The Summer Hikaru Died anime unveils more cast and ending theme with new trailer ahead of Summer 2025 premiere

On Saturday, March 22, 2025, a Green Stage for The Summer Hikaru Died anime was held at Anime Japan 2025 where the official staff unveiled the full-length promotional video and more cast members for the series. The trailer has also revealed the anime's ending theme song.

Under the production of CybergamesPictures, The Summer Hikaru Died anime is based on the eponymous horror manga series by Mokumokuren. Kadokawa Shoten's Young Ace Up website has been releasing the manga's chapters since August 2021, with six volumes published thus far.

The Summer Hikaru Died anime's new trailer showcases Hikaru and Yoshiki's intriguing dynamic

Anime Japan 2025 arranged a Green Stage for The Summer Hikaru Died anime on March 22, 2025, where the voice actors of Hikaru Indo (Shuichiro Umeda) and Yoshiki Tsujinaka (Chiaki Kobayashi) unveiled a new trailer for the series.

The full-length promotional clip confirms the anime's Summer 2025 release. The supernatural-horror anime will be broadcast on the NTV channel in Japan, and digitally distributed on ABEMA. On the other hand, the series will be exclusively released on Netflix across the world.

The latest The Summer Hikaru Died anime trailer begins with Yoshiki and Hikaru returning from somewhere. Yoshiki asks Hikaru whether he truly doesn't remember going missing in the mountains. Hikaru says he doesn't recollect such a thing. After that, Yoshiki asks his childhood friend whether or not he's actually Hikaru.

Hikaru and Yoshiki in the trailer (Image via CygamesPictures)

The moment Yoshiki enquires to Hikaru about his identity, a part of his face turns into a grotesque creature. The creature, which has consumed Hikaru, tells Yoshiki that he likes him a lot. That's why, he doesn't want to kill him. Following that, the trailer showcases Hikaru and Yoshiki's chemistry, with the latter growing accustomed to his friend's fate.

Aside from showcasing the breathtaking visuals and crisp animation quality, The Summer Hikaru Died anime trailer reveals and previews the ending theme, Anata wa Kaibutsu (You are my monster in English) performed by TOOBOE. The anime's official has shared a comment from the artist, where they revealed how Yoshiki's pure and tragic feelings helped them create the song.

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Furthermore, three additional cast members are announced. Yumiri Hanamori joins the voice cast as Asako Yamagishi, described as Yoshiki's classmate. Wakana Kowaka stars as Rie Kurebayashi, a housewife who can see things that common folks only have clues about. The other cast member is Chikahiro Kobayashi as Tanaka, an employee of a company who's investigating something.

These new voice actors graced The Summer Hikaru Died anime stage event at Anime Japan 2025, along with Chiaki Kobayashi (Yoshiki) and Shuichiro Umeda (Hikaru). Moreover, the event showcased the previously released key visual for the anime.

Staff and the plot of The Summer Hikaru Died anime

The key visual for the anime (Image via CygamesPictures)

Ryohei Takeshita directs and supervises the scripts of the horror anime series at CyberAgent's subsidiary studio, Cybergames Pictures, with Yuichi Takahashi as the chief animation director and the character designer. Masanobu Hiraoka is enlisted as the "Dorodoro" animator.

Based on the manga, The Summer Hikaru Died anime follows Yoshiki and Hikaru, who have been friends since childhood in the Kubitachi village. One day, Hikaru goes missing in the mountains, and when he returns, Yoshiki realizes he's not the same. The anime centers around Yoshiki's turmoil over his friend's sudden fate.