10 anime from a 72-title fan poll on fall 2026 anticipation

Every new anime season hands viewers the same puzzle. The calendar fills with premieres, sequels, and brand-new series, yet the viewing hours stay fixed. Fall 2026 is no exception. The season is now underway, and audiences must sort out which shows earn a slot in their weekly routine and which can wait for word of mouth. A wrong guess costs more than one evening. It can mean dropping a series after a few weeks, or missing the one everyone else ends up discussing. Collective enthusiasm offers one way through the clutter. It shows where other people planned to spend their attention.

Picking a show before a single episode airs leaves fans with thin evidence. They judge a show on its premise, its studio's reputation, or the memory of an earlier installment, and none of those guarantees how a fresh run will hold up week to week. Hype and quality travel on separate tracks. A long-awaited sequel can stumble, and an overlooked debut can surprise. Measuring anticipation answers a narrower question than which show will deliver. It reveals where curiosity gathers before any reviews arrive. Read with that limit in mind, a fan ranking works as a map of expectations, a starting point for anyone assembling a watch list.

Anime Corner asked its readers which fall titles they were most eager to see in a community poll open from Sept. 9 to Sept. 24, 2026. A total of 7,601 people took part. The site ordered 72 titles by the percentage of votes each one drew, and it frames the results as a gauge of interest before the fall slate begins. It cautions that the order offers no dependable forecast of which titles will prove strongest. Readers, it says, should sample anything that catches their eye, whatever its position. This article covers the first 10 places from that survey, a slice of the full field. Each entry examines the share of support a title collected and the margins separating it from its neighbors.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 drew 16.42% of fan ballots, the largest portion of any show in the survey, yet its hold on first amounted to a slim 1.26 percentage points. The Apothecary Diaries Season 3 sat a step behind and turned the race for the season's most awaited show into a near tie. About one ballot in six went to the frontrunner alone.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 more than doubled the support of every title beneath the runner-up. Blue Box Season 2, the next show down, gathered 6.29%, and the leader pulled in 2.61 times as much. The distance stretches toward the bottom of this selection. The sequel collected 5.80 times the 2.83% that The Detective Is Already Dead Season 2 managed in 10th. Enthusiasm for most of the slate amounts to a fraction of the fervor the leader commands.

The Edgerunners follow-up also outdrew the third-, fourth-, and fifth-place shows put together. Blue Box Season 2, Black Clover Season 2, and The Ramparts of Ice Season 2 combined for 16.06%, leaving Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 ahead of the trio by 0.36 points. Three returning series, each billed as a second season, could not match the pull of a single title.

Four shows from sixth through ninth also fell short as a bloc. Firefly Wedding, Reincarnated as a Sword Season 2, Dragon Ball Super: Beerus, and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run 2nd – 3rd STAGE pooled 12.68%, 3.74 points shy of the Cyberpunk total. Backing in that stretch splinters across four titles, while Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 gathers its support in one place.

A lead of this shape points to a lopsided field. Below the front pair, interest scatters across dozens of titles, and none of them, sequel or newcomer, comes close to rivaling the frontrunner on its own. The numbers leave Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 with one real challenger and no other contender within 10 points of its total.

The Apothecary Diaries Season 3 captured 15.16% of the fan vote, finishing a narrow second and forming half of a two-way breakaway at the head of the fall slate. The sequel and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 claimed 31.58% of all ballots between them, close to one in every three. The survey's organizers singled out the duo as the clear standouts of the months ahead. The result came from a franchise entering its third season, and it points to an audience that has stayed engaged across multiple installments.

The anime outdrew the third- and fourth-place titles combined, whose shares summed to 11.76%. Its tally equaled 2.41 times the third-place share. The sequel drew more than five times the backing of the 10th-place entry and more than triple the fifth-place total. The five entries in sixth through 10th collected 15.51% as a group, 0.35 points above The Apothecary Diaries by itself. All eight titles from third through 10th gathered 31.57%, a hair below the two frontrunners. Among the first 10 places, two shows matched the support of the other eight.

The Apothecary Diaries trailed first place by about one-seventh of the margin separating it from Blue Box Season 2 in third. The arrangement left the sequel secure in the leading pair and within reach of the top spot. The race for first turned into a two-show contest, and the drop beneath those two marked the real fault line of the autumn schedule.

Hyūganatsu wrote the light novels that the anime adapts, and Touko Shino supplied their illustrations. Maomao returned to Verdigris House to work as an apothecary after the Shi Clan's rebellion, and Jinshi revealed that he is the Moon Prince. The books reach readers through two separate manga versions, one from artist Nekokurage and another from Minoji Kurata, according to ComicBook.com. The light novels and both manga give fans three print routes into the tale.

Blue Box Season 2 drew 6.29% of the votes, enough for third place but 8.87 percentage points short of the runner-up. Fans placed it ahead of 69 other titles in the field. Its showing marks the spot where the contest at the summit gives way to a crowded scramble below.

The show behind this share is a high school sports story with a crush at its heart. The anime adapts a manga that Koji Miura writes and draws for Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump. Its story follows Taiki, a badminton player, and Chinatsu, the basketball-loving girl he likes, who moves in with him at the outset. As the pair grow closer, each chases achievement in a separate sport. Telecom Animation Film produced the first season, with Yuichiro Yano directing, Yuko Kakihara handling series composition, and Miho Tanino designing the characters.

The fall from second to third is the steepest step between neighbors anywhere in the table. No other adjacent pair, from the first two entries to the last two, sits so much as two points apart. Blue Box stands at the foot of the survey's sharpest break in enthusiasm.

Below Blue Box, the margins tighten. Blue Box keeps a 0.82-point edge over fourth-place Black Clover Season 2 and a 1.99-point cushion over The Ramparts of Ice Season 2 in fifth. The climb to second place stretches more than four times as far as Blue Box's lead over fifth.

Blue Box outpolls whole pairings lower in the list. Its tally exceeds the 6.14% that Dragon Ball Super: Beerus and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run 2nd – 3rd STAGE collected between them in eighth and ninth. Blue Box gathered more than double the portion claimed by the 10th-place finisher. Third place belongs to the chasing pack, and Blue Box heads that group with a hold looser than the one the two leaders enjoy over everyone else.

Black Clover Season 2 drew 5.47% of the fan vote and opened a 1.17-point margin over the show in fifth place, the widest gap between any two neighbors from third through 10th.

Black Clover Season 2's cushion over fifth rivals the separation at the summit of the poll. It falls 0.09 percentage points short of the lead Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 held over The Apothecary Diaries Season 3. The two intervals carry different weight, though. At the top, a sliver divides the only pair to break clear of the field. Below fourth, the larger step forms one stair in a descent of three sizable drops from third to sixth before the slope flattens.

The sequel's share comes to about one-third of the total Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 collected. Three spots stand between the two titles, yet the backing behind them differs by a factor of three. The ratio shows how far the top duo has pulled from everyone else. Even a title strong enough to outdraw every contender beneath it commanded a fraction of the enthusiasm aimed at the frontrunner.

The five titles from sixth through 10th fit inside a band of 0.47 percentage points, less than half the space between Black Clover Season 2 and The Ramparts of Ice Season 2. Black Clover Season 2 also sits closer to Blue Box Season 2 above it than to the fifth-place title below. On spacing alone, the fourth-place show belongs with Blue Box Season 2 in a small chasing group. Together the two shows occupy the ground between the breakaway titles up top and the crowd below. The Ramparts of Ice Season 2 stands apart beneath them, with a wide berth on either side, and the dense middle pack begins at sixth.

No title from sixth through 10th kept a buffer anywhere near the one Black Clover Season 2 held over the show beneath it.

The Ramparts of Ice Season 2 claimed fifth place with 4.30% of the vote, completing a top five that commands 47.64% of all ballots. A little under half of the poll's support flows to those five titles, and this sequel holds the final seat inside the group. Its result sits far from the leaders' totals, yet it still marks the boundary between a compact elite and a long tail of distant entries.

A full percentage point separates the sequel from Firefly Wedding in sixth. The cushion amounts to about 30% more backing than the sixth-place show received. No entry from sixth through 10th holds an edge that wide over its nearest follower. Readers weighing these titles can treat fifth as a real step up from sixth, while the shows below it trade places by fractions of a point.

Places three through five hold 16.06% between them, about half of what the two leaders collected. The five titles in sixth through 10th split 15.51%, a shade below the middle trio despite fielding two more entries. Combined, the top five gather more than three times the next five's total. The numbers trace a list that descends in stages. Interest plunges after second, eases downward through fifth, and levels off beyond it.

The Ramparts of Ice Season 2 captured close to 68% of the third-place tally and about 26% of the winner's haul. It outdrew the 10th-place entry by about 50%. Its standing falls between the two front-runners and the pack behind it, far below the former and ahead of the latter.

Fan enthusiasm in this survey concentrates at the head of the list and thins below the fifth slot. Past this sequel, separation gives way to crowding. Anyone building a watch list from these results can read the first five titles as the clearest signals of shared excitement. Fifth is the last position in this selection where a title stands clear of its pursuers.

Firefly Wedding drew 3.30% of the fan vote in sixth place, the strongest finish any new anime managed in the survey. Every title above it carries a sequel number or season label, from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 down to The Ramparts of Ice Season 2. Eight of the first 10 names include such a marker. Firefly Wedding and Dragon Ball Super: Beerus are the only exceptions in this selection.

The newcomer climbed to sixth without an earlier installment to lean on. Returning shows reach voters who already know the characters and want the story to continue. Firefly Wedding had no such built-in following. Its backing reflects curiosity about something untested. Its hold on the spot stayed slim. Reincarnated as a Sword Season 2 trailed close enough that a modest swing in ballots could have reversed the order.

Firefly Wedding's portion equals about one-fifth of the winner's, a measure of the distance between the best-placed debut and the two franchises at the front. The new series still outdrew three entries whose names mark them as continuations: Reincarnated as a Sword Season 2, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run 2nd – 3rd STAGE, and The Detective Is Already Dead Season 2. A numbered title bought no automatic advantage over a story fans had never watched.

Reincarnated as a Sword Season 2 won 3.24% of the ballots and finished a hair behind Firefly Wedding, trailing the sixth-place newcomer by 0.06 percentage points. Among the first 10 places, only one pair of neighbors ended up closer together. A gap under a tenth of a point means a modest swing in fan sentiment could have flipped the pair.

A 0.15-point cushion separates the second-season show from Dragon Ball Super: Beerus in eighth. The Detective Is Already Dead Season 2 trails it by 0.41 points in 10th. Reincarnated as a Sword Season 2 keeps more room behind it than it concedes to the title above it. Its standing looks firmer from below than from above, and the show stood nearer to climbing a spot than to slipping one.

The Ramparts of Ice Season 2 sits 1.06 points higher in fifth, a distance more than 17 times the deficit to Firefly Wedding. The steep wall between fifth and sixth defines this show's position more than its duel with the newcomer. Winning that duel would have left it short of the leading group. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 collected more than five times the support Reincarnated as a Sword Season 2 received. Fan attention pooled around the front-runners, and a title in seventh drew a fraction of it.

The title marks the show as a second season. A continuing story lost this narrow contest to a fresh series. In this matchup, sequel status did not secure a stronger pull with voters.

Seventh place sits closer to 10th than to fifth, a sign the show belongs with the crowded middle of this selection.

Dragon Ball Super: Beerus drew 3.09% of the ballots in eighth place, finishing 0.04 percentage points ahead of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run 2nd – 3rd STAGE in ninth. No other pair of neighbors among the first 10 positions sat closer together. A sliver of fan support decides which of the two titles claims the higher spot.

Beerus holds the middle of a band where every rival sits within three-tenths of a point. Reincarnated as a Sword Season 2, one spot higher, cleared Beerus by a margin close to four times the edge Beerus holds over JoJo’s. Firefly Wedding, in sixth, collected 0.21 more than Beerus. The Detective Is Already Dead Season 2, in 10th, trailed by 0.26.

Enthusiasm across these five titles splits into close-to-even slices, and the middle of this selection behaves as a single tier. Anyone treating eighth place as a verdict on Beerus against its neighbors reads more into the order than the margins allow. Ninth, eighth, and seventh could swap places with less movement than separated any two titles in the top five. Beerus also sits closer to the 10th-place share than to the fifth-place one by a wide margin. A modest swing in sentiment could reshuffle sixth through 10th without altering the broader shape of the field.

The frontrunner operated on another scale, drawing more than five times the Beerus portion. A full extra percentage point would have lifted Beerus to 4.09%, enough to pass sixth yet short of fifth. Small moves rearrange the order inside its neighborhood. Climbing toward the leaders demands backing of a different magnitude. The barrier Beerus faces lies at the head of the table, where gaps run several times wider than any inside its own group.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Steel Ball Run 2nd – 3rd STAGE drew 3.05% of the fan vote, closing out a four-title cluster that stretches from sixth through ninth place and spans 0.25 percentage points from top to bottom. Firefly Wedding heads that bunch, and the Steel Ball Run entry marks its lower edge. The “2nd – 3rd STAGE” label marks the JoJo title as a continuation of a story already underway. It finished within a quarter point of Firefly Wedding, the best-placed newcomer, so a returning chapter and a debut stirred nearly equal enthusiasm.

Gaps this thin blur any order inside the pack. No step between neighbors from sixth to ninth exceeds 0.15 points. Across such slim divisions, the sequence reflects near-equal interest more than a firm hierarchy among the four shows. A modest swing in ballots could have reshuffled them, so a viewer choosing among these titles learns little from their order alone.

The JoJo series sits a long way from the season’s frontrunners. Its share amounts to less than half of Blue Box Season 2’s total in third. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 collected more than five times as much support in first. The JoJo entry also finished far nearer the 10th-place show than the third-place one. Enthusiasm in this survey piles up at the summit, and even a spot inside the first 10 leaves a title well below the pull of the two leaders.

A wider break opens beneath the JoJo title. The Detective Is Already Dead Season 2 follows in 10th at 2.83%, 0.22 points back. No other drop between adjacent shows from sixth through 10th runs as wide. This single step covers almost as much ground as the whole four-show group above it. Steel Ball Run stands as the last member of a tight middle tier, the point where a near-even contest gives way to a clearer descent.