AniMarch Madness 2026: Let the Madness Begin!

AniMarch Madness is back!

Last year, after thousands of votes and a whole month of bracket battles, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End came out on top, edging out Spy x Family in a close final matchup and earning its second consecutive championship with 56% of the vote to SxF’s 44%. It’s gone 12-0 in tournament play across both years, raising a fun question for fans: Can any series dethrone its streak this year?

For those who watched the story unfold—from the Sweet 16 chaos to the Final Four showdowns—it was a reminder that fandom doesn’t just pick favorites… it defends them fiercely.

And that’s why this year feels exciting all over again.

An Event Unlike Any Other

For those new to the festivities, AniMarch Madness is a month-long, single-elimination tournament in which you vote on one-on-one matchups until only one anime remains. It’s one of our favorite annual events on Beneath the Tangles, with this now our 11th year of the contest!

Here are the previous winners of the event:

2016: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
2017: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
2018: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
2019: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
2020: My Hero Academia
2021: Attack on Titan
2022: Violet Evergarden
2023: Spy x Family
2024: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End
2025: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End

What’s Different in 2026

In 2026, AniMarch Madness will run entirely on Discord and Instagram.

We’re not doing newsletter or Facebook voting this year. We’re taking the vote to Instagram Stories and our Discord server. If you want to have a hand in deciding this year’s winners, those are the places to be.

How to Participate

On Instagram
Matchups will drop as Story polls. Tap your choices, watch the votes roll in, and don’t be shy about sharing with friends to help get your anime to the championship!

On Discord
This is where we’ll post bracket updates, results, and reactions. Wanna argue a matchup (kindly)? Talk lore? Push back against someone’s inexplicably wrong picks? Discord is your arena.

What’s Next

As has been the case the past few years, we’ll start this month with play-in matches. Join our Discord and follow on Instagram so that you can vote for these initial match-ups starting Monday of next. Then look for the bracket to post and the tourney to officially begin on March 2nd.

So this March, pull up a chair. Pick your favorites. And try to convince all your friends that Haikyuu or The Apothecary Diaries or Laid-Back Camp deserves all the love in the world—and everyone’s votes.

Let the madness begin.

—
See you on Discord and Instagram. 🙌

Twwk
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