The Most Anticipated Anime of Fall 2024

Fall is upon us! And with the changing of the leaves comes a new season of anime to enjoy. On the one hand, we have new seasons of big names like Re:Zero and DanMachi. On the other, we have new shows like Uzumaki and DAN DA DAN. Which are the ANN editorial team most excited for? Let's find out.

Richard Eisenbeis

Most Anticipated: Uzumaki

To tell the truth, I'm not often one for horror—especially the more graphic sort. While it doesn't really scare me in the moment, it does give me nightmares—sometimes for days or even weeks. So when I watch or read anything horror all the way to the end, despite knowing the price I'll have to pay later, you can rest assured that it's worth it. Uzumaki is one such story.

This entire anime is built around the idea of making something mundane—in this case, spirals—absolutely horrifying. Simple things such as whirlpools and snails become objects of terror and dread. Even something as normal as curly hair is taken to grotesque extremes. It's the kind of twisted exploration that could only come from the mind of Junji Ito.

Of course, this isn't the first Junji Ito anime. However, unlike previous adaptations of his work, Uzumaki goes to great lengths to preserve his art style—so much so that the anime, like the manga, is in black and white. And based on what we've been shown in the trailers, it really does look like the manga in motion. With the addition of movement and voice acting, Uzumaki looks to be even more disturbing than the original. I have no doubt that I'll be plagued by nightmares after watching this one. I'm also sure that it'll be totally worth it.

Runner Up: Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online II

The best thing about Sword Art Online and its spin-offs is how the series reinvents itself with each arc. We've had death games and murder mysteries, slice-of-life tales and straightforward adventures. But perhaps my favorite story concept is that of Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online.

*Spoilers incoming for season one of Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online

More than anything, the first season's the story of its antagonist, Pitohui. An extreme thrill junkie, she's a woman who is plagued by the fact that she missed out on the SAO death game to the point that she decides to live her virtual life as if it were one. Or, to put it another way, she concocts a plan to put her life on the line—to turn Gun Gale Online into her personal alternative to Sword Art Online. It becomes a story about those close to her trying to save her from her own self-destructive tendencies in both the real world and the VR one—mainly through a series of exciting VR gunfights.

While the first season ties up the immediate threat quite nicely, it leaves things incredibly open as to where things go from there. While I don't expect anything as tightly written or high-stakes as the first season, I'm excited to see what happens next. After all, it's not like Pitohui's core personality has changed—rather, the target of her obsession has simply shifted. And what that means for the future is anyone's guess.

Rebecca Silverman

Most Anticipated: Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? V

I will open this with a recommendation: I strongly suggest reading the Familia Chronicle: Episode Freya novel or manga before this season starts. It's not that you won't understand the arc, but it will have more heft if you're already familiar with Freya and her quest for her oðr. That doesn't mean this season won't try to slip bits of that in; it would be relatively easy, given that it's only one book. But even if you decide not to, this upcoming season will adapt one of the most intense sections of the novels, with emotional stakes at least as high as the Xenos arc, albeit in a very different way.

In some senses, this is where Bell's special status as a rapid-growth adventurer really comes to the fore; we've seen that Hestia loves him and that Hermes has plans for him, but now Freya is about to tip her hand where he's concerned. And Freya has enough power to be even more of a threat than Ishtar or Apollo because while those familias were composed of strong adventurers, Freya's children are both strong and intensely devoted to her. So devoted, in fact, that it's a bit worrisome. Technically, all of the familias are headed by gods, but only Freya's has (to my mind) the whiff of a cult. And that's what makes this arc so intense – not only does it pit Bell against other adventurers on the right side of the Guild (unlike the Evils and their ilk), but the members of Freya Familia are monstrously strong. It's hard to lay out just why the stakes are so high in this storyline without spoiling anything, but suffice it to say that, as the Xenos showed Hestia Familia, there's a very fine line sometimes between monster and man, and the gods can be very capricious—Bell's about to find out more about these things than he ever imagined.

Runner Up: Nina the Starry Bride

It feels like most fantasy anime, regardless of whether it's based on a manga or not (this one is), tends to prefer its fantasy European. That's not the case for Nina the Starry Bride; set in a vaguely Middle Eastern world, it's about a young woman named Nina who is sold off the streets as a body double for Princess Alisha. Alisha, who was very important to the kingdom, was killed in a carriage accident, but her death could do terrible things to the politics of peace. Therefore, the kingdom feels it's in their best interests to say she's alive and well and replace her with a girl who looks enough like her to fool most people. It makes sense to Nina, but she's not in the mood for a Cinderella story, especially since it likely involves a prince (or two) less than charming.

Nina herself really makes this series. She's strong and intelligent, willing to do what she has to to stay alive, but never entirely certain that what she's doing is actually right. She's also not the only person operating under a false identity, which absolutely throws in more complications than she's ready to deal with. Nina can't truly trust anyone, and that may go double for the people she most desperately wants to trust. Although the story gets a little stuck in later manga volumes, I'm still really looking forward to seeing it play out – the art in the trailer looks beautiful, and I think adding an aural component will really enhance the story.

To round things out, I'm also excited for Blue Box, an excellent shōnen romance, and to see how the adaptation of A Terrified Teacher at Ghoul School! handles its source material. It's good dumb yokai-based fun, and while it could very quickly veer over into “annoying,” it could also turn out to be the turn-off-your-brain fun of the season. Either way, a lot is coming out, so hopefully, some of it will be good!

Lucas DeRuyter

Most Anticipated: Uzumaki

While DAN DA DAN is rightfully set to be the new horror-tinted hotness this spooky season, I'm chomping at the bit to watch the Uzumaki anime finally. I was all in on this anime when it was announced at Crunchyroll Expo back in 2019 and thought this might finally be the production that understands what makes Junji Ito's works so affecting and does his most well-known work justice on the silver screen. Then I spent the next five years thinking, “Hey, is this out yet? Did this project get canceled?” about once every six months.

To give context for just how long it's been since Uzumaki was announced, an entire global pandemic kicked off and (kind of) resolved between when that first teaser dropped and the anime's proper release. I've left gigs and started new jobs in entirely different industries a total of three times since we first heard about this project at Crunchyroll Expo! It's been so long since the Uzumaki anime was announced that Crunchyroll Expo isn't even a thing anymore!!! I know I'm setting myself up for disappointment, but I've spent more time waiting for this anime to release than any other, and I can't help but be a little hyped.

I'm not even a huge Junji Ito fan, but I know that Uzumaki will inspire me to explore more of his bibliography if it's even close to doing the iconic horror manga justice. The trailers inspire a ton of confidence with their deliberately inhuman soundtrack, black-and-white color palette, and visuals that are as striking as the original artwork. I know we've been burned before by anime adaptations of Junji Ito's work, but this really does seem like the best effort in transforming the best manga from one of the best active mangakas into an anime.

Runner Up: Dragon Ball Daima

Alright, I'm not too proud to admit it: I'm a basic bitch and want the new Dragon Ball anime to be good. I know I should use my voice and the platform I've been afforded to boost anime that aren't guaranteed to be popular or elevate more socially or politically important stories, but I really want Dragon Ball Daima to be good. I'm fully aware that I'm contributing to one of the biggest problems of the Western anime community—the excessive coverage of widely popular series while titles that are more important and impactful to the medium wallow in obscurity. However…I REALLY want Dragon Ball Daima to be good!

I've spent too much of my life watching and thinking about Dragon Ball not to watch this latest entry in the franchise. I can only hope that Daima is better than the last couple of outings we've had as members of this increasingly cursed fandom. For those lucky enough to have a different gateway into the world of anime, let me walk you through how the last couple of attempts at Dragon Ball sequels went. Dragon Ball GT certainly had some high moments, including the best conclusion to the franchise by a mile, but sidelined fan-favorite characters like Gohan, Piccolo, and Krillin for the vast majority of its run. The Dragon Ball Super anime suffered from animation woes out of the gate and felt superfluous in its first few arcs as they were adaptations of recently released DB movies. Then there's the Dragon Ball Super manga, which is more interesting in concept than execution as it regularly diverges from the now canon anime, and the Xenoverse games, which feel more like fairly solid Dragon Ball fan-fics than proper continuations of the story.

Daima doesn't even have to be a great anime; I just want it to be good enough that I spend more time thinking about its strong points than its failings. In short, my childhood self demands that I watch Dragon Ball Daima, and I hope it's good enough for me to recommend to people wholeheartedly and without caveats. Sunk cost fallacy? Haven't heard of her.

Kennedy

Most Anticipated: Uzumaki

I'm trying really hard to keep my optimism and expectations for Uzumaki in check. Junji Ito's work doesn't readily lend itself to adaptation very well, and we've seen that put to the test on multiple occasions. But at the same time—god, if the animation from the trailer is representative of what the whole show is going to look like, then what am I supposed to do? NOT feel excited about this? Not only are these incredibly stylish visuals a really novel approach to adapting Ito's work but also the source material (the Uzumaki manga) is iconic in its own right and widely considered to be among Ito's all-time best for a reason—several reasons, in fact. So if the Uzumaki anime manages to stick the landing, I could see this possibly becoming an anime of the year contender for me—not an easy thing to do in the same year we've had the likes of Bravern and Delicious in Dungeon. But as things like the Junji Ito "Collection" anime continue to remind me, the key word here is “if.” To be honest, what little remaining hope I might have that we might someday see a good anime adaptation of one of Ito's works will probably evaporate if this one doesn't work out.

Runner Up: Ranma ½ (2024)

Admittedly, I still have mixed feelings about the prospect of a Ranma remake even now. In addition to not seeming necessary (or perhaps more accurately: I can think of a dozen other series more deserving of a remake—especially if we're talking a more manga-faithful, Brotherhood-style remake, cough Ouran High School Host Club cough), there's a number of aspects about it that I doubt have aged remarkably well. This is to say nothing of the fact that for as great as the original series was, it's not like it was ever without flaws in the first place. But at the end of the day, I'm a '90s kid with this commercial still deeply engraved into my memories; I can't deny my love and nostalgia for this iconic queer series, and I think the new art style looks really cute, too. Conflicting opinions about the remake aside, though, while flawed, the original Ranma was nonetheless an incredibly formative and generation-defining show for so many anime fans. I guess more than anything, I'm excited to see Ranma getting some renewed social relevance in 2024. Not to mention, if the Urusei Yatsura remake is at all foreshadowing what's to come, then there's sure to be some fun, unlikely crossover campaigns on the horizon.

Christopher Farris

Most Anticipated: Love Live! Superstar!! 3rd Season

Love Live!. Love Laugh. Love Love. It's that time again—or rather, it's a time some thought might never arrive. A third season of a given Love Live! entry is downright unprecedented, but not only was it something I and plenty of others saw coming during Superstar's second season, but that sort of tradition-breaking fits right into the way Superstar has rolled from the start. This was always a Love Live! that thrived on shirking and spinning the methodologies of the franchise to its own whims, such as starting its first season with only five girls in its squad to allocate more time and development to them. It's all paid off beautifully over the past two seasons, culminating in a fundamentally insane cliffhanger ending borne, at least partially, out of taking the piss out of the OG Love Live!'s first-season finisher.

How the case of Kanon's canceled trip turns out, of course, is the most burning question coming into the third season of Superstar. So far, the trailers indicate that she's not immediately forthcoming with her friends about still being at school. While the idea of Kanon stealthing around all season sounds amusing, I can't imagine the show will keep that up for long. It would make the musical numbers decidedly challenging. Even if Superstar did chicken out on its most outlandish shake-up, there are still plenty of other status quo shifts I'm jonesing to see play out. How will adding Actual Villain Idol Margarete to the group shift the power balance? And you're telling me Natsume's had a sister this whole time? This is why Superstar needed a third season: there was no other way to contain what this crew had concocted. Now the field has overloaded, and the third seal has been broken on the goofiest collection of gremlin girls this franchise has yet produced. God help us.

Runner Up: How I Attended an All-Guy's Mixer

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Alright, I just gotta pick one that's laser-targeted at me each season, y'know? And it doesn't always work out. Lord knows Hokkaido Gals Are Super Adorable! turned out underwhelming. And All-Guy's Mixer, as an anime, hardly looks astonishing. The animation's simple and workmanlike, and the proper rom-com elements haven't been fleshed out much for the audience's benefit in what little has been shown. But man. It is a romantic comedy where the main love interests are a trio of pretty girls cross-dressing as insanely hot guys. Am I not allowed to be only human?

I'll spare you the spectacle of me turning into a cartoon wolf over the mere aesthetic premise and try to at least hone in on more material appeals to attending this All-Guy's Mixer. Aoi Yuuki is there! Much of the staff and studio involved are workhorses who haven't been tested as the leads on a production, but there's potential. Director Kazuomi Koga previously handled episodes of Wotakoi, How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord, and Love Tyrant. Remember Love Tyrant? And as specific as the setup is for catering to a very particular niche, it does also open up avenues for interesting storytelling potential in a romance about gender roles and how one defines their identity based on who they're attracted to. I absolutely want this anime to have stuff going on that I can appreciate in between all the images of hot cross-dressing girls. But for now, I'll temper my expectations. And maybe watch that trailer a few dozen more times. And see if I can't check out the manga—

Jairus Taylor

Most Anticipated: DAN DA DAN

What happens when a girl who believes in ghosts meets a boy who believes in aliens? You get one of the raddest pieces of fiction to come out in the last few years. Yeah, I know I'm not being very original, and I'm far from the only person on this list who's excited about it, but in my defense: DAN DA DAN absolutely rules, and everyone should be hyped about it. Ever since I got into the manga a couple of years back, I've been consistently blown away by its combination of some of the most aggressively cool things and most aggressively weird things you'll ever see. It blends all that together with a surprisingly sweet core romance between its leads. While I was a little concerned about how well the manga's impeccable art would translate into animation, I can safely say after seeing the screening for the first three episodes, that the team at Science SARU is doing the manga justice and has managed to capture every ounce of its visual madness while adding in plenty of their own. Without a doubt, this is going to be one, if not the, coolest anime to come out this year, and if you aren't on board already, I can promise you that there's plenty to be excited about.

Runner Up: Magilumiere Co. Ltd.

I've enjoyed a lot of magical girl stuff in recent years and have since become a convert to the Church of Precure, but as much as I've enjoyed the sparkly escapades of magical preteens, part of me has always yearned for a story about magical women and what it's like to balance fighting monsters of the week while working a 9-5 job. Magilumiere Co. Ltd. answers that by asking, "What if working as a magical girl was a 9-5 job?" The results are pretty interesting.

Magilumiere Co. Ltd. attempts to balance the optimism and joy of magical girl hijinks with the shrewd realities of business management, and while you'd think those two things wouldn't go well together, it does a surprisingly good job of delving into Japanese business politics while geeking out about how cool magical girls are and displaying its love for them at every opportunity. It's an odd little series, to be sure, but one that I've been enjoying a lot in manga form, and I'm pretty curious to see how that translates into an anime. Really, though, the main reason I've placed this as my runner-up is that it's currently locked down as an Amazon Prime exclusive, and this might be the most anyone on the English-speaking side of the internet ever hears about this show before it's never heard from again. Having it lose out on the chance to gain an audience before it even airs would be way too cruel a fate, so this is my desperate plea for folks to give this one a shot. It's a pretty charming little series, and if the anime can manage to capture most of that, then it's worth keeping an eye on.

Steve Jones

Most Anticipated: Negative Positive Angler

I've been waiting a long time for a fishing anime to hook me as fiercely as tsuritama did, and NegaPosi Angler seems poised to cast its rod in that direction. It's already off to a good start with its premise: a guy is told he has a brain tumor and two years to live, after which he gets swept up into an eccentric gang of fishing hobbyists. In other words, it's a down-to-earth drama about adults, a distinctive gimmick, and an original work to boot. That's more or less all I'm looking for. The PV, though, adds heaps of additional hype because it looks full of personality. The character designs pop, the fishing scenes look great, and I like the urban and ocean aesthetics mix. It doesn't appear like it will be as quirky as tsuritama—I don't foresee an alien or a duck joining the cast— but I think it'll be full of heart.

Runner Up: DAN DA DAN

The highest compliment I can give DAN DA DAN is that I feel pressured to catch up to the manga in the coming weeks before the anime becomes an inescapable sensation. That's basically all I know about it, too. Hell, if you're reading this, you probably know more about DAN DA DAN than I do. My rubbernecking of friend's tweets has been consistently intriguing, and mangaka Yukinobu Tatsu's tutelage as an assistant to Tatsuki Fujimoto also promises an unforgettably weird time. Plus, Science SARU is on the case. I know I'm going to love this. I just hope its paranormal activities make it a worthy successor to the legacy of Occult Academy.

Kevin Cormack

Most Anticipated: Uzumaki

I've been a die-hard Junji Ito fan ever since Viz serialized his three-volume grotesque and surreal horror series Uzumaki in their excellent English-language Pulp monthly manga anthology magazine back in the early 2000s. While his similarly unsettling Tomie series comes a close second, for me, Uzumaki and its indescribably strange spiral-infected imagery remain the peak of Ito's contribution to graphic horror fiction. Every single chapter brings some new twisted and disturbing variation to the concept of spirals as a source of cosmic existential horror. At turns Lovecraftian, at others absurdly comedic, the bizarre events that overtake Uzumaki's small town Kurouzu-cho, as witnessed by hapless observers Kirie and her boyfriend Shuichi, are unlike anything else I've ever read.

It's with some trepidation then that I anticipate this long-delayed four-episode adaptation of Ito's masterwork into moving images. Considering the poor fan reception to both (cheap-looking) recent anime anthology adaptations of his shorter stories, it's perhaps understandable that the prospect of a further sub-par Ito adaptation fills me with dread (and not in a good way). Thankfully, the trailers so far look incredible. Director Hiroshi Nagahama's decision to maintain a manga-accurate monochrome color scheme, accompanied by almost absurdly detailed line-work, looks to be the first time that anime will accurately capture Ito's singularly weird vision.

With proper time and resources invested in Uzumaki's production, I'm confident that this will be the best version it could possibly be – surely miles better than the abysmal 2000 live-action abomination. It won't be to everyone's tastes, but I cannot wait to spiral once more into Uzumaki's twisted vortex of spinning terror.

Runner Up: Magilumiere Co. Ltd.

Another manga I'm a huge fan of, Magilumiere Co. Ltd. is a relatively new series that debuted only three years ago on the Shonen Jump+ platform (also the home of this upcoming season's DAN DA DAN, which I am also extremely hyped for). It's a workplace fantasy with adult (college graduate-aged) characters, which is relatively rare for a mainstream anime/manga. Protagonist Kana Sakuragi is a relatable everywoman who struggles to find a job now that she's left college. Somehow, Kana winds up joining the titular scrappy startup company as a new magical-girl-in-training.

Magilumiere Co. Ltd. is both grounded and funny, with a very familiar office-based setting filled with fun characters (especially cross-dressing magical girl-cosplaying boss Kouji Shigemoto who is a hoot.) In this world, magical girls fight against aggressive creatures called “Kaii,” with the Magilumiere girls using bespoke magical technology developed by engineer Kazuo Nikoyama, who bears more than a passing resemblance to My Hero Academia's Izuku Midoriya, though his role is more like the equivalent of that show's Mei Hatsune. Like the early seasons of MHA, Magilumiere Co. Ltd. is bright, breezy, and fun. Hopefully Studio Moe and J.C. Staff will translate this into anime form with ease.

Caitlin Moore

Most Anticipated: Nina the Starry Bride

It may not have the biggest budget of the season or the fanciest animation, but the show I'm most excited about is Nina the Starry Bride. I've read a chunk of the manga, and it activates the same part of my brain as series like Twelve Kingdoms and Yona of the Dawn: a young woman thrown into a strange situation where she's surrounded by strangers, unsure who she can or cannot trust. In this case, Nina has been living on the streets as an orphan for years when she is captured and sold to the royal family because of her brilliant blue eyes. At the palace, she's informed she must don a wig, pose as the princess Alisha, and be married off to the prince of a neighboring country. However, Nina hasn't survived years on the streets by being a pushover, and she's not about to just go along with a plan like this.

So, we have a fantasy josei series with a scrappy heroine, beautiful men, and stunning world design. To me, the reasons I'm looking forward to it are self-evident because those are all great qualities for a series to have! This feels indisputable!

Runner Up: DAN DA DAN

This may be a little bit of a cheat because I was lucky enough to see the theatrical run of the first three episodes, so I know exactly what to look forward to with DAN DA DAN. It allows me to say with absolute confidence that it is borderline inconceivable that any of the fall anime will have a better production. Fūga Yamashiro may be a relative newcomer to the industry, but he has an incredible eye for what manga paneling conveys and how to translate a similar feeling into animation despite the different demands of each medium. Every frame, from the big action set pieces to the quieter moments, is perfectly laid out, every motion is expressive, and everything is just so much. The protagonists, gal Momo and nerdy Okarun, balance their “shitty teen” qualities with likability and humanity, and the two are perfect foils with excellent chemistry. It's just a superlative production from top to bottom, and I can't wait to see more.

Nicholas Dupree

Most Anticipated: The Stories of Girls Who Couldn't Be Magicians

Come, readers, drink from this oasis between what is probably the fifth and sixth DAN DA DAN entry in here.

Jokes aside, as much as I'm looking forward to that particular adaptation, I don't want it it lost that we've somehow got three different magical girl shows airing this season, and they all look interesting in their own right. I ended up going with this entry simply off the lovely art style, but any of them could be the sleeper hit of magically-inclined maidens this season. Magilumiere Co. Ltd. takes a modern tech twist on the formula, while Acro Trip has its heroine becoming a true rival to make her favorite magical girl shine all the more. The Stories of Girls Who Couldn't Be Magicians seems to be taking the classic magic school approach. I welcome all three and can't wait to see them all in action. This season has a unique amount of new material for a genre that's tended to be either neglected or dominated by “dark” twists over the last several years, so I can't resist highlighting when new, earnest entries make their presence known.

Runner Up: Blue Box

I fell in love with this romantic sports/dramedy way back when it first hit the pages of Jump, and I've basically been waiting since then for all the anime-onlies in my life to do the same. I love the main characters – two earnest, awkward jocks trying to figure out their feelings in between sports practice while also shouldering the weight of their athletic ambitions. I adore the way those feelings are portrayed through slow burns and white-hot burnouts, building to beautifully romantic or heartwrenching moments for every character. While I remain skeptical of the amalgamation of studios brought together for this adaptation, the main previews and visuals have all looked stunning and promise to capture the classic charm of Kōji Miura's work. It's about an obvious of a pick as DAN DA DAN, but that's only because Blue Box has everything going for it.

Outside of those, I'm curious about Negative Positive Angler and super fascinated by the premise of Orb: On the Movements of the Earth. For sequels, I'm super grateful to have Re:Zero season 3 coming in, as it continues to be the best example of a modern isekai I've found. I'm also impatiently waiting to have Love Live! Superstar!! back in action, especially after that cliffhanger from season 2.

James Beckett

Most Anticipated: DAN DA DAN

Look, guys, I tried really hard to come up with a more surprising or unconventional pick, but who the hell am I kidding? I've been absolutely in love with DAN DA DAN since I first read the manga a couple of years back. It combines all of the best tropes from science-fiction, horror, romantic comedy, and classic shōnen manga and blends them into a glorious puree that feels like it was made specifically for me. There was, in fact, a brief moment in time when I considered it my absolute favorite currently running manga, and while I've since determined that Chainsaw Man is the No. 1 King Shit of Weird Horror Shōnen Manga Mountain for my particular tastes, the fact that DAN DA DAN can maintain its position in a very close second place should still speak to how much I love it.

As such, the ridiculously fun tale of Ken and Momo's Quest to Fight All of the Aliens and Spookies (And Also Rescue Ken's Stolen Balls) was always going to shoot to the top of my list of most anticipated anime, even if, like, freaking Go Hands somehow got ahold of the license. Thankfully, we don't live in such a cursed universe as that. Instead, the series has fallen into the ridiculously overqualified hands of Science SARU, and every single preview and early screening reaction I've seen indicates that the studio's capable artists are infusing every last ounce of their talent, creativity, and passion for the craft of animation into this project. For those of you who have been following the manga, it is obvious why this combination of source material and production team is bound to produce something extraordinary. For any of the initiated out there: Hold on to your butts (and other sensitive extremities). You are in for a truly wild ride.

Runner Up: Uzumaki

I am on the record for doubting that Junji Ito's masterful horror manga can ever be truly replicated in another medium, be it anime or live-action. Nevermind that his infamously meticulous and grotesque phantasmagorias are just ridiculously difficult to replicate in motion without looking cheap or half-baked; I think that a key source of Ito's power comes from the reader having to fill in all of the gaps themselves in imagining how his slimy, uncanny, laws-of-physics shattering monstrosities would move and sound in real meatspace. If you just take a look at any of the most iconic “jumpscare” panels from Uzumaki, for instance, like the one where a girl's skull caves in to reveal an endless void of spiraled flesh—I don't know if there is a foley crew or special effects team on Earth that can replicate the impossibly terrible sights and sounds that your own brain has to hallucinate up to complete the gestalt.

And yet, the mad bastards at Adult Swim have given Hiroshi Nagahama and Studio Drive the mission to do just that. The task was clearly a Herculean one since it has taken half a decade to produce a four-episode miniseries adaptation that will have to make some pretty major cuts and changes to condense Ito's original tome into such a condensed runtime.

Despite all of my doubts and misgivings, though…I mean, just look at that goddamned trailer! I may not think that this show will succeed in legitimately scaring me, but holy hell is this show going to be an absolute feast for the senses. The amount of respect I have for Nagahama and Co. for pulling off a Junji Adaptation that doesn't just look serviceable but downright revolutionary cannot be understated. For undeniable reasons, I doubt we will see another television anime that looks and sounds this good for a long time. This should have been an unadaptable pipe dream, so no matter where it may fall short of living up to the Uzumaki manga, I still intend to cherish every gorgeous and insane frame of this impossible project.

MrAJCosplay

Most Anticipated: Dragon Ball Daima

I'm sure this will be one of the most predictable answers on this list, but I don't care. The death of acclaimed creator Akira Toriyama was one that I felt in my soul as someone who had grown up with Dragon Ball from its humble beginnings up to the modern day. There have been offshoots of the franchise handled by other people, but it always felt special when Toriyama himself returned to the franchise. Not everything he touched was perfect, but it always carried this irrevocable charm that will continue to be celebrated in the decades to come.

Dragon Ball Daima is confirmed to be one of the last things he ever worked on before his unfortunate passing this year. Typing that sentence alone already has my eyes welling with tears. Based on the previews, it doesn't look like Daima will be a tragic story, and you could argue that it's unfair to imprint so many outside circumstances onto this show. However, even if Toriyama were still alive, this would still be one of my more anticipated fall season shows. If anything, it's been one of my most anticipated shows of the entire year.

While I'm not in love with the concept of making all of the characters younger as I get Dragon Ball GT flashbacks, Toriyama has demonstrated that he can take concepts that might not seem great on paper and validate them in a way that catches the reader off guard. I can see Daima being just a lighthearted comedy that harkens back to the original Dragon Ball or a new action adventure with creative set pieces. After Dragon Ball Super raised the stakes so high, I also appreciate seeing a smaller-scale adventure (see what I did there?). The locations look fun and inventive, and the new characters look like they'll be loads of fun. I can't wait to watch this and analyze every single frame when it comes out.

Runner Up: DAN DA DAN

When I was told the DAN DA DAN manga was written by somebody who worked as an assistant on the Chainsaw Man manga, suddenly everything made sense. DAN DA DAN is a manga that I think perfectly blends a dumb action shounen series with a supernatural horror. Having fully caught up to the Manga, I can confidently say this is probably one of the more enjoyable reading experiences that I've recently engaged with. It's not a super smart or even deep story, but it scratches all the appropriate itches in terms of being entertaining. The characters are likable, bouncing off each other well while feeling angsty in all the appropriate ways. It's fun to think about this show just being about a bunch of stubborn teenagers constantly trying to deal with all of the crazy supernatural or science fiction stuff that life randomly decides to throw at them on a whim.

Based on the previews that have come out, it looks like a fairly significant portion of the manga will be covered, which makes me a bit concerned about the overall anime's pacing. However, something kinetic matches this series better than something more drawn out. Animation studio Science SARU has a fairly solid track record. The previews showed a lot of contrasting colors, subtle character acting, and crazy action. Considering how well presented all these elements were in the manga, getting to see them in motion is going to be a treat. (Also, I need to hear my queen Seiko Ayase being voiced by Kari Wahlgren).

Lynzee Loveridge

Most Anticipated: Orb: On the Movements of the Earth

First of all, everyone above me here is extremely correct. Uzumaki looks stunning, and having seen the first three episodes of DAN DA DAN, I can also assure you that it kicks ass. Fūga Yamashiro and the team at Science SARU went into the adaptation with something to prove, and they nailed it across the board. I've likewise been a fan of Hiroshi Nagahama since his work on Flowers of Evil, and I'm excited to see how his process has developed since then.

So, instead of discussing either one, I'll add a few other series into the mix.

I first encountered Orb: On the Movements of the Earth while reading submissions for the American Manga Awards and immediately fell in love with it. While we continue to wait for more Vinland Saga, I urge folks to check out Orb for a similar story, although it's in a different historical period and location. The story centers on a boy named Rafal in the 1400s who is naturally adept at mathematics and what constitutes the time period's study of astronomy. He and others began brushing up against the Inquisition for secretly studying a heliocentric model of the universe.

Parasyte -the maxim- director Kenichi Shimizu is leading the production at MADHOUSE, which gives me hope for a competent or, if we're lucky, exemplary adaptation. The studio is coming off the success of Frieren: Beyond Journey's End but it's also been responsible for pretty visually-middling adaptations in recent years as well, so I'm not immediately assured that Orb will look as amazing as I hope.

Runner Up: Yakuza Fiancé: Raise wa Tanin ga Ii

Remember when social media collectively lost its shit over that scene with Nanami from Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2? No, not that one, the other one.

This is the anime series of that, and it looks like Studio DEEN is keeping it together in the presentation so thirst levels are at maximum overdrive. Yakuza Fiancé: Raise wa Tanin ga Ii is an award-winning manga that shifts the usual waifish, reluctant heroine paired with the dangerous bad-boy to a yakuza-heir who could break your knees and a dangerous bad-boy. Everyone here is a sexy criminal with bloody knuckles, and I am here for it.