# The Summer Hikaru Died (2025)

> A boy who vanished for a week returns altered, and his best friend sets out to uncover the unsettling truth behind the disappearance.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/184737

## Facts

- Seasons: 2
- Episodes: 12
- Episode runtime: 24 min
- Status: Returning Series
- Genres: animation, drama, mystery, science fiction
- Network: Nippon TV
- Cast: Chiaki Kobayashi, Shuichiro Umeda, Chikahiro Kobayashi, Wakana Kowaka, Yumiri Hanamori, Yoshiki Nakajima, Shion Wakayama, Ryoko Shiraishi
- TMDB rating: 7.9/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33028568/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: slow
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: mild
- Tone: eerie, intimate, melancholic, unsettling, slow burn

## What critics say

Viewers broadly praise the eerie atmosphere and the way its intimate friendship drama is woven into the supernatural mystery, while finding the slow pacing and unanswered lore frustrating.

## Synopsis

The Summer Hikaru Died (2025-present) is a Japanese animated supernatural mystery series produced for Nippon Television Network, adapted from a seinen manga. Yoshiki Tsujinaka (voiced by Chiaki Kobayashi) is a high school student whose best friend Hikaru Indo (voiced by Shuichiro Umeda) vanished for a week and has returned subtly wrong. Yoshiki senses something amiss and confronts him, and the engine of the series is his determination to pry open the truth while the bond between them strains under secrets and suspicion. Friends such as Tanaka (Chikahiro Kobayashi) and Yuta Maki (Yoshiki Nakajima) orbit the investigation, and the village rhythms of ordinary days keep colliding with unexplained dread. The first season unfolds across twelve episodes that linger on conversation, routine and small domestic moments, letting questions accumulate rather than resolving them quickly. Its atmosphere is intimate, eerie and melancholic, with the emotional stakes of adolescent friendship hitting harder because of the horror. Fans of Higurashi When They Cry, Stranger Things and Gravity Falls will find resonance in its rural dread, supernatural mystery and coming-of-age unease. The series is a slow, layered watch for viewers who prefer atmosphere and character to spectacle, and it is still airing.

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