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Game News, Manga Anime

Bananya Turns 10 With New Mobile Game and Anime Special

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Crunchyroll and TMS Entertainment are marking Bananya’s 10th anniversary this July with two brand-new releases: Bananya Buddies, the first original game on Crunchyroll Game Vault, and a 10th anniversary anime special that premieres at Anime Expo on 4 July before streaming worldwide on Crunchyroll from 9 July. Pre-registration for Bananya Buddies on Google Play is live right now — here’s everything Singapore fans need to know.

Bananya Buddies — Collect Cats, Decorate Your Hangout Pad

Developed by Crunchyroll Games, TMS Entertainment, and independent studio The MIX, Bananya Buddies is a cozy mobile cat-collecting game launching exclusively on Crunchyroll Game Vault this summer. The premise is simple and delightful: welcome Bananya visitors to your pad, play mini-games to earn coins, and leave out toys and treats to rack up Buddy Points with each little banana-dwelling cat.

The more Buddy Points a Bananya accumulates, the longer it sticks around — and the better the gifts it leaves behind. Reach Best Buddies status and you unlock a sleepover; hit Best Buddies Forever and something even more special awaits (you’ll have to play to find out). It’s the kind of low-key, pick-up-and-put-down mobile experience that cozy game fans have been waiting for from an anime IP this charming.

  • Platform: Crunchyroll Game Vault (exclusive) — available on Crunchyroll Mega Fan and Ultimate Fan tiers
  • Launch window: Summer 2026
  • Pre-registration: Google Play now open; App Store coming soon
  • Languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish (Latin America and Spain)

Bananya Buddies joins nearly 100 titles already in the Game Vault, and as the first original game produced for the platform it marks a meaningful step forward for Crunchyroll’s gaming ambitions.

Bananya 10th Anniversary Special | Official Teaser | Crunchyroll — via Crunchyroll on YouTube

The Bananya 10th Anniversary Anime Special

Bananya 10th Anniversary ensemble key art featuring the full cast of Bananya characters on a sparkly fantasy background
Image courtesy of Crunchyroll / TMS Entertainment

The first Bananya episode aired on 4 July 2016. Exactly ten years later — on 4 July 2026 at 10AM — the Bananya 10th Anniversary anime special will world-premiere at Anime Expo before landing on Crunchyroll on 9 July.

The official synopsis drops the Bananyas into an adventure: the player character wakes to find they’ve somehow become a Bananya themselves, then sets off through forest, mountain, and open land in search of missing treasures. It’s a fresh story that expands the lore while keeping the dreamy, low-stakes tone that made the original shorts such a cult favourite.

The special features an all-star Japanese voice cast:

  • Stray Bananya — Atsumi Tanezaki (Anya Forger in SPY x FAMILY)
  • Little Bananya — Yuina Ito (Zundamon)
  • Tall Bananya — Toshiyuki Morikawa (Minato Namikaze in NARUTO)

The commemorative theme song is “nyanderful nyanderland” performed by TAMAchan, with Bananya’s character voice by Yuki Kaji.

Official Japanese promotional poster for the Bananya 10th Anniversary special, showing the cast in portrait format
Image courtesy of TMS Entertainment / Bananya Lovers — official Japanese promotional poster for the 10th Anniversary
Still from the Bananya 10th Anniversary Special teaser — a giant Bananya rises from the ocean beside a pirate ship
Still from Crunchyroll’s official teaser for the Bananya 10th Anniversary Special

How Singapore Fans Can Watch and Play

Crunchyroll is available in Singapore, and existing subscribers can catch all three current Bananya series — Bananya, Bananya and the Curious Bunch, and Bananya Around the World — right now while waiting for the anniversary special to drop on 9 July.

Bananya Buddies requires a Crunchyroll Mega Fan or Ultimate Fan membership to access via Game Vault. If you’re already on either tier, the game drops into your library at no extra cost when it launches this summer. Not yet subscribed? You can sign up or upgrade on Crunchyroll’s website.

Further 10th anniversary announcements — including merchandise, events, and other celebratory projects — will roll out through the rest of the year via the official TMS Entertainment and Bananya channels on X, Facebook, and Instagram.

Keep up with all the latest anime news right here on GameTrader.SG.

Manga Anime

Ghost in the Shell 2026 Anime Premieres 7 July on Prime Video — Science SARU Takes the Helm

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One of anime’s most legendary franchises gets a fresh start this week: 攻殻機動隊 THE GHOST IN THE SHELL premieres on 7 July 2026 on Fuji TV in Japan — and simultaneously on Amazon Prime Video in Singapore and more than 240 countries worldwide. Science SARU, the studio behind Dandadan and Inu-Oh, is taking the helm. The Summer 2026 season has not been short on big premieres, but this is the one that has the broadest conversation going.

Why This Ghost in the Shell Is Different

Ghost in the Shell 2026 Motoko Kusanagi official poster art
Image courtesy of Science SARU / Bandai Namco Filmworks

Every previous Ghost in the Shell anime adaptation has lived in the shadow of Mamoru Oshii’s 1995 film — the muted palette, the slow philosophical pacing, the rain-soaked existentialism that influenced a generation of filmmakers from the Wachowskis to James Cameron. Science SARU is not making that series. Director Mokochan and character designer Shuhei Handa have explicitly returned to Masamune Shirow’s original 1989–91 manga aesthetic — brighter, more kinetic, with Major Motoko Kusanagi rendered closer to Shirow’s own drawings than the Oshii film version most international audiences know.

The script is by EnJoe Toh (円城塔), an award-winning hard science-fiction novelist — not a veteran anime scriptwriter. That left-field choice signals a production pushing for genuine sci-fi prose rather than standard procedural anime plotting. The story follows Kusanagi and the combat unit she leads at Section 9 against a hacker known as the Puppet Master, across a near-future city where cyberbrain technology has reshaped crime, identity, and humanity.

Official Promotional Video 2 — via Ghost in the Shell Official Channel on YouTube (Japanese)

Science SARU: The Right Studio at the Right Moment

Ghost in the Shell 2026 anime scene from Section 9
Image courtesy of Science SARU / Bandai Namco Filmworks

Science SARU was co-founded by Masaaki Yuasa, and while Yuasa is not directing here, the studio’s commitment to handcrafted, design-led animation is well established. Their work on Dandadan — which delivered one of the most visually inventive anime seasons in years — proved they can handle high-energy, action-forward material without losing aesthetic integrity. Ghost in the Shell demands both technical precision and a strong visual identity; Science SARU has demonstrated it can deliver both.

At the world premiere at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on 22 June 2026, director Mokochan explicitly stated that zero generative AI was used in production. That commitment, made publicly at the industry’s largest animation gathering, has been a widely noted talking point since — and in an anime industry where AI-in-production debates are intensifying, it positions this series clearly.

Music is from Taisei Iwasaki, Ryo Konishi, and Yuki Kanesaka. The ending theme — titled “Blue” — is performed by Millennium Parade featuring Saya Gray and Daniel Caesar. That combination of Japanese art-pop production and international collaborators should pull listeners well outside the usual anime-music audience.

Watch It in Singapore From Day One

Ghost in the Shell 2026 anime cyberpunk cityscape visual
Image courtesy of Science SARU / Bandai Namco Filmworks

Prime Video is available in Singapore, and the series launches globally on 7 July — meaning Singapore fans can watch the same day as the Japanese broadcast, no waiting, no searching for streams. Just log into your Prime Video account. The series is available in over 240 countries and territories, with the only notable exceptions being China, Russia, and Vietnam.

This is also the first Ghost in the Shell anime title produced outside Production I.G., which had held the anime rights for more than thirty years — from the 1995 Oshii film through the Stand Alone Complex TV series and beyond. Science SARU stepping in is a genuine creative handoff. Notably, Bandai Namco Filmworks, Kodansha, and Production I.G. itself are all in the production committee, confirming this is a franchise succession rather than a licensing side project.

Whether you are a long-time fan of the franchise who remembers Section 9 from Stand Alone Complex, or someone who has only encountered the Ghost in the Shell name by reputation, 7 July is the date. Same day as Japan. Prime Video. For Singapore, there is no easier on-ramp to one of the most anticipated anime of 2026.

Keep up with more Summer 2026 anime on GameTrader.SG.

Manga Anime

Cooking Master Boy Gets Its First TV Anime After 30 Years — Starting 5 July on TV Tokyo

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After thirty years of waiting, Cooking Master Boy is finally getting the TV anime it deserved from the start. 鉄鍋のジャン！ (Tetsunabe no Jan!) premieres on 5 July 2026 on TV Tokyo and its five affiliate stations — making it one of the stealth must-watches of the Summer 2026 season and, remarkably, the first-ever television adaptation of a manga that sold over 10 million copies.

The Manga Singapore Readers Grew Up With

Cooking Master Boy anime key visual showing protagonist Jan and supporting cast
Image courtesy of NBCUniversal Anime/Music

Saijyo Shinji’s manga ran in Weekly Shonen Champion from 1995 to 2007, racking up more than 10 million copies sold across its run — a number that understates its actual footprint across Southeast Asia, where translated editions and bootleg copies passed hand-to-hand through the late 1990s and 2000s. Singapore and Malaysian readers know Jan well: the impossibly arrogant teenage chef who would cook a fire-column fried rice to humiliate rivals, and who made every dish feel like a cage match rather than a recipe.

The premise: 15-year-old Akiyama Sho — nicknamed “Jan,” the Chinese reading of his given name — is the son of a legendary Chinese grand-master chef. Raised to be ruthless, creative, and completely without sportsmanship, Jan tears through China’s most prestigious cooking academy and tournament circuit using techniques no one else would dare attempt. The cooking battles are absurd by design, the characters are wildly over-the-top, and the food somehow looks incredible despite being physically impossible. It defined the cooking-manga genre for a generation of readers across Asia.

Why Now? Nobody Knows — and That Is Part of the Appeal

Cooking Master Boy anime promotional visual 2026
Image courtesy of NBCUniversal Anime/Music

The official site — tetsujan.com (Japanese) — acknowledges the absurdity with wry honesty: 「これまでアニメ化されなかった理由は誰にもわからない」 — roughly, “nobody knows why it was never adapted until now.” For a manga with 10 million sales and a generation of devoted fans, the absence of a TV anime has been a long-running in-joke in fandom circles for decades. 2026 is when that joke ends.

NBCUniversal Anime/Music announced the production earlier this year, and the official teaser PV dropped on their YouTube channel to immediate celebration online. The animation studio is LAPANTRUCK, and music for the series is being handled by tofubeats — the Kobe-born electronic producer known for introspective J-pop and collaborations with Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and Perfume. That is an unconventional pairing for a cooking-battle manga, and it has fans genuinely curious about the tonal direction.

Official teaser PV for 鉄鍋のジャン！ — via NBCUniversal Anime/Music on YouTube

A Voice Cast That Signals Serious Intent

For a cult manga getting its first-ever adaptation, the cast punches well above its weight:

  • Akiyama Sho (Jan): Toya Kikunosuke (戸谷菊之介)
  • Kirico: Hasegawa Ikumi (長谷川育美) — widely known for Bocchi the Rock’s Nijika Ijichi
  • Kei Sawa: Sakurai Takahiro (櫻井孝宏) — whose roles span Shanks in One Piece, Kirito in Sword Art Online, and Itachi in Naruto
  • Ryuji Bito: Sugita Tomokazu (杉田智和) — Gintoki Sakata, Joseph Joestar
  • Narrator: Tsuda Kenjiro (津田健次郎) — Aizen Sosuke in Bleach, Reinhard in Legend of the Galactic Heroes
Cooking Master Boy anime 2026 cast promotional visual
Image courtesy of NBCUniversal Anime/Music

These names do not appear in nostalgia cash-grabs. The combination of Sakurai Takahiro, Sugita Tomokazu, and Tsuda Kenjiro in a single production is a statement of ambition — and it means even fans unfamiliar with the source material have a cast reason to tune in.

Can Singapore Fans Watch It?

Here is the honest answer for now: Tetsunabe no Jan! currently has no confirmed international streaming partner. The platforms listed — ABEMA, U-NEXT, AnimeTimez, and アニメ放題 — are all Japan-domestic services. There is no Crunchyroll, Netflix, or Prime Video deal announced for international territories at the time of writing.

ABEMA occasionally opens streams without region locks for select simulcasts, and platforms sometimes add overseas access post-launch. We will update this post if an international stream is confirmed. For now, Singapore fans will need to follow this one through Japan-region services.

For those who have never read the manga: the original Weekly Shonen Champion run is worth tracking down to understand why a 30-year-old property getting its first TV anime is genuinely exciting news. 鉄鍋のジャン！ premieres 5 July 2026 on TV Tokyo and affiliates at 17:30 JST. Official site: tetsujan.com (Japanese). More anime premieres this summer on GameTrader.SG.

Manga Anime

Wazamonogatari: Karen Ouga Is the Next Monogatari Series Arc

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The Monogatari Series is heading back into SHAFT territory this winter — and it’s Karen Araragi’s turn to step into the spotlight. Aniplex revealed on 2 July 2026 that the next arc under the Off & Monster Season umbrella will be Wazamonogatari: Karen Ouga (業物語 かれんオウガ), with winter 2026 confirmed as the broadcast window and both a first key visual and official PV released to mark the announcement.

業物語PV｜〈物語〉シリーズ オフ&モンスターシーズン — via アニプレックス チャンネル on YouTube

What Wazamonogatari: Karen Ouga Is About

The title confirms what longtime fans have hoped for: an arc devoted entirely to Araragi Karen (阿良々木火憐), Koyomi’s hard-hitting younger sister and one half of the Fire Sisters duo. The story finds Karen in her first year of high school. Her karate master has recognised her exceptional strength — but rather than a promotion, Karen receives an order: solo mountain training across the Ōga Sanzan (逢我三山), a trio of peaks comprising Kikaiyama, Senbaridake, and Kachikachi-yama. The arc revolves around what waits for her at the other end of that ordeal.

The first key visual encapsulates the arc’s energy. Karen is shot from below, yellow track jacket billowing, lunging upward toward an outstretched hand — motion and momentum in every line. The tagline printed alongside her reads: 「青春は、登り続ける物語。」 — “Youth is a story of continuous climbing.” For a character defined by physical grit and relentless forward drive, that framing lands exactly right.

Monogatari Series Off and Monster Season cast ensemble visual featuring Araragi Karen and other characters
Image courtesy of Aniplex

Off & Monster Season — The Ongoing Stage

Off & Monster Season is the umbrella season carrying the Monogatari Series forward after the main chapters of Final Season concluded. Production on this run was first announced in July 2025 (Japanese), and the season has been delivering self-contained arcs focused on supporting and peripheral characters rather than Koyomi taking centre stage — a format that gives the series room to explore its deep bench in depth. The arc immediately preceding Karen Ouga in the season is Aserollamonogatari: Bon Appétit (あせろらボナペティ), which is still running at the time of this announcement.

Wazamonogatari: Karen Ouga will follow in the same format — a focused arc, standalone enough to be accessible but deeply rewarding for anyone who has followed Karen since her Nisemonogatari and subsequent appearances.

Monogatari Series Off and Monster Season key visual showing Nadeko and another character under a night sky
Image courtesy of Aniplex

The Production Team

The core creative pillars are firmly in place. NisiOisiN (西尾維新) provides the original novel — Wazamonogatari (Kodansha BOX) — with VOFAN continuing as the character design originator whose distinctive art has defined the series’ look since 2009. Overall direction remains with Shinbou Akiyuki (新房昭之), while Yoshizawa Midori (吉澤翠) serves as arc director. Series composition is shared between Higashitomi Ayako (東冨耶子) and Shinbou, with Watanabe Akio (渡辺明夫) handling character design adaptation and chief animation direction. SHAFT produces, as it has for every entry in the series since Bakemonogatari.

Wazamonogatari Karen Ouga official title logo
Image courtesy of Aniplex

What Singapore Fans Should Know

A winter 2026 broadcast window in Japan typically means an October-to-December air date, placing Wazamonogatari: Karen Ouga just a few months away. Previous Off & Monster Season arcs have streamed internationally, with earlier Monogatari entries available through major platforms — streaming availability for this arc is to be confirmed closer to release, so keep an eye on official Aniplex and NisiOisiN Anime Project announcements. For now, the official X account (@nisioisin_anime) is your best source for real-time updates.

For Singapore fans who have been watching this franchise since the Bakemonogatari days, getting a Karen-centric arc — written by NisiOisiN, built by SHAFT, and arriving winter 2026 — is a significant step for a character who has always felt like she deserved more than a supporting role. Check our manga and anime coverage for more as this one develops.

Manga Anime

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 — New Cast, New Story, Fall 2026 on Netflix

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Night City doesn’t forget you — and Studio Trigger isn’t done with it either. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 is officially coming to Netflix this Fall 2026, and the second teaser trailer that dropped on 29 June makes one thing clear: this is a wilder, darker ride than the first.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 | Official Teaser #2 — via Netflix on YouTube

A Standalone Story, Not a Sequel

This is not a continuation of David Martinez’s story. CD Projekt Red and Studio Trigger have been clear that Edgerunners 2 is a brand-new, self-contained 10-episode arc with a fresh cast of characters. The tagline says it all: “New Legends. Same Night City.” You don’t need to have seen Season 1 to jump in — though if you have, you’ll know exactly how unforgiving Night City can be.

The official description frames it as “a story of family, obsession, legacy — and how your lens reflects the stories of the people around you.” The trailer backs that up: a bone-deep grunge aesthetic, bursts of cyberware violence, and Rico Nasty’s “You Can’t Run From Me” driving it all forward.

Who’s Running Night City This Time?

Four characters anchor the new story, each coming at Night City from a completely different angle:

Weak — Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 character art
Image courtesy of CD Projekt Red / Studio Trigger

Weak (voiced by Kentaro Tone) is a washed-up edgerunner legend — once the best, now living without chrome and searching for a sense of purpose in a city that has long since moved on without him.

D — Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 character art
Image courtesy of CD Projekt Red / Studio Trigger

D (voiced by Koki Uchiyama) is a deadly nomad on a path of revenge for his clan, only to find himself knee-deep in corpo secrets that were never meant to surface.

Roman — Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 character art
Image courtesy of CD Projekt Red / Studio Trigger

Roman (voiced by Momoka Terasawa) is a young cinephile hunting for stories in a city that replaced cinema with braindances — pointing a lens at the chaos around him instead of running from it.

Talia — Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2 character art
Image courtesy of CD Projekt Red / Studio Trigger

Talia (voiced by Akari Kito) grew up corpo but got hardened by time running with the Maelstrom gang — someone who knows how to survive in a city that chews people up.

The Creative Team Bringing It Back

The original Edgerunners was directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi, and his absence here is worth noting — but the team stepping in is no less impressive. Kai Ikarashi takes the director’s chair; he previously worked as an animator on Trigger projects including Little Witch Academia and SSSS.Gridman, and this marks his biggest solo directing credit yet.

Hugo Award-winning writer Bartosz Sztybor returns as showrunner and lead story writer, joined by Masahiko Otsuka. Ichigo Kanno handles character design, with colour supervision by Yukiko Kakita. Studio Trigger is back in the animation seat.

An Anime Expo 2026 panel on 3 July will include the first episode screening for attendees and is expected to surface new details — including, possibly, a specific premiere date within the fall window.

Singapore Fans: Netflix, This Fall

Netflix Singapore carries the full Cyberpunk: Edgerunners catalogue, and Edgerunners 2 will land globally on the same platform with the same day-one access. No region delay, no import headache. If you haven’t caught Season 1 yet, it’s a tight ten-episode run that’s well worth clearing before fall. Check out more anime coverage on GameTrader while you wait.

Manga Anime

Mushoku Tensei Season 3 Premieres This Weekend — Eris Takes Centre Stage

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After two acclaimed seasons that set a high bar for isekai anime, Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation is back with Season 3 this weekend. The new cour launches with a back-to-back two-episode special premiere on 4 July 2026 via ABEMA and d Anime Store — one day ahead of the terrestrial broadcast — with regular weekly episodes beginning on Sunday 5 July on Tokyo MX and other channels.

Eris Boreas Greyrat in Mushoku Tensei Season 3 official PV
Image courtesy of TOHO animation / Mushoku Tensei III Production Committee

The Eris Training Arc — Season 3 shifts its focus

Season 3 places Eris Boreas Greyrat firmly in the spotlight. The second promotional video, subtitled “Eris Training Arc” (エリス修行編), and the official Season 3 key visual both centre on the fiery red-haired swordswoman — a narrative move that fans of the light novel and manga have long been waiting to see fully realised on screen. Rudeus Greyrat remains the series’ anchor, but Eris’s journey toward the rank of Sword King is the beating heart of this new chapter.

The season’s ending theme, “祈り、終われば” (“When the Prayer Ends”), is performed by Mika Nakashima — a veteran Japanese pop singer known internationally for Nana and numerous J-pop releases. The choice suggests an emotional tone to match Eris’s arc.

Eris Boreas Greyrat Season 3 character visual
Image courtesy of TOHO animation / Mushoku Tensei III Production Committee

Studio Bind returns with the same core team

Studio Bind returns as the animation studio, with Ryosuke Shibuya directing — the same pairing that has maintained the series’ visual identity across Seasons 1 and 2. The original light novel by Rifujin na Magonote spanned 24 volumes and became one of the defining works of the post-2010 isekai generation. Bind’s adaptation has been methodical and consistently high quality; Season 3 is expected to continue that standard.

Watch the official Season 3 trailer

『無職転生Ⅲ ～異世界行ったら本気だす～』本PV — via TOHO animation チャンネル on YouTube

When and where to watch from Singapore

Eris action scene from Mushoku Tensei Season 3 PV
Image courtesy of TOHO animation / Mushoku Tensei III Production Committee

The advanced two-episode premiere airs on 4 July (Saturday) via ABEMA and d Anime Store at 8:00pm JST, which is 7:00pm SGT. Episode 2 follows at 8:30pm JST (7:30pm SGT). The regular weekly terrestrial broadcast begins 5 July (Sunday) on Tokyo MX and satellite channels including BS11.

Streaming rights outside Japan had not been formally confirmed at time of writing. Seasons 1 and 2 of Mushoku Tensei were available on Crunchyroll in Singapore and the rest of Southeast Asia, and Season 3 is widely expected to follow the same path — but keep an eye on a Crunchyroll announcement for confirmation. International ABEMA subscribers can access the two-episode premiere on Saturday regardless.

This is one of the most-anticipated anime returns of the Summer 2026 season. If you have been working through the back catalogue, the weekend premiere gives you a clear deadline. Follow our Manga & Anime section for more Summer 2026 season coverage as it lands.

Manga Anime, News

Bleach TYBW: The Calamity Premieres July 25 — Kubo Chose the Final Themes

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The wait is almost over. Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War – The Calamity, the fourth and final cour of the revived anime, has locked in its premiere: July 25, 2026, at 11:00 PM JST on TV Tokyo and affiliated networks. Streaming across multiple platforms follows from July 26 — meaning Singapore fans can catch it the very same weekend it drops in Japan.

What Is The Calamity — and Why the Entire Bleach Fandom Is Watching

This is not a regular new season. The Calamity is the endgame — the final stretch of the Thousand-Year Blood War arc, the storyline Tite Kubo concluded in the manga years ago that anime fans have been waiting to see faithfully adapted ever since the original Bleach anime ended in 2012.

The first three cours — The Blood Warfare (2022), The Separation (2023), and The Conflict (2024) — reset expectations for what shonen anime could look like visually. Part 4 now picks up with Ichigo Kurosaki and what remains of Soul Society’s forces in their final confrontation with Yhwach, the Quincy king whose power to rewrite fate makes him the most formidable villain the series has produced.

The official key visual released by Studio Pierrot makes the stakes clear without a word of dialogue: Ichigo, battered and kneeling, stares up at a massive dark form devouring the sky, surrounded by shattered zanpakuto blades. The Japanese text reads 後の刃は振り下ろされる — “the final blade falls.” Below it: 千年血戦篸 禍進譚. The Calamity. July 25.

Yoruichi Shihouin in battle in Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War The Calamity
Image courtesy of Studio Pierrot

Kubo’s Personal Touch: Choosing Both Theme Songs Himself

One of the more striking details around The Calamity’s rollout: creator Tite Kubo personally selected both theme songs for the final arc, listening to tracks from the demo stage before making the final calls. Rather than going with well-known franchise names or returning performers, he chose new-to-most-fans artists — a deliberate move to give the finale its own distinct identity.

The opening theme is “I-BULL” by jo0ji. Each episode closes with “Spiral” by 9Lana.

It is consistent with how Kubo has approached this entire adaptation. Throughout all four cours, he has reportedly contributed story material exclusive to the anime — which means even readers who finished the manga will encounter moments they have not seen before.

Official Trailer | BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Final Part – The Calamity | INTL SUBS — via VIZ on YouTube

The Theatrical Head-Start and the Creative Team Behind It

Before the TV broadcast, the first three episodes screened in selected US theaters between June 25 and 29, part of a Viz Media theatrical event. The screenings included an exclusive behind-the-scenes conversation with Kubo, chief series director Tomohisa Taguchi, and series director Hikaru Murata — a rare window into how the final arc was assembled, as reported by ComicBook.com.

Scene from Bleach Thousand-Year Blood War The Calamity official Viz Media trailer
Image courtesy of Studio Pierrot / Viz Media

When Singapore Fans Can Watch

The broadcast starts July 25 at 11:00 PM JST — that is 10:00 PM SGT the same Saturday night. Streaming from July 26 across multiple platforms; Singapore fans who followed Parts 1–3 should find The Calamity on the same service they used for the earlier cours. If your platform of choice has not confirmed it yet, check back on or after July 26.

If you have not caught up on the previous three parts, the next three weeks are the window to do it. All prior seasons of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War run across roughly 50 episodes of visually exceptional anime — and The Calamity will not wait for stragglers.

Keep an eye on our Manga & Anime section for more Summer 2026 season coverage.

Manga Anime, News

Crunchyroll Summer 2026 Wave 2: One Piece Heroines, Iron Wok Jan & More Coming to SEA This July

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Seven new titles just landed in Crunchyroll’s confirmed Summer 2026 lineup for Southeast Asia — and this second wave is headlined by a brand-new One Piece spinoff, the long-awaited anime adaptation of cult cooking manga Iron Wok Jan!, and the return of Grand Blue Dreaming for a third season. Here’s everything arriving on the platform across the first two weeks of July, including what Singapore fans can stream with Bahasa Melayu and Chinese subtitle support.

One Piece Heroines Arrives 5 July — Nami Gets Her Own Story

The most eye-catching addition to the Crunchyroll Summer 2026 anime calendar for SEA is ONE PIECE HEROINES, a spinoff from Toei Animation that puts the spotlight on the women of the Straw Hat crew. The first story centres on Nami: after buying a pair of shoes that hurt her feet, she tracks down designer Lebno — who offers to craft her a bespoke pair, but only if she will model for him. Artisan Miucha completes the trio in what sounds like a character-driven style adventure sitting apart from the main Elbaph arc. It premieres on 5 July with a Thai dub, plus subtitles in Bahasa Indonesia, Thai, and Vietnamese.

ONE PIECE HEROINES | Official Trailer — via Crunchyroll on YouTube

Iron Wok Jan! Is Finally an Anime — Crunchyroll-Exclusive for SEA

Iron Wok Jan anime teaser PV Crunchyroll exclusive Summer 2026
Image courtesy of NBCUniversal Anime/Music / TROYCA

If one announcement from this wave deserves its own headline, it is Iron Wok Jan! The original manga ran from 1995 to 2000 and has sold over 10 million copies — a ferocious Chinese-cuisine battle story following Jan Akiyama, a devilish chef who treats every cook-off like armed combat. It is the kind of series that defined a generation of cooking-manga fans, and an anime adaptation has been a long time coming. TROYCA, the studio behind Re:CREATORS and Aldnoah.Zero, is handling it, and even the teaser PV radiates the unhinged energy of the source material.

This one is a Crunchyroll exclusive for SEA, premiering on 5 July with subtitles in Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Melayu, Thai, Vietnamese, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese — solid coverage for Singapore viewers, including the bilingual and Mandarin-reading crowd that the original manga spoke directly to.

Iron Wok Jan! Teaser PV — via NBCUniversal Anime/Music on YouTube

Let’s Go KAIKIGUMI and 100 Girlfriends Also Hit on 5 July

Let's go KAIKIGUMI anime teaser Crunchyroll exclusive supernatural comedy Summer 2026
Image courtesy of TBS Anime / C-Station

Two more titles round out the Sunday 5 July drop. Let’s go KAIKIGUMI (C-Station) is a Crunchyroll exclusive supernatural comedy about a man described as being six times more afraid of ghosts than the average person, who gets roped in by the fearless Mechako to help revive her ghost-policing organisation. Subs cover Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Melayu, Thai, Vietnamese, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese.

Also returning that same day: The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, REALLY Love You Season 3 (Bibury Animation Studios). Rentaro’s school life continues — and so does the show’s commitment to somehow adding more characters to an already packed ensemble. This one streams with a Thai dub alongside the full multilingual sub lineup.

The 100 Girlfriends Who Really Really Love You Season 3 teaser visual Crunchyroll Summer 2026
Image courtesy of Bandai Namco Filmworks / Bibury Animation Studios

Grand Blue Dreaming Season 3 Goes to Palau — Starting 6 July

Grand Blue Dreaming Season 3 PV Iori in Palau Crunchyroll Summer 2026
Image courtesy of NBCUniversal Anime/Music / Zero-G and Liber

Monday 6 July brings Grand Blue Dreaming Season 3 (Zero-G and Liber), and Iori’s diving-club chaos now has an international venue: Palau. Just as he is getting his head around university life, his cousin drags him off to help run a dive shop on the island. If you have seen seasons one and two, you already know what “help run a dive shop” means in this show. Streams with a Thai dub and subs in Bahasa Indonesia, Thai, Vietnamese, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese.

Joining it on 6 July is A Livid Lady’s Guide to Getting Even: How I Crushed My Homeland with My Mighty Grimoires (Comet), a Crunchyroll exclusive revenge fantasy in which noblewoman Elizabeth escapes prison — after being publicly betrayed by a crown prince — armed with seven legendary grimoires and a burning grudge to settle. Subs: Bahasa Indonesia, Bahasa Melayu, Thai, Vietnamese, SC, TC.

Grand Blue Dreaming Season 3 Full PV — via NBCUniversal Anime/Music on YouTube

The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects on 10 July

Closing out the wave on 10 July is The Frontier Lord Begins with Zero Subjects (animation studio42). Veteran soldier Dias returns from war expecting a reward, gets gifted a domain that turns out to be empty plains with a population of literally zero, and has to figure out how to build a thriving territory from nothing — with the help of a horned girl named Alna who knows the land better than she lets on. A kingdom-building fantasy with an unusually grounded hook, streaming with Thai dub and subs in Bahasa Indonesia, Thai, Vietnamese, SC, and TC.

For the full confirmed Summer 2026 anime schedule on Crunchyroll — including continuing titles like ONE PIECE Elbaph Arc Part 2, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 4, and more — the seasonal lineup page has the complete calendar. Browse more of our anime and manga coverage for the rest of what is streaming this season.

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One Piece Season 3 Wraps Filming: The Battle of Alabasta Coming 2027

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Netflix’s One Piece live-action series has officially wrapped production on its third season. Filming for ONE PIECE: The Battle of Alabasta concluded on 30 June 2026 after roughly seven months and more than 200 days on set in Cape Town, South Africa. A 2027 premiere on Netflix — available in Singapore and across Southeast Asia — has been confirmed.

The Alabasta Arc — Why This One Matters

For many longtime fans, the Alabasta arc is the point where One Piece stopped being a pirate adventure and became something larger. After agreeing to help Princess Vivi at the close of Season 2, Luffy and the Straw Hats sail to her desert kingdom to find it teetering on the edge of civil war — a conflict engineered in secret by Sir Crocodile (Joe Manganiello), one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, and his criminal syndicate Baroque Works. It’s the arc that first put the crew through a genuinely impossible fight, introduced the series’ most heartfelt send-off moment, and set the template for every major arc that followed.

ONE PIECE: Season 2 | Official Trailer | Netflix — via Netflix on YouTube
Luffy, Nami and Usopp on the Merry in One Piece Season 2
Image courtesy of Netflix

The Full Cast — Returning Crew and New Arrivals

The core Straw Hat crew returns intact: Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy, Mackenyu as Zoro, Emily Rudd as Nami, Jacob Romero Gibson as Usopp and Taz Skylar as Sanji. Returning antagonists and supporting cast include Joe Manganiello as Sir Crocodile (Mr. 0), Lera Abova as Miss All Sunday, Charithra Chandran as Vivi, and Sendhil Ramamurthy as King Nefertari Cobra.

Four new characters fill out Season 3. Cole Escola joins as Bon Clay (Mr. 2), the Baroque Works agent who shape-shifts into anyone he touches and ends up being one of the arc’s most memorable presences despite fighting the crew. Xolo Maridueña takes on Portgas D. Ace, Luffy’s brother — a casting announcement that drew an outsized reaction from the fandom. Awdo Awdo plays Mr. 1 and Daisy Head plays Miss Doublefinger, the Baroque Works fighters who headline the arc’s climactic battles.

Luffy and a pink-haired character in the Alabasta desert city in One Piece Season 3
Image courtesy of Netflix

Seven Months in Cape Town

Buggy the Clown and Luffy face to face in One Piece Season 2
Image courtesy of Netflix

Season 3 began shooting in late November 2025 and ran for more than 200 days across Cape Town’s soundstages and location sets. The series is written and co-showrun by Joe Tracz and Ian Stokes, produced by Tomorrow Studios in partnership with Netflix and Shueisha. Netflix confirmed the wrap on 30 June 2026 alongside the first cast photo from the Alabasta set, showing the core crew in the desert environment that defines the arc.

When Singapore Fans Can Expect It

Netflix has confirmed a 2027 release window for ONE PIECE: The Battle of Alabasta, though no specific date has been set yet. Netflix is fully available in Singapore and across Southeast Asia — Season 2, Into the Grand Line, is already streaming if you need to catch up on where the Straw Hats left off. For more entertainment news, check our ongoing coverage.