After a deceptively packed summer of new releases, the fall season for anime television is full of future shonen juggernauts, cozy sleeper hits, and classic horror given a new coat of (black-and-white) paint, in the case of the long-awaited series adaptation of Junji Ito’s Uzumaki. To help you sift through the overwhelming offerings on deck, we’ve gone ahead and picked out ten series hitting screens in the coming season, a combination of the biggest returns with some newcomers that we’re most interested in. The vast majority of new and noteworthy anime releases cluster in the month of October, which makes for plenty of debuts to keep track of in the span of a couple weeks. (Don’t worry: We’ve already covered the upcoming non-anime releases earlier this week.) We made this list in part to help you decide which titles you’ll want to invest time in first.
September
Uzumaki (Sept. 28)
The long, long-awaited series adaptation of Junji Ito’s most famous horror manga is finally arriving. Directed by Hiroshi Nagahama — who has touched on horror folktales before with the excellent Mushi-shi — the story is about a town suffering from a curse that manifests through spirals. (The title literally translates to “spiral.”). It starts small: Patterns repeat in clouds and in nature, before they become more invasive, to incredibly disturbing effect, twisting minds and then bodies. The show, airing on Adult Swim in a four-episode miniseries, looks like the manga come to life. Nagahama uses monochromatic color direction and animates heavy line-drawings in his latest experimental approach after directing Flowers of Evil and The Reflection. It’s part of why this is such an exciting project — a Junji Ito title not only finally getting a good adaptation, but one that has grand ambitions of its own.
October
Blue Lock season two (October 5)
The returning Blue Lock is a sports anime built on a Jenga tower of utterly bizarre concepts: After defeat in the 2018 World Cup, a cabal in the Japanese soccer union has started a secret programme to convince players that this isn’t a team sport and recruit 300 players to find the most talented and egotistical striker they can. Where some sports anime might relish down-to-earth realism, Blue Lock is a lot more heightened. As unhinged as it is, the premise landed for a lot of people — so much so that Japan’s last World Cup kit took inspiration from it.
Ranma 1/2 (October 5)
Following in the footsteps of the recent Urusei Yatsura remake, is this MAPPA-produced adaptation of another manga by the legendary Rumiko Takahashi, Ranma 1/2. After falling into an enchanted spring, high-school boy and martial artist Ranma Saotome is cursed to transform into a girl whenever splashed with cold water, and turn back when he comes into contact with hot water. This new adaptation will be directed by Konōsuke Uda, known for his work on One Piece. The trailer shows off a cute and nostalgic art style, full of pastel colors and demonstrating an embrace of Takahashi’s classic designs.
Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War (Part 3) (October 5)
There’s no shortage of jokes to make about a Bleach sequel having “Thousand Year” in the title; the original show ran for 16 seasons. Regardless, the finale to the adaptation of Tite Kubo’s long-running series has been rather welcome fan service. Directed by Tomohisa Taguchi, who helmed the excellent Akudama Drive, the third part (of four) arrives this October in an arc titled The Conflict, continuing the story from last year’s The Separation.
Blue Box (TBA October)
Love and Basketball? How about love, basketball, and badminton? The popular Shonen Jump series Blue Box and its combination of sports anime drama and romantic comedy is getting an anime adaptation from director Yūichirō Yano and Telecom Animation Film. Taiki Inomata is a badminton player, and his crush Chinatsu Kano plays basketball. The two athletes aspire to compete on a national level in their respective sports, and through their mutual support, a relationship blossoms. The designs look pretty, the lighting looks swooning, and overall Blue Box looks like a cozy autumn treat.
Dan Da Dan (TBA October)
Science Saru’s adaptation of Dan Da Dan promises to faithfully bring the madness of Yukinobu Tatsu’s manga to life. The action-comedy follows popular girl Momo Ayase and isolated dork Ken Takakura, who bond over a mutual appreciation of the unexplained: One believes in ghosts, the other aliens. Turns out that both urban legends exist, and their encounters with them give them both superpowers and a gradually growing stable of oddball supporting characters. They fight bizarre evil spirits and aliens (or both), while every arc of the manga is crammed with irreverent pop-cultural references (including to another series featured on this list: Ranma 1/2). Directed by Fūga Yamashiro, with music by kensuke ushio, it almost feels like the studio’s return to the creative well of Devilman Crybaby — in a rom-com about ghosts.
Blue Exorcist: Beyond the Snow Saga (TBA Oct.)
The fourth season of Blue Exorcist arrives around 13 years(!) after the first started, continuing its story of Rin Okumura, a boy who learns he’s literally the spawn of Satan. The anime adaptation has suffered somewhat from its erratic release schedule, with two hiatuses taking over six years apiece, and the production even changing hands for its third season, subtitled Shimane Illuminati Saga, which aired earlier this year. After a long and tumultuous journey, it feels like the show is finally back on track.
Dragon Ball Daima (TBA October)
With the sad passing of legendary artist Akira Toriyama earlier this year, the latest Dragon Ball series feels like one last farewell to a man who changed the world of anime and video games — and perhaps the cultural landscape at large. It’s appropriate then that the premise of Daima, created to celebrate the franchise’s 40th anniversary, is an unapologetic, literal throwback — turning back the clock on Goku and returning him to the round little visage seen in the original Dragon Ball. Thing is, it also happens to the rest of the cast, many of whom we never met at that age during Goku’s original journey. It’s one of the last (if not the last) Dragon Ball stories Toriyama had worked on.
You Are Ms. Servant (TBA October)
Putting a former prolific killer in charge of a domestic space is something of an anime tradition now, considering shows like Ms. Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid or The Way of the Househusband. You Are Ms. Servant will add to this canon with a slice-of-life comedy centered on a former hit woman who takes up a job as a housemaid. The show is directed by Ayumu Watanabe, known for his breathtaking feature Children of the Sea, as well as series adaptations like the recent Summer Time Rendering and Komi Can’t Communicate. Ms. Servant also shares a writer with Watanabe’s past works in Deko Akao, who wrote for Komi as well as After the Rain.
Yakuza Fiance (TBA October)
Based on the seinen manga by Asuka Konishi, Yakuza Fiancé is looking to be a twisted romance-meets-crime drama, directed by Toshifumi Kawase, with animation produced by Studio Deen. The story is that of Yoshino Somei, the young heiress of a yakuza group in Osaka. As part of a peace offering her grandfather arranges for her to be engaged to Kirishima Miyama, the young male heir of a large yakuza family from Tokyo. Yakuza Fiancé is known for not shying away from the dark stuff as far as organized crime is concerned, and that’s also reflected in its two incredibly intense leads.
