Suikoden Anime Premieres October 3 With Final Trailer
Konami has put out the third and final trailer for Suikoden: The Anime, locked the ending theme, and confirmed the premiere: Saturday, October 3, 2026, on Tokyo MX, with a 60 minute first episode. It is the first television anime in the franchise’s 31 year history, it adapts Suikoden II specifically, and it will run two straight cours through March 2027. Below: the full broadcast and streaming table, what the trailer shows, the cast and staff, why this game matters so much, and the one thing that still is not confirmed.
Suikoden anime release date, broadcast and streaming
| Where | When | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Tokyo MX | Saturday, October 3 | Episode 1 is a 60 minute special; regular slot moves to Tuesdays 11:30 pm from October 13 |
| Kansai TV | From October 6 | Late night slot |
| BS Asahi | Fridays 11:30 pm from October 9 | Plus about 29 more regional stations, 32 in total |
| Prime Video, U NEXT, ABEMA, Hulu, d Anime Store, DMM TV, Niconico, TVer (Japan) | October 3 after 8:00 pm JST | Same day streaming in Japan |
| Outside Japan | Not announced | No Crunchyroll or Netflix simulcast confirmed as of this writing |
That last row is the real story for most of our readers. Konami and NBCUniversal have said nothing about an international simulcast, and Crunchyroll’s fall lineup does not list the show. For a series with this much overseas nostalgia, that silence is strange. If you are in the West, watch this space.
What the final trailer shows
The third PV drops the spectacle for story. It opens on Riou and Jowy still together, cuts to Highland cavalry riding through towns, then war sequences, then the quieter beats: two boys who were on the same side and will not be for long. It previews both theme songs. The opening is “Kanashimi Sae Otonabite” by amazarashi. The ending is “closed eye sun” by composer Koji Nakamura featuring Honoka Takahashi of Regallily, who wrote the lyrics and sings it. The ending single releases digitally on October 4.
The story: why Suikoden II
Suikoden II is the 1998 PlayStation game most fans call the best in the series, and the anime is adapting that one alone. Riou and his best friend Jowy are teenage soldiers in Highland’s Unicorn Youth Brigade. Their own prince, Luca Blight, engineers a night massacre of the brigade to break a ceasefire with the City States of Jowston, the boys survive by accident, get washed into enemy territory, are branded traitors, and end up fighting on opposite sides of a war neither of them started. Riou’s adoptive sister Nanami is the third lead. The seer Leknaat pushes both boys toward the True Runes that decide the whole conflict.
The series’ calling card is the 108 Stars of Destiny, the recruitable heroes borrowed from the Chinese classic Water Margin. Chief director Yuzo Sato told Famitsu straight out that not every Star will get lines. The party building structure of the game is gone. Characters appear “where they belong” in the story, and a lot of them will only show up in the opening, the ending and the eyecatches. Riou, Jowy and Nanami carry the drama.
Suikoden anime cast and staff
Toshiki Kumagai voices Riou, Shimba Tsuchiya is Jowy, Ayumi Hinohara is Nanami. Around them: Katsuyuki Konishi as the mercenary Viktor, Yuichi Nakamura as Flik, Taku Yashiro as the Mad Prince Luca Blight, Chika Anzai as Jillia Blight, Ayumu Murase as Luc, Takeo Otsuka as Shu, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Seed, Megumi Han as Leknaat and Miyuki Sawashiro as Anabelle. Yuzo Sato is chief director, Michihiro Tsuchiya handles series composition, Ryo Yamauchi adapts Fumi Ishikawa’s original game designs, and Koji Nakamura scores it. The studio is Konami’s own in house unit, KONAMI animation, making its first TV series.
Why this matters more than a normal game adaptation
Suikoden went dormant after 2012. Konami revived it in stages: the Suikoden I and II HD Remaster shipped in March 2025 to a Metacritic score around 81, sold strongly enough that Konami called the numbers “extremely strong” without ever giving a figure, and became a Switch 2 launch title in June 2025. Konami’s IP producer Rui Naito called the remaster step one and the anime step two, with a mobile game, Suikoden Star Leap, also announced.
The shadow over all of it is Yoshitaka Murayama, the creator, who left Konami in 2002, raised over 4.5 million dollars on Kickstarter for his spiritual successor Eiyuden Chronicle, and died in February 2024 at 55, weeks before that game launched. Konami has said the anime will not move “the axis” of his original work. For a lot of fans, this show is the first Suikoden anything since his death, and they are watching it partly as a tribute.
The concerns
The first trailer in March split people. Some called it fantastic, others said the art looked generic, the animation below average, and Luca Blight not menacing enough. The production uses CG layouts and motion capture for action scenes, which always makes traditional fans nervous. And the obvious one: Suikoden II is a 40 hour RPG with 108 named characters, and two cours is roughly 24 episodes.
FAQ
When does the Suikoden anime come out?
October 3, 2026 on Tokyo MX and Japanese streaming services, with a 60 minute first episode.
Which game does it adapt?
Suikoden II only, the Dunan Unification War with Riou, Jowy and Nanami.
How many episodes?
Two consecutive cours through March 2027. The exact count is not announced.
Will it be on Crunchyroll?
Not confirmed. No international streaming partner has been announced yet.
More on the season in Anime News, and test yourself with our character quizzes. Trailer details via Anime Corner and the official broadcast list on Gensopedia.
My take: The decision that will make or break this show is already made, and I think it is the right one. Sato’s “not every Star gets lines” line will anger the fans who wanted a 108 character roll call, but Suikoden II was never good because of the roster. It was good because of Riou and Jowy, two boys who love each other and end up commanding armies against each other, and because Luca Blight is one of the scariest villains in any JRPG. A tight 24 episode adaptation that treats the Stars as texture and spends its budget on that friendship is the version that works for people who never touched a PlayStation. The bigger problem is the missing international deal. Konami just spent 18 months rebuilding this franchise for a Western audience with the HD Remaster, and the anime has no announced way for that audience to legally watch it eight days before it airs. Either a Crunchyroll or Netflix announcement is coming at the last minute, which has happened before, or Konami is planning a delayed release, which would kill the conversation exactly when it matters. My prediction: the show is better than the March trailer suggested, the first episode lands well with the people who can see it, and the international rollout becomes the story fans complain about for the whole first cour.
