The best returning anime of Summer 2026, ranked by viewer scores
By Taha Bilal Özbey · Published August 8, 2026
Every season the loudest question is about the shiny new premieres — but most seasons are quietly carried by their sequels. Summer 2026 is a striking case: of the roughly ninety anime on our summer schedule, the highest-scored entries are almost all returning series. Here they are, ordered by the viewer score in our data (sourced from AniList), with a note on how newcomer-friendly each one is.
The top tier
- BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War — The Calamity (88%)The season's highest-scored title, full stop. The concluding stretch of the Thousand-Year Blood War adaptation, airing Saturdays. Newcomers should start from the 2022 TYBW premiere, not here — this is the payoff arc.
- Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Season 3 (85%)The flagship isekai continues on Sundays. Story-heavy and continuity-heavy: this rewards viewers who are caught up, and the earlier seasons are the right entry point.
- Saga of Tanya the Evil Season 2 (81%)Nine years after season one aired, the war fantasy is back mid-week. The good news for lapsed fans: one tight season is all the homework there is.
Comebacks and crowd-pleasers
- Grand Blue Dreaming Season 3 (81%)The diving-club comedy returns. Continuity is light — if you remember the characters, you can drop back in almost anywhere and still laugh.
- You and I Are Polar Opposites Season 2 (81%)The feel-good romcom keeps its momentum from season one. Low barrier to entry; high weekly serotonin.
- The 100 Girlfriends… Season 3 (80%)The harem parody, third round. It runs on escalation, so starting from season one is half the fun — but each episode is nearly self-contained chaos.
Worth a look further down
- That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 4Fridays. A huge, comfortable franchise — season four is more of what fans already like, which is exactly the point.
- The Elusive Samurai Season 2 (75%)The gorgeously animated historical action returns; season one is short and very much worth the catch-up.
- Clevatess Season 2 (75%)Last year's dark-fantasy surprise continues directly from its first season's ending — not a jumping-on point, but a solid reason to catch up first.
How to keep up with all of them
Every title above airs weekly, and each one's detail page answers “when is the next episode?” in your own time zone. Follow the ones you pick and they gather in My Schedule — or flow into your own calendar app via the free iCal feed.
- Full Summer 2026 season archiveAll the season's anime in one browsable page.
- Put the schedule in your own calendarThe iCal how-to for Google Calendar, iPhone and Outlook.
Scores are the AniList community average as captured in our database in early August 2026 — they move as more people rate. Air days reflect our schedule data and can shift if broadcasters reschedule; detail pages are always current. Data: AniList.
How this guide was made: it was drafted with AI assistance from MovieSchedule's own schedule data (AniList, TVmaze and TMDB), then reviewed and published by Taha Bilal Özbey. Spotted an error? Let us know via the contact page.