The Fall 2019 Anime You Need to Check Out

While there are plenty of new anime series being offered this upcoming season, Fall 2019 is undoubtedly a season of returns. There are several major franchises making their return beginning this October, and they are dominating most of the conversation as many of these anime franchises are returning for either long awaited sequels or new seasonal entries. Regardless, there’s still plenty to look forward to even if you’re not completely caught up with each of these anime offerings as the new debuts are nothing to scoff at either.

There are shonen favorites making their return like a new season of My Hero Academia, Food Wars, and Sword Art Online, seinen sequels such as Psycho-Pass‘ third season, the return of more shojo favorites like Chihayafuru, and new anime series joining the fold such as The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious.

Read on for ComicBook.com’s breakdown of what to check out from the Fall 2019 anime season! There are way too many premieres to include here, so let us know what you’re looking forward to in the comments or talk to me about all things anime @Valdezology on Twitter!

Cautious Hero: The Hero is Overpowered But Overly Cautious

Release Date: October 2nd on FunimationNOW

There seem to be even more Isekai anime released each season, and even more egregiously seem to be getting wilder with how they experiment with the “insert X into Y” formula. But there’s a great amount of fan anticipation for the anime adaptation of Light Tuchihi’s Cautious Hero: The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious light novels.

Tapping into that feeling of spending hours customizing your character’s armor and weapons before heading into fights, this series begins when a goddess summons a hero with some off the charts stats into her world. But she does so without looking into his major flaw — he’s too cautious. The action and humor balance comes from how much he prepares for how little he actually fights, so it’ll be interesting to see it play out in the series.

Funimation describes the series as such, “Being a litttle careful when adventuring is understandable, but Seiya takes caution to the extreme. How will he handle major challenges when he’s already going full-power just to defeat a slime?”

Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia

Release Date: October 5th on Funimation Now, available on Crunchyroll one month after premiere

TYPE-MOON’s Fate franchise continues to be one of the most popular in the world, but it’s also one of the most splintered. With each new anime series it can seem like a major undertaking to join in on the fun, but this would most likely be a great jumping on point for new fans! Based off the Babylonia storyline from the Fate/Grand Order mobile game, Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia won’t have any major ties to the releases from before.

This spin-off introduces time travel into the Fate world and follows Ritsuka Fujimaru and his shield wielding Servant, Mash Kyrielight, as they head back in time to ancient Mesopotamia. Here they find fan-favorite Gilgamesh ruling over all, and soon find themselves in a major battle to defend a city against all manner of gods and demons. This new series is expected to run for more than a single cour of episodes, so it’s going to be sticking around! 

The Seven Deadly Sins: Wrath of the Gods

Release Date: October 9th on in Japan, 2020 on Netflix in the United States

The Seven Deadly Sins franchise surprisingly announced earlier this year that it would be returning for a third season bringing the anime closer to its climax. Even more surprisingly, and potentially worryingly, it was revealed that the anime would be making its debut as part of the Fall season. While little was known about The Seven Deadly Sins: Wrath of the Gods for quite some time, we’ve gotten to see a lot more of what to expect from the next season within the last few weeks.

The plot focus of the third iteration of the anime is still largely under wraps, but the more public element is that it’s going to be produced by Studio Deen rather than the studio behind the first two seasons and the movie, A-1 Pictures. Susumu Nishizawa returns from the second season to direct Wrath of the Gods with the voice cast for the series all making their return too.

Unfortunately for fans in the United States, while The Seven Deadly Sins: Wrath of the Gods will be premiering new episodes on a weekly basis in Japan, we’ll have to wait for quite some time for its debut on Netflix in outside territories.

Blade of the Immortal

Release Date: October 10th on Amazon Prime Video

Hiroaki Samura’s Blade of the Immortal is one of the most influential series out there, and has already had an anime adaptation, live-action film, and countless other projects. Soon fans will be getting an all-new take on the famous franchise that’s being touted as a “complete” adaptation of the original series. Directed by Steins;Gate director Hiroshi Hamasaki for LIDEN FILMS, this new Blade of the Immortal seems to be packing a bloody punch.

Samura’s original work is known for its brutal fights as its story follows an immortal samurai named Manji who vows to kill 1,000 bad people in order to make up for the good people he killed in life. Crossing paths with a young woman named Rin, he decides to help her get revenge on the evildoers who killed her parents. This sets the both of them on quite a bloody path, and should make for a fantastic watch.

BEASTARS

Release Date: October 8th in Japan, TBA on Netflix in other territories

Paru Itagaki’s Beastars is shaping up to be one of the most promising anime adaptations of the Fall season, and it’s quite literally a dark horse competitor. The only unfortunate thing is that fans outside of Japan will have to wait for a bit until its release on Netflix, but things are shaping up to be worth the wait for sure as each new look at the anime touts a new boon to CG animated offerings.

Like other works from production studio Orange such as Land of the Lustrous, Beastars looks to set itself apart from the common misconceptions fans have of CG animated shows. Set in a society of anthropomorphized animals separated into herbivores and carnivores, the story of the series follows Legoshi — a timid wolf who attends a prestigious academy.

When one student is seemingly murdered at the hands of a carnivore, distrust and fear begin to spread throughout the school and suddenly Legoshi finds himself in the middle of a mystery that he never expected. It gets even more complicated when he meets the rabbit Haru, who he starts to develop feelings for.

My Hero Academia Season 4

Release Date: October 12th on Crunchyroll with English subtitles, October 12th on FunimationNOW with an English dub

My Hero Academia is probably the hugest return of the Fall season. The franchise is bigger than ever in 2019 with the manga celebrating its fifth anniversary, and a second movie on the horizon, so this fourth season is probably more anticipated than every other season past simply because there are far more eyes on it than ever. Luckily, the series is returning with an adaptation of one of the most action-packed arcs of the series to date.

Following up on a major cliffhanger left after the end of the third season, My Hero Academia Season 4 will see Izuku Midoriya and the other Class 1-A kids take their Provisional Hero Licenses out into the real world. Bigger villainous threats, bigger fights, and higher stakes for every character involved. It’s going to dominate conversation for the next few months, so hopefully you’re all caught up!

Food Wars: The Fourth Plate

Release Date: October 12th on Crunchyroll

Another major anime making its return for a fourth season is Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma. Like My Hero Academia, Food Wars’ third season also ended on a major cliffhanger. Although it was a bit more of an awkward ending, it means the fourth season of the series will be picking up with the intense second half of the Regiments de Cuisine as Soma and Erina keep taking on the Elite Ten.

After Erina’s father forced a takeover of Totsuki Academy, he has been pressing his own gourmet ideals onto the young students. Rebelling against this, Soma, Erina, and a few other notable students have challenged Central’s new Elite Ten to a kind of “super” Shokugeki. The Regiments de Cuisine will determine whether or not Soma and the others can stay in the school, so they will have to prepare some stunning dishes in order to change everyone’s minds and save the individualism of the school.

Yuto Tsukuda and Shun Saeki brought the original Food Wars manga to an end earlier this Summer, so there will be more eyes on the anime than ever as it’s now going to be the only way we’ll be getting new goodness from this spicy series.

Sword Art Online: War of Underworld

Release Date: October 13th

Sword Art Online‘s third season was one of the most ambitious undertakings in the franchise yet. Adapting the longest arc of the original light novel series thus far, Alicization is running for four cours in all. Thankfully this effort seems to have paid off as fans have responded with some of the best reception the anime has received since its very first season. 

Alicization introduced Kirito and fans to the Underworld, a new virtual space with some sinister undertones. The second half of the Alicization story will be pushing this even further as War of Underworld will see the darker regions of Underworld make their move. With Administrator defeated and Kirito left as a shell of his former self thanks to an accident in the real world, newest addition to the series Alice will be stepping into the central role in order to combat all sorts of dark new threats. It’s going to be pretty intense from here on out. 

Chihayafuru Season 3

Release Date: October 23rd on Crunchyroll

Chihayafuru is one of the major anime returns quietly making a comeback this October, but it’s one not to be ignored. The first two seasons of the anime went on to pretty great acclaim from fans, but it’s been a few years since fans have seen it. This has only brought the anticipation to a fever pitch, and this got even wilder when it was confirmed that the cast and staff behind the first 50 episodes of the anime would be making a comeback too.

After being delayed beyond its initially slated Spring debut, Chihayafuru‘s third season will be directed by a returning Morio Asaka for Madhouse and fans of the manga are pretty exciting to see what’s to come. Without giving too much away about what to expect from the two cours of the returning season, anime fans will finally be introduced to Haruka Inokuma — who will be played by Maaya Sakamoto.