9 anime series to look out for this fall season

Let’s be real — it’s been a bit of a slow year for anime. Particularly vis-à-vis 2018’s steady drip of quality titles across the full year, 2019 hasn’t felt quite as consistent. Even with a standout winter season that featured the return of Mob Psycho 100 and the debut of The Promised Neverland anime, both spring and summer have been relatively quiet.

Perhaps that was the calm before the storm. The Fall 2019 anime season is jam packed with major titles like My Hero Academia, Food Wars, and the return of Psycho Pass, which has been on hiatus for five years. With summer continuations like Vinland Saga and Dr. Stone fleshing out this fall’s catalog, it’s looking to be a busy season for anime fans.

This isn’t a comprehensive list of titles airing this upcoming season, but rather a preview at some of the most anticipated fall series.

My Hero Academia (season 4)

Premiering Oct. 12

Arguably the most highly-anticipated release of the fall season, My Hero Academia season 4 was a quick turnaround given that the series’ third season only wrapped up during the summer 2018 season. The anime, however, picks up directly where season 3 left off, with Izuku and other members of Class 1-A looking to pick up hero studies work. Guided by Mirio Togota, one of UA High School’s top three students, Izuku pursues a hero studies internship under Sir Nighteye, one of All Might’s former sidekicks. The new season also brings about a new villain — Overhaul, a germaphobe with aspirations to eradicate quirks altogether.

You can catch up with My Hero Academia on both Crunchyroll and Funimation.

Food Wars! The Fourth Plate

Premiering in October

Food Wars is about a culinary school, food, and extremely thinly-veiled sexual imagery. The series primarily takes place at Totsuki Culinary Academy, an elite cooking school for budding, teenage culinary talent. Yukihira Soma enrolls at Totsuki with the goal of one day surpassing his father, a legendary chef and restaurateur. However, he quickly gets caught up in the shokugeki culture of the school, in which students wager bets on cooking competitions over things like room space, cooking utensils, or even expulsion.

You can catch up with Food Wars! on Crunchyroll.

Psycho-Pass 3

Premiering in October

Psycho-Pass has been off the air since its second season aired in 2014, but the cyberpunk series is finally back for a third. The second season received mixed reviews, a fact largely attributed to season 1 writer Gen Urobuchi’s departure as the main writer of the series. Given the significant gap between the second and third seasons and the discrepancy in quality between the first two, Psycho Pass 3 is under quite a bit of scrutiny.

You can catch up with Psycho-Pass on Funimation.

Beastars

Premiering in October

Beastars is basically Zootopia, but maybe just a bit more grown up, and also about high school students, and also an anime with (we assume) no Shakira song to close out the credits. Set in a world in which everyone is an anthropomorphic animal. Regoshi is a wolf and member of Cherryton Academy’s drama club. There’s still a distinction between carnivores and herbivores, although certain animals like the extremely sensitive Regoshi break the stereotypes.

Beastars will air on October in Japan. The series will stream exclusively on Netflix internationally, although it’s not clear when it will be available on the platform.

Babylon

Premiering in October

Based off of the novel series written by Mado Nozaki, Babylon digs into a case of illegal clinical research. Zen Seizaki, a public prosecutor at Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office, is working the case, investigating a drug company and university that seem to be tied to the illegal research. During his investigation, he comes across a conspiracy involving a major election in an autonomous “new zone” located in western Tokyo.

Babylon will be available in the United States on Amazon Prime Video, which typically releases episodes on a week by week basis.

Pet

Premiering in October

Pet takes place in a world in which people have the ability to dive into a human brain and control others’ memories. These individuals, derogatorily referred to as “pets,” are frequently leveraged in the illegal world to cover the memories of witnesses. However, pets must also learn to protect themselves from their own power, which threatens to corrupt their soul. While the information and teaser we’ve gotten thus far are pretty

Pet will air on Amazon Prime Video, which seems to have a penchant for thrilling crime stories given its distribution of both the aforementioned Babylon and last year’s ’80s manga adaptation Banana Fish.

Dr. Stone

Currently Airing

Dr. Stone, an isekai in disguise, will continue airing into the fall after its first cour aired during the summer season. The series takes place over 3,000 years after everyone in the world was miraculously turned to stone, preserving their lives as millennia crept by. Senkuu, a genius, is un-petrified and sets out on a mission to release humanity from the stone and restore civilization through science. He’s joined by Taiju, his not quite as smart but infinitely stronger friend.

The series, which is simultaneously released on Crunchyroll and Funimation, will continue airing in the fall.

Vinland Saga

Currently Airing

Vinland Saga is the viking drama of your dreams. The series, which has been airing during the summer season, deliberately doesn’t glorify war. Rather, it digs into the resulting trauma, critiquing those who can’t wait to get into the fight. Told through the lens of the relationship between father Thors and son Thorfinn, the series is driven both by its characters and the history tying it all together.

The series is currently airing on Amazon Prime Video and will continue airing during the fall season.

Fire Force

Premiering in October

Fire Force is, for the most part, what it says on the tin. The series is about a group of firefighters, with one catch: the fire’s they’re fighting are actually humans turned into fire monsters, and most of the fire fighters can control fire themselves. The series, unfortunately, was ill-timed: following the events of the Kyoto Animation fire, the series self-censored and edited some of its fire sequences.

Fire Force is currently simultaneously released on Crunchyroll and Funimation and will continue airing during the fall season.