Every Rooftop Stage Will Stream for Free
The biggest addition for fans who can't make it to Shibuya is a new ABEMA Anime Fest channel on ABEMA's streaming service. According to a report from Japanese anime news site Anime! Anime!, the channel will carry free live broadcasts of every event held on the special rooftop stage on the fourth floor of MIYASHITA PARK, the Shibuya shopping complex that serves as the festival's main venue. That covers talk stages with voice casts from popular anime as well as special stages built around ABEMA's original programs. Free marathon broadcasts of participating series are planned on the channel as well.
This is the festival's third year. The 2026 edition runs under the theme "Dive Deeper Into Your Love of Anime," with Japanese e-book storefront Comic Cmoa as special supporter. Last year's event drew more than 60,000 on-site attendees and over 610,000 viewers on ABEMA, according to ABEMA's own English-language announcement.
Conan, Shin-chan, and Takopi Round Out the Lineup
The third lineup wave adds six titles: Detective Conan, Crayon Shin-chan, Atashin'chi, the TV anime Shirotan, PUI PUI Molcar, and Takopi's Original Sin. They join a slate that already includes The Apothecary Diaries and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime from earlier announcements.
Takopi's Original Sin is the newest of the bunch and arguably the buzziest pick for international readers. Crunchyroll streams the anime adaptation of Taizan 5's manga and added an English dub in January 2026, so overseas fans have an easy way to catch up before the festival.
Character Greetings, Giant Capsule Machines, and 29 Photo Panels
The character greetings that proved popular last year are returning with six characters: Mother from Atashin'chi, Maomao from The Apothecary Diaries, Shinnosuke Nohara from Crayon Shin-chan, Yeti from You and I Are Polar Opposites, Takopi, and the mascot of ABEMA's voice-actor variety show Seiyu to Yoasobi.
The MIYASHITA PARK rooftop will also host giant capsule-toy machines for Crayon Shin-chan and PUI PUI Molcar. Getting a coin takes a little legwork: scan the QR code on ABEMA Anime Fest posters displayed around Shibuya, post your impressions on X, then show the post and an on-site flyer to staff. Coins and prizes are limited and first come, first served.
Photo spots around the venue will feature 29 character panels drawn from 11 works, including Detective Conan, The Apothecary Diaries, Akane-banashi, That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Smoking Behind the Supermarket with You, and Hiromu Arakawa's Daemons of the Shadow Realm, plus characters tied to a six-member game-streaming group. Touring the photo spots and posting on X earns an original sticker set featuring the participating works.
GOALOUS5 Headlines the Side-Event Slate
On September 19, the five-member voice actor group GOALOUS5, made up of Kentaro Kumagai, Shohei Komatsu, Junta Terashima, Shugo Nakamura, and Toshinari Fukamachi, hosts a special talk stage across two shows at the EBiS303 event hall. The stage streams exclusively on ABEMA PPV, with tickets on sale now and bonus footage included for buyers.
The same day brings a public recording of Chiaki Kobayashi's variety program PARTY×PARTY at Abema Towers in Shibuya, with voice actor Shoya Ishige joining as a guest. Over at the LOFT9 Shibuya event space, the anime project PRISMation holds its first fan event from noon, featuring a talk session with the directors of its three shorts, updates on Poppin-Play Kitchen Episode 2, and news on the project's second wave of titles. The venue will also serve limited collaboration menu items themed on Poppin-Play Kitchen, Gluttomy, and The Horrors' Horror Home.
Looking Ahead
ABEMA Anime Fest 2026 runs September 19-20 at MIYASHITA PARK and other venues around Shibuya, and more participating works and event details are due before opening day via the official site and X account. Timetables and participation rules for each activity will be posted on the official site.
One open question for overseas fans: the announcement doesn't say whether the free stage livestreams will be viewable outside Japan, and no international distribution partner has been named. In the meantime, several lineup titles are easy to access abroad, with Takopi's Original Sin streaming on Crunchyroll alongside a January 2026 English dub.