Overview

• Netflix will release The Summer Hikaru Died exclusively on July 5, 2025, with new episodes rolling out weekly.
• Ryohei Takeshita, serving as writer-director, promises to surpass the manga’s sense of dread by emphasizing unsettling stillness over jump scares.
• The story follows lifelong friends Yoshiki and Hikaru as their bond collapses when Hikaru returns from the mountains possessed by a malevolent entity.
• The Japanese voice cast includes Chiaki Kobayashi as Yoshiki and Shuichiro Umeda as Hikaru, joined by Yumiri Hanamori, Wakana Kowaka, Chikahiro Kobayashi, Yoshiki Nakajima and Shion Wakayama in supporting roles.
• Touted as one of Summer 2025’s most anticipated anime, the series will exploit animation to magnify oppressive summer motifs like cicada chirps.