Highlights
- The Fall anime season is dominated by the Isekai genre, with both popular returning shows and new adaptations of Isekai manga.
- The protagonists of these shows possess unique and powerful strengths, from Nagase Kaoru's ability to create magical potions to William Maryblood's mastery of magic and swordsmanship.
As the curtains rise on the much anticipated Fall anime season, there's much to be unpacked from the freshly served banquet of shows, both new and returning ones. This season's forefront is the Isekai genre, with several popular returning shows and new anime adaptations of popular Isekai manga, ranging from shows like TheRising of the Shield Hero to The Faraway Paladin.
Alongside these shows will be the welcoming of powerful lead characters set to make the Fall anime season memorable, both returning and the newly adapted. From the Fall 2023 season, here is a cursory look at how some of these protagonists match one another in strength.
5 Nagase Kaoru (I Shall Survive Using Potions!)
Nagase Kaoru is the protagonist of the I Shall Survive Using Potions! anime series and possesses a unique kind of strength. Typical of the Iseakai genre, Kaoru dies due to a rift of dimensional energy between worlds. Still, the God of her world saves her soul, and she's reincarnated into a new world called Riverie under the rule of the goddess Celestine.
Prepared to not die as she did previously, she asks the goddess for the ability to make magical potions and other skills. Reborn with her new power, Kaoru will make sure to survive in her new world.
4 William Maryblood ( The Faraway Paladin)
The Faraway Paladin is back with its second season, and so is the show's protagonist, William Maryblood, who suddenly awakens in the world of the dead after living a relatively meaningless first life. Under the tutelage of his three unconventional parents, he masters the use of magic and swordsmanship and becomes a paladin.
Despite being only fifteen years of age in this new world, William is already tremendously powerful thanks to his training from his parents. Possessing superhuman attributes and reflexes, Will also has a binding contract with the Goddess of Flame, Gracefeel, who serves as his guardian deity. To top it off, Will possesses top-class combat skills. All of these make him quite formidable, as was seen in the series' first season, and with the potential to become even more potent as the story follows through on its second season.
3 Naofumi ( Rising of the Shield Hero)
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After what felt like an underwhelming second season following the success of its first, Naofumi Iwatami is back with the third season of the Rising of The Shield Hero.
Living aimlessly as a gamer otaku on Earth, Naofumi is suddenly summoned through a book to a fantasy world, to the land Of Melromac, and is given the title of the Shield Hero. What follows through the first and second seasons will see him become both the most hated of the Four summoned legendary heroes and the most important.
Despite his legendary weapon lacking in specific offensive capabilities, Naofumi is immensely powerful due to the variety of shields he possesses and their different uses, especially the Rage Shield, which grants him immense power but at the cost of his humanity and is the one shield he has difficulty subduing. With the commencement of the third season, Naofumi's capabilities will further be on display.
2 Polka Shinoyama ( Dead Mount Death Play)
The first season of Dead Mount Death Play introduced the mighty necromancer, Corpse God, reincarnated into the body of a teenager, Polka Shinoyama. Now, with the return of the second season, Polka will return once again as the dark-veiled Corpse God. Previously living as the all-powerful Corpse God in his past life, a fight to the death between himself and the Calamity Crusher resulted in his reincarnation into Polka Shinoyama in another world, Earth.
Now, in a new body and realm, His soul and mind are not the only things that come with him. Still possessing his necromancy abilities and dark magic, Polka proves to be as powerful as he once was in his past life, with more still coming from the show's second season.
1 Cid Kagenou ( The Eminence In Shadow)
Atop the pile for this Fall season's Isekai protagonists is the pleasure-driven and sarcastic Cid Kagenou, the protagonist of the fan-favorite The Eminence in Shadow. He is also the leader of Shadow Garden. Formerly living as a Japanese high school student with a passionate goal of being a hero who operates from within the shadows, he trains his body to peak condition and masters martial arts.
His wish suddenly becomes a reality when he is killed in an accident and reincarnated into another world, which begins his new life as the Shadow in Eminence. What follows from the first season is how Cid's fanatical wish is borne from both misconception and convenient history. With combat skills far surpassing any other knight and overwhelming magical ability, Cid lives as the unassuming extra /background character during the day and the mighty Shadow of the Shadow Garden at night, with more still to come from him in the second season.