"Grandma, the anime you're watching is getting a new episode!" After four years, the TV anime adaptation of "The Legend of Luo Xiaohei" has finally officially announced the start of a new chapter, the "Preschool Edition." If you love watching anime, are you already overjoyed and eager to tell everyone?
Don't leave yet! The return of "Luo Xiaohei" is just one of many big announcements made by Bilibili (hereinafter referred to as "Bilibili") at its 2025-2026 National Animation Works Release Conference on the evening of November 15th. New works such as "I'm Sweeping Trash in the Wasteland," "The Legend of Sword and Fairy 4," and "Nan Hong," along with sequels like "A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality," "The Legend of the Shepherd," and "Time Agent,"... 40 national animation works will be released one after another, and there's bound to be one you'll love.
In 2017, Bilibili established a domestic animation section, which has since accumulated over 3,000 works, making domestic animation an important viewing choice for young people. In the past year, Bilibili users have spent nearly 970 million hours watching domestic animation content, with a 104% year-on-year increase in viewing time in the third quarter, and the overall user base has reached 330 million.
Judging from the list of films announced that evening, Bilibili will focus more on exploring diverse and high-quality animation content, giving more space to novel themes and stylized works in addition to sequels of various representative IPs.
Poster for the animated film "I Clean Up Trash in the Wasteland"
Regarding new projects, the popular Jinjiang novel IP "I Sweep Trash in the Wasteland World" will be adapted into an animation, produced by Shenman Culture. Shenman Culture owns three top-tier IPs: "Slaying Gods: Mortal Realm," "Cang Yuan Tu," and "God's Throne," and is known for its fantasy genre and high-quality production. "I Sweep Trash in the Wasteland World" is China's first "romantic wasteland" themed work. Director Zeng Yuanjun revealed that, unlike the traditional wasteland style with its endless yellow sand, "I Sweep Trash in the Wasteland World" will be more imaginative in its visual art, emphasizing the fusion of strange creatures, plants, and urban architecture. The character designs will also reflect the integration of technology and humanity.
Poster for the animated film "Nanhua"
"Hard to Coax" is one of the few 2D animated urban romance stories on the market. Its original work is a super popular novel on Jinjiang Literature City, and its radio drama adaptation has garnered over 140 million plays on Maoer FM. The TV series starring Bai Jingting and Zhang Ruonan was a breakout hit this year. Director Dong Yi understands fan preferences well, and the animated version uses the same voice cast as the radio drama of the same name on Maoer FM. The first trailer also recreates several sweet moments from the radio drama, leading many viewers to comment that they've been "coaxed into becoming embryos!"
Poster for the animated series "Chinese Paladin 4"
At last year's National Animation Conference, director Shen Leping revealed that Xuanji Technology and Bilibili would be collaborating on a major new project. At the time, audiences speculated about various popular male-oriented IPs that hadn't yet been adapted into animation, but no one expected it to be the classic RPG game *The Legend of Sword and Fairy 4*. The *Legend of Sword and Fairy* series is the gateway to fantasy for countless viewers, and *The Legend of Sword and Fairy 4* has become a classic due to the protagonist's tragic love story and the "birth, aging, sickness, and death" ending. Many players still shed tears upon hearing the title *Return to Dreamland*, recalling their first encounter at Qingluan Peak, the lanterns of Jimo, and the fall of Qionghua. However, the previously aired TV series starring Chen Zheyuan and Ju Jingyi failed to bring viewers nostalgic surprises, instead receiving negative reviews for its drastically altered content. Whether the animated version can restore viewers' confidence in *The Legend of Sword and Fairy* as a benchmark of domestic fantasy remains to be seen in 2027.
Poster for the animated series "A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality"
Among the IP sequels, the new season of the annual series "A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality" will be broadcast in the first half of 2026, and the theatrical film "The Lost Tomb" and the spin-off "The Legend of Xuan Gu" based on the same IP are also in production.
The ongoing annual series "The Legend of the Shepherd" will feature a host of new characters, with the protagonist Qin Mu facing more challenges in his new identity and demonstrating his responsibility as the leader of a sect.
Poster for the animated series "Time Agents Season 3"
The third season of *Time Agents* will premiere in October 2026. At the end of the second season, the "Yingdu arc," the showdown between the main characters and the villain "Red-Eyed" Li Tianchen reached its climax, with the popular character Cheng Xiaoshi seemingly dying, leaving viewers heartbroken. Sure enough, with only one trailer released for the third season, viewers immediately rushed to analyze it frame by frame, engaging in extensive reading comprehension and making various predictions about the plot's direction.
Poster for the "Preschool Edition" of the animated series "The Legend of Luo Xiaohei"
Popular series with distinctive styles, such as *Chinese Fantastic Tales 2* and *The Legend of Luo Xiaohei*, continue to expand their content. *Chinese Fantastic Tales 2* will present nine short stories with distinct styles and is scheduled to premiere on January 1, 2026. The new chapter of *The Legend of Luo Xiaohei*, "Preschool Chapter," will further tell the story after the "Gate of All Beings."
As audiences' aesthetic and judgment abilities continue to improve, they are growing weary of homogenized and formulaic content. Many works backed by major IPs and top-tier celebrities are frequently failing in the current film and television market. In this context, the model of content platforms simply "promising big" based on IPs has become ineffective. Only by continuously exploring diverse themes and improving their content production capabilities can they avoid being left behind by audiences. We look forward to major platforms and creative teams joining forces in the field of domestic animation to bring audiences an increasing number of high-quality content choices.