Anime
Best of Summer 2026 – Your Anime Rankings
Let’s have a look at what ANN readers consider the best (and worst) of the season,
based on the polls you can find in our Daily Streaming Reviews
and on the Your Score page with the latest simulcasts.
Keep in mind that these rankings are based on how people rated individual episodes of the current season, not on the overall quality or popularity of the series.
Only the titles legally streaming in North America and popular enough are being ranked, so the bottom of the list might represent ‘watchable’ rather than ‘bad’.
Series that lack enough user votes will not qualify for the ranking.
See the notes for further details.
For the last week we’re comparing all the final episodes
With the week of September 23-30, the Summer 2026 season is now over.
But many of the series already ended the previous week, so we’re adding an extra “final” week where all the last episodes are ranked against each other.
With this we can see which series ended on a strong note and which ones ended more weakly.
That means the “final ep.” column is a repeat of the last episode from Sep 16-22 or Sep 23-30.
And the “prev week change” is the difference in position between the “final ep.” column and the penultimate episode.
The ranking doesn’t include some episodes from the trailing end of the season streaming in October:
Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 3 #24, You and I Are Polar Opposites #13, The Elusive Samurai #12.
For completeness’ sake we’ll update this ranking as the episodes are reviewed and rated in the coming days.
Episode Rankings for the final episodes
Along the actual ranking for this week’s episodes, this graph chronicles the change in position from week to week.
While some series are stable, others swing wildly in the rankings depending on the strength of each episode.
When a series has no episode for a given week, the previous week’s episode is used instead as a placeholder.
The first episode of each series is considered as part of the first week, even if it really streamed during the second week.
Click on the numbers to highlight a particular series.
Series Cumulative Ranking for Summer 2026
Each week’s ranking takes into account the scores given to previous weeks’ episodes.
With the last episode duplicated in the “final ep.” column, it means that the votes for the last episode of each series are counted twice, which intentionally gives a boost to series that ended strongly.
This somewhat compensates for the fact that the first episode of each series has more votes, which favors series that started strongly.
So this is it, the final ranking, the winners and losers of the Summer 2026 season.
Click on the numbers to highlight a particular series.
Notes
Disclaimer: the rankings are just an average of opinions, published for entertainment and information purposes.
ANN makes no claims regarding statistical significance or invulnerability to spam.
The rankings are computed using the Ranked pairs method,
with the variation that unrated titles are considered as abstentions instead of lower than the rated titles.
This roughly means that if, out of all people who rated both A and B, 60% preferred A, it will be ranked higher than B.
The rankings indicate relative quality (A is preferred to B), not absolute quality (B is good/bad).
While the titles are ranked from ‘best’ to ‘worst’, sometimes the difference between #1 and #10 can be very thin.
So if your favorite is near the bottom of the list, don’t take it personally.
It doesn’t mean it’s a bad show, it just means that ANN readers, on average, have preferred the ones above.
If a series has no episode for a given week, we use the rating data for the previous week’s episode in order to compute the weekly ranking.
This is not officially counted as a position in the ranking (it has no impact on the cumulative ranking), but it makes it easier to compare weeks if they each have the same number of series ranked.
It should be noted that long-running series (and sequels) have an advantage in the sense that only people who like the series are still watching it, and they are likely to give each episode a high rating.
But if such a series is going through a low-quality filler arc, the season will get low rankings that are not indicative of the true overall quality of the series.
Conversely, there are fewer people rating the show so it’s less likely to have enough votes to qualify for the ranking.
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The official English YouTube channel for Suikoden: The Anime, the adaptation of Konami‘s Suikoden II game’s story, announced in a video on Saturday the series will stream with English subtitles on YouTube for free beginning October 6 with new episodes on Tuesdays.
The stream will be available in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, Ireland, parts of Africa and the Middle East, and in New Zealand and Australia. The staff have listed the full region availability on the anime’s X/Twitter account in English.
Ani-One Asia has also licensed the anime.
©Konami Digital Entertainment / Suikoden : The Anime Project
The anime debuted on October 3 on Tokyo MX at 11:30 p.m. (10:30 a.m. EDT), and will debut between October 6 and October 9 on 31 other channels.
Konami describes Suikoden II:
Our story’s hero and his friend Jowy are members of the Unicorn Youth Brigade, which participated in a drawn-out border dispute between the Highland Kingdom and the City-States of Jowstown. A few months earlier, a truth agreement was signed between the two forces, both of which were happy to see an end to the fighting. However, hidden under the momentary peace the fires of a new war continued to smolder…
Previously announced cast members include:
Yūzō Satō (credited as just YUZO on the anime’s English website) is directing the anime at KONAMI animation, the game studio’s anime studio. NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan anime and music production department member Ryō Hino serves as the producer and production manager.
Michihiro Tsuchiya (PriPara, ClassicaLoid) is overseeing the series scripts. Fumi Ishikawa from Konami Digital Entertainment is credited as the game character designer, Arata Suzuki from Konami Digital Entertainment is credited for the original drafts of the anime character designs, and Ryō Yamauchi (My Master Has No Tail; Please Put Them On, Takamine-san!) is the anime character designer. Yoshikazu Iwanami (Psycho-Pass, Ghost in the Shell Arise) is the sound director, and Kōji Nakamura (EUREKA SEVEN AO, Ping Pong live-action film) is composing the music.
Suikoden I&II HD Remaster Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars, the HD remastered release of Konami‘s classic role-playing games Suikoden and Suikoden II, launched for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC via Steam in March 2025.
Konami released the original game for the PlayStation in 1995, followed by the sequel game in 1998. The series has five main installments and five spinoff games.
Konami is also developing the new mobile and PC game Gensō Suikoden: Star Leap, which launched for iOS and Android on August 7 in Japan. The game is also slated for PC via Steam. The developers assured players on August 7 the will have a release in English, French, German, Korean, and Chinese (Simplified and Traditional).
Source: Suikoden: The Anime‘s English YouTube channel and X/Twitter account
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Join Maomao & Jinshi for an all-new attraction at the theme park
The Apothecary Diaries anime series and Universal Studios Japan (USJ) announced on Thursday that the anime is returning to the theme park for an all-new attraction. The new attraction is set to open on February 10, 2027 with a story set during the events of The Apothecary Diaries movie (which is opening this December).
©日向夏・イマジカインフォス／「薬屋のひとりごと」製作委員会 TM & © Universal Studios.
The anime and USJ previously collaborated between July 1, 2025 and January 4, 2026 with a “Mystery Walk” attraction (where guests solved a mystery behind a panacea) and three limited-time dishes.
The Apothecary Diaries anime’s first season premiered in October 2023, followed by a second season in January 2025. A third television anime season premiered this week for its first cours (quarter of a year), and its second cours will premiere next April.
Hyūganatsu began serializing the story on the “Shōsetsuka ni Narō” (Let’s Become Novelists) website in October 2011. Japanese publisher Shufunotomo began publishing the novels in print with illustrations by Touko Shino in August 2014. Nekokurage launched an ongoing manga adaptation in Square Enix‘s Monthly Big Gangan magazine in May 2017. Square Enix Manga & Books is releasing both the manga adaptation and the original novel series in English.
Sources: The Apothecary Diaries‘ X/Twitter account, Universal Studios Japan‘s X/Twitter account, Universal Studios Japan‘s website via Nijimen
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©吉崎観音／KADOKAWA・ケロロ軍曹製作委員会
Crunchyroll added Keroro Gunsō ☆, an all-new Sgt. Frog television anime, to the streaming service with English subtitles on Friday. The company is streaming the anime under the title KERORO☆, and is streaming the series worldwide except in Asia.
The anime debuted on October 3 at 9:30 a.m. on TV Tokyo and its affiliates.
The anime features an all-new cast for the franchise. The previous Shin Gekijōban ☆ Keroro Gunsō Fukkatsu Shite Sokkō Chikyū Metsubō no Kiki de Arimasu! film that opened in June featured a returning cast from previous installments in the anime.
The cast includes:
Nobuhiro Kondō (Shōnen Ashibe GO! GO! Goma-chan four seasons, Yu-Gi-Oh! Sevens, Cardfight!! Vanguard GZ) is the chief director of the anime, and Akihiko Sano (Farmagia, animation director for Medaka Box) is directing the series at BN Pictures with production cooperation by Bridge and AISLE. Toshimitsu Takeuchi (Shōnen Ashibe GO! GO! Goma-chan four seasons, Yu-Gi-Oh! Sevens, Fairy Musketeers) is overseeing the series scripts, and Hatsue Nakayama (Cardfight!! Vanguard GZ) is designing the characters. Kan Sawada (Shin Gekijōban ☆ Keroro Gunsō Fukkatsu Shite Sokkō Chikyū Metsubō no Kiki de Arimasu!, Yowamushi Pedal anime franchise) is composing the music.
Additional staff members include:
Shin Gekijōban ☆ Keroro Gunsō Fukkatsu Shite Sokkō Chikyū Metsubō no Kiki de Arimasu! (New Sgt. Frog the Movie: The Earth Is in Mortal Peril as Soon as We Come Back!), the new 20th anniversary anime film project for the franchise, opened in Japan on June 26. The film ranked at #4 in its opening weekend, earning 150,809,200 yen (about US$927,900) in its first three days.
Crunchyroll added the earlier television anime to its catalog beginning in 2021, and it describes the anime:
Keroro is Sergeant Frog – the leader of a platoon of warriors sent to conquer planet Earth. But when the amphibious invaders discovered how much humans enjoy dissecting their comrades, the troops were scattered, the mission was aborted, and Keroro was abandoned. Now, this once proud soldier spends more time wielding a vacuum than he does the weapons of war. It’s a far cry from the glory of battle, but hey, at least he’s got his own room. And though the invasion may have slowed to a hop, Sergeant Frog still occasionally yearns to overcome his karaoke addiction and reassemble his troops.
Sunrise‘s earlier anime series based on Mine Yoshizaki‘s Sgt. Frog (Keroro Gunsō) manga ran from 2004 to 2011, and it spawned five feature films. Funimation released two “seasons” of the anime on DVD, after ADV Films had licensed but not released the anime.
Discotek licensed the anime, and its release of Sgt. Frog includes all 358 episodes in successive SD Blu-ray Disc volume releases by season, beginning in 2021. Discotek released seasons 5-7 in 2024.
American manga publisher Tokyopop released 20 volumes of the original manga in North America before shutting its doors in 2011.
Source: Crunchyroll (link 2) via @AIR_News01
Disclosure: Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc. (Sunrise) is a non-controlling, minority shareholder in Anime News Network Inc.
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