The Most Anticipated Anime of Fall 2023

Perhaps to make up lost ground in summer, this year's fall anime season is downright frightful in scope. There are approximately 60 new series premiering between the last week of September and mid-October. With a surfeit of options for our watchlists, the Anime News Network editorial team did their best to whittle it down to their two most anticipated picks. As always, you'll be able to find your own "must-watch" series by joining us at the Trailer Watch Party on Wednesday at 5pm PDT/8pm EDT and reading along with the Preview Guide when it launches on September 29.

Richard Eisenbeis

Most Anticipated: Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End is not my most anticipated of the season. It's not even my most anticipated of the year. It's my most anticipated of the decade. I've written about Frieren: Beyond Journey's End several times here on ANN—going so far as to call the source material “the greatest manga I have ever read” without even a touch of hyperbole. Nearly every chapter brings me to the edge of tears—if not past it.

At first glance, Frieren: Beyond Journey's End is the story of what happens after the hero's party defeats the Demon King and saves the world. But really, that's the setting rather than the plot. The actual story is the beautiful yet tragic tale of the immortal elf mage of the party, Frieren, and how she realizes the personal importance of the 10 years she spent on their quest only after it's decades too late.

As an immortal, Freiren views time on a completely different scale—a decade to her is like a week to us. It never even occurs to her that that “week” could have changed her life. It's only with the death of Himmel the Hero that she realizes all the time she wasted that she could have spent with him—getting to know him. So she sets out on a new journey to try and get to know people better and, in the years to come, slowly discovers the impact Himmel and the rest of the party had on her as she passes on what she learned to the next generation.

Overall, Frieren: Beyond Journey's End is a deep dive into the heart of what it is to be human and the meaning we find in our all-too-short lives. It's a bittersweet tale filled with laughs, tears, action, and drama. It is simply amazing from top to bottom, and I can't wait to see how it looks in its full-color animated glory.

Runner Up: The Eminence in Shadow (Season 2)

The Eminence in Shadow is one of those shows that takes all the well-used isekai tropes and uses them to create something that deconstructs the genre and does so in a darkly hilarious way. In any other season, the return of The Eminence in Shadow would have topped my list. After all, the first season was not only a great adaptation but arguably the definitive version of the story. It wasn't afraid to add new elements when needed—notably featuring members of the supporting cast much more prominently in the early chapters and building an almost entirely original climax for the first season that further developed Cid and his opponents in important ways.

Moreover, rather than the more slapstick-oriented humor of the manga adaptation of the story, the anime tends to play everything completely straight. This makes it into a dark comedy through Cid's inability to understand that he is living his dream of being the head of a shadowy organization (rather than simply pretending to be one) and the sheer absurdity of how everything always turns out exactly as his delusions predict. It never ceases to be amusing.

While this season looks to adapt one of the story's less interesting arcs, the fact that the first season never hesitated to spice things up gives me hope that the anime will once again do what it does best and elevate the story to the next level. And even if it doesn't quite live up to the heights of the first season, watching Cid and friends battle vampires, zombies, and crime lords should be immensely amusing, at the very least.

Gunawan

Most Anticipated: Spy×Family Season 2

Yor will finally get her due this season! Fingers crossed, praying day and night. Please give the cruise arc bombastic action scenes so we can wow together with Anya. The first season of Spy×Family was a stellar adaptation of the manga, with the stand-out part being the fantastic presentation of Anya as a character that functions as the heart of the story. With Lloyd and Anya dominating season 1, leaving Yor little room to breathe made it feel slightly unfair. But you can also blame Tatsuya Endo for writing this arc for Yor only after the story has gone this far. I am craving Anya's new shenanigans on screen and a full scope of Yor's actual career.

Nicholas Dupree

Most Anticipated: The 100 Girlfriends Who Really Really Really Really Really Love You

This season is bursting at the seams, not just with a ton of shows, but a ton of really good-looking shows. I am positively spoiled for choice, yet the strictures of this feature require me to pick but a single show as my top dog – and ironically, it's the series about emphatically NOT picking just one.

I have spent roughly the last year founding and evangelizing for The Church of 100 Girlfriends, pushing the manga on damn near anyone who will listen and several who won't. I do so because I am an admitted fan of harem anime, and 100 Girlfriends is both the platonic ideal and ultimate evolution of the subgenre. Where other series will toss together a half-dozen girls and turn the game of love into a competition, 100GFs embraces the power of the polycule. Where other stories built around achieving 100 of something cheap out before even reaching two dozen, this series is so fully committed to the bit that only the mortality of its creators and the physical limitations of how many characters can fit on a page of manga could ever hope to hold it back. It's hilarious, ludicrous, ingenious, and stupid as hell, all in a way that transcends the strictures of “good” or “bad” taste. It populates its cast with bizarre yet lovable weirdos who would never work independently yet become a hilarious and endearing ensemble. In the middle of all its harem insanity, it even manages to have some genuinely astute things to say about romance, be it loving somebody because of their faults rather than despite them or its unflinching belief in the infinitely positive power of love. It's a series where I look forward to every new volume's release like it's an event, and I can't wait for the anime to introduce more people to the Rentaro Family.

Runner-up: The Ancient Magus' Bride Season 2 Part 2

On the topic of a weird family I love to see more of, I'm delighted we're getting this second half of AMB's long-awaited return so soon. While the first half of this season was slow in plot progression, it made up for it by crafting a complicated and engaging new setting for Chise and Elias to adapt to and introducing a ton of new characters with their own stories and travails to offer. With all of the setup firmly in place, I can't wait to dig into Philomela's conflict with her family and learn more about the twisted mysteries and emotional ties gnarled together in the world of sorcery. I'm even more intrigued to see where we go with Chise's story now that she's reached a level of power that makes her an active threat to her enemies – a dynamic shift that she's not all that comfortable with if it means taking lives with her own (dragon) hand. More than anything, I'm just glad to be back with this world and cast, ready to get lost in its engrossing, enchanting, and terrifying atmosphere.

From there, I may need to emulate Rentaro's dedication to his many, many, many loves to keep up with this season's other offerings. I can't wait to see what the animation team that brought Bocchi the Rock to life can do with Frieren: Beyond Journey's End. That manga is already fantastic, and with the right hands, it could become a modern classic. I'm less thrilled by the staff of I'm in Love with the Villainess, but that series has such endearing characters and humor that I think it'll survive the transition just fine anyway. SHY has recently scratched my itch for earnest superhero antics, which should also be fun. There are returning favorites like Dr. Stone and Spy×Family, and it looks like The Faraway Paladin is getting a production upgrade for this new season. That's just the stuff I'm excited for, let alone strong curiosities like the adult-oriented PreCure spin-off or The Apothecary Diaries. As I said, there are entirely too many good shows this season.

Rebecca Silverman

Most Anticipated: Yuzuki-san Chi no Yon-Kyodai

There are three shows that I'm particularly looking forward to in this upcoming season, but the other two are big names that are likely to get more press – The Apothecary Diaries and the return of Spy×Family. But Yuzuki-san Chi no Yon-Kyodai is hampered by the lack of an official release of its source material in English; the manga is by the same creator as Hatsu*Haru and The Transcendent One-Sided Love of Yoshida the Catch and I've been devouring the Italian editions. As anyone who's read those other two works can attest, Shizuki Fujisawa is good at mixing up her genres, and this story is a slice-of-life tale about four orphaned brothers trying to grow up and be a family together after their parents' deaths. At age twenty-three, the oldest son, Hayato, has to completely reconfigure his life to keep the boys together while taking on the triple roles of mother, father, and older brother. Despite being a year apart, the two middle sons are in the same class at school, which comes with its issues, especially since the third child, Minato, had health problems in the past, something he resents a bit now as he tries to find his place in the world. Mikoto, the second son, gives the impression of being easygoing, while Gakuto, at only six, seems to have grown up faster than he should have, even as his brothers are trying to keep him as safe and sheltered as they can. I know that “heart” is a difficult commodity to quantify, but if it's done right (and the previews seem to indicate that it will be), this story will grab hold of you and not let go. It's honest about how “growing up” is different for all of us, and we all do it at our own pace. Ultimately, it's about finding a way forward when all you want to do is keep looking back.

The Apothecary Diaries is also very high on my list. Adapted from the novels of the same name, the story follows Maomao, a young apothecary kidnapped while out gathering herbs and forced to work in the inner palace of the imperial court. Maomao has zero interest in conforming to anybody's ideals, is as sharp as the sharpest thing you care to name, and is twice as acidic. These things (plus her medical know-how) make her perfect to take on the role of amateur detective. It's different from most other palace fantasies and one of the most compulsively readable light novel series being translated into English. If the anime manages to screw it up, that alone will be an impressive feat, even if it doesn't look from the previews like we'll get as far as one of my favorite oddball scenes, “The frog or the testicles.”

Other titles to keep an eye on (besides the obvious Spy×Family) are Tearmoon Empire, a villainess time loop story with a heroine who isn't quite what people assume her to be and I'm Giving the Disgraced Noble Lady I Rescued a Crash Course in Naughtiness, which has a lot of fun playing with its words. It looks like a busy season, so hopefully, at least a few of these shows will pan out!

Christopher Farris

Most Anticipated: Uma Musume Pretty Derby Season 3

Uma Musume will always stand out as one of anime's strangest success stories. Its status as a great show that is also a promotional vehicle isn't all that odd, honestly; Things like Revue Starlight and my beloved BanG Dream also exist at the behest of mobile games. But Uma Musume stands apart from even that, being one of those goofy "Anime-girl anthropomorphization" projects ubiquitous in this industry that somehow wound up being one of the best sports anime I have ever seen. 2021's second season, in particular, came out swinging with some impressively interesting analyses of real-life sports occurrences as a vector for dramatic storytelling. It was all interspersed with absurd anime antics I'll always appreciate, including incomprehensible horse gyaru slang or a fan-favorite character constantly fiddling with a Rubik's Cube. But it also carried several arcs, ostensibly based on actual race records, that made me cry multiple times like a big, stupid baby.

With that in mind, all I needed from the trailer for Uma Musume's upcoming third season was that shot of a horse girl sobbing into her coffee mug to know that I'm probably going to be here for everything it's trotting out. We'll once again be jumping main characters, this time following the careers of precocious fangirl horses Kitasan Black and Satono Diamond after their age-up glimpsed at the very end of Season 2. And it's only a little hilarious knowing I could "spoil" the trajectory of this season by just going and looking up their race records, but where would the fun in that be? Then again, with Kei Oikawa back to direct, I can count on the inherent dramatism of these cartoon horse-girl competitions to be enthralling regardless of how familiar one already is with the historical happenings. The races look like they'll be just as much of a blast. Cheering on the intensity and drama is sure to leave our throats hoarse. Gold Ship is still there. You'll catch me at the starting line for this show as soon as it's ready.

Also Anticipating: 16bit Sensation: Another Layer

Going down the lists, this fall looks like a loaded and potentially promising new season. But apart from any returning series, the desire to spotlight new shows might also be tempered by my lack of familiarity with some source material. Sure, I am interested in series like Frieren: Beyond Journey's End and The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You based on what people I know have said about them, but can I in good faith put them on my list when I don't have any experience with them myself? No, what I can do is pick another adaptation I'm utterly unfamiliar with and place my bet entirely based on the premise! To that end, 16bit Sensation sounds like a hoot! I'm a sicko who got a kick out of Koe de Oshigoto, so a story of someone falling ass-first into the adult games industry has a lot of potential amusement value for me. Also, the focus on more of the game-creation angle calls to mind perennial favorite New Game, so there are a lot of possible places this one could go that would work for me.

It helps that 16bit Sensation has the vibes down pat. From the promo image styled precisely in the style of an old PC-98 adventure game (down to the border art!) to the preview video that apes the dating sim intro vids style, it's clear that all assignments are being understood here. As well they should, original manga creator Tamiki Wakaki worked with Tatsuya Takahashi of friggin' AQUAPLUS to develop the story for this anime. So it will be an original series and technically an adaptation? We'll see how it all turns out, but they've at least got me on-premise and presentation alone, which is the name of the game for anime anticipation.

James Beckett

Most Anticipated: Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

I tried hard to dig in deep and find a pick that didn't feel so…obvious? And, while I could have “cheated” again and picked the for-realsies-this-time-final special of Attack on Titan: The Final Season, I couldn't help going with the honest pick. Frieren: Beyond Journey's End is just the moody, thoughtful, and emotive fantasy drama that I've been craving ever since I came to terms with how long I'm going to have to wait for another season of Made in Abyss. Obviously, Frieren has very different priorities compared to MiA, but the point stands that I've been looking for something that'll hurt, you know? A show that'll gut-punch its way straight through my abdomen like it was Goku, and I was a megalomaniacal supervillain just askin' for a thrashin'. The fact that Frieren is taking a serious look at the long-term consequences of being an immortal being surrounded by mortal friends and partners is enough to sell me on the show already. Still, when you combine that killer premise with the lush visuals and cinematic direction that comes courtesy of Studio Madhouse, all I can do is slam my money on the table and demand that you hook it right into my veins.

Runner-Ups: Attack on Titan the Final Season, Castlevania: Nocturne

Okay, now that I've been a good boy and plugged one of the shows that are running for an entire season this fall, I get to indulge and take this very last opportunity to get hyped over the one new episode of Attack on Titan that we're ever going to get. Considering that the last special was a stone-cold masterpiece of mood and apocalyptic horror, I can only imagine what kind of grim spectacle awaits us in the series grand finale. Don't even try to come at me with any spoilers about how much I'm bound to hate the ending or whatever. Attack on Titan has been topping itself and raising the bar for the last decade. I will revel in this hype like a giddy little kid who's been waiting all year to tear into his Christmas presents.

Also, I know that some might quibble at whether or not it “counts” as anime, but we review it on this very site, dammit, so I say that nobody gets to tell me that I can't shout out Castlevania: Nocturne in this here feature. Unless my editors tell me, I guess, in which case, you won't even be reading this, so I win either way! Despite its bumpy middle chapters, though, Netflix's Castlevania has largely stood as one of the premiere examples of a video game adaptation done right. Now, this sequel series has two things going for it that promise even greater dividends to come. For one, Warren Ellis is out, which means the show might fix some of its more glaring pacing and dialogue issues (not to mention that Ellis is apparently quite the creep). Also, Nocturne is taking a stab at chronicling two of the Castlevania franchise's most beloved entries: Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night. As someone who has spent the last couple of years devouring every single game in the series, I am ridiculously excited to see the likes of Richter Belmont and Maria Renard kick vampire ass in glorious 2-D. Now, we can only pray that, someday, we'll get the Order Of Ecclesia anime that we so clearly deserve…

Steve Jones

Most Anticipated: Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

The calculus is simple on this one: Keiichiro Saito shows up, and I pay attention. After the dulcet cringe posting of Bocchi the Rock swept a ridiculously stacked autumn lineup last year, there's no reason to doubt he can direct yet another hit. Granted, Frieren appears to be a much different beast than Bocchi. I'm unfamiliar with the manga, but the trailers point to a melancholic meditation on endings and ephemerality set against a gorgeous fantasy setting. That's a bit of a leap from “Haha, funny guitar girl turns into a worm.” Saito can certainly handle a lot more than comedy, though. His episode for Sonny Boy proved as much, and the evocative surrealism of that work seems like an apt predecessor for the tone and visual style that Frieren is going for. So basically, I'm telling you to watch episode 8 of Sonny Boy, and if that tickles your fancy, I have a hunch that Frieren will offer quite a lot.

Runner-Up: The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You

This series frightens me. I think that's a good thing(?). I'm no relationship adjudicator, and I firmly believe everyone is entitled to pursue love in the way that makes them and their partner(s) happy. But 100 girlfriends seem like too many girlfriends. There surely must be a ceiling on how many girlfriends one teenage boy can handle simultaneously. While I don't know what that ceiling is, it has to be less than 100. But it would be best if you didn't listen to me. I'm an aging millennial who has only ever had one girlfriend at a time. I rely on art to keep me honest and open my eyes to perspectives I may otherwise have no concept. Maybe 100 is the correct number of girlfriends now. Maybe that's beautiful.

More seriously, every panel of the manga I've seen grace my Twitter timeline has been utterly confounding most delightfully, and I'm eager to close distance and sate my curiosity at long last. I can't speak to whether this adaptation will do the absurd maximalism of the original justice; in fact, it's possible that anime as a medium doesn't have the juice to support 100 girlfriends at the same time. However, this is the first season, so I hope the number of girlfriends covered in that space will be manageable.

Monique Thomas

Most Anticipated: Pluto

When I saw how many anime there were this season, I thought choosing one out of almost 70 titles would be difficult. Then I scrolled down and saw a title I wasn't even sure I would ever see light up our screens in anime form: Pluto. Pluto is the long-awaited adaptation of Naoki Urasawa's manga of the same name. Pluto's anime was revealed over five years ago via a single promotional image via Genco's booth at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival. Honestly, I recall responding with sheer disbelief and excitement. As Pluto is much shorter than most of Urasawa's catalog, it's an excellent choice for adaptation, but could anyone do it justice? Pluto being shorter doesn't make it less mighty. As a gritty, realistic homage to Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy, Pluto's legacy is a two-fold undertaking. Having little word for several years, I feared the project was stuck. However, seeing the trailer made me confident that this is reality. The trailer and the brief glimpse shown in the sneak peek have recreated Urasawa's art flawlessly, backed by an exciting score by Yugo Kanno. I'm hopeful that the time in limbo was time well spent. I know people who call Pluto a masterpiece, so the anime version can't afford to be anything less.

Runner-up: Frieren: Beyond Journey's End

Does anyone else feel that the deluge of generic isekai anime has been so bad that even regular fantasy anime makes you feel fatigued? One thing I noticed about this season is that while there were fewer isekai than I expected, many fantasy anime seemed too boilerplate for me to care about. Though, I'd be happy if they could prove my assumption wrong. I enjoy playing RPGs, hypothesizing over mythical creatures, and rolling d20s with my friends just as much as the next gal. However, too many stories now only rely on the barest of tropes and lack real innovation, character, or atmosphere. When I saw the Frieren: Beyond Journey's End trailer, I was taken aback by how gorgeous it was. So far, it is one of the best-looking shows of the season, based on the trailer alone.

Looks aren't everything, though; what about the story? What differentiates Frieren from its ilk populating the season chart? Before this, I read some of the manga available on the Viz App. From the onset, Frieren's concern isn't so much about the bravado we associate with the call of adventure; it's about the wandering we do when confronted with questions about life. Frieren was the mage for a heroic party that successfully defeated the demon lord, an epic quest that took over ten years for them to complete, and something she and the story consider somewhat inconsequential for an elf who has lived over hundreds of years. After all, how many stories about how many heroes and defeating how many demon lords have we already seen? The road after the grand battle that Frieren portrays is less traveled; it is personal and humbling. People who love fantasy will surely enjoy Frieren as it genuinely takes care and consideration for the world, and there's still much adventure to be had in it.

I was worried the introspective tone might be tricky to pull off, but kicking off with another movie-length premiere with series direction by Keiichiro Saito assures me that this show is in good hands. Saito previously served as the director of last year's biggest sleeper hit, Bocchi the Rock. Bocchi's anime impressed me with the innovative montages of Bocchi's mental meltdowns and the songs of sincerity sung as her bandmates support her in becoming a real rockstar. Along with him is Tiger and Bunny's writer Tomohiro Suzuki and composer Evan Call. Overall, Frieren has quite a strong party. Against the swarm of content, it's assuring to have some reliable players. Cast your strongest defensive buffs for us, guys; I think we'll need it.

MrAJCosplay

Most Anticipated: I'm in Love with the Villainess
There are many great things to look forward to next season, but many of them are sequels to already well-known shows, so their anticipation goes without saying. Instead, I want to focus on the show that wasn't close to my radar until I saw it during the Anime Expo this past summer. I'm in Love with the Villainess is one of those self-aware, “trapped in a video game” isekai shows that wastes no time in getting right to the action. Except in this case, the action is not trying to romance the usual pretty boy, as our lesbian queen is trying to romance the bully of the game that's supposed to make your life hell. For such a strange premise, there is a surprising amount of heart and character present that made me legitimately curious about how far you could push this concept. What other tropes can we play with, and how else can we subvert our expectations? I'm also curious to see how the main character will develop because, from the early preview, she seems to ride this line between being incredibly invasive and incredibly endearing. As long as the show focuses more on the latter than the former, I think I'll be in for a good time.

Runner Up: Girlfriend, Girlfriend Season 2
OK, scratch that; there is one sequel that I'm more curious about than anything else, and that's Girlfriend, Girlfriend season two. If I have any dedicated fans out there, then you'll know that this was the first seasonal anime that I ever covered for Anime News Network, and it was an intriguing pitch, considering that it was one of the first few shows to at least acknowledge the idea of a polyamorous relationship.

Of course, my expectations were in the ground considering the author's pedigree with shows like Aho Girl and early episodes focusing more on over-the-top, exaggerated humor. But some surprisingly thoughtful and interesting conversations were going on towards the middle and latter third of the show. I found myself genuinely invested in the main trio and thought the relationship between the three could work out if the writer wanted to go in that direction. Granted, the last episode utterly crushed any dreams of that happening, but considering how beloved the original manga was, I'd like to think there's more here than just stupid antics. This might become more of an obligation watch than anything, but I still hope for good things to come out of it.