Fall 2026 Is Two Weeks In, and One Show Already Broke MyAnimeList's All-Time Record

Fall seasons usually need a few weeks to show their hand. Fall 2026 skipped that stage entirely. Two weeks in, it's already produced a record-breaking rating, a directorial reinvention, a studio swap under pressure, a season finale cliffhanger, and as of today, two more premieres landing on the same Wednesday. This is less a season warming up than a season that showed up already running.

The record nobody saw coming

The headline, and it's a genuine one, is Steel Ball Run: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Its second cour, airing weekly on Netflix since late September, has pushed the series to a 9.34 on MyAnimeList, the highest all-time rating the site has ever recorded, surpassing Frieren: Beyond Journey's End's previous record of 9.28. That's not a seasonal high, that's the best-rated entry in MyAnimeList's entire database, for a franchise that's been running in some form since the late 1980s.

The catch is that the number comes with real friction attached: Netflix's decision to split the release into cours has drawn consistent fan frustration, the kind of criticism that's loud enough to show up in coverage even as the show itself gets rated higher than anything else on the platform. It's a strange split: a release strategy audiences are actively annoyed by, attached to a season they can't stop rating at near-perfect scores.

Black Clover proves five years wasn't wasted

Black Clover Season 2 returned October 3 after a five-year gap, and it didn't ease back in. New director Ayataka Tanemura took over from Tatsuya Yoshihara on creator Yuki Tabata's direct request to make the fights "extra cool," and the premiere backs that up with noticeably more cinematic animation from Pierrot and a pace that doesn't slow down for a recap. Whether that energy holds across a full cour is still an open question, but as season-openers go, this is a franchise using its long absence as leverage instead of an excuse.

Blue Box changes hands mid-flight

Blue Box Season 2 premiered October 4 under genuinely different circumstances than its first run: a new studio, Electric Circus, founded by TMS's former president, and a new director, Daisuke Sako, taking over for the sequel. Studio changes between seasons are common enough, but this one is notable for who's behind the new house, a studio founded by someone who used to run one of the industry's bigger production companies. The first season's blend of sports drama and slow-burn romance carries over on paper, but the production pedigree behind it has shifted entirely, and early results suggest the new team inherited the tone without losing the momentum.

Dandadan closes a season, opens a bigger question

Dandadan Season 2 wrapped October 5 with a finale that paired a mecha-versus-kaiju brawl with a quieter, more consequential move: a cliffhanger kiss that reshuffles the Momo-Okarun-Aira triangle right as the credits hit. Science SARU's finale balances spectacle and character the same way the whole season has, and with Season 3 already confirmed for 2027 to adapt what's widely considered the manga's strongest arc, this isn't a season ending so much as a season setting up its own sequel's stakes in advance.

Today adds two more names to the pile

As if two weeks weren't already full, October 7 brings a pair of new arrivals. The Detective Is Already Dead Season 2 premieres today after a release delay, picking up Kimizuka's unresolved investigation into Siesta's disappearance now that Chameleon is dealt with. And tonight, Magic Knight Rayearth returns to television for the first time in three decades, a 30th-anniversary reboot airing on TV Asahi that retells CLAMP's original story for an audience that, in a lot of cases, wasn't alive when the first version aired in 1994.

What this says about the season ahead

A fall season that opens with a MyAnimeList record, a directorial reinvention, a studio handoff, a confirmed sequel, and two more premieres before the second week is even over isn't a season that needs hype built up around it. It's already supplying its own. The real test isn't whether Fall 2026 can keep producing moments like these, it's whether any one show can hold onto the spotlight long enough to be remembered as the season's defining story once all of this settles.