Another anime season is upon us, and that means it’s time once again for our first impressions!

Fall 2026 is taking its sweet time getting started. A handful of anime will arrive before the end of September, but the season really begins to hit its stride on September 30, when the autumn schedule starts filling up in earnest. And then, as always, the watchlist gets a little ridiculous—though that’s all part of the fun!

There’s plenty to look forward to this season, too. We’ve got long-awaited returns like The Apothecary Diaries and Black Clover, second seasons of Blue Box and A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special, a new Magic Knight Rayearth adaptation, and a number of intriguing newcomers—including Firefly Wedding, Overgeared, The Vermilion Mask, and Hello, I Am a Witch and My Crush Wants Me to Make a Love Potion!

And a few of our first impressions are arriving early this time around thanks to Crunchyroll Anime Nights Sneak Peek, which gave us an opportunity to get an early look at several fall premieres before the season officially gets underway.

As usual, our writers will be sampling a wide variety of new and returning series over the coming weeks. We’ll be sharing what catches our attention, what surprises us, what doesn’t quite work, and—perhaps most importantly—which shows we’re actually going to keep watching.

Below, you’ll find our first impressions of Fall 2026 anime. Keep checking back as we add more throughout the beginning of the new season, and let us know what you’re watching, too!

Black Clover S2 • Firefly Wedding • Overgeared • The Vermilion Mask

Black Clover S2

First Impression: Negativeprimes

Of course, any anime returning after such a long hiatus has to balance recap with hitting the ground running; S2 gives us the barest sufficient reminder of where we left off, which is probably the best option. We don’t need to remember who every member of the massive cast is, nor recall all the previous arcs in detail. And then, action! Which has always been Black Clover’s style anyway, emphasizing action and plot advancement by and large. And speaking of plot, we are starting to get into the end game now (albeit a very, very long end game). Let’s go!

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Streaming on Crunchyroll beginning on October 3rd.

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Firefly Wedding

First Impression: claire

…if the series continues on the vein of “debunking” Stockholm Syndrome and foregrounding the innovative cleverness of a woman whose options in life are essentially nonexistent, I’m all for it. But I suspect that this is not the direction we are headed, since the opening monologue from Satoko describes how she chose to love someone inappropriate. Double sigh. Nevertheless, I’m intrigued. It’s already surprised me like, four times in twenty minutes, so perhaps the series can redeem what seems to be a rather more frightening than usual Beauty and the Beast setup.

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Streaming on Crunchyroll beginning on October 9th.

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Overgeared

First Impression: twwk

The first half of the episode does rush through his discovery of the legendary item, but the later scenes—the movement back and forth between his real life and online life, and the second quest—are well-written and compelling. By the time the episode concluded, I wasn’t ready to leave the world of Satisfy and Grid’s adventure. And that is as good a sign as any that this adaptation works.

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Streaming on Crunchyroll beginning on September 27th.

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The Vermilion Mask

First Impression: twwk

…this series calls back strongly to a classic anime filled with dark scenes, too: Fullmetal Alchemist. Yes, Peru looks a little like Edward with his braided blonde hair, but the tragedy of his childhood recalls the Elric brothers’ difficult past and how they left home as children. The animation, too, feels very 2000s, though vibrant in a way that’s consistent with current animation. Peru is very likeable, Gouon is not, and Sonarue is a strong female character who I’m hopeful will become a companion whose story we’ll admire as much as the protagonist’s. Oh, and did I mention that cliffhanger?

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Streaming on Crunchyroll beginning on October 10th.