The Summer Hikaru Died poster

The Summer Hikaru Died

★ 7.9 8K votes 2025–present 1 season · 12 episodes Returning Series Nippon TV
UnsettlingA creeping sense of unease and wrongness that gets under your skin.This show: 9/10AnimeJapanese animation traditions and grammar.This show: 9/10AtmosphericMood and place thick enough to touch.This show: 9/10Mounting dreadThe pleasure is in the slowly mounting fear.This show: 8/10Psychological horrorFear that comes from the mind: paranoia, sanity, perception.This show: 8/10Slow burnDeliberate pacing where the payoffs are earned over long stretches.This show: 8/10Monster horrorCreatures and slashers, fear made physical.This show: 7/10SupernaturalGhosts, demons and powers beyond nature in our own world.This show: 7/10
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Starring
Chiaki KobayashiShuichiro UmedaBen DiskinDaman MillsPaul Castro Jr.Kyle McCarley
Written by
Mokumokuren
Starring
Chiaki KobayashiShuichiro UmedaBen DiskinDaman MillsPaul Castro Jr.Kyle McCarley
Written by
Mokumokuren
Ratings per Episode
246810
Votes per Episode
05001k2k2k

The Summer Hikaru Died Episode Ratings Heatmap

AvgE1E2E3E4E5E6E7E8E9E10E11E12
S18.48.48.38.38.18.18.59.08.48.58.28.28.7

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About

"Grief wearing a familiar, unbearable face"

In a quiet mountain town, Yoshiki learns that his childhood best friend Hikaru died, replaced by something wearing his face and memories. He chooses to keep spending time with it anyway. What follows is less a mystery to solve than a slow sit with dread, tenderness, and grief as ordinary rural life quietly curdles into folk horror. The pacing is unhurried, favoring mood, silence, and the unspoken feeling between the two boys over jump scares. It's melancholic and intimate, carried by naturalistic visuals and voice work that make the uncanny feel achingly human rather than monstrous.

Watch it for

the aching, ambiguous bond between the boy and the thing that replaced his friend

Maybe skip if

you need fast plotting, since this lingers in dread and atmosphere over action

Written by our AI editor to help you decide, spoiler-free by design.

All Seasons

Season 12025
8.414K121h 9m
Six months ago, Hikaru vanished for a week. Now, as his best friend Yoshiki senses something amiss and confronts him, the harrowing truth emerges.
EpTitleRatingYoursVotesRuntime
1Daitaihin8.4
2K
2Giwaku8.3
2K23 min
3Kyozetsu8.3
1K23 min
4Natsumatsuri8.1
1K
5Katsura no Obake8.1
1K
6Asako8.5
1K
7Ketsui9.0
1K
8Sesshoku8.4
972
9Takeda no Jisan8.5
890
10Shinso8.2
842
11Indo no Tobira8.2
786
12Ibasho8.7
93723 min

Full Cast & Crew

Cast

Chiaki Kobayashi Yoshiki Tsujinaka
Shuichiro Umeda Hikaru
Ben Diskin Toshinori Tsujinaka
Daman Mills Tanaka
Paul Castro Jr. Indou Hikaru
Kyle McCarley Yoshiki Tsujinaka
John Choi Hikaru's Dad
Jacob Hopkins Yuta Maki
Valerie Rose Lohman Yuki Tadokoro
Dorothy Elias-Fahn Rie Kurebayashi

Crew

Mokumokuren

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