2021 is about to be the year anime bounces back! Last year saw many unprecedented changes to several anime productions and schedules due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Many went on hiatus, and many were delayed several months from their initial premiere entirely. The Winter season has finally kicked off, and it’s got some of the spillover from 2020’s original schedules. Even then, it still has some heavy hitters! But this year is set to reach even higher heights going forward if everything else manages to hit as originally planned as there are some highly anticipated premieres slated to come our way.
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2021 is already shaping up to be a much better year for anime as a whole. Not only will several massive anime finally making their returns for the new year, but there will be many major fan favorite manga getting adaptations as well. Not only that, but there will be a ton of promising original anime projects making their premieres too. Barring any other delays from COVID-19, 2021 is the year anime bounces back hard.
Read on for our picks of the top ten most anticipated anime releases of 2021, and let us know your picks! There are far too many choices to list all of the new anime coming our way here, so what are you most excited to see this year? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or you can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!
My Hero Academia Season 5
Release Date: March 27th
It’s not doubt that My Hero Academia remains one of the most anticipated returns of the year overall. After an impressive fourth season, the anime adaptation has quite a lot to prove as it heads into new territory. While there won’t be a lot in terms of brand new lore over the course of the season’s first cour, what we will see in its place are a series of fun and inventive battles that will likely look even better in full anime form. Either way, the energy with fans is just wild when new episodes are on and that’s going to make for a fun Spring.ย
Edens Zero
Release Date: April 10th
Hiro Mashima continues his strong run of manga and anime franchises with Edens Zero. Following Fairy Tail’s finale some time ago, fans have been seeing Mashima’s newest work really come into its own over the course of 2020. Not only has the series broken through 100 chapters, but it’s found an identity all its own as Mashima’s fantasy world aesthetics have been expanded to the wide reaches of outer space. Featuring a quirky new trio that has shades of the Natsu, Lucy, and Happy dynamic, this series has lots of surprises in store for fans hoping to see more of Mashima’s quirky characters, fights, and yes, fan service.ย
Shaman King
Release Window: April 2021
Hiroyuki Takei’s Shaman King is one of the major franchises coming back this year, and like many of the other reboot efforts we have seen pop up in the last year or so, this new series is anime to be a much more faithful adaptation than its first outing back in 2001. Releasing nearly 20 years since that first anime made its debut in Japan, this rebooted take on Shaman King will be taking on the complete run of Takei’s series that was released years after it originally came to its truncated end.
Featuring some familiar faces and voices fans of the original series had come to love, this could very well be a full Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood or Fruits Basket (2019) on our hands as it hopefully delivers the anime we’ve been waiting to long to see completed in the proper way.ย
Godzilla Singular Point
Release Window: April 2021ย (Netflix Worldwide)ย
Godzilla’s initial trio of anime films weren’t a huge hit with fans when they launched on Netflix, but it seems like odds are much better this time around with the original series, Godzilla Singular Point. Featuring a joint production from My Hero Academia studio Bones and Beastars studio Orange, there’s a lot of notable talent behind this one. With character designs from Blue Exorcist creator Kazue Kato, Kaiju designs from Studio Ghibli animator Eiji Yamamori, and featuring the TV debut of science-fiction writer Toh Enjoe, this one is likely going to be the Godzilla anime fans have been waiting to see in action.ย
Zombie Land Saga Revenge
Release Window: April 2021
If you have not seen the first season of Zombie Land Saga, now’s the time to do so as it’ll likely change your world. Not only is it the perfect entry point to the massive (and often times esoteric) idol subgenre, Zombie Land Saga‘s horror infused comedy blends perfectly with its incredibly electric and charming main cast. The first season saw the zombie idol group, Franchouchou, reach their highest point yet, so it’ll be interesting to see how the second season of the series takes them to the next level. Not only that, but the promise of more great songs from this franchise is too good to pass up.ย
Bleach: Thousand Year-Blood War Arc
Release Window: TBA 2021
If Bleach does manage to make its return some time this year as originally scheduled, it’s likely to eclipse every other release this year. Fans have been asking for the anime to return and properly adapt the final arc of Tite Kubo’s original series, and that’s because for all of its smaller issues, the Thousand-Year Blood War arc is one of the best in the series overall.
It doesn’t have the emotional hooks of its first few arcs, but there are so many cool characters, power, fights, and Bankai, that a proper anime adaptation will excel at making the best parts of these aesthetics shine. We’ve yet to get any major updates since its initial announcement, but it’s safe to say this anime return will be the biggest in some time.ย
The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 2
Release Window: TBA 2021
Speaking of big returns, The Rising of the Shield Hero’s first season was one of the most popular Isekai anime debuts of the last few years. In fact it was such a successful first season that it was picked up for a second and third season not long after the first one came to an end. With the final episodes of the first season taking Naofumi Iwatani’s initial battles to a whole new level, the fights are about to get more intense as the secret behind the waves opened up the worlds to an entire multiverse of threats. Not to mention all of the new faces that will be joining Naofumi’s party this time around!ย
Tokyo Revengers
Release Window: TBA 2021
Another dark horse this year is the adaptation of Ken Wakui’s Tokyo Revengers. Although there used to be many series surrounding the subject, it’s been quite a while since an anime has tackled the world and culture of juvenile delinquency in Japan. That is already enough of a hook on its own considering it’s pretty much going to be the only series telling this kind of story, but there’s yet another major draw to this series as it also blends a unique science-fiction spin into its brutality.
Following a former delinquent who discovers his middle school girlfriend was killed in an accident, he soon figures out that he actually has the power to travel back in time. Returning to his days as a school delinquent, he vows to change the past and keep her death from happening. But as he soon realizes, it’s a much tougher task than he could have ever anticipated.
Uzumaki
Release Window: TBA 2021
Junji Ito is one of the most popular horror artists of all time, yet the adaptations of his work fans have seen in action never seemed to quite hit the heights of those original works. That could very well all change with the new project from Production I.G. and Adult Swim. Adapting Ito’s Uzumaki story into a black and white anime, this series is gearing up for its premiere on Adult Swim this year. Unfortunately its development was notably set back by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, so it remains one of the most anticipated Toonami premieres for another year! But considering the footage we’ve seen in teasers so far, it’s going to be a banger.ย
The Way of the Househusband
Release Window: TBA 2021
Netflix has a slew of original anime projects and licenses coming our way this year, but a major dark horse in their line up is definitely Kousuke Oono’s The Way of the House Husband. This series has already been so popular in Japan that it was adapted into a live-action adaptation before this new version. With Naruto, Sailor Moon and Bleach project director Chiaki Kon at the helm for J.C. Staff, this adaptation is in some great hands and will likely find an audience quickly with its Netflix release.ย
