-old cleaner who dreams of joining the ranks of the defenders. One day, Kafka learns from a colleague that the Defence Force has raised the age for joining, giving him a chance to show his strength. But his plans change when a Kaiju enters his body and turns him into a humanoid monster.

Now the protagonist must do the impossible: pass a difficult selection for the ranks of defenders and hide his new identity from everyone.

5. The Most Notorious "Talker" Runs the World's Greatest Clan, 2024

Noel is the genius grandson of the most famous and renowned hunter of monsters that invade the world from the Void. All thanks to the opening passages – gates that appear when the concentration of mana reaches a certain level.

Noel wants to continue his grandfather's work, but fate has other plans: while others become assassins, masters of negotiation or informants, he gets the weakest profession.

He is the Talker who can boost the skills of monster fighters. Noel decides to gather the strongest clan of the best fighters to glorify his name and gain the status of the best hunter.

We tell you about anime that deals with life in virtual reality in one way or another. You will see stories of victories and defeats and exciting adventures of heroes in virtual worlds where real life may be at stake.

1. Log Horizon, 2013-2021

The excellent scores of this anime are fully justified: the graphics, the soundtrack, the plot – everything is top notch. The story begins with thousands of players of the popular Japanese RPG getting stuck online.

What was a fantasy game world becomes reality for them – and quite a hard one. A team of three characters – Shiroe, Naotsugu and Akatsuki – set out to find out what happened.

Along the way, they will have to figure out how the rules of the game have changed, build a new life, and understand how to interact with the local NPCs.

2. Grimgar, Ashes and Illusions, 2016

A man named Haruhiro wakes up in an unknown cave. He and all the other people with him remember nothing about themselves except their names.

After they are taken out of the cave and brought to an unknown city, it turns out that they are now all characters in a world called Grimgar. In order to survive, they must become soldiers and fight the monsters that have flooded the area.

The virtual world of the anime is beautiful and original: the artists worked hard on the high detail of the backgrounds, the rendering of shadows and highlights.

3. Btooom!, 2012

Ryota Sakamoto is going through a hard time: he doesn't study, doesn't work, and spends endless hours of his life playing his favorite online game.

In the virtual world of the anime game, Ryota is completely different. He is one of the best players in Japan, a role model for thousands of gamers around the world. One day, his two lives – real and virtual – merge: after falling asleep, Ryota wakes up on an island with no memory of what happened to him.

There is only a bag of grenades nearby, just like in his favorite game, and his hand still hurts from the chip implanted in it to track his location.

4. No Game, No Life, 2014

Shiro and Sora are a brother and sister who lead a reclusive life, disappearing endlessly into online games. They perceive real life in much the same way: just a game with its own rules that they are forced to follow.

But one day they receive a link to a strange website where a stranger offers them a game of chess. The reward for Shiro and Sora is teleportation to the virtual world.

5. Overlord, 2015-2022

When the developers suddenly announce a complete shutdown of the servers of his favorite game, Momonga cannot accept it and decides to go out with dignity: he gathers his minions in a large guild hall and, sitting on his throne, begins to wait for the end.

But instead of dying with the last downed server, Momonga somehow stays in the game – only he is transported to another world and becomes a powerful wizard.

The NPCs around him begin to behave like humans, accepting the player who remains on the server as one of their own. To understand what has happened, Momonga has no choice but to conquer the world of Yggdrasil.

In 2023, the anime series Campfire Cooking in Another World With My Absurd Skill began airing – isekai by Mappa Studio. The project is based on the manga of the same name by Eguchi Ren.

An unconventional story about the adventures of Tsuyoshi Mukouda is ready to offer the viewer a refuge from all adversities.

1. An Unusual Premise

The everyday life of a man named Tsuyoshi Mukouda consisted of commuting to work in a Tokyo office and doing ordinary household chores. But one day, he was miraculously transported to a parallel world.

Mukouda accidentally caught a spell: the inhabitants of the kingdom of Reijseger need help – only a group of heroes scattered across different dimensions can help with the impending attack of the Demon King.

While the rest of the summoned heroes were honored to become truly powerful warriors, Mukouda was given the most unusual superpower – access to an online supermarket. He can buy food directly from real Japan.

2. Valuable Cooking Tips

The special feature of the adaptation is the successful use of popular genres on YouTube and television. The story of moving to another world is spiced with the concept of mukbang and cooking videos.

Most of the plot is taken up by the fascinating process of cooking. While cooking, Mukouda gives good culinary advice and comments on each of his actions.

The creators approached the aestheticization of food with all responsibility: the animated steaks, sandwiches and fruits look very appetizing.

3. Unconventional Main Character

Unlike the other summoned heroes, Mukouda did not seek fame from the start. Mukouda is not characterized by bravery and courage, he is more calculating in everyday life and wise with his resources.

There is no crazy heroism in him, which seems very natural. Thanks to the nature of the main character, the whole story becomes more lively and believable – why should a mature person change his attitudes in another world?

4. Calming Genre of Everyday Life

Unlike typical stories about moving to other worlds, the series is not based on dangerous and exciting adventures, but on the image of everyday life.

This isekai offers viewers the idea of everyday heroism as opposed to extreme feats. Comedy and light narration without any special events create an escapist effect rather than a thrilling one.

There is no evil or fear, there are no dangers as such, but there is peace and harmony. And all problems are solvable.

We have collected the best anime about love – you will find touching stories about self-acceptance, comedies about gods, and titles about second chances.

1. Horimiya, 2021

At school, Kyouko Hori doesn't tell anyone that all the household chores and caring for her younger brother fall entirely on her shoulders. She is constantly preoccupied with adult problems, and the happy life of a teenager passes her by.

Izumi Miyamura doesn't show his true face to his classmates either. In fact, he is not a quiet person, but a rebel with piercings and tattoos all over his body.

Fate decrees that these two learn about each other's extracurricular lives. Kyouko and Izumi share a secret, and they grow closer every day.

2. The Tatami Galaxy, 2010

A nameless student thinks that all hopes for a fun university life have been dashed. He blames it all on Ozu, a strange and even creepy scoundrel and lazy person he met at a tennis club.

Ozu destroyed all of the boy's dreams, made him public enemy number one in the sports department, and even stole the only girl with whom he could have had a relationship.

Everything seems hopeless until he meets a man in a ramen shop who calls himself a god. The stranger gives him a chance to start his freshman year over, choose a different club, and try to correct the mistakes of the past.

3. Maid Sama!, 2010-2011

Seika High School used to be an all-male school, and its students were the terror of the entire district. It recently became co-ed, and Misaki Ayuzawa, the first girl to become president of the student council, has taken on the task of fixing the boys' school. She is an excellent student and an athlete, although she has no luck in life.

Her father abandoned her, her mother and her sister, so to earn some extra money, Misaki gets a job as a maid in a cosplay cafe.

There she is noticed by Usui Takumi, the main heartthrob of the school. Misaki expects him to start blackmailing her, but Usui unexpectedly keeps a secret and becomes a regular at the cafe.

4. Science Fell in Love, So I Tried to Prove It, 2020-2022

Shinya Yukimura and Ayame Himuro are graduate students together. Both are used to proving everything in life with scientific methods: their lives consist of numbers, data and statistics.

When Himuro confesses her love to her partner, he wonders how to test it. Then they decide to conduct experiments on themselves, trying to understand what love is and how to express it in numbers.

There are not many good romances about adults or students, so this anime is a real find. It dissects the genre of anime romance, just as the main characters try to dissect love.

5. Kamisama Kiss, 2012-2016

Because her father is deeply in debt, Nanami is left homeless. With only a suitcase, she wanders the dark streets, not knowing what to do, and suddenly meets a stranger in a hat. This man offers the girl to take care of his house.

At the address she is given, Nanami finds neither a house nor an apartment, but an old abandoned temple full of ghosts. And it turns out that she is now a goddess, which the main guardian, the fox demon Tomoe, is not happy about at all. But Nanami diligently takes on her new divine duties.

The filmography of the great Japanese auteur Hayao Miyazaki is full of masterpieces and choosing the most important among them is almost impossible.

However, Ana de Armas managed to do it – the actress shared her four favorite movies with Letterboxd and among them was Miyazaki's gem, Princess Mononoke:

“I was in Madrid and they were doing a series of Miyazaki's films weekly. And I just went and watched Princess Mononoke on the big screen, which I hadn't seen before, and it's just – I was just crying the whole way. It's stunning. It's beautiful cinema.”

What Is Princess Mononoke About?

After killing a boar, the young prince Ashitaka fell under a deadly curse. An old witch told him that only he could change his fate. And so the brave warrior set out on a perilous journey.

He found himself in a mysterious land where humans, led by the evil Lady Eboshi, were fighting the inhabitants of the forest: ghosts, demons, and giant creatures Ashitaka had never seen before.

And with them was Princess Mononoke, mistress of the beasts and daughter of a wolf. Now the fate of all depends on one warrior – Prince Ashitaka.

Princess Mononoke Is Hayao Miyazaki Greatest Masterpiece

If you want to see only one Japanese movie in your life, watch Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke. It will tell you a lot about the Japanese national religion Shinto, about the Japanese philosophy of life, about the Japanese Middle Ages, about the Japanese worship of wolves.

It will offer you a gripping epic about the confrontation between people and forest spirits, it will refuse to portray one side as absolutely right, it will introduce you to the most charismatic characters, both people and animals. And it will amaze you with impeccable graphics and animation.

Before The Titanic Release, Princess Mononoke Was the Highest-Grossing Movie in Japan

It will offer you a gripping epic about the confrontation between humans and forest spirits, it will refuse to portray one side as absolutely right, and it will introduce you to the most charismatic characters, both human and animal. And it will amaze you with its impeccable graphics and animations.

One of Hayao Miyazaki's greatest masterpieces, Princess Mononoke was made in defiance of critics who accused the director of being inspired by Western plots and of straying from his national roots.

The story of Princess Mononoke takes place in 15th-century Japan, during the period of maximum feudal fragmentation. Prior to the release of Titanic in 1997, Miyazaki's film was the highest grossing film in Japanese box office history.

There is one thing that all fans love – Easter eggs. There are numerous hidden details in the anime, often referring not only to the past and other parts of Naruto, but also to other movies and pop culture elements.

1. Pakkun Key Ring

There are many Easter eggs in the original Naruto anime that went unnoticed until some fans were super observant. This Easter egg in particular was a reference to a future episode of the series.

In Naruto Episode 20, the main character is seen opening his door, and on his keychain is a key ring. Attached to the keychain is a figurine of Pakkun the dog. Although Pakkun won't appear in the series until much later, this was a good hint that he would be there at all.

2. Guren in the Crowd

Aside from the main characters known for their powerful abilities, there are many strong supporting characters in the anime and manga, and one of them was hidden in the crowd in Shippuden, specifically in episode 479.

Guren, a powerful ninja, can be seen in the crowd gathered to see Naruto. She and several supporting characters who appear are among the spectators.

However, Guren's hairstyle and outfit helped to catch the eye of some Easter egg hunters.

3. Haku in Naruto: Shippuden

There are many scenes in Shippuden where there are large crowds of people, and as always, there are a few characters hidden among them.

Luckily, some anime fans have excellent eyesight and have found another Easter egg that is hard to see. In episode 183, a large crowd gathers after the virus outbreak.

In the crowd, viewers can see a character that looks like Haku. The way the character is dressed and his hairstyle clearly indicate that he is present in this scene.

4. Madara's Attack

Electro is one of Spider-Man's oldest and most popular villains. When The Amazing Spider-Man 2 came out, the character got a lot more attention because of his new look.

The Japanese movie poster featuring Electro turned out to be an Easter egg in Naruto, as the creator of the anime series himself stated that Madara's lightning attack in the poster was based on Electro's abilities.

5. Another Uchiha Clan Member

After the massacre, Sasuke was believed to be the last of the Uchiha clan. Or was he? In Shippuden Episode 359, Sasuke is sitting near a fence. As Naruto looks at him, a small child runs between them.

The boy has the symbol of the Uchiha Clan on his back. Is this the child of a member of the clan who wasn't present at the massacre? This was never confirmed, but it's an interesting Easter egg.

Lazarus can rightfully be called one of the loudest premieres of the spring season. It is hard not to notice the anime, if only because several star names came together in the project: director Shinichiro Watanabe, Chad Stahelski and studio MAPPA.

It looks like a dream title. On the screen there is a powerful visual, but there is nothing behind it. Here's why the new project of the famous director did not live up to expectations.

What Is Lazarus About?

Lazarus takes the viewer into the near future. Several years before the beginning of the story, the famous scientist Skinner freed humanity from pain with the help of the universal drug Hapna.

But the drug turned out to be deadly, and its creator unexpectedly disappeared with the antidote. To find it, a secret organization assembles a special group – the Lazarus team, which includes people with a shady past.

They have 30 days to find Skinner and use the antidote, or humanity is doomed.

Lazarus Is Not About a Gripping Plot, but Impressive Battles

The title tries to realistically portray people's reactions to the news of the impending apocalypse, and the philosophical subtext, questions about immortality and the value of life, provide the basis for an eventful plot with adult reflections.

But it is clear from the five episodes that have been released that the writers are not too interested in developing the idea. The story is just an excuse to show beautiful visuals, while the plot is driven by clichés and stereotypes.

All Characters in Lazarus Are Flat And Faceless

The characters are never revealed. Their past and motivations are only hinted at, and the rare flashbacks do not provide enough information to empathize with them during shootouts or another unsuccessful attempt to catch a crazy genius.

Watanabe uses well-known archetypes: a sociopathic hacker, a femme fatale, a smart guy with a difficult fate, an unapproachable altruistic scientist, but he does not bring his own original vision to them.

Maybe that will change in the next eight episodes, but for now, Lazarus isn't about the story. It's stifled by fights for the sake of fights and the characters' desperate attempts to find some kind of clue.

Lazarus Is a Must-See Only if You Want to Watch a Bright Action Show

Lazarus is a title worth watching for the visuals and the action, as the imagery, pacing, and production are all top-notch.

But the style doesn't always convey the story and the idea doesn't convey the development. The anime doesn't try to play with a well thought out plot with multidimensional characters, but has fun with the usual detective and action genre patterns.

We are all used to watching anime knowing that it has a primary source in the form of manga. It also happens the other way around, you really like the manga and you want to see how it has been adapted.

But sometimes the anime is the original script and the manga is just an addition to it.

1. Neon Genesis Evangelion, 1995-1996

There is a popular myth that Evangelion is an adaptation of the manga of the same name because the manga was published eight months before the anime, but this is a misconception.

The idea of the anime series still belongs to the director of the anime, Hideaki Anno. According to him, the idea for Evangelion came up during a difficult period in his life, when Anno was being treated for a long depression.

In the anime, he reflected on his entire experience of depression and social isolation, and wanted to share it with people who had similar problems.

2. Serial Experiments Lain, 1998

Serial Experiments Lain can be described as a philosophical and psychological anime on a par with Evangelion. Although such labels as cyberpunk classic and philosophical melodrama cannot fully describe the power of this work.

The main character is a schoolgirl named Lain, who has always been very withdrawn and uncommunicative. One day she receives an email from a deceased friend, and then events begin to take on a dramatic character.

The manga was quite successful, some of its parts were included in an art book that was also published after the anime.

3. Puella Magi Madoka Magica, 2011

Puella Magi Madoka Magica is a destroyer of the canon of the magical girl genre. The story revolves around five little schoolgirls who live ordinary lives and suddenly become brave sorceresses who must fight evil witches in exchange for granting any wish. It seems that what can surprise the viewer?

A series of events occurs, and this cute story about magical girls turns into a real horror, where those who fully dedicate themselves to the fight against evil do not get what they deserve, and their sacrifices become in vain.

The manga, according to the readers, reveals the plot and the world of Madoka a little bit more. However, the world of the witches and the fight scenes in the anime turned out to be much better.

4. Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, 2011

The plot of Anohana is based on a tragic event. A group of six friends broke up over the death of their mutual friend Menma.

The leader of the group, Jinta, felt enormous guilt for what had happened, and the others went their separate ways: one entered an elite high school, one rushed to travel, and one tried to live an ordinary life.

Menma's ghost suddenly appeared among the friends, and no one but Jinta could see it. The anime has not only a manga, but also a novel, and all of them were well received by the fans.

5. Darling in the Franxx, 2018

Darling in the Franxx was highly anticipated, as the creators included industry giants A-1 Pictures and Trigger. The manga was created in parallel with the anime, and it has some differences, especially the ending.

This is a post-apocalyptic story, where humanity is on the verge of extinction due to strange creatures called klaxosaurs, which began to appear from the ground and attack all living things.

As strange as it may seem, only children can stop them. The main character just failed the exam to become the protector of the Earth, when their Plantation was unexpectedly attacked by a powerful klaxosaur.

Many viewers underestimate the short form. But in a few dozen minutes, or even less, you can say as much as in a big movie, but more intensely. Especially when it comes to the Japanese.

1. Harmonie, 2014

Shy high school student Akio loves music and anime, and has long had a crush on his classmate Juri. She seems to ignore him because she is friends with the cool kids and already has a boyfriend.

One day, Juri's phone rings, and Akio memorizes the melody, which he can easily play. This music becomes the key to Juri's inner world, as she has had the same dream since childhood, and Akio is the only one who can understand it.

2. Kick-Heart, 2013

A wrestler enters the ring to earn money to rebuild the monastery where he lives. During a double match, he falls in love with the popular wrestler Lady M and now dreams of a one-on-one match with her. He doesn't even suspect that his love is actually a nun from his convent.

A 12-minute work by cult animator Masaaki Yuasa, known for the films Devilman: Crybaby and Inu-oh. This is one of the first anime projects whose budget – just over $200 thousand – was raised through a crowdfunding platform.

3. Shelter, 2016

Seventeen-year-old Rin wakes up in a room and uses a tablet to draw scenes that then transform into a 3D environment. Suddenly, her wanderings through colorful landscapes are interrupted by disturbing memories of her father. It turns out that Rin is living in a simulation, and the Earth has been uninhabitable for seven years.

The six-minute video was created by A-1 Pictures in collaboration with musician and producer Porter Robinson. His energetic electro-house track also provides the soundtrack for the movie.

4. Pale Cocoon, 2005

Humans huddle in an underground colony, the last refuge of humanity. Ura of the Archives Department obsessively restores records of the lost world, especially images of the sky and greenery.

His colleague, a girl named Riko, spends her days by the spiral staircase, near the steps that lead into the darkness. One day they find a video recording of a girl with a book, a strange artifact from the past. Riko believes that the past only brings pain, but Ura hopes: maybe there is still an island of green somewhere.

5. Someone's Gaze, 2013

A girl named Aya lives with her father, an office worker. Gradually they drift apart, Aya moves into a rented apartment, gets a job and drowns in the everyday worries of adulthood. One day, a phone call from her father makes her rethink her outlook on life.

This is an animation by Makoto Shinkai, who became famous in 2013 thanks to the feature-length works 5 Centimeters Per Second.

A short story unfolds before us through the eyes of a cat that observes the life of a father and daughter and notices how the relationship between them changes.

Alternative history is a common technique in science fiction that serves a variety of purposes: to reflect on past events, to convey complex emotional states, or to diversify the plot.

We decided to look at several different examples of titles working with historical fantasy – or alternate history.

1. Code Geass, 2006-2008

In an alternate future, the world is divided between superpowers. One of them is the Holy Britannian Empire, which has conquered America and Japan. As in all metropolises, the main danger comes not from external enemies, but from opponents of the regime.

Former Prince Lelouch Lamperouge, living under a false name, is preparing a revolution that will sweep away the existing world order with the help of the power of the Geass, which subjugates the will of other people.

The popular sci-fi by Goro Taniguchi and Ichiro Okouchi is a classic example of alternative history in Japanese animation, combining different time periods.

2. Mars Red, 2021

A demonic tale set in the Taisho period that attempts to explain the militaristic turmoil in Japanese history, when the thirst for power and domination spilled over the borders of the state.

Strict military police colonel Yoshinobu Maeda arrives in Tokyo to interrogate a vampire actress and ends up facing a global conspiracy.

Mars Red combines the theatrical expressiveness with a detailed panorama of the era. Not everyone can resist resentment and bloodlust – and in this dark reality, fragile humanity looks especially solemn.

3. Steamboy, 2004

London, second half of the 19th century. A father and son invent an almost perfect steam engine in America, bringing humanity closer to the era of steampunk.

However, during the experiments, the father decides that he no longer wants to work for a corporation and feed the militaristic ambitions of states, and therefore sends the drawings of the invention to his grandson, Ray, and now government and corporate agents begin to hunt the boy.

Katsuhiro Otomo, author of the iconic manga and film Akira, welcomed the new millennium with a fantasy about what we have inherited from the past century. Otomo depicts a clash of generations and worldviews: distant dreamers and their cynical sons meet in a duel for the future of humanity.

4. Ooku: The Inner Chambers, 2023

1716, Edo period. A mysterious red smallpox has wiped out most of Japan's male population, and all the key positions are in the hands of women. The first woman to become shogun is Yoshimune, whose gender identity is carefully concealed – especially from foreign guests.

The new Japanese reality is observed from the epicenter of political life by 19-year-old Yunoshin Mizuno, who joined the imperial harem in order to provide a decent life for the rest of the family.

The conversations and rituals of Ooku touch on the dynamics of power and gender identity, as well as the diversity of love. Despite the modest animation, the power of the plot, which focuses on people, their destinies, and their ability to adapt to new circumstances, still arouses interest in the period and the issues raised.

Watching an ongoing title means waiting for the release day every week, discussing the new episode with friends and knowing all the latest memes. We watched the most interesting anime of spring 2025 and tell you which ones are worth your attention.

1. Lazarus, 2025-...

Release Date: April 5, 2025

A brilliant doctor creates a drug that relieves humanity of pain. But after several years, the drug turns out to be a toxin that causes mutations.

Now people have only one month to find the mysterious doctor and obtain an antidote. This mission is entrusted to a team codenamed Lazarus.

Perhaps the most anticipated project of the season from a star-studded team. Produced by MAPPA, the studio that brought us Attack on Titan, Chainsaw Man and Jujutsu Kaisen, and directed by Shinichiro Watanabe – the creator of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo.

2. Zatsu Tabi: That's Journey, 2025-...

Release Date: April 7, 2025

The main character, Chika Suzugamori, is a talented manga artist on the verge of burnout. She truly loves drawing, but publishers keep refusing to buy her work.

One day, Chika decides to take a break and go in search of inspiration, letting her social media followers choose her destination. Thus begins her journey through Japan, where she learns to see beauty in simple things.

A leisurely and sweet series, similar in atmosphere and concept to Laid-Back Camp. It does not show the perfect Japan, but ordinary provincial towns, modest villages and places where tourists do not go.

3. To Be Hero X, 2025-...

Release Date: April 6, 2025

In this world, anyone can be a hero, as long as people believe in them and want to see them as a savior. However, public opinion also determines abilities, such as the ability to fly or teleport.

Therefore, every hero has his own PR team, which is responsible for his media image and reputation.

Lin Ling worked in such a team until he accidentally witnessed the suicide of the hero Nice. In order not to disappoint the public, Nice's PR team offers Lin Ling to be his replacement. Now the young man can fulfill his childhood dream – to be the best of the best, Hero X.

4. Anne Shirley, 2025-...

Release Date: April 5, 2025

The coming-of-age story of the dreamy and cheerful Anne, who has had her share of hardships. The girl is mistakenly taken in by a brother and sister: they need someone to do the housework, but they get an energetic dreamer.

Anne's irrepressible imagination is both her greatest asset and her greatest liability, but she learns to live with it. And she eventually finds the family and friends she has been missing.

Another interpretation of Anne of Green Gables, made with love for the original and respect for other adaptations of the novel. Compared to the Netflix series, the anime has a faster narrative pace, but this does not spoil the story at all.

But many equally worthy anime have been forgotten over time. Forgotten gems deserve to be rediscovered, whether for their unusual stories, unique animation, or bold ideas that were ahead of their time.

From post-apocalyptic worlds to upbeat comedies, here are five anime that each deserve a second chance.

1. The Vision of Escaflowne, 1996

An epic series that combines elements of mecha and fantasy. The story follows Hitomi, a high school girl who finds herself in the magical world of Gaea and becomes involved in a war between kingdoms. The rich world, complex characters, and beautiful animation make Escaflowne a true masterpiece.

Despite its international success, the series failed to gain popularity in the US due to poor dubbing and content editing. For fans of epic fantasy and mecha, this is a must-see project that still amazes with its scale and unique atmosphere.

2. Outlaw Star, 1998-2001

The anime takes viewers into deep space as Gene Starwind and his crew explore the galaxy aboard the Outlaw Star. The series offers viewers intense battles, charismatic characters, and unusual elements of mysticism.

Despite its quality, Outlaw Star is often overshadowed by its spiritual twin, Cowboy Bebop. Unique energy, atmospheric worlds, and an intriguing plot make this series an undeservedly forgotten masterpiece.

3. Darker Than Black, 2007-2010

Darker Than Black creates a dystopian world where a mysterious gate has altered the laws of physics and given humans supernatural powers. The protagonist, Hei, masterfully navigates espionage intrigue, moral dilemmas, and his dual existence.

The series is known for its noirish atmosphere, complex characters, and thoughtful storytelling. Although praised for its maturity and thoughtfulness, Darker Than Black quickly faded from view due to expiring licenses.

4. s-CRY-ed, 2001

s-CRY-ed takes viewers to a post-apocalyptic world where two characters, Kazuma and Ryuho, clash over their opposing ideals.

The series revolves around the concept of Alter Users, people with supernatural powers. Intense action scenes, vivid characters, and themes of freedom and control make the series relatable even two decades after its release.

Western audiences were introduced to s-CRY-ed through its run on Adult Swim, but its popularity was short-lived. Licensing issues prevented further distribution.

5. The Slayers, 1995-2009

The Slayers is a cult fantasy anime that follows the adventures of Lina Inverse, a powerful but restless sorceress, and her team. The series is known for its signature humor, witty characters, and dynamic magical battles.

The Slayers was extremely popular during its run, spawning five seasons, several OVAs, and feature films. Unfortunately, due to licensing issues and a lack of streaming on popular platforms, the anime has fallen out of favor with modern viewers.

Filled with an atmosphere of love and magic, My Happy Marriage features stunning animation and deeply developed characters that immediately attracted the attention of fans around the world.

For all fans of My Happy Marriage, we have collected four other similar romantic titles.

1. Horimiya, 2021

The main characters, Kyouko Hori and Izumi Miyamura, hide their true identities from those around them. Hori is a caring older sister and a shy girl, while she is popular and cheerful at school.

Miyamura, on the other hand, appears to be a quiet introvert at school, but actually has a bright and extroverted side that he shows outside of school. This topic of leading a double life and struggling to fit in with public perception is common to both anime.

2. Fruits Basket, 2019-2021

Fruits Basket and My Happy Marriage captivate viewers with their deep and emotional stories of loss, overcoming hardship, and finding love.

In Fruits Basket, Tohru becomes part of the Sohma family, where everyone faces their own challenges and secrets. The Sohma curse plays a central role, influencing the characters' relationships and the events in their lives.

Despite the difficult challenges, the characters find the strength to overcome their difficulties and support each other on their path to healing and acceptance.

3. The Ancient Magus' Bride, 2017-2023

The main characters, Miyo Saimori of My Happy Marriage and Chise Hatori of The Ancient Magus' Bride, both face serious challenges in their lives before their encounters with Kiyoka Kudou and Elias Ainsworth, respectively, change their lives.

Miyo and Chise find refuge in their relationships, but also an opportunity to rethink their place in the world.

The Ancient Magus' Bride immerses the viewer in a world of magic and mystery through the relationship between Chise and Elias. My Happy Marriage, while more restrained in its use of supernatural elements, also incorporates mystical themes.

4. Bibliophile Princess, 2022-...

The anime Bibliophile Princess is a fascinating story about a female protagonist who is not looking for love, but finds it in unexpected circumstances.

In both series, the beginning of the relationship between the main characters is not based on romantic love, but on practical considerations. Elianna Bernstein of Bibliophile Princess agrees to marry a prince in exchange for access to the royal library.

Similarly, Miyo Saimori in My Happy Marriage marries out of family obligation and pressure rather than personal desire.

These works often combine elements of Chinese culture, folklore, and modern technology to create unique stories and visual experiences.

In this list, we have collected five of the best donghua series that every animation fan should watch.

1. Against the Sky Supreme, 2021-...

The title immerses the viewer in a world of magic where the strong fight for power and immortality. The main character, Tan Yun, a talented young man, strives to reach the heights of power, despite the numerous obstacles and dangers he encounters along the way.

The plot of the series begins with a tragedy: Tan Yun's family is attacked and he miraculously survives. From that moment on, he decides to dedicate his life to becoming the strongest in order to avenge his loved ones and protect those he loves.

On his journey, Tan Yun encounters enemies, ancient artifacts, and complex mysteries that he must solve.

2. Swallowed Star, 2020

The story takes place in the distant future, when humanity is on the brink of survival due to a sudden invasion of alien monsters. The main character, Luo Feng, is an ordinary student who dreams of becoming the strongest warrior and protecting his family and friends from the threat.

Luo Feng decides to join an elite group of fighters to gain the skills and strength necessary to fight the monsters. His path to greatness is filled with dangerous challenges, brutal battles, and difficult decisions that test his moral and physical limits.

3. Battle Through the Heavens, 2017-...

The story follows Xiao Yan, who once possessed extraordinary martial arts and cultivation skills. However, his powers suddenly disappear, leaving him the object of ridicule by his peers and family. Despite all the difficulties, Xiao Yan decides to regain his powers and find out the reason for his downfall.

The story takes place in a world where martial arts and mystical energies determine the fate of people. The series explores Xiao Yan's persistent quest for self-improvement and understanding of the world around him.

4. A Mortal's Journey, 2020-...

Han Li discovers a hidden talent that opens the doors to the world of magic and supernatural abilities. His path to the pinnacle of power and immortality is full of trials, dangers, and difficult moral choices.

The world in which Han Li lives is filled with powerful clans, ancient artifacts, and ferocious monsters. Each new test requires not only physical strength, but also the ability to make the right decisions, build strategic alliances, and sometimes sacrifice his principles to achieve his goal.

5. Renegade Immortal, 2023-...

The story follows the life of a young man named Wang Lin who dreams of becoming a great master. He was born into a poor family, but through determination and perseverance, he decides to go through the difficult path of cultivation to achieve immortality.

The story begins when Wang Lin accidentally gets the opportunity to study at a cultivation school, where he faces brutal trials.

During his training, he finds an ancient artifact that helps him speed up his progress. The series immerses viewers in a world of magic, martial arts and spiritual quests, where every action has consequences and every decision can change fate.

The summer of 2025 promises to be hot not only in terms of weather, but also in terms of high-profile premieres in the anime world. We tell you about new seasons of your favorite series and long-awaited adaptations.

1. Kaiju No. 8 Season 2

Release Date: July 2025

Kaiju No. 8 is a gripping anime about humanity's struggle against giant monsters, where personal dramas, dreams, and choices are revealed against the backdrop of large-scale battles.

The story follows Kafka, an ordinary employee of a Kaiju cleaning company, who one day turns into a monster himself. Instead of giving up, he decides to fulfill his long-held dream of joining the Defense Corps and protecting humans despite his new nature.

His path is full of danger, inner conflict, and the fight for the right to remain human. The first season ended with everyone learning about the main character's true strength. All that's left is to wait and see what happens to him now.

2. Dandadan Season 2

Release Date: July 3, 2025

The finale of Dandadan Season 1 left viewers on the edge of their seats as it ended on the cusp of a new arc. Splitting the season into two parts was a strategic decision by Science Saru to maintain the impressive animation quality that has become the show's hallmark.

This approach allowed the team to avoid the risks that often lead to a drop in quality due to staff overload.

On July 3, 2025, Dandadan returns with a new arc centered around the mysterious character Jiji and the incredibly powerful yokai named Evil Eye.

3. Gachiakuta

Release Date: July 2025

Rudo lives in the slums of a floating city, where the poor struggle to survive under the weight of poverty, and the nobility live in luxury, thoughtlessly throwing all their garbage into the gaping abyss. But one day Rudo's life collapses – he is falsely accused of murder and thrown into the depths of hell as punishment.

There, among the monstrous garbage creatures of the Pit, he must find new allies, master a mysterious power, and join the ranks of the Cleaners to take revenge on those who banished him.

4. Grand Blue Season 2

Release Date: July 7, 2025

Grand Blue is a bright comedy anime about college life, where crazy parties, ridiculous competitions and friendly pranks go hand in hand with a true love of diving.

Iori moves to a coastal town to start a new life: studying at a university, making new friends, taking his first steps into adulthood. But his plans fall apart on his first day, when he finds himself caught up in a whirlwind of events organized by members of the local diving club.

And finally, after seven years of waiting, Grand Blue is back. The second season of the anime is scheduled for release on July 7, 2025.

5. The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 4

Release Date: July 2025

The Rising of the Shield Hero is a fantasy anime about betrayal, the fight for justice, and the path of a hero who relies not on strength but on will.

The story follows Naofumi Iwatani, an ordinary student who, along with three others, is summoned to a parallel world as legendary heroes. But while the others are given powerful weapons, Naofumi is given only a shield.

After a treacherous betrayal, he is left without support, reputation, or means of survival. But by overcoming hardships and finding loyal allies, Naofumi begins his difficult journey to become a true hero.

The spring anime season has just begun, but there is already something to talk about. The new action series Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin Gentosho will tell viewers about the confrontation of family ties, betrayal and tragic love.

Let's find out what is so remarkable about this anime.

What Is Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin Gentosho About?

The first episode of the anime lasts about an hour – this is an introductory episode that immerses the viewer into the childhood of the main characters and the main conflict of the story. Brother and sister Jinta and Suzune leave their home because of their cruel father.

The reason for the disagreement is that one of the children belongs to the demon race. The girl hides her bright red eye behind a cloth bandage on her head. Jinta is not afraid of his sister's true nature, and she in turn is willing to follow her brother anywhere.

The children who ran away from home would have died of the cold had they not been found by a caring man. He brought them to the village and welcomed them into his family.

Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin Gentosho Is Like Demon Slayer But Darker

The images of a caring brother and a sweet demon sister at the beginning of the first episode are reminiscent of Demon Slayer, but only at the beginning. The further development of the characters' relationships, the narrative of the series and the turning point at the end of the episode follow a completely different scenario.

The general concept of the new anime is still similar to Demon Slayer. The main character, having acquired an ancient katana, embarks on the path of a demon hunter, carrying out orders to eliminate demons.

However, unlike the shonen anime with its cheerful trio of Tanjiro, Inosuke and Zenitsu, the new anime is much darker. In Sword of the Demon Hunter, the main character appears as a serious, reasonable and reserved person who has to go through a difficult path alone.

The First Episode May Seem Slow, but the Pace Picks up in the Second Episode

Despite the emotional diversity of the first episode, the second episode is much more gripping and interesting. The main character responds to a call for help, meets people who claim to have seen a demon, encounters the enemy and kills it.

Although it sounds quite simple, the series itself is captivating because of hidden hints about the main character's past and his connection with the people he saved.

Where to Watch Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin Gentosho?

All five released episodes of Sword of the Demon Hunter: Kijin Gentosho are available to stream on Hidive Amazon Channel.

The spring anime season presented isekai fans with an adaptation of the popular webtoon The Beginning After the End. Only four episodes have been shown, and the series has already collected low scores and a wave of hate.

Let's find out why everyone is comparing the new isekai to Jobless Reincarnation and what is actually wrong with The Beginning After the End anime.

What Is The Beginning After the End About?

The main character was a strict ruler in his former life. King Grey lived in a modern and technologically advanced world where there was no magic, but there was Ki – a life force that allows you to strengthen the body and weapons.

The hero's life ended mysteriously, after which he found himself in the body of a newborn. Reborn in another world, little Arthur (as the former king is now called) decided to build up his strength from an early age.

There is no Ki here, but there is mana – a magical power that every hundredth person possesses. Luckily for the boy, his parents and himself are among them.

Is The Beginning After the End Another Isekai in the Spirit of Jobless Reincarnation?

If, after watching the first episode of the anime or the first chapters of the webtoon, you have a feeling of déjà vu and think that you imagined it, then no. The similarities to Jobless Reincarnation are obvious, but only at the beginning.

The main character is reborn, learns about the world and magic even before he can walk, reads books and shows the world his young genius – so far everything is without visible differences.

Then the boy is separated from his parents and searches for a way to them, which of course takes some years – and here everything comes together. And the main character of The Beginning After the End also finds his blonde elf, only her name is not Sylphy, but Tessia.

This is where the main similarities with Jobless Reincarnation end. In his personality, the main character of the new isekai is the complete opposite of Rudeus.

Arthur is brave, decisive, responsible and decent in his new life, whereas the former king was characterized by cruelty and cold-bloodedness. Finding a loving family has softened his character and given him new life values.

The Beginning After the End Is a Disappointment

The adaptation of the popular webtoon The Beginning After the End was a good idea, but the execution was very disappointing. The anime received a 5.4 out of 10 score from IMDb users for four episodes.

With such mediocre animation quality and sloppy storytelling, it is much more enjoyable to read the webtoon. Not only does the anime fail to live up to the expectations of webtoon fans, but it also alienates new viewers who were previously unfamiliar with the story.

There is little hope that future episodes will be of better quality and more dynamic. And you should definitely not expect cool action scenes like in Solo Leveling.

Solo Leveling, based on a popular Korean manhwa, has become the most talked about and promising title of the season.

Is there anything as exciting, with a spirit of adventure and spectacular battle scenes? Of course there is. Here is a list of anime series similar to Solo Leveling.

1. Shangri-La Frontier, 2023-2025

This is a dynamic story about adventures in MMORPG. Rakuro is a true connoisseur of crappy VR games, whose online does not exceed a thousand people.

Only this time he decides to play not another useless game, but the popular release Shangri-La Frontier. Rakuro has to get used to the top title, where there are none of the usual bugs and plot holes. He discovers that it is very interesting to play a high-quality and well-crafted game.

2. Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, 2021-...

Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation is an anime in the isekai genre with a well-developed interesting world, colorful characters and dynamic battle scenes.

The main character is reborn in another world and begins life from infancy, gradually getting used to the new reality and learning magic. The young Rudeus discovers incredible abilities in himself: he can use non-verbal magic, in addition, his powers are many times greater than the charms of other people.

Despite his talents, Rudeus continues to study magical sciences and learns to use a sword. He will need all of these skills to survive, for a true catastrophe is about to befall the world into which he has been reborn.

3. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, 2015-...

This is a story about the adventures of a young adventurer who goes into dungeons again and again to fight monsters and earn a living.

Bell Cranel is an insecure young man who does not shine with talent, but tries his best not to die during dungeon expeditions and to become stronger. In this way, the main character is similar to Sung Jin-woo from Solo Leveling.

Both young men give their all in times of danger, showing courage, determination and strength. Bell, like Jin-woo, gains a certain ability that helps him level up quickly.

4. Gate, 2015-2016

Gate is a fantasy anime about a cruel world filled with endless battles. According to the plot, mysterious gates appear in Japan, through which dangerous, warlike monsters enter our world.

People manage to fight back, but they cannot close the gates. A detachment of special warriors goes through the gate and ends up in another reality. On the other side, the heroes face various dangers: encounters with wizards, monsters and other magical creatures.

The plot of the anime is similar to the main idea of Solo Leveling, where unknown gates also open, through which various monsters can enter the human world.

Dystopia in anime is first and foremost a setting. A melodrama, a detective story, a thriller, or even a comedy can be set against the backdrop of a dystopia.

But it is unlikely that the viewer will want to spend even one day in these depressing worlds, where class stratification, environmental catastrophes, and totalitarian government have long since become commonplace.

1. Memories, 1995

An anime anthology that paints three unpleasant pictures of the future. In the first, a group of space scavengers are held hostage by the memories of an opera singer.

In the second, an unsuspecting lab assistant accidentally turns into a weapon of mass destruction. The third describes a city whose life is based on firing cannons at an unknown enemy.

The author of the collection of short stories is Katsuhiro Otomo, the creator of Akira. Satoshi Kon co-wrote the script, and each short film was directed by a different person. The result is a stylistically diverse statement that unites the ideas of anti-militarism and technophobia.

2. Girls' Last Tour, 2017

Schoolgirls Yuuri and Chito travel through a war-torn civilization in search of supplies. They ride a caterpillar motorcycle, meet other survivors, remember the dead, and dream of a better life.

Girls' Last Tour is an unconventional and even provocative mix of dystopia and cozy anime. Who would have thought that life after the destruction of humanity could be filled with warmth and comfort?

This anime is an atypical representative of the genre, which cultivates a bright idea about the triumph of life even after global catastrophes.

3. Fist of the North Star, 1984-1988

After the devastating nuclear war of the 90s, most of the planet has turned into an endless desert. Humanity is forced to constantly fight for water and food in order to survive.

Kenshiro is the heir to an ancient martial art that can send an enemy to a quick and painful death. The man wanders through the ruins of civilization, trying to restore justice as best he can.

The scorched, cruel and unpleasant world of Fist of the North Star was a favorite of George Miller, the creator of Mad Max. The structure of the wasteland and the main character of the franchise are largely borrowed from this anime.

4. Texhnolyze, 2003

The underground city of Lux is a vast prison where antisocial individuals who are not welcome on the surface have been sent for many years. It is a filthy place, torn apart by a war between criminal gangs.

One day, Ichise, a fist fighter, gets involved with a woman from Organo, one of the three power gangs. Because of her, Ichise's arm and leg are cut off, and soon the man replaces them with technologically advanced prosthetics.

He sets out to avenge his pain and humiliation, but meets a girl named Ran and befriends Organo's leader, the honest and incorruptible Onishi.

Although the main topic of the anime is the humanity of technological progress, its style is more reminiscent of crime films and neo-noirs of the New Hollywood period.

Japanese folklore is a subject that can be explored endlessly. From urban legends such as the yokai to religious messages and imagery, all of these phenomena have found wonderful expression in anime and manga.

1. Theatre of Darkness: Yamishibai, 2013

Yamishibai is a dark anime series filmed in the aesthetic of Kamishibai street theater. Kamishibai is a street performance in which a story is told using a series of paper pictures.

In this anime series, each episode is dedicated to a separate story and the episodes are not connected to each other. All of the stories are based on either urban legends or Japanese mythology.

In each episode the viewer will find creepy stories about curses, ghosts and demons, which at the same time are not far from reality. After all, the stories take place in seemingly ordinary places: shopping malls, trains, and apartment buildings.

2. Beyond the Boundary, 2013-2014

In the universe of this anime, there are creatures from the spirit world – youmu. They enter the human world because of negative emotions. Youmu are opposed by specially trained people – Spirit World Warriors who protect humanity.

This story is about the friendship between high school students – the warrior Mirai and the half-youmu boy Akihito. Mirai tries to kill Akihito because she recognizes him as a youmu. She is always defeated because Akihito is immortal.

The relationship between the half-youmu and the warrior paradoxically strengthens over time as the characters get to know each other and go through various trials together.

3. To the Forest of Firefly Lights, 2011

The main character, six-year-old Hotaru, gets lost in the forest and meets a humanoid creature in a mask named Gin. Gin confesses that if a human touches him, he disappears because he is cursed.

Despite the danger, the two continue to spend time together and become friends. Hotaru grows up, and Gin does not age and continues to resemble a young man.

The couple tries to fight for the time they have together, overcoming the difficulties they encounter and the fact that they are separated by living in different worlds – the human world for Hotaru and the yokai world for Gin.

4. Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits, 2018

Aoi has seen ayakashi, spirits from the other world, since she was a child. She inherited this ability from her grandfather, who taught her how to live with these creatures in peace. An effective strategy for building relationships with spirits is to treat them to something delicious.

One day, Aoi meets an ayakashi, and he insists that Aoi must become his wife. He turns out to be the manager of an inn in the spirit world and also claims that Aoi's grandfather owes him a huge amount of money and that by marrying him, she will atone for her grandfather's debt.

Aoi, shocked by the ayakashi's offer, refuses and declares that she will work off her grandfather's debt by opening a snack bar for spirits in the other world.

On April 4, the third season of one of the most anticipated anime of the spring, Fire Force, began. The series returned after a five-year hiatus and confidently pushes the story of an unusual squad of firefighters to its conclusion. We tell you what the title is about and what is interesting about it.

What Is Fire Force About?

250 years ago, the planet was engulfed in flames, wiping many countries off the face of the earth – an event known as the Great Cataclysm. In his search for light, one man stumbled upon an untainted flame that saved human civilization.

With the help of sacred fire and technology, the Amaterasu Thermal Power Plant was created, which became the foundation for the formation of the Tokyo Empire. Since then, humanity has had one more cause of death, as spontaneous combustion has appeared, turning the victim into an infernal.

The main action takes place in the year 198, and special firefighting squads fight with the ignited people – there are eight of them. A new recruit named Shinra arrives to join the 8th Fire Force.

As a child, he experienced a terrible tragedy: his mother and brother were burned to death, and society blamed him for what happened. During his first days of service, the mysterious Joker claims to know the truth about the fire that took Shinra's family's lives.

Fire Force Is an Exciting Mix of Detective and Action

Many things in Fire Force are tied to a twisted detective story. By pulling on one thread, the characters begin to unravel a tangle that stretches back into the distant past.

It turns out that almost all of the events important to the plot are connected in one way or another. At the same time, an in-depth investigation does not begin until the second season, when the team has been formed, the characters and sides have been identified, some answers have been received, and the first skirmish with the antagonists is behind us.

The conflict in Season 2 becomes more global and elaborate, and the characters' faith is tested, which carries over into the third season.

Fire Force Is a Must-Watch For Every Fan of the Shonen Genre

It's too early to talk about the new season – only three episodes have been released so far. But based on the previous 48 episodes, we can conclude that the series is bright, dynamic and daring.

Fire Force uses popular shonen clichés, but at the same time it exaggerates them. Shinra flies across the screen with the speed of a jet rocket, bursts into battle at the last moment, fights with all his might, and sincerely appreciates every character in whose heart at least a spark of kindness glimmers.

Netflix has gained popularity thanks to its extensive library and a range of original content for every taste. And for anime fans, there are plenty of titles to choose from: action, romance, fantasy – take your pick.

1. Lu Over the Wall, 2017

High school student Kai moves with his father from Tokyo to a small fishing village. The only thing that makes the teenager happy in his dull school life is composing music and posting it online.

When Kai's classmates find out about his hobby, they suggest he form a band called Sieren. On the island where the boys gather to rehearse, the boy meets the beautiful Lu, who understands him like no one else. But there is one detail: Lu is not a human, but a mermaid.

2. Flavors of Youth, 2018

The film is made in the popular anime genre of the almanac, which consists of several short films linked by theme, place, or time. At the heart of Flavors of Youth are stories of growing up and leaving behind illusions.

A student in Beijing dreams of finding the childhood noodles he ate with his grandmother in the village many years ago; a model in Guangzhou tries to balance career and family; an aspiring architect in Shanghai finds a love letter on an audio cassette given to him by a friend.

3. Blame!, 2017

The action takes place in the distant future, where a rapidly spreading infection has caused humans to lose contact with robots. As a result of a code error, mechanical builders aimlessly rebuild the city, and guards who are supposed to protect the borders exterminate the locals.

A group of people manage to survive and hide in a closed settlement. This is where the refugees live, periodically venturing out into the outside world in search of food. One day, the chosen hero Killy arrives – he will give the power over the machines back to the people.

4. Miss Hokusai, 2015

Based on the historical manga of the same name, this animated movie tells the story of 23-year-old O-Ei, the daughter of artist Tetsuzo. The girl inherited her father's talent and often helps him by creating elegant paintings, but without her signature.

In the future, the man will be known as Katsushika Hokusai, the author of one of the most famous Japanese prints, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, but for now he is looking for a commission that will satisfy his thirst for beauty.

5. The Garden of Words, 2013

Director Makoto Shinkai is known for his movie Your Name, which became the highest grossing anime in the history of cinema. The master also had a hand in this movie: he wrote the story and script himself, came up with the storyboards, animated the keyframes and helped with the editing.

The Garden of Words is a short sketch about the relationship between 15-year-old future shoemaker Takao and mysterious woman Yukari. They spend every day of the summer together, but only when it rains.

There are brilliant masterpieces of anime in the horror genre that have long won the sympathy of viewers. Some anime use techniques to create fear so effectively that they surpass even live-action feature films.

1. Another, 2012

The story centers on Yomiyama High School, a place with a notorious reputation for being haunted. It all begins with a tragic event: the suicide of a student.

In an attempt to cope with their grief, her classmates decide to pretend that she is still alive. However, this leads to unforeseen consequences when they awaken a vengeful ghost that wreaks havoc and death. The victims include not only the students but also their families.

2. Mieruko-chan, 2021

In Mieruko-chan, we are introduced to Miko and her ghosts. We are immersed in a maelstrom of impressively detailed yet grotesque apparitions. Instead of being scared or fighting back, Miko combats these otherworldly creatures by ignoring them.

This deliberate act of denial creates a blend of tension and dark humor that sets the series apart from any other anime.

3. Shiki, 2010-2011

In a quiet, mountainous village, horrific murders begin to occur. Around the same time, a mysterious clan moves into an old castle on the outskirts of town.

While the plot may seem simple, Another is much more than just a vampire story. With its unpredictable plot twists, dark exploration of human nature, and masterfully crafted atmosphere of suspense, this anime is a must-see for any horror fan.

4. Theatre of Darkness: Yamishibai, 2013

Yamishibai draws inspiration from kamishibai, a Japanese storytelling style, to create chilling horror anthologies. This anime series features demonic creatures and delves deep into Japanese folklore through the lens of horror.

Yamishibai offers a world where traditional folklore meets modern horror. For horror fans, this anime is a treasure trove. Intriguing storytelling and mystical tales of ghosts and spirits will really scare you.

5. When They Cry, 2006

At first, When They Cry seems like an adorable story about carefree life in the countryside. However, beneath this deceptively hospitable exterior lies a dark secret.

The plot unfolds in the quiet village of Hinamizawa, where a traditional festival is held every year. But behind the festival's festive atmosphere lies a creepy legend, and mysterious murders and disappearances occur in the area on the eve of the celebration.

Kyoto Animation is undoubtedly one of the most iconic and beloved anime studios of the past twenty years.

With an unrivaled talent for telling touching stories through stunning visuals and direction, nearly every anime they have created has received critical and popular acclaim.

1. A Silent Voice, 2016

The story follows Shoya, a school bully who tries to liven up his boring life. Into his life comes Shoko, a deaf girl who is being bullied by her classmates. When the principal intervenes, all the blame falls on Shoya and he is rejected by his classmates, including his friends.

Some years later, Shoya is a high school student. He seeks out Shoko and apologizes for his actions, but will she accept his apology?

2. Beyond the Boundary, 2013-2014

The story of Mirai, a descendant of a long line of spirit world warriors with a cursed sword, and Akihito, an immortal youmu, is full of unexpected twists and powerful emotions. Their destinies intertwine in a dance of life and death, where love and loss go hand in hand.

Lost in the depths of loneliness and despair, Mirai finds a ray of light in Akihito, just as he finds one in her, but their fragile bond is constantly tested by forces lurking in the shadows. Their meeting sets off a turbulent series of events that will force them to rethink everything they believe in.

3. Violet Evergarden, 2018

Filled with emotion from the first minute to the last, Violet Evergarden is a story of love and loss. Raised to be a weapon of war, Violet knows nothing but destroying enemies.

But when her dying commander, Gilbert, gives her his final message and confesses his love, she decides to embark on a journey to decipher the meaning of his words.

After accepting a job as an Auto Memory Doll, Violet writes letters for clients who are unable to express their feelings, and for the first time in her life begins to learn about the complexities of human emotion.

4. Clannad, 2007-2009

The anime follows a high school student named Tomoya Okazaki. Like most of his peers, Tomoya has to deal with various hardships in life. Luckily for Tomoya, he meets a girl named Nagisa who dramatically changes his life.

With the inevitable changes that come with growing up, feelings of loss and other heartbreaks that the characters go through, the anime gets realistically dark at times, so get your tissues ready.

5. Hyouka, 2012

Hyouka is an anime that crosses the line between detective and everyday life. It is a light detective series that tells the story of four young students with completely different personalities.

The eternally bored Oreki is forced to solve various mysteries thanks to his energetic classmate Chitanda, who never gives up. This is certainly the pinnacle of the everyday genre and an outstanding series that is a testament to the studio's mastery of creating great animation and atmosphere.

Anime with villainous protagonists forces the viewer to see events from a different perspective, where evil intentions seem justified or even noble.

Instead of fighting evil, these devious characters defeat their virtuous opponents, providing some of the most memorable villainous victories, all while pursuing their dark goals.

1. 91 Days, 2016-2017

The protagonist of 91 Days, Angelo Lagusa, saw his parents and younger brother murdered by the mob. He vowed to take revenge, even if it was the last thing he did. Along the way, Angelo inches closer to his goal, tracking down every mobster involved in his family's death.

Angelo's desire for revenge is understandable, but his endless thirst for vengeance makes him a villain. Still, Angelo is an interesting character, and the fact that 91 Days is set during the Prohibition era only adds to its charm, making it one of the best gangster anime out there.

2. Elfen Lied, 2004

Elfen Lied tells the dark story of Lucy, a representative of a special race of people – the Diclonius, on whom the government has conducted cruel experiments. When given the chance to escape, Lucy takes it, and two students, unaware of her terrible past and the government's sinister plot, decide to take her in.

Elfen Lied is a cult anime that lasted only one season, where Lucy's bloody and cruel actions cause real horror. In the end, she remains a victim, but that does not stop her from committing truly cruel acts.

3. Angels of Death, 2018

Angels of Death begins with Rachel waking up in a dark basement with Zack, a killer on the run. Despite his promise to kill her if she escapes, they team up to find a way out and regain their freedom.

As they go, they encounter increasingly unusual characters, and Rachel discovers her deep connection to this strange place, making her just as terrifying as Zack. Angels of Death is a dark and tense anime with a gripping plot that is well worth watching.

4. Code Geass, 2006-2008

The anime tells the story of Lelouch, who meets a mysterious girl named C.C. and gains Geass, the power of kings. With his newfound power, Lelouch embarks on a merciless war.

Lelouch's motives to lead a revolution and free Japan may make him a hero, but the methods he uses to achieve his goal make him a villain. Lelouch is a character of questionable morals, using the revolution as a cover for his own family problems.

5. Overlord, 2015-2022

Momonga is a powerful and fearsome wizard with loyal servants. The series takes place in the online game Yggdrasil, where he is trapped and forced to assume the role of the Dark Overlord.

This is an isekai anime in which the protagonist acts ruthlessly, viewing the characters around him as mere game NPCs rather than real people. His avatar itself is terrifying, but the villainous acts he commits take it to a whole new level.

Fantasy is one of the most popular genres in all fields, be it books, movies or TV series. Magic, alternate history, other worlds – all this can become an inexhaustible source of inspiration for the viewer and help to distract from the routine of everyday life.

1. Kaiju No.8, 2024

A 32-year-old janitor's dream was to join an elite squad for eliminating giant monsters, but after failing several tests, he resigned and became a disposer of monster remains.

Fate gives the man another chance: he gains the ability to transform into a powerful humanoid kaiju and finds himself in the crosshairs of that very squad.

We already saw something similar in Attack on Titan, but the series has a lot of original ideas. For example, one of the main storylines involves a kaiju that has learned to transform into a human.

2. Delicious in Dungeon, 2024-...

A fun adventure of a DnD group in a huge dungeon with cooking all kinds of monsters became one of the most talked about series of last year, not only because of the beautiful animation of the Trigger studio.

The dungeon here is not a static backdrop for the characters' journey, but a living world with well-thought-out relationships between its inhabitants. With each episode, you become more and more immersed in the lore of this world, which grows darker and more tragic.

3. Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction, 2024

An alien ship looms over Tokyo, but high school friends Ouran Nakagawa and Kadode Koyama are not particularly bothered by it, nor by the accompanying political fuss and military actions.

They still go to school, play games, and take exams. The girls cling to the old reality with all their might and try very, very hard not to notice what is happening around them.

The author of the original manga with the expressive title Dead Dead Demons Dededede Destruction, Inio Asano, is an outstanding classic of our time.

4. Dandadan, 2024-...

If you've only seen the first episode, you'll understand that the story of a humble conspiracy theorist possessed by an evil spirit and a rude psychic girl battling eccentric ghosts and aliens is a real treat.

The series has everything we love about Japanese animation: a crazy plot with a romantic touch, wild action, emotions turned up to the max, and stunning visuals.

It seems like the series had no chance of failing. On the one hand, the original source is from Yukinobu Tatsu, who helped Tatsuki Fujimoto with Fire Punch and the first part of Chainsaw Man. On the other hand, the Science SARU studio knows how to make really unusual and beautiful titles.

5. Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf, 2024

The main question that worried fans: Does a remake of the anime make sense 15 years later? And will it be able to convey the atmosphere of Lawrence and Holo's journey as accurately? Well, the first season does just that.

Director Takeo Takahashi, who returned to the title, carefully maintains the measured pace of the narrative and the intricacies of the trade. Special attention was paid to the animation of the wise wolf, which allowed her mood to be conveyed better and the witty dialogues of the main couple to be deepened.

In this list we have included only the best anime titles – not too long, but exciting and with a complete story. There are both dynamic action stories and emotional dramas, so everyone will find something for themselves.

1. Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day, 2011

The past cannot be changed, but can you learn to live with it? Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day is a touching story about loss, friendship and growing up. The main characters were once inseparable, but a tragedy destroyed their childhood dreams and separated the friends.

Years later, the ghost of the past returns to remind them of unfinished business. This anime is not only about sadness, but also about hope – about how important it is not to hold on to the past, but to move forward by preserving precious memories.

2. Death Parade, 2015

Death Parade is an anime that stands out for its unique concept of the afterlife. Instead of the usual heaven or hell, the souls of the dead end up in the Quindecim Bar, where bartender Decim invites them to play deadly games.

The anime explores complex themes of human nature, morality and emotion. Decim, who initially judges the souls without emotion, gradually begins to understand that there is a human story behind every decision.

3. Odd Taxi, 2021

Odd Taxi is an anime where the grotesque style hides a deep and touching story. The main character, taxi driver Odokawa, seems to be lost on the long road of life.

Every passenger in his taxi is not just a random person, but a part of a big mystery that leads to the missing girl. Behind the outward simplicity lies a suspenseful plot that reveals unexpected facets of each character.

4. Kids on the Slope, 2012

Music brings people together, and jazz is a story of emotions conveyed without words. Kids on the Slope is a story of friendship, youth and self-discovery, steeped in the atmosphere of the 60s.

This anime is not only about music, but also about people whose paths cross and change each other forever. True friendship, first love, freedom of expression – Kids on the Slope is perfect for those who want to feel the magic of sounds and human relationships.

5. Erased, 2016

Erased is a touching story about lost time, the cruelty of the world, and hope. An adult suddenly gets the chance to go back in time and prevent terrible events, but will he be able to change fate?

This detective story, told through the eyes of children, makes you think about life, friendship and the value of human relationships, which we sometimes lack so much. Satoru will have to face the horrors of the past and fight for those he once could not save.

Anime and manga are increasingly taking their place in popular culture. If in the early 2000s they remained a niche entertainment for a handful of fans, then a few years ago the finale of Attack on Titan was almost more anticipated than the last episodes of Game of Thrones.

And of course, we should not forget that many works are also being adapted for the big screen.

1. Rurouni Kenshin Part 1: Origins, 2012

The 2012 movie raised concerns among many before its release: it seemed that the writers were trying to cash in on the popularity of the manga and anime, but in reality, everything turned out differently.

Keishi Otomo's film not only successfully adapted the first part of the manga, but also did a good job with the fight choreography and characters. Remarkably, the creator of Rurouni Kenshin Nobuhiro Watsuki himself praised the movie.

The success of the first movie was supported by the release of subsequent ones: in its completed form, the series has five films, the last of which was released in 2021.

2. Blade of the Immortal, 2017

Speaking of anime adaptations, we can't ignore Takashi Miike, an incredibly prolific master of Japanese cinema. Among other things, he directed Blade of the Immortal.

The huge manga fit into 13 anime episodes, and for the movie it had to be compressed into a few hours. As expected, this led to some simplifications.

But even with that in mind, the movie is still a blast to watch: Miike, in his typical style, created spectacular and brutal fights, which he combined with a fascinating narrative that holds the viewer's attention throughout the movie.

3. Death Note, 2006

Shusuke Kaneko approached the subject with all due care: the images of the characters were chosen quite close to the original, but the plot was changed quite a bit.

The plot is divided into two parts, and while in the first movie the changes are local, albeit strong, the second movie deviates completely from the original source. Suffice it to mention that Kira never gets new brilliant opponents and L himself finishes the job. But what remains unchanged is the brilliant detective plot.

4. Assassination Classroom, 2015

A school comedy with an unusual plot turns out to be quite traditional: a large part of the story is devoted to everyday life, in which the kids of a special class, where the most difficult students are sent, try to fix their lives with the help of an unusual teacher.

At the same time, the boys and girls learn the art of killing mysterious aliens. Everything is presented rather in the form of disparate episodes, for which you should be prepared: the original adhered to the same structure.

If you accept all the conventions, you will get an excellent comedy that manages to combine a light mood, moderate severity and touching moments.

In 2025, viewers will be treated to exciting animated movies, including many long-awaited sequels. We can expect dynamic action, vivid fantasy, a bit of horror and, of course, drama.

1. Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc

Release Date: September 19, 2025

While viewers wait for the second season of Chainsaw Man, animation studio MAPPA offers a full-length spin-off. Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc will be released this year and will tell the story of Denji's romantic adventures.

The main character dreams of getting closer to the head of the Public Safety Division, Makima. Denji is confident in the sincerity of his feelings, but a meeting with a cafe worker named Reze makes his heart beat again.

What will the main character do? Will he stay true to his love for Makima, or will he decide to give free rein to his new feelings for the mysterious Reze?

2. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle

Release Date: July 18, 2025

Since 2019, five seasons of Demon Slayer have been released. It's time to get closer to the end of the story, which will be divided into three parts in the format of a full-length anime. The first movie, Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, will be released later this year. Ufotable is still responsible for the adaptation.

For five seasons, the main characters honed their sword skills, killed demons, and risked their lives to get closer to their main enemy, Muzan Kibutsuji. A thousand years ago, he turned into a bloodthirsty demon, created many monsters like himself, and caused the death of a large number of people.

At the end of the fifth season, the demon hunters found themselves in Muzan's lair, where the real battle begins. The trio of main characters, along with the powerful Pillars, will have to fight the Upper Moons and their leader.

3. Jujutsu Kaisen Hidden Inventory/Premature Death Arc

Release Date: May 30, 2025

Animation studio MAPPA decided to release a compilation of the first five episodes of the second season.

Viewers will once again be shown the story of young Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto at the time when they were studying. At the center of the plot is high school student Riko Amanai, who, although she does not possess the cursed energy, is of great value to the sorcerers.

Satoru and Suguru are temporarily assigned as her bodyguards, but from whom should she be protected? If you have not seen the second season, or if you have decided to refresh your memory of the arc about the youth of your favorite characters, then the movie is what you need.

Do you like to solve mysteries? Then these titles are for you. From elegant detective stories in the spirit of the classics to mystical investigations involving otherworldly forces, choose your mystery and get ready for unexpected plot twists.

1. Monster, 2004-2005

Dr. Kenzo Tenma, a talented neurosurgeon in Germany, is faced with a life-changing decision. Against the orders of his superiors, he decides to save the life of a critically injured boy.

This action leads to a series of inexplicable murders, and Tenma discovers that the boy he saved is not as innocent as he seemed. Now the doctor is plunged into a deep moral dilemma as he tries to unravel the mystery that connects him to this mysterious monster.

2. Paranoia Agent, 2004-2005

In this gripping anime, a boy on roller skates with a baseball bat attacks people, throwing them out of their familiar reality into a world of inexplicable horror. The series of attacks begins with a young designer who created an iconic animated character.

Two detectives take over the investigation, but the deeper they delve into the details, the stranger and more confusing the case becomes.

This anime will not only keep you on your toes, but also make you think about how modern society affects our psyche and how we sometimes choose the most unexpected paths to get out of personal crises.

3. Gosick, 2011

In the fictional country of Sauville, within the walls of the St. Marguerite Academy, in the library tower, lives Victorique – a brilliant but extremely eccentric girl with the appearance of a porcelain doll.

She is able to solve any mystery by simply collecting "fragments of chaos" and assembling them into a single picture. Together with student Kujo Kazuya, she investigates a series of strange crimes that turn out to be connected to much darker and larger secrets.

4. Psycho-Pass, 2012-2019

In Japan's future, the Sybil system can measure each person's mental state and predict their potential to commit a crime. Inspectors armed with special guns monitor the order, ready to stop those who pose a threat at any moment.

But what happens if the system makes a mistake? Or worse, when it works too well? Psycho-Pass plunges you into a world where the lines between law and justice are blurred.

5. Ergo Proxy, 2006

In a dark post-apocalyptic world where humans and androids live side by side, strange events begin to occur. Re-l Mayer, a brave intelligence officer, investigates incidents involving androids that suddenly have a mind of their own.

Her path crosses with Vincent Law, an ordinary worker who finds himself in a race with a mysterious monster called the Proxy. This anime is full of mystery and philosophical questions about what makes us human and how far we are willing to go in search of the truth.