During this past weekend’s Anime Expo in Los Angeles, California, Crunchyroll held its industry panel announcing a number of acquisitions coming to its streaming platform this year and into next.
Here’s what fans can expect on Crunchyroll which includes a mixture of returning and new shows.
Omniscient Reader
Crunchyroll and Aniplex are adapting the Korean web-novel-based webtoon Omniscient Reader into an anime. No premiere date was provided.
Dokja was an average office worker whose sole interest was reading his favorite web novel ‘Three Ways to Survive the Apocalypse.’ But when the novel suddenly becomes reality, he is the only person who knows how the world will end. Armed with this realization, Dokja uses his understanding to change the course of the story, and the world, as he knows it.
Dr. STONE SCIENCE FUTURE
The voice of Senku Ishigami, Yusuke Kobayashi, revealed that the last season of Dr. STONE is coming to Crunchyroll at a future date.
Several thousand years after a mysterious phenomenon that turns all of humanity to stone, the extraordinarily intelligent, science-driven boy, Senku Ishigami, awakens. Facing a world of stone and the total collapse of civilization, Senku makes up his mind to use science to rebuild the world. Starting with his super strong childhood friend Taiju Oki, who awakened at the same time, they will begin to rebuild civilization from nothing… Depicting two million years of scientific history from the Stone Age to present day, the unprecedented crafting adventure story is about to begin!
Fire Force Season 3
The third season of Fire Force is being split into two cours, the first of which airs in April 2025, with the second in January 2026.
Tokyo is burning, and citizens are mysteriously suffering from spontaneous human combustion all throughout the city! Responsible for snuffing out this inferno is the Fire Force, and Shinra is ready to join their fight. Now, as part of Company 8, he’ll use his devil’s footprints to help keep the city from turning to ash! But his past and a burning secret behind the scenes could set everything ablaze.
Yakuza Fiancé
Arriving on October 2024, the anime adaptation of the manga by Asuka Konishi was introduced with a pre-recorded video from director Toshifumi Kawase.
Somei Renji is Somei Yoshino’s grandfather and leader of the “Somei Group”, the Kansai region’s biggest yakuza group. When he arranges for her to be married to Miyama Kirishima, Yoshino has to move to “Miyama Clan” estate, the Kanto region’s biggest yakuza group. Kirishima warmly welcomes Yoshino and is such a pleasant, personable, and nice young man that nobody would suspect that he comes from a yakuza family. This puts Yoshino at ease even though she was initially feeling insecure in this unfamiliar place. But then, a certain event leads to Yoshino witnessing the real Kirishima.
The Apothecary Diaries Season 2
A second season is scheduled to air sometime in 2025.
Maomao lived a peaceful life with her apothecary father. Until one day, she’s sold as a lowly servant to the emperor’s palace. But she wasn’t meant for a compliant life among royalty. So when imperial heirs fall ill, she decides to step in and find a cure! This catches the eye of Jinshi, a handsome palace official who promotes her. Now, she’s making a name for herself solving medical mysteries!
BLUE LOCK Season 2
The voice of Yoichi Isagi, Kazuki Ura, made the announcement in-person, that season two hits the pitch in October 2024.
Japan’s desire for World Cup glory leads the Japanese Football Association to launch a new rigorous training program to find the national team’s next striker. Three hundred high school players are pitted against each other for the position, but only one will come out on top. Who among them will be the striker to usher in a new era of Japanese soccer?
Anyway, I’m Falling in Love with You
Producer Yoko Shiraishi and voice of Hazawa Kizuki, Kazuki Ura, announced the series is scheduled for a January 2025 release.
It’s July 1, 2020. Mizuha, a high school second-year, is having the worst seventeenth birthday ever. She’s missing her chance to get close to the older student she admires, and her parents didn’t even remember that it’s her birthday. Worst of all, there’s a new and unknown infectious disease making the rounds, so all her club tournaments and school trips have been canceled. She’s convinced that she’ll never have the dazzling youth that she’s always dreamed of… but then her childhood friend, Kizuki, suddenly declares himself a candidate to be her boyfriend. This is a school youth story about four childhood friends who grew up like family, one being the heroine, Nishino Mizuha, and the four boys she grew up with whom she sees as family.
Link Click: Bridon Arc
Link Click returns with a new story later this year.
To save the deceased Cheng Xiaoshi, Lu Guang returns to the beginning, retracing the path of destiny. However, a photo containing clues about Cheng Xiaoshi’s parents appears in the “Time Photo Studio.” To uncover the truth, Lu Guang nervously travels to Bridon with Cheng Xiaoshi. Friendly top model Xia Fei, the eccentric leader of Chinatown, Vein, and the mysteriously appearing Liu Xiao… Faced with people harboring different motives, can Lu Guang break the fated deadlock?
Natsume’s Book of Friends Season 7
The seventh season will air in the Fall of 2024.
Natsume Takashi has the ability to see spirits, which he has long kept secret. However, once he inherits a strange book that belonged to his deceased grandmother, Reiko, he discovers the reason why spirits surround him.
Demon Lord, Retry! R
This new series from director Kazuomi Koga will stream on Crunchyroll as part of its Fall 2024 line-up.
Akira Oono finds himself in the world of Infinity Game as the last boss and his favorite character, the Demon Lord Hakuto Kunai. After meeting Aku, Luna, and other friends along the way, the Demon Lord begins a new journey to find a spell that can take him back to the real world. The story of the Demon Lord continues in this next chapter!
Additional series were also revealed during other panels throughout the four-day convention.
TRIGUN STARGAZE
Crunchyroll and Orange revealed the title for the next TRIGUN STAMPEDE episodes, which also included new illustrations of Vash the Stampede, Nicholas Wolfwood and Million Knives from series creator Yasuhiro Nightow.
Vash the Stampede’s a joyful gunslinging pacifist, so why does he have a $$6 million bounty on his head? That’s what’s puzzling rookie reporter Meryl Stryfe and her jaded veteran partner when looking into the vigilante only to find someone who hates blood. But their investigation turns out to uncover something heinous—his evil twin brother, Millions Knives.
Witch Hat Atelier
Manga creator Kamome Shirahama was present with the anime staff to announce the adaptation which will premiere on Crunchyroll in 2025. Working on the anime are director Ayumu Watanabe, character designer Kairi Unabara, music composter Yuka Kitamura, with animation production by BUG FILMS.
In a world where everyone takes wonders like magic spells and dragons for granted, Coco is a girl with a simple dream: She wants to be a witch. But everybody knows magicians are born, not made, and Coco was not born with a gift for magic. Resigned to her un-magical life, Coco is about to give up on her dream to become a witch…until the day she meets Qifrey, a mysterious, traveling magician. After secretly seeing Qifrey perform magic in a way she’s never seen before, Coco soon learns what everybody “knows” might not be the truth, and discovers that her magical dream may not be as far away as it may seem…
Source: Crunchyroll press release
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