What Anne Shirley Brings Back to the Screen
Anne Shirley is a new animated adaptation of Anne of Green Gables, the children's book series by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. Set on Prince Edward Island, the story follows Anne, an orphan mistakenly taken in by the elderly siblings Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert at their Green Gables home. Once she settles in, her rich imagination starts to win over everyone around her.
Hiroshi Kawamata (川又浩) directs the series, with animation production handled by The Answer Studio. The show runs 24 episodes and adapts the first three novels in Montgomery's series, so it goes well past the point where most screen versions stop, into Anne's teaching years.
The Voices of Avonlea
Honoka Inoue (井上ほの花) leads the cast as Anne. Aya Nakamura (中村綾) voices Marilla Cuthbert, and Yasunori Matsumoto (松本保典), whom longtime anime fans know as Gourry Gabriev in Slayers, plays her brother Matthew. Naoya Miyase (宮瀬尚也) voices Anne's classmate Gilbert Blythe, and Yume Miyamoto (宮本侑芽) rounds out the leads as her best friend Diana Barry.
The original NHK run wrapped in 2025, and this Fuji TV airing is a chance for anyone who missed it to catch the whole story on a commercial network for the first time.
Looking Ahead
According to Japanese anime news outlet Anime Hack, the Fuji TV run starts October 4, 2026, airing Sundays from 5:10 to 5:40 a.m. The broadcast is limited to the Kanto region, so it will not reach terrestrial viewers elsewhere in Japan.
International fans are already covered. The series streams on Crunchyroll, which also carries the English dub released during the show's original 2025 run. And the source material needs no localization: Montgomery's novels are English-language classics, starting with Anne of Green Gables in 1908, so newcomers who want to read ahead of the broadcast can go straight to the originals.