First season premiered on July 5
The staff for the anime of Mokumokuren‘s The Summer Hikaru Died (Hikaru ga Shinda Natsu) manga announced on Sunday that the anime will get a second season. Mokumokuren and character designer Yūichi Takahashi drew illustrations to celebrate the announcement.
Image courtesy of Kadokawa
© Mokumokuren/KADOKAWA/The Summer Hikaru Died Partners
Illustration by Mokumokuren
Image courtesy of Kadokawa
© Mokumokuren/KADOKAWA/The Summer Hikaru Died Partners
Illustration by Yūichi Takahashi
Image courtesy of Kadokawa
© Mokumokuren/KADOKAWA/The Summer Hikaru Died Partners
The anime premiered on July 5 on the NTV channel, and streamed on Netflix exclusively worldwide and on ABEMA in Japan.
The anime stars:
Ryohei Takeshita (Eromanga Sensei, Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night, Pokémon: Paldean Winds) is directing the anime at Cygames Pictures and overseeing the series scripts. Yūichi Takahashi (Stars Align, Macross Frontier, Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song-) is the character designer and chief animation director. Masanobu Hiraoka (Snorunt’s Summer Vacation) is listed as “Dorodoro” animator.
TOOBOE performs the ending theme song “Anata wa Kaibutsu” (you are my monster).
Yen Press licensed the manga for English publication, and describes the manga:
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?
Image courtesy of CygamePictures
© Mokumokuren/KADOKAWA/The Summer Hikaru Died Partners
Mokumokuren launched the manga on Kadokawa‘s Young Ace Up website in August 2021. Kadokawa published the seventh volume on July 4. The manga exceeded 3 million copies in circulation by the time of the sixth volume’s release. Yen Press published the fifth volume on March 25 and will publish the sixth volume on October 28. The manga inspired a light novel adaptation by Mio Nukaga in December 2023. Mokumokuren previously stated that the manga is planned to reach 10 volumes.
The manga was nominated for the 16th Manga Taisho Awards. (The official English name of the awards is the “Cartoon Grand Prize.”) The New York Public Library listed the manga as part of its Best Books list for teens in 2023. The manga also made The American Library Association’s (ALA’s) Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) 2024 list of Great Graphic Novels for Teens.
Both the manga and its author Mokumokuren were nominated for this year’s Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. The manga was nominated for the Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia category, while Mokumokuren was nominated for the Best Writer/Artist category.
The series is inspiring a stage play.
Source: E-mail correspondence
Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.