By The legendary hitman is clocking back in: the official website for the The Fable television anime announced on Wednesday six new cast members and a January 9 premiere for the show’s second season, alongside a brand-new visual.
The Fable key visual (Credits: The Fable anime’s website)
New Faces, Familiar Crew
The newly announced cast includes Takeharu Ōnishi as Kenjirō Takōda, better known as President Octopus, joining a lineup that also adds Takanori Hoshino, Koichi Yamadera, and Hiroyuki Yoshino among the season’s fresh voices. The anime will premiere on NTV on January 9 at 12:55 a.m. JST — effectively January 10 for anyone staying up to catch it live.
Behind the scenes, the production is keeping its winning team intact. Ryōsuke Takahashi — the veteran director of Armored Trooper Votoms, Phoenix, and Ozma — returns to direct at Tezuka Productions. Sci-fi writer Yūya Takashima is back handling series composition, writing scripts alongside Mayumi Morita (Black Jack TV, Vampire Knight). Returning staff include character designers Kyūma Ōshita and Saki Hasegawa and sound director Yasuyuki Urakami (Detective Conan), while Yo Tsuji (Ron Kamonohashi’s Forbidden Deductions) steps in as the new music composer.
The first season premiered in April 2024 and aired for two continuous cours. Disney+ streams the series worldwide, Hulu carries it in the United States, and an English dub is available for both.
The Manga Behind the Hitman
The anime adapts Katsuhisa Minami’s manga, which Kodansha USA Publishing releases in English. The premise is irresistible: when you’re the infamous “genius killer” hitman known as The Fable, almost everything comes easy — except the one job his boss gives him, which is to live as a normal person and kill no one for a while.
Minami launched the original manga in Kodansha’s Weekly Young Magazine in November 2014 and ended it in November 2019 with 22 compiled volumes. The series won Best General Manga at the 41st Kodansha Awards in 2017 and inspired two live-action films, which opened in Japan in June 2019 and June 2021.
The story didn’t stop there. Minami launched the sequel The Fable: The Second Contact in July 2021; it ended in July 2023 with nine volumes, the last shipping in November 2023. A third part, The Fable: The third secret, began in March 2025 and is released as a simulpub on Kodansha’s K MANGA service. The franchise is even expanding into games with The Fable: Manga Build Roguelike, a roguelike deckbuilder from Kodansha Game Creators’ Lab and developer Mono Entertainment.
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Source: Anime News Network — read the full story there.
