Horror anime is pretty rare nowadays in the anime industry, especially one with amazing production. Hopefully, The Summer Hikaru Died could change that and recently released news suggests that it might actually work.
Anime Corner reported that the upcoming anime adaptation of Mokumokuren’s The Summer Hikaru Died has revealed its first visual, teaser trailer, main cast, and staff. The horror slice-of-life television anime will also be released next Summer in 2025, which makes sense considering its title, and the showrunners absolutely knew that. Cygames Pictures (Princess Connect! Re:Dive) will be in charge of the animation. The anime will be available to stream worldwide via Netflix.
The teaser trailer can be viewed on Kadokawa’s YouTube channel down below.
Chiaki Kobayashi (Mashle) will star as Yoshiki Tsujinaka and Shūichirō Umeda (Too Many Losing Heroines!) will voice the titular character Hikaru Indo.
Ryohei Takeshita (Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night) will be directing the anime at Cygames Pictures while also in charge of the series composition, Yūichi Takahashi (Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song-) serves as both character designer alongside chief animation director, and Masanobu Hiraoka (Chainsaw Man) will be the anime’s “Dorodoro” animator.
The Summer Hikaru Died manga, written and illustrated by Mokumokuren, started serialization in August 2021 on Kadokawa Shoten’s Young Ace Up website. As of June 4, 2024, the manga has been compiled into five volumes, with the sixth one set to release on December 4, 2024. The manga has successfully charted on top of the 2023 edition of Takarajimasha’s Kono Manga ga Sugoi! list of best manga targeted for male readers. Not only that, the manga was also a nominee for the 16th Manga Taisho.
In the current year, the first volume was nominated for Best U.S. Edition of International Material — Asia at the Eisner Awards and the author Mokumokuren was nominated for Best Writer/Artist. The manga is licensed by Yen Press in English.
Here is Yen Press’ description of the story:
Two boys lived in a village: Yoshiki and Hikaru. The two did everything together…until the day Hikaru was encompassed by a mysterious light. That was when everything changed—Hikaru most of all. Yoshiki still wishes from the bottom of his heart to always stay by his side…but is there even a Hikaru left to be with?
