Spring 2026 looks nothing like the season before it. Winter 2026 ran almost entirely on established franchises picking up where they left off. Spring flips that script. The headline title is a genuine new adaptation that took years to reach screens, one long-dormant series is finally coming back, and one returning show is committing to a season length most anime never attempt.
Witch Hat Atelier Finally Gets Its Anime
Witch Hat Atelier premiered April 6 from studio Bug Films, adapting Kamome Shirahama's manga more than four years after the project was first announced in 2022 and after a prior release window slipped for quality reasons. Director Ayumu Watanabe and character designer Kairi Unabara lead the production, with music from Yuka Kitamura. The manga has sold more than 5.5 million copies, and the anime is licensed for the west by Crunchyroll. Of everything airing this season, this is the one carrying real new-series risk instead of sequel math.
Dorohedoro Returns After Six Years
Dorohedoro Season 2 premiered April 1 through MAPPA, with director Yuichiro Hayashi and series composer Hiroshi Seko both back from the first season and (K)NoW_NAME again handling music. The gap between seasons stretches back to the original 2020 run, making this one of the longer waits between seasons for any currently airing series. It streams on Netflix and Crunchyroll worldwide.
Slime Season 4 Commits to a 60-Episode Run
That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 4 premiered April 3 on Crunchyroll, airing same-day in Japan on Nippon TV's Friday Anime Night. Rather than the usual single or split-cour order, this season is structured across five cours totaling roughly 60 episodes, with the first two running back to back from April through September without a break. It is a rare production commitment for a currently airing series and signals the studio is treating Slime as an ongoing tentpole rather than a season-by-season bet.
Two More Familiar Names Round Out the Chart
Classroom of the Elite Season 4 premiered April 1 with a 90-minute, four-episode special before settling into a weekly run through the rest of April. Re:Zero Season 4 followed on April 8, split into an 11-episode Loss Arc and an 8-episode Recapture Arc starting in August, continuing the story into the Pleiades Watchtower and introducing the sage Shaula. Both are safe bets for their existing audiences rather than swings at anything new.
What This Says About the Season
Winter 2026 was risk-averse by design, five sequels leaning on built-in audiences. Spring took the opposite approach on its biggest title while still keeping the sequel machine running underneath it. Witch Hat Atelier is the only real gamble on the chart, but Dorohedoro's long-delayed return and Slime's unusually large episode commitment show studios are still willing to bet resources on shows they trust, just not on anything unproven beyond the one new adaptation carrying the season.
