A hero who killed a god dies in bed, furious about it. Her wish for one last real fight is answered in the worst possible way: she wakes up as Nia Liston, a noble girl so frail she has already died once. Nia Liston: The Merciless Maiden is one of the few fall 2026 shows to be confirmed as a straight two-cour run, and it arrives on 6 October with a hololive VTuber on the opening theme and KONAMI animation handling the fights. Here is everything confirmed about the release date, broadcast times, cast, staff and where to watch.
Nia Liston release date
The series premieres on Tuesday, 6 October 2026 at 21:25 JST on TOKYO MX. That is 12:25 UTC — 8:25 a.m. Eastern and 5:25 a.m. Pacific on the Tuesday, or 1:25 p.m. in the UK.
Two more stations carry it the same night: BS Nittele at 24:30 (0:30 a.m. Wednesday) and MBS at 27:30 (3:30 a.m. Wednesday). The official site states the show runs for two consecutive cours, which puts it in the roughly 24-episode bracket rather than the single-cour twelve that most light-novel adaptations get — a real vote of confidence for a debut adaptation.
Japanese streaming starts thirty minutes after the TOKYO MX broadcast. ABEMA and d Anime Store get each episode first, at 21:55 on Tuesdays from 6 October, U-NEXT and Anime Houdai follow on Fridays from 9 October at 21:55, and the rest of the domestic platforms — DMM TV, Hulu, Prime Video, FOD, Lemino, Bandai Channel and others — begin rolling out from Monday 12 October. TVer and Niconico carry it free.
Key facts at a glance
| Title | Nia Liston: The Merciless Maiden (凶乱令嬢ニア・リストン 病弱令嬢に転生した神殺しの武人の華麗なる無双録) |
| Premiere | 6 October 2026, 21:25 JST (TOKYO MX); BS Nittele 24:30, MBS 27:30 |
| Length | Two consecutive cours |
| Streaming | ABEMA and d Anime Store from 6 October, 21:55 JST; U-NEXT from 9 October; other services from 12 October |
| Studio | KONAMI animation |
| Director | Motoki Nakanishi |
| Series composition | Gigaemon Ichikawa |
| Character design | Yuuki Itou, Kana Tosaoka |
| Music | Naoki Endou |
| Opening / ending | “Respawn!!” by Tsunomaki Watame / “Tokimeki An, Deux, Trois♪” by Magic Vision Hirome-tai |
| Source | Light novels by Umikaze Minamino (HJ Bunko, 11 volumes so far) |
| Genres | Action, fantasy, comedy, reincarnation |
What the story is about
The woman who becomes Nia Liston was, in her previous life, a martial artist famous enough to be called a god-killer. She spent decades looking for an opponent who could finish her and never found one, and the thing that finally beat her was her own body giving out in a sickroom. Her last thought is a complaint: she would rather have died fighting.
What she gets instead is the body of a small, beautiful, permanently ill aristocrat — a girl who had already died young and was brought back by a forbidden technique. Nia is delighted anyway. A second life means a second chance to find someone strong enough to be worth the trouble, and the first job is dragging this frail body into fighting shape.
The wrinkle that makes the series more than a power fantasy is the family business. The Liston house is trying to spread magic vision, a broadcast technology, across the kingdom, so Nia ends up on television: a sweet-faced little noble appearing on variety programmes, becoming something close to an idol, and occasionally dismantling grown men on camera. Between the broadcasts and the academy she later attends, she earns the nickname the title translates as the merciless maiden — and the joke of the show is that everyone else finds this alarming while Nia is simply having the best time of her two lives.
Cast and characters
Honoka Inoue plays Nia, with Fuuka Izumi as Rinokis Funk, the Liston family maid who has looked after Nia since before the change and whose devotion has gone somewhat past professional. Rina Honizumi is Hildetaura Altoire, the third princess of the kingdom who moonlights as a broadcast personality under the slogan “the princess you can actually meet”, and Rina Hidaka is Reliared Silver, a rival talent Nia’s age who finds her behaviour exhausting. The three of them form the in-universe unit that sings the ending theme.
The supporting cast is deep for a debut adaptation: Taku Yashiro as the underworld bodyguard Anzel, Youko Hikasa as the assassin Fressa, Satoshi Hino as the martial arts instructor Gandolf Rogen, Junichi Suwabe as King Hyurence Altoire, Maaya Uchida as Sharo White, Tomoyo Takayanagi as Neal Liston and Kouichi Sakaguchi as the broadcast producer Bendelio.
Studio, staff and music
Animation is by KONAMI animation, with Motoki Nakanishi directing and Gigaemon Ichikawa on series composition. Yuuki Itou and Kana Tosaoka adapt the character designs, Hiroshi Gouroku is art director with setting work by Barnstorm Design Lab and backgrounds by Makaria, and Naoki Endou writes the score. Hiromi Kikuta is sound director, with sound production by TO Books.
The opening theme, “Respawn!!”, is performed by Tsunomaki Watame, the hololive VTuber whose channel passed 1.7 million subscribers and whose 2024 album Hop Step Sheep opened at number eight on Oricon’s weekly chart. It is her first anime tie-up, written, composed and arranged by Shouta Horie, and the single also carries a duet with Nia herself, sung by Honoka Inoue.
The ending, “Tokimeki An, Deux, Trois♪”, is sung in character by Magic Vision Hirome-tai — Nia, Hildetaura and Reliared, which is to say Inoue, Honizumi and Hidaka. A special event with the full cast has been announced for 13 December 2026.
Trailer
The second promotional video is the first place the Tsunomaki Watame opening is heard alongside footage of Nia’s fights.
Where the novels and manga stand
Umikaze Minamino started the story as a web novel on Shousetsuka ni Narou, where the official site puts it at 80 million cumulative page views. In print it runs under Hobby Japan’s HJ Bunko label with eleven volumes out, illustrated by Jishaku for the first two and by Canata Katana from volume three onward, and the series has passed 2.4 million copies in circulation. A manga adaptation drawn by Kodai Kabuto is up to eight volumes from Square Enix’s Gangan Comics UP!. J-Novel Club publishes the light novels in English, so the source is readable now.
Where to watch outside Japan
No English-language simulcast has been confirmed yet. HIDIVE is listed as a streaming partner on the series’ AniList entry, but the show is not in HIDIVE’s catalogue and the platform has not announced a date, so treat it as likely rather than settled. The Japanese platform list on the official site covers domestic services only. We will update this page as soon as an international licence is announced.
Why it is worth a look
Reincarnation stories usually hand the hero a cheat and a quest. This one hands her a body that cannot climb stairs and a television career, and the comedy comes from a centuries-old warrior trying to be polite at tea parties between bouts. Two cours means there is room for the academy arc the novels build towards rather than a rushed twelve-episode sampler. It lands in a fall season already carrying Reborn as a Space Mercenary and A Returner’s Magic Should Be Special Season 2; our October 2026 premiere schedule lists every date for the month, and the weekly anime schedule tracks each episode as it airs.
Frequently asked questions
When does Nia Liston premiere?
Tuesday 6 October 2026 at 21:25 JST on TOKYO MX, with BS Nittele at 24:30 and MBS at 27:30 the same night.
How many episodes will there be?
The official site confirms two consecutive cours, so roughly 24 episodes, though an exact count has not been published.
Can I watch it outside Japan?
Not confirmed yet. Only Japanese platforms have been announced; ABEMA and d Anime Store have the domestic head start.
Who sings the opening?
Tsunomaki Watame of hololive performs “Respawn!!”, her first anime theme song. The ending is by the in-character unit Magic Vision Hirome-tai.
Is the source available in English?
Yes. J-Novel Club publishes the light novels in English; the Japanese edition is at eleven volumes and still running.
Last updated 24 September 2026. Broadcast, streaming and music details come from the official site; anything it does not list is marked as unannounced rather than guessed.
