Upcoming Fall 2020 Anime You Need to WATCH

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic really hit the Spring and Summer anime seasons hard, and Summer especially felt justifiably thin compared to previous years. But that's all going to change with the Fall 2020 anime season as the schedule is packed with a ton of shows to check out. This season of new anime releases has quite a lot of variety to look forward, and even more so when you compare it to the slate of releases for the Summer. Not only is there a greater quality as anime productions have made proper pandemic adjustments, but much more notable releases.

There are adaptations making their debut like Jujutsu Kaisen, Noblesse, series coming back for highly anticipated follow up seasons like The Irregular at Magic High School and Haikyuu!! To The Top, remakes like Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai, and some unconventionally scheduled releases like Attack on Titan. So what should you check out?

Jujutsu Kaisen

Premiere Date: October 2nd (Crunchyroll)

Weekly Shonen Jump has seen several of its recent hits make the jump to anime, and hopefully there's going to be the same amount of success seen from Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and The Promised Neverland's debut seasons for Jujutsu Kaisen. The series from creator Gege Akutami seems basically perfect for action anime fans. With darker and more intense threats, a lovable protagonist, wildly quirky secondary characters, and excellent hand to hand combat that's sure to look even better with The God of High School director Sunghoo Park's direction, Jujustu Kaisen could be huge.

Crunchyroll officially describes the series as such, "A boy fights... for 'the right death.' Hardship, regret, shame: the negative feelings that humans feel become Curses that lurk in our everyday lives. The Curses run rampant throughout the world, capable of leading people to terrible misfortune and even death. What's more, the Curses can only be exorcised by another Curse. Itadori Yuji is a boy with tremendous physical strength, though he lives a completely ordinary high school life.

One day, to save a friend who has been attacked by Curses, he eats the finger of the Double-Faced Specter, taking the Curse into his own soul. From then on, he shares one body with the Double-Faced Specter. Guided by the most powerful of sorcerers, Gojo Satoru, Itadori is admitted to the Tokyo Metropolitan Technical High School of Sorcery, an organization that fights the Curses... and thus begins the heroic tale of a boy who became a Curse to exorcise a Curse, a life from which he could never turn back."

Haikyuu!! To The Top Part 2

Premiere Date: October 2nd (Crunchyroll)

Haikyuu's fourth season began at the start of the year, and was essentially the build up for the Spring Tournament. Shoyo Hinata and Karasuno High School officially made their way through the first match at nationals toward the end of the first half, and upon the anime's return they will be facing off against their first real challenge in the tournament overall. What makes its grand return so exciting is that the anime is about to take on the match against Inarizaki High School. If you though the match against Shiratorizawa made for an intense season, there are about to be much bigger moments for you on the horizon.

Crunchyroll officially describes Haikyuu!! To The Top as such, "The Miyagi Prefecture qualifiers for the Spring Tournament... after an intense battle Karasuno High School Volleyball Club won their way into the nationals. As they were preparing for the nationals, Kageyama got an invitation to go to All-Japan Youth Training Camp. At the same time, Tsukishima is invited to go to a special rookie select training camp for first-years in Miyagi Prefecture. Hinata feels panic that he’s being left behind as one of the first-years and then decides to show up at the Miyagi Prefecture rookie select training camp anyway...As they prepare for the nationals, Hinata, Kageyama and the rest of the Karasuno High School Volleyball team get ready to face some new challenges!!"

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Season 3

Premiere Date: October 2nd (Crunchyroll, HIDIVE)

It may have been bumped to the Fall 2020 anime season due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, but it's still much less of a wait between Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon's first and second seasons. The second season of the series brought the anime back with a vengeance and now the third season is going to take things in an intense new direction with the introduction of a new character, Wiene, being the center of Bell's mission this time around.

You'll be able to stream this series with Crunchyroll and HIDIVE, and Crunchyroll describes the new season as such, "Since ancient times, humans and monsters have waged bitter war against one another in the bowels of the treacherous dungeon beneath Orario. Enmity between these races is an accepted and immutable fact — or at least it was until Bell Cranel stumbled across a young, blue-skinned girl in the dungeon’s dark depths. When this inhuman young woman speaks to him in the language of human beings and looks at him with all-too-human eyes, the land of Orario erupts into turmoil the likes of which it has never seen."

Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai

Premiere Date: October 2nd (TBA)

Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai has yet to be officially picked up in the West as of this writing, but it's sure to be one of the dark horses of the Fall 2020 season. Following in a line of successful anime remakes, and Digimon Adventure from Toei Animation specifically, this remake of the 1990s anime features characters designed in the same vein as Akira Toriyama's. Based on Riku Sanjo and Koji Inada's manga, this series follows a boy named Dai, who is the lone human living on an island of monsters.

Dreaming to one day become a hero, he soon gets thrust into a new adventure when his mentor is slain by the demon lord. Awakening to special new powers within himself, he then goes on an epic journey. This anime will be directed by Kazuya Karasawa, who directed a few Dragon Ball Super episodes and worked on Dragon Ball Super: Broly, for Toei Animation so it might scratch that Dragon Ball itch too! 

Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon

Premiere Date: October 3 (Crunchyroll and Funimation)

Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon is probably the most anticipated release of the Fall, and it's for good reasons as this serves as the official follow up anime to Rumiko Takahashi's Inuyasha. Takahashi even returned to provide the character designs for the new characters which are the daughters and sons of the fan favorite characters from the first series like Inuyasha and Sesshomaru. It just might be the must watch of the season. At least for Inuyasha fans anyway.

Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon will be streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation, and Viz Media officially describes the series as such, "The daughters of Sesshomaru and Inuyasha set out on a journey transcending time! In Feudal Japan, Half-Demon twins Towa and Setsuna are separated from each other during a forest fire. While desperately searching for her younger sister, Towa wanders into a mysterious tunnel that sends her into present-day Japan, where she is found and raised by Kagome Higurashi’s brother, Sota, and his family.

Ten years later, the tunnel that connects the two eras has reopened, allowing Towa to be reunited with Setsuna, who is now a Demon Slayer working for Kohaku. But to Towa’s shock, Setsuna appears to have lost all memories of her older sister. Joined by Moroha, the daughter of Inuyasha and Kagome, the three young women travel between the two eras on an adventure to regain their missing past."

The Irregular at Magic High School: Visitor Arc

Premiere Date: October 2nd (Funimation)

The Irregular at Magic High School is another anime that's making a return with new episodes that were delayed to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. And like DanMachi, it's been a long time since fans have gotten to see that first season. The Visitor Arc takes things to an appropriately more intense level fit for a major second season, and it's going to be great seeing all of these characters in slick action again.

You'll be able to stream The Irregular at Magic High School on FunimationNOW, and they officially describe the new season as such, "Miyuki Shiba’s classmate Kitayama Shizuku is on her way to study abroad. For magicians, this is normally impossible, since allowing the genes of someone who can use magic outside their home country’s borders is tantamount to giving up national secrets. But it’s allowed to happen in one case—exchange programs.

And that’s how Angelina Kudou Shields, known as Lina, has arrived in Japan from the USNA to study at First High. Around the time Lina arrived in Japan, magicians began getting attacked by a mysterious being who leaves his victims drained of blood. Will Tatsuya and Miyuki Shiba be able to discover the identity of the 'Vampire'?"

Noblesse

Premiere Date: October 6th (Crunchyroll Original)

Crunchyroll's line of original anime continues its strong streak through the year as Noblesse will be closing out the anime year following the Webtoon anime adaptations of Tower of God and The God of High School. Like those previous two collaborations, Noblesse is a webcomic from Jeho Son and Kwangsu Lee that fans have wanted to see get an anime for quite some time. If it's as strong as the previous release, then Noblesse fans are in for a great run.

Crunchyroll officially describe Noblesse as such, "Raizel awakens from his 820-year slumber. He holds the special title of Noblesse, a pure-blooded Noble and protector of all other Nobles. In an attempt to protect Raizel, his servant Frankenstein enrolls him at Ye Ran High School, where Raizel learns the simple and quotidian routines of the human world through his classmates.

However, the Union, a secret society plotting to take over the world, dispatches modified humans and gradually encroaches on Raizel’s life, causing him to wield his mighty power to protect those around him...After 820 years of intrigue, the secrets behind his slumber are finally revealed, and Raizel’s absolute protection as the Noblesse begins!"

Onyx Equinox

Premiere Date: November 21st (Crunchyroll Original)

It might not be a part of the traditional Fall anime release schedule, but we should probably keep a close eye on Onyx Equinox. Featuring characters that you don't traditionally see in anime projects, Onyx Equinox has a unique vibe all on its own that just might surprise us. It'll be that injection of energy we'll need later in the year.

Crunchyroll officially describes Onyx Equinox as such, "Onyx Equinox follows a young Aztec boy named Izel who is saved from death by the gods and is chosen to act as ‘humanity’s champion,’ forced to discard his apathy toward his fellow man and prove humanity’s potential on a journey that will take him across ancient Mesoamerica."

Attack on Titan - Final Season

Premiere Date: December 7th (Crunchyroll and Funimation)

Speaking of anime that will give an injection to the end of the year, here we land at the juggernaut of the Fall season. Somehow still making its debut this year despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and having fans worry right up until the start of the Fall season, Attack on Titan is going to go out with a bang. After a stunning third season, hopes are high for the anime to meet the expectations fans have for the final arc of the series.

The final arc has been the most intense, violent, brutal, and bleak in the series yet, and it will be taken on by a new studio rather than WIT Studio from the previous three seasons. Produced by Studio MAPPA for the final season with new director Yuichiro Hayashi (who also directed Kakegurui, so you know this final season is going to nail the eyes), you'll be able to stream this one through Crunchyroll and Funimation.