The Fall 2026 Anime Preview Guide

Suikoden: The Anime

Longtime friends Riliu and Jowy are serving in the Highland Kingdom's Unicorn Youth Brigade when they are suddenly attacked by forces from the neighboring City States of Jowston—or so it appears at first. While escaping from the enemy forces, the two learn that this was actually a false flag operation—that Luca, Highland's bloodthirsty and sadistic crown prince, is starting a war for his own mysterious purposes. Now the two friends, separated, on the run, and within enemy territory, must find a way to survive and expose the conspiracy before thousands die in bloody conflict.

Suikoden: The Anime is based on the Suikoden II PlayStation One RPG by Konami. The anime series is streaming on YouTube on Tuesdays.

Oh no, I really wanted Suikoden: The Anime to be good without any reservations or qualifiers! Based on Suikoden II for the original PlayStation, which is arguably the most important, if not best, JRPG ever made, the title today is still famed as a sprawling epic that helped establish the scope of storytelling possible in video games—and is loaded with both social and hard politics. If you're hanging out with a certain kind of elder millennial or young Gen X gamer, chances are they'll STILL claim Suikoden II as their favorite video game, and that's for good reason!

I really wanted the anime adaptation of Suikoden II to live up to its source material and, while the story is still unimpeachable, this is a rough premiere that detracts from what made the original work so compelling.

To put it bluntly, the animation in Suikoden: The Anime is rough. With CGI liberally utilized as a shortcut for more difficult animation sequences, the second to second timeline of the dialogue and animation feeling off. This feels like an ambitious project taken on by a team without the experience to fully execute upon this vision. Considering the studio behind this anime is KONAMI animation (a subsidiary of the company that originally published the game), I imagine my impression is pretty close to reality. After all, not only does KONAMI animation's body of work largely consist of pitching in on specific episodes for shows they didn't fully animate outright, they're also splitting internal talent this season with the currently airing Nia Liston: The Merciless Maiden. With a green team taking on two big projects simultaneously, it's not at all surprising that the seams would start to stretch on at least one of the projects—with Suikoden seemingly taking the brunt of these limitations.

All of that being said, there's still something really special here if you can overlook the clunkiness. The central story of two young people, Riliu and Jowy, getting caught up in a false flag operation conducted by an aspiring politician who wants to enrich himself via prolonged warfare feels hyper-relevant to today's geopolitical landscape. Even if this first, hour long episode introduces far too many named characters that the anime will struggle to make feel relevant in the way the game did, I'm always down for a story that blends crunchy politics with anime action. With the Suikoden: The Anime premiere giving me just a glimmer of how special this show can be, I'm crossing both my fingers and toes that the animation will improve soon so that I can enjoy this story without any distractingly clunky cuts.

And I thought Aoashi had a lot of named characters. In Suikoden's defense, I don't think it was necessarily planned with those unfamiliar with the games in mind – everything about this double-length premiere feels tailored to provide fans with glimpses not just of the main plot, but of potentially favorite characters – I can't quite think why Gengen would feature so prominently otherwise. Almost every character we see in this episode gets a proper name, which means viewers are hit with a deluge of names and faces right off the bat. On the bright side, everyone does have their own distinct character design; there's no way you can confuse Pilika with Nanami or Jillia. But I still ended up with a list nearly a page long in a desperate bid to remember who everyone was.

On the plus side, the basics of the plot are easy to figure out. Two warring countries have reached a truce that at least two warmongers aren't happy with. They decide to frame the enemy by staging their own attack on a youth regiment, but two teenage boys, Riliu and Jowy, escape. Most of the episode follows the two of them as they try to figure out who caused the problem and avoid being framed for it themselves, while making friends with people who should be their enemies. The film doles out information about the boys' daring escape rather than throwing it in our faces, and I appreciate that; up until the final moments, they have no easy way out.

But at fifty minutes, the episode really drags. Its long runtime means that details that could have been excised, like Riliu helping with the chores at the “enemy” fort or Jowy wandering around town looking for Riliu. While both sections show that the “enemy” is just a person, you could read The Moon is Down and get a more nuanced, better-written example of the same thing, with less padding. It's a bit like watching an overlong, well-animated cutscene.

There's every chance that things will improve from here. Now that Jowy and Riliu have been reunited with Riliu's sister Nanami and know who their enemy actually is, the plot is free to advance. We know who everyone is and what they stand for. We know what Gengen looks like naked. We know that Riliu and Jowy apparently choreographed falling in sync. Hopefully that means that next week, the story will truly begin.