Over the last decade or so, we’ve quickly reached a point where more quality anime come out each year than any one person can reasonably keep up with: it’s a good problem to have, but it can be a bit overwhelming. The 2026 summer anime slate of shows drove home that sense of abundance, delivering everything from callous chromed-out futures to breezy hangout shenanigans.
If there was a common theme among the best of the best, it’s that these series centered on strong female leads put in near-impossible circumstances, forced to carry the weight of kingdoms. Marginalized creators are getting their due, and this batch of shows is flush with historical dramas, yuri, and everything in between.
Here are the best shows from the 2026 Summer anime season.
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Best of 2026 Summer Anime Honorable Mentions
You and I Are Polar Opposites continues to deliver weapons-grade charm, and the latest season has broadened its rom-com shenanigans to its adorkable extended cast. Don’t judge a book by its cover: though the series’ main couple is a classic “gloomy guy and bubbly girl” pairing, the show encourages you to look beneath the surface, both literally and thematically.
While the latest Ghost in the Shell adaptation slams the viewer with a Dune-like barrage of proper nouns and techno jargon, Science Saru’s confident visual execution gets across the main underlying point: the future sucks. This version of longtime series protagonist Motoko is a silly little guy until she isn’t, capturing what can be so easily lost in this kind of far-flung dystopia.
More Honorable Mentions: Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You, Kaiju Girl Caramelise, Saga of Tanya the Evil Season 2, BanG Dream! YUME∞MITA, Daemons of the Shadow Realm, Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games, Sparks of Tomorrow, Elusive Samurai
5. Though I Am An Inept Villainess
Animation Studio: Doga Kobo
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
At first glance, Though I Am An Inept Villainess doesn’t seem particularly original. Its Light Novel-adjacent title makes it clear this is another entry in the villainess trend — stories about heroines who are reincarnated as misunderstood “bad guys” — while the main character looks like Mao Mao from Apothecary Diaries decided to ditch her usual green digs for something crimson. Thankfully, it doesn’t take long for this series to remind us that execution matters much more than novelty.
After a well-regarded consort in an Imperial China-inspired royal court gets Freaky Friday body-swapped by her jealous rival, Reiren finds herself living the life of a villainess. However, her foe misses something crucial: our protagonist is guided by a fundamental grit that lets her weather just about anything.
Both the series and its heroine are impossible not to love, as Reiren turns a seemingly nightmarish situation around through cleverness, resilience, and, most of all, a guiding spirit of kindness that rightfully earns others’ trust.
Throughout, the story also grapples with heavier topics like chronic illness and the injustices of a court system designed to turn these women against each other. While there are a lot of villainess anime these days, this saturation isn’t a problem as long as they remain as good as this one.
4. I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day
Animation Studio: ROLL2
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
One of the best recent trends in the anime scene is a surge of LGBTQ+-focused adaptations that draw from the huge selection of excellent queer manga. I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day is a tragedy-tinged girls’ love tale set in a wizarding boarding school where orphans are trained into child soldiers.
It’s a grim setup, and while the series is undeniably elegiac, it also finds room for levity, banter, and snack breaks (sometimes so it can be very mean and punch you in the gut shortly after). The story follows Sheena as she forms a growing bond with her roommate Mimi, an immortal girl trapped in a cycle of death and rebirth.
Like many recent yuri adaptations, the series’ most obvious boon is how it looks. Relative newcomer studio Roll2 punches well above its weight class, as first-time director Yasushi Tomoda takes us between moments of lighthearted connection and the misery of war. The consistently gorgeous animation gets at this dichotomy through magic: there are awesome sequences that convey the miracles spellcasters are capable of before a spell leaves another student drenched in their own blood.
While this world can be uncompromising and cruel, the anime’s tactful presentation avoids grimdark edginess, inviting us to hope this heartwarming queer relationship will somehow work out. I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day is another reminder that yuri anime are finally being handled with the care that they deserve.
3. Draw This, Then Die!
Animation Studio: Shin-Ei Animation
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
Making good art is hard — like very hard — and no one knows this better than the people who make the magic happen. Although Draw This, Then Die! acknowledges that creation is an uphill climb, its greatest strength is how convincingly it taps into why people are willing to put in so much effort.
Following first-year high-school student Ai Yasumi as she forms a manga club, Shin-Ei Animation’s adaptation of this comic places us on the same wavelength as its plucky protagonist. In doing so, director Hiroaki Akagi has us see through the eyes of a daydreamer whose greatest wish is to write the kind of manga that helped her step out of her shell.
In a twist of fate, Ai meets the author who inspired her in the first place: her merciless literature teacher, Rei Teshima (played by the great Saori Hayami). From here, Ai goes from reader to artist, grappling with the difficulties of creation alongside the rest of her school’s manga club.
While the series’ hardcore title initially seems a bit out of step with its lighthearted comedy, flashbacks to Ms. Teshima’s career balance out the fun times by portraying the less pleasant places artistic obsession can lead. We come to see that the relationship between teacher and pupil isn’t a one-way street, as the manga club’s undiluted joy begins to chip away at Teshima’s jaded outlook.
Draw This, Then Die! is the most delightful look at the joys of creation since Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken, and that’s saying something.
2. Goodbye, Lara
Animation Studio: Kinema Citrus
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
One thing was clear about Goodbye, Lara from the moment the series was announced as Kinema Citrus’ 15th anniversary project: this show is gorgeous. Rendered in a simple but vibrant art style reminiscent of classic cel animation, the show reimagines Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid from the ground up.
While that may not sound like the most interesting premise, the first episode quickly works through its source material before segueing into a modern retelling, as the former mermaid princess Lara is tasked with finding “true love” before she reverts to sea foam. Before long, she forms a bond with her roommate Mari, as this princess and standoffish boxer slowly discover their true feelings for each other.
As this burgeoning romance suggests, the series brings The Little Mermaid’s implicitly queer themes into the foreground, offering a chance to right the original fairytale’s sense of unfulfilled longing.
Between Anna Kawahara’s sharp script that endears us to this central pair, Takushi Koide’s sweeping direction, and Yuma Yamaguchi’s best-of-the-year score, Goodbye, Lara could be an all-timer if it sticks the landing (if it’s yuri bait, I’m turning into sea foam).
1. Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia
Animation Studio: Science SARU
Where to Watch: Crunchyroll
Science Saru is one of the most ambitious studios in the anime industry, so it says a lot that the outfit’s latest work, Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia, may be the best thing it has ever made. Based on Tomato Soup’s manga, this show is a harrowing political drama defined by nuanced characters and the unblunted cruelties of history.
It centers on Sitara, a young Persian woman abducted from the sacked city of Tus and sold into slavery; after losing her loved ones, she vows to undermine the Mongolian Empire from within in any way she can.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about Jaadugar is that, despite its highly stylized look, Kanichi Katou’s script applies an academic rigor in its portrayal of the past. Science Saru’s gorgeous storybook art style brings to life centuries-old architecture, clothing, and traditions, as we learn the beliefs and political institutions that define this time and place.
Perhaps most refreshingly, the series centers on intelligent, resourceful women largely excluded from history books, delving into the kind of backroom politics that can lead to the rise and fall of empires. Sitara is resourceful and driven, but so are her political foes, whose heart-wrenching backstories explain why they’re driven to similar extremes.
Even in an industry with no shortage of talent, it’s rare for the stars to align quite like this, pairing a brilliant source material with Science Saru’s staff of industry heavyweights, like directors Naoko Yamada and Abel Góngora. The result is a genuine marvel.
Did your favorite make the best of 2026 Summer Anime list? Let us know on social media.
