Fool Night, the first-ever co-production between Sunrise and Shaft, has been announced as a Netflix anime series starring Koki Uchiyama and Minako Kotobuki, debuting worldwide in 2026.
Netflix unveiled Fool Night at its anime panel during the Annecy International Film Festival on June 23, marking the first-ever collaboration between legendary studios Sunrise and Shaft. The anime series, adapting Kasumi Yasuda's acclaimed seinen manga, will premiere worldwide on Netflix in 2026.
Sunrise, the house behind Mobile Suit Gundam and Cowboy Bebop, and Shaft, the studio synonymous with Puella Magi Madoka Magica and the Monogatari series, have never shared a production credit until now. The pairing brings together two of the most visually distinctive houses in anime, promising a striking aesthetic identity for the dystopian sci-fi series.
The announcement arrived alongside a teaser visual that contrasts dense plant life with neon-lit artificial environments, hinting at the visual ambition driving the collaboration.
Koki Uchiyama voices protagonist Toshiro Kamiya, with Minako Kotobuki cast as Yomiko Horai. Uchiyama, known for roles across numerous high-profile anime, takes the lead in what is being positioned as one of Netflix's marquee anime releases for the year.
Behind the camera, Atsuyuki Yukawa directs in his series debut after serving as unit director on Makoto Shinkai's Suzume. Jin Tanaka, who handled series composition on Oshi no Ko, writes the scripts. Robert Sato provides character designs, while Tatsuya Kato, the composer behind Dr. Stone's score, handles the music. Yota Tsuruoka, whose sound direction credits include A Silent Voice, serves as sound director, with Ryo Shimura as assistant director.
The source manga, serialized in Shogakukan's Big Comic Superior since November 2020, is set in a far-future Earth shrouded in permanent cloud cover. Sunlight no longer reaches the surface, vegetation has withered, and breathable oxygen is dwindling. Humanity's answer is "transfloration" a radical procedure that converts human beings into plants, restoring oxygen to the atmosphere at the cost of the individual's human existence.
Toshiro Kamiya is an impoverished young man struggling to support his ailing mother. When his circumstances reach a breaking point, he voluntarily submits to transfloration, setting the story's emotional and philosophical stakes into motion.
Yasuda's manga currently spans twelve compiled volumes and has earned notable recognition, ranking twelfth in the male reader category of the 2023 Kono Manga ga Sugoi! guidebook and winning best suspense manga at the 2023 Japan Expo Daruma Awards.
Fool Night joins an expanding roster of anime titles Netflix showcased at Annecy, reinforcing the platform's aggressive investment in the medium. The series will be available to Netflix subscribers worldwide upon its 2026 premiere, though an exact date has not yet been announced.
With a pedigree that spans two of Japan's most iconic studios, a director shaped by one of the decade's biggest anime films, and source material already decorated by critics, Fool Night is shaping up as one of the most closely watched anime debuts of the year.
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