The Summer Hikaru Died: Anime Expo 2025 Premiere Review

By J,D,

Six months ago, Hikaru Indoh disappeared into the mountains. A week later, he returned home and everything seemed fine. That is, until the day when Hikaru’s best friend Yoshiki asks one simple question: “You’re not the real Hikaru, are you?” For some series, this might be the climax of a season-long buildup of suspicion but here, it’s the end of scene two. What follows afterwards is an exploration in friendship, the supernatural, the joys of everyday life and what it means to be human.

We were lucky enough to get invited to the premiere of The Summer Hikaru Died at Anime Expo. If you’ve listened to the latest episode of our podcast Reading the Wrong Way [Which you can find HERE] in which we covered the first volume of the original manga by Mokumokuren along with first volumes of Gachiakuta and The Shy Hero and the Assassin Princesses, you’d know that after reading volume 1, this became my most anticipated series of the summer season. Thanks, Bea.  

Fittingly, the anime adaptation of the manga by Cygames Pictures is being released in the current Summer 2025 season. The premiere was just the first episode of the series but even from just that, I feel like the series has met my expectations and I can only hope it continues to do so.

The first episode mostly draws from the first two chapters of the manga but it also adds in extra scenes and changes some things around which Mokumokuren noted at the premiere was done with their approval. For example, the opening of the anime gives us a glimpse of Hikaru’s final moments in the woods before whatever is inhabiting his body now took over. There are also several smaller moments where things or characters that are going to be important in upcoming episodes, like “Hikaru” and Yoshiki’s classmates, are introduced earlier than they were in the manga.

The biggest change seems to be the side plot where a man named Tanaka, a paranormal investigator of some sort, deals with a problem in one scene while apparently tracking down some evil spirit that is causing trouble in the kids’ town and may be connected to “Hikaru.” An addition at the end of the episode as well makes it seem like there is much more going on in this town than we may have initially led to believe and I look forward to seeing how this plot unravels.

If there was on change from that manga that I think lessened the effect, I think it’s more towards the end of the episode when we’re shown something that was kept more ambiguous in the manga. I think it lessened the terror and the mystery of the scene. However, I do concede that it’s probably only going to be for people who have already read the manga and it may just be the effect of having only read the first volume.

The art of the anime is excellent as well. I think it really captures the essence of Mokumokuren’s art and puts it into motion. There’s only one scene where “Hikaru” is cloaked half in shadow and half in light that I wasn’t entirely sure of but that’s one small blemish on an otherwise great episode.  

I also appreciate that the sound design was able to recreate the overwhelming feeling of certain sounds that Mokumokuren creates with panels just covered in an ungodly amount of sound effects and onomatopoeias. It all creates the perfect summer in the countryside atmosphere and makes the scenes that are supposed to be unsettling even more so.

On the voice acting front, this episode rests almost entirely on the backs of Chiaki Kobayashi, who was at the premiere, and Shūichirō Umeda playing Yoshiki and Hikaru / “Hikaru” respectively and I think they both do a great job playing the characters. Kobayashi is able to convey Yoshiki’s attempt to stay cool while dealing with all the supernatural goings on and dealing with his loss of Hikaru and his relationship with “Hikaru.” On the flip side, Umeda does an excellent job of playing the easily excited “Hikaru” as someone who is truly experiencing the joys of life for the first time. We don’t get to see much of him as the original Hikaru in the episode beyond the opening but I’m excited to see how he works with the dual roles.

In conclusion, the anime adaptation of The Summer Hikaru Died is off to a great start and if it can keep this, we’ll probably be talking about this for the rest of the year especially when it comes time for picking out our favorite shows of the year. Fans of supernatural mysteries, stories of friendship (that I feel may eventually bloom into more) or just generally coming of age stories should check this out.

Verdict: WATCH IT

The Summer Hikaru Died is streaming now on Netflix.
https://www.netflix.com/title/81948057