Staff for the Medalist (メダリスト) anime franchise have announced that there will be an anime film in 2027, and they released a new key visual for the second season of the TV anime, which will premiere on January 24th, 2026. The animated film will be set after the conclusion of the second season of the TV anime.
[https://x.com/medalist_PR/status/2012396967415214355?s=20]
Yamamoto Yasutaka (Noblesse) directed the first season at ENGI studio, which premiered on January 4th, 2025, and they will also direct the second season. The second season of the Medalist’s TV anime will premiere on January 24th, 2026, on the NUMAnimation program block on TV Asahi and 23 affiliated channels at 25:30 (effectively, January 25th at 1:30 a.m.)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTaqXo7scOY]
The TV anime and the anime film are based on Tsurumaikada’s Medalist manga. Tsurumaikada started the award-winning manga in May 2020 in Kodansha’s Afternoon magazine, and Kodansha published the manga’s first tankoubon volume in September 2020 and the 13th volume in June 2025. The manga’s 14th volume is scheduled for release on January 22nd, 2026.
The Medalist manga won the Best General Manga award in the Shogakukan Manga Awards in 2023 and the Best General Manga award in Kodansha’s 48th Annual Manga Awards in May 2024.
The manga is released in English by Kodansha USA Publishing, and it released the 13th volume on January 13th, 2026. Kodansha USA Publishing describes the manga story below:
“Inori is a little girl who dreams of becoming a figure skater. Yet, the obstacles to this dream feel insurmountable: Inori’s already “too old” (she’s 11); she’s always had trouble at school; and, worst of all, her older sister’s skating dreams ended in failure, so her mother is dead set against putting her other daughter through a similar experience. Still, the rink is the only place Inori can be herself, and she’s out on the ice when a fateful meeting takes place. Tsukasa, a frustrated coach on the edge of giving up competitive skating himself, will join Inori to form an unstoppable duo powered by hard work, transcendent joy, and an unshakeable belief that they can prove everyone wrong.”
