October is shaping up to be a packed month for anime fans. The slate runs from a chaotic student council to a dark Meiji-era romance and a full Academy City spinoff. A few of these are adaptations of cult-favorite manga, one is a spinoff fans have wanted for years, and one has been called the romance pick of the season. I have my favorites already, and I’ll get to them.
Here are five new anime worth putting on your calendar, counted down from five to one:
5. Even the Student Council Has Its Holes
Release date: October 3, 2026 (Japan time)
Episodes: 12
Genre: Slice of Life, Comedy, Ecchi
Streaming: OceanVeil
Mizunoe Ume joins the student council to avoid repeating a year and quickly finds out his fellow members are a deeply strange bunch. That’s the whole pitch, and I respect that the show isn’t trying to be anything else.
Naoyuki Tatsuwa directs at Passione, the studio behind Redo of Healer and Citrus. Character designs come from Ryo Imamura of ONIMAI: I’m Now Your Sister!, and scripts are handled by Masahiro Yokotani, who wrote for Makeine: Too Many Losing Heroines! The cast includes Haruka Shiraishi, Miyu Tomita, Shizuka Ishigami, and Yumi Uchiyama, and Sangatsu no Phantasia performs the opening theme.
It’s based on Muchimaro’s four-panel manga from Kodansha‘s Weekly Shonen Magazine, published in English by Seven Seas under its Ghost Ship mature readers imprint. Four-panel gags can be tricky to stretch into a full season, so I’m curious to see how the pacing holds up. If you know the source, you already know what you’re getting.
4. Firefly Wedding
Release date: October 9, 2026
Episodes: TBA
Genre: Historical, Romance, Drama, Psychological
Streaming: Fuji TV’s Noitamina
Fuji TV’s Noitamina block has a reputation for programming that hits differently, and Firefly Wedding looks set to keep it. In the Meiji era, Satoko Kirigaya, a sickly noblewoman marked for execution, proposes a fake marriage to the assassin sent to kill her, Shinpei Gotō. What follows is billed as a dark, obsessive romance in which she manages his devotion while facing her own approaching death.
David Production, the studio behind JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and Cells at Work, handles animation. Takahiro Kamei, whose credits include Urusei Yatsura and Fire Force, directs. Lynn voices Satoko and Kōki Uchiyama voices Shinpei, with Kent Itō and Kenjirō Tsuda in supporting roles. TOOBOE performs the ending theme, while the series is based on Oreko Tachibana’s manga.
3. So What’s Wrong With Getting Reborn as a Goblin?
Release date: October 5, 2026
Episodes: TBA
Genre: Isekai, Fantasy, Action, Comedy
Streaming: Crunchyroll
Office worker Akira Yagami dies saving a child and is reincarnated as a goblin with a natural lifespan of seven days. A unique skill stretches that to eighty years, and he starts stacking abilities as fast as he can. Then the Archfiend appears and offers him the power to make anyone he defeats permanently loyal to him.
It sounds like a setup, and it is, but the manga’s execution has earned it a dedicated fanbase. Kikunosuke Toya, the voice of Denji in Chainsaw Man, plays Akira. Yoko Hikasa and Azusa Tachibana lead the main cast, backed by Junko Takeuchi, Natsuki Hanae and Hiro Shimono. Ryūta Kawahara directs at BAKKKA, with Sou performing the opening and AHUB the ending.
2. A Certain Dark Item
Release date: October 9, 2026
Episodes: TBA
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Superpower
If you watched A Certain Scientific Railgun and wanted more time with ITEM, this is your show. A Certain Dark Item is a spinoff set in the same Academy City universe, following the elite dark-side unit ITEM before Shiage Hamazura enters the mainline story. Shizuri Mugino, Rikou Takitsubo, Frenda Seivelun and Saiai Kinuhata finally get the spotlight.
Tatsuyuki Nagai, who also directed A Certain Scientific Railgun, returns to direct, with J.C. Staff animating and Shigeki Kimoto on character designs. Ami Koshimizu, Aya Suzaki, Maaya Uchida and Chinatsu Akasaki reprise their roles.
The opening theme is “Ghost Sequence” by East Of Eden, their first anime tie-in, and the ending is performed by Kishida Kyoudan and The Akeboshi Rockets, who did the first ending theme of Railgun T. The franchise faithful have been waiting for this one.
1. Hello, I Am a Witch, and My Crush Wants Me to Make a Love Potion!
Release date: October 5, 2026
Episodes: TBA
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Streaming: Crunchyroll
For a large part of the fandom, this is the most anticipated premiere of the month, and the premise explains why. Rose, the Witch of the Lake, has secretly loved Royal Knight Harij for four years. Then he shows up at her door and asks her to brew a love potion for someone else.
Instead of turning him down, Rose sends him on a wild goose chase for ingredients. That means he keeps coming back, which means she keeps seeing him, and soon he’s showing up every day to feed her.
The series composition comes from Wataru Watari, the writer of My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected. Keizo Kusakawa directs at Diomedéa, the studio behind Squid Girl and Ro-Kyu-Bu. Mikako Komatsu voices Rose, and Yōhei Azakami voices Harij. The opening theme is “Kanawanai” by Centimillimental, and the ending is “Mada Uso ni Naranai” by Reini. This is the romance pick of the season, and it isn’t close.
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