Your watchlist for Winter 2026 will have some heavy-hitting titles.
The new year kicks off with a winter season that’s anything but quiet!
Winter 2026 is already shaping up to deliver some of the most anticipated anime releases on the horizon, from long-awaited returns to exciting new releases.
Whether you’re diving back into familiar worlds or scouting out the next must-watch hit, Winter 2026 has no shortage of reasons to stay indoors and keep the episodes rolling. Here are the anime titles you’ll want to keep firmly on your radar as the season unfolds:
Winter 2026 returning titles:
My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Season 2
Premiere: 5 January 2026
Official synopsis:
Koichi Haimawari is a dull college student who aspires to be a hero but has given up on his dream. Although 80% of the world’s population has superhuman powers called Quirks, few are chosen to become heroes and protect people. Everything changes for Koichi when he and Pop☆Step are saved by the vigilante Knuckleduster and get recruited to become vigilantes themselves!
Jujutsu Kaisen: The Culling Game Part 1
Premiere: 9 January
Official synopsis:
Yuji Itadori is a boy with tremendous physical strength, though he lives a completely ordinary high school life. One day, to save a classmate who has been attacked by curses, he eats the finger of Ryomen Sukuna, taking the curse into his own soul. From then on, he shares one body with Ryomen Sukuna. Guided by the most powerful of sorcerers, Satoru Gojo, Itadori is admitted to Tokyo Jujutsu High School, an organization that fights the curses... and thus begins the heroic tale of a boy who became a curse to exorcise a curse, a life from which he could never turn back.
Fire Force Season 3 Part 2
Premiere: 10 January
Official synopsis:
Tokyo is burning, and citizens are mysteriously suffering from spontaneous human combustion all throughout the city! Responsible for snuffing out this inferno is the Fire Force, and Shinra is ready to join their fight. Now, as part of Company 8, he’ll use his devil’s footprints to help keep the city from turning to ash! But his past and a burning secret behind the scenes could set everything ablaze.
Trigun Stargaze
Premiere 10 January
Official synopsis:
It’s been two and a half years since the Lost JuLai tragedy, which laid waste to an entire city and engulfed the whole planet in chaos. Meryl, now a senior journalist, continues her search for Vash with her new younger sidekick, Milly, and runs into Wolfwood along the way. As plant robberies begin taking place once again, they sense Millions Knives’s organization conspiring behind the scenes.
Meanwhile, Vash has taken the new name Eriks and is living in hiding in a backwater town when he gets an abrupt visit from Jessica, a young girl with an SOS from the third ship they call home. He thus decides to put an end to a long-standing feud in order to protect those dear to him.
Just as the pieces of the story begin falling back together again, the planet receives a message from the far reaches of outer space: “We are a fleet of colony ships from Earth... Those who wish may accompany us to a new frontier.” The entire population rejoices at this news. However, as if to mock their celebration, the one-winged angel returns to wreak havoc and despair. Fates collide to forge a final conclusion for the panicked planet.
Hell’s Paradise Season 2
Premiere: 11 January
Official synopsis:
Searching for clues about the elixir, the group arrives at the castle of the Tensen, the monsters who rule the island. To return from the island alive, cooperation is essential, regardless of whether they are condemned to death or executed.
Meanwhile, the shogunate has ordered an additional landing on the land of immortals, led by Yamada Asaemon Shugen. Among them are the Ishigakure group, with whom Gamimaru has a grudge. Gamimaru and his friends try to find the elixir and escape the island as quickly as possible, but the Tensen stand in their way.
The battle for the elixir escalates into an all-out showdown between humans and Tensen!
Oshi no Ko Season 3
Premiere: 14 January
Official synopsis:
The story moves to a new stage. Six months have passed since the release of "POP IN 2." Thanks to MEMcho's efforts, B Komachi is now on the verge of a breakthrough. Aqua is a multi-talented person, and Akane is steadily on her way to becoming a talented actress. Meanwhile, Kana has lost her former cheerfulness. And in her quest to uncover the truth behind Ai and Goro's deaths, Ruby rises through the ranks of the entertainment industry, using lies as a weapon.
Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Season 2
Premiere: 16 January
Official synopsis:
After the party of heroes defeated the Demon King, they restored peace to the land and returned to lives of solitude. Generations pass, and the elven mage Frieren comes face to face with humanity’s mortality. She takes on a new apprentice and promises to fulfill old friends’ dying wishes. Can an elven mind make peace with the nature of life and death? Frieren embarks on her quest to find out.
Medalist Season 2
Premiere: 25 January
Official synopsis:
Inori and Akiura Michiji, who each have strong dreams of becoming figure skaters, have come together as athlete and coach.
Inori, who aims to become a glorious medalist, has gained experience at the Meiko Cup and the Western Japan Elementary and Junior High School Championships, and after passing the badge test, she is finally qualified to compete at the same rank as the "genius girl," Okamisaki Hikaru.
Her next goal is the Chubu Block Tournament, which will determine her place in the All-Japan Championships.
Amidst her new rivals, Inori must prove that she can shine brightest!
Winter 2026 new titles:
Fate/strange Fake
Premiere: 3 January
Official synopsis:
In a Holy Grail War, Mages (Masters) and their Heroic Spirits (Servants) fight for the control of the Holy Grail—an omnipotent wish-granting device said to fulfill any desire. Years have passed since the end of the Fifth Holy Grail War in Japan. Now, signs portend the emergence of a new Holy Grail in the western American city of Snowfield. Sure enough, Masters and Servants begin to gather... A missing Servant class... Impossible Servant summonings... A nation shrouded in secrecy... And a city created as a battleground. In the face of such irregularities, the Holy Grail War is twisted and driven into the depth of madness. Let the curtain rise on a masquerade of humans and heroes, made to dance upon the stage of a false Holy Grail.
Sentenced to be a Hero
Premiere: 3 January
Official synopsis:
"Hero" is the worst punishment in the world. For those convicted of heinous crimes, they are sentenced to become a “Hero" and forced to enter the mandatory military service in the war against the Demon Lords. These convicts are not even allowed to die—if killed, they will be resurrected to fight another day. Hero Xylo Forbartz, former head of the Order of the Holy Knights, leads a penal unit of deplorables fighting on the front lines. It’s in these direst of circumstances that he meets Teoritta, one of the world’s the strongest weapons. "When every last enemy has been defeated, you are to shower me with praise and pat my head." In order to survive and to take revenge on those who wronged him, he makes a pact with the goddess and launches headfirst into a maelstrom of war and intrigue.
Tamon’s B-Side
Premiere: 4 January
Official synopsis:
Utage Kinoshita is a high school girl who works part-time as a housekeeper. She has devoted her life to her favorite idol, Tamon Fukuhara, from the group F/ACE. Then one day, Utage ends up being assigned to Tamon’s house! There she discovers that off-stage, he is nothing like his wild idol persona. A gloomy, introverted boy with no self-confidence, Utage still finds herself falling for him anyway.
Hana-Kimi
Premiere: 4 January
Official synopsis:
Japanese-American track-and-field star Mizuki has gotten herself to transfer to a high school in Japan...but not just any school! To be close to her idol, high jumper Izumi Sano, she's going to an all-guys' high school...and disguising herself as a boy! But as fate would have it, they're more than classmates...they're roommates! Now, Mizuki must keep her secret in the classroom, the locker room, and her own bedroom. And her classmates--and the school nurse--must cope with a new transfer student who may make them question their own orientation...
The Darwin Incident
Premiere: 6 January
Official synopsis:
Charlie, a boy living in a rural area of Missouri, USA, is a "Humanzee," a half-human and half-chimpanzee, with intelligence beyond that of a human, and physical abilities beyond that of a chimpanzee.
At the age of 15, Charlie enrolls in school for the first time at the urging of his human foster parents, where he meets Lucy, a bright but communication-challenged girl.
Charlie's peaceful school life is short-lived, as he is targeted by ALA, a terrorist organization that advocates "animal liberation" due to his unique origins!
To protect his family and Lucy, Charlie chooses to confront the ALA.
"Terrorism," "discrimination," "human rights," "flaming"... Charlie, a "non-human," confronts the problems humans face alongside Lucy.
The human and non-human drama begins here!
The Invisible Man and His Soon-to-Be Wife
Premiere: 8 January
Official synopsis:
A gentleman, "Invisible Man," Akira Tounome, who runs a detective agency, and a gentle "Human Woman," Shizuka Yakou, who works at his office. Even though he can disappear by becoming invisible, Shizuka, who is blind, somehow always knows where Akira is. The "invisible" pair gradually becomes drawn to each other...?
You And I Are Polar Opposites
Premiere: 11 January
Official synopsis:
Suzuki, an energetic girl who can't help but follow the crowd, finds herself drawn to Tani, a quiet boy who can easily speak his mind. Enter: the serialization of a hit one-shot! A story for anyone who wants to enjoy love! This down-to-earth, relatable rom-com is ready to pull at your heartstrings!
Kaya-chan Isn’t Scary
Premiere: 11 January
Kaya, a student at Hanamugi Kindergarten, has very strong psychic powers. Although she easily defeats the "ghosts" that secretly stalk her friends and family, her behavior is not understood and she is treated as a problem child. However, when her homeroom teacher, Chie, finds out her secret, changes begin to come to Kaya's kindergarten life.