There are lots of new anime releases that fans will want to keep an eye out over the course of the rest of 2026, and some major anime franchises are going to come to their ends. Lots of the biggest franchises that fans have been enjoying over the last few yearsare coming to their respective ends, so it really does feel like 2026 marks the end of a rather significant era of anime. That’s even more true when looking at some of the series that are going to end this year.
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2026 will see some big franchises come to an end, and some of these anime have been running for many, many years at this point. This year will see a reboot end, a final season air its last slate of episodes, a final season answer more of the questions fans have had, and a finale that fans have been waiting to see come to fruition after two decades of work. Read on for seven major anime series ending in 2026, ranked by how long it’s been since they began.
7). Trigun Stargaze (2023-2026)
Trigun Stargaze is now airing new episodes as part of the Winter 2026 anime schedule, and it’s the second and final half of the official CG reboot that began with Trigun Stampede. This is a brand new take on Yasuhiro Nightow’s classic action series that has revealed a whole new vision of Vash the Stampede, and this second and final phase of the series looks to cap it off with a more familiar version of the series that fans of the classic anime might recognize. But with all of the other new twists and turns seen thus far, Trigun Stargaze likely has many more surprises ahead.
6). Fire Force (2019-2026)
Fire Force is also back this Winter with the second and final half of its third season. This will be capping off the anime adaptation for Atsushi Okubo’s original manga, and has already introduced many more chaotic elements to the grand finale with the start of the Great Cataclysm. It’s going to be tackling a huge chunk of the manga with its final episodes, so there is a concern that the anime is going to be able to handle everything that’s coming but still make it understandable to anime fans. But from what has been seen so far, it’s all starting off on the right foot for a satisfying end.
5). Beastars (2019-2026)
Beastars is also returning for the second and final half of its third season, and this is another franchise that’s been intriguing to see develop. The popularity of that first season took Paru Itagaki’s manga to a whole new level, and now there are more eyes on seeing how Beastars ends than ever before. It not only opened up fans to CG anime in general when it first premiered, but each subsequent season has been offering darker and more intense looks into its wild animal world.
But as the end draws near, it’s time to see what kind of future is ahead for Legoshi and all of the other young characters caught in the mix of everything.
4). Dr. Stone (2019-2026)
Dr. Stone‘s third and final season had been separated into three parts across the last couple of years, so it’s finally time to see the final phase of the series in action. Unlike other action series of its kind from Shonen Jump, Senku has been focused on freeing those trapped in this stone world and developing it to the point where people could have the same kind of technology they used to.
After facing off against all sorts of intelligent and powerful foes through the series thus far, it’s time for Senku to aim towards one final goal and try to bring an end to the mystery that’s haunted them from the beginning. Who trapped the world in stone all those years ago?
3). Golden Kamuy (2018-2026)
The anime adaptation for Satoru Noda’s Golden Kamuy has been one of the more quiet hits of the late 2010s as while the first season might have gotten off to a rough first impression thanks to its CG bear, it’s been one banger after another ever since. It’s been such a massive franchise as each new season adds more characters to the roster in search of its gold, and even had a feature film lead in to this grand finale.
With all sorts of live-action projects and more, it’s now time for the anime to end it’s time too. The final season of the anime is promising an explosive conclusion to it all, so fans will want to tune in to see how this long running treasure hunt is going to end after all this time.
2). My Hero Academia (2016-2016)
Although the anime technically aired its final episode last year with its final season, it was quickly confirmed that it was far from the anime’s true finale. My Hero Academia is coming back for one final special episode later this Spring, and it will be showing off more of Izuku Midoriya’s future in the years after they left U.A. Academy.
It’s an epilogue story that series creator Kohei Horikoshi himself released in the months after that final chapter and serves as a true ending that gives fans the closure that they didn’t really feel with that first finale. With this also being ten years since the anime first began, 2026 is going to be a huge year for My Hero Academia.
1). Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War (2004-2026)
Now this is the ending that anime fans have truly been waiting a long time to see. Nearly 22 years after Tite Kubo’s Bleach first hit the airwaves, the franchise is coming to an end with the final wave of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War. It was already a miracle to find out that the final arc of Kubo’s manga was finally going to be adapted into an anime, so it just feels unreal to be at this point after all this time.
There’s so much excitement behind this one as fans of the classic have been waiting to see its finale after decades of waiting for the end of Ichigo Kurosaki’s long running journey. Although the manga ended long ago, Kubo himself is teasing new additions to the anime that even experienced fans would never expect to actually see. That and more are all the reasons why it’s exciting, so time to be ready for this grand finale.
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