CyberAgent announced today that it will be hosting a special panel for The Summer Hikaru Died TV anime series at Otakon 2025, which will feature one of the show’s lead cast members Shuichiro Umeda (who voices Hikaru in the series).
The special panel for The Summer Hikaru Died will be held on August 8, 2025 at 5:45 PM EST, and will include Umeda as a guest. The session will include a live reading of scenes from the anime, as well as a discussion exploring the series’ “emotional complexity, mysterious atmosphere, and appeal of the characters.” An autograph session with Umeda is also scheduled and further details to be announced at a later date.
Otakon will be held this year at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. from August 8, 2025 to August 10, 2025.
The TV anime adaptation began broadcasting in Japan on July 5, 2025 and is streaming weekly on Netflix worldwide. A total of 12 episodes are expected to be released.
The horror manga series by Mokumokuren was launched on Kadokawa Shoten’s Young Ace Up website on August 31, 2021 and has released seven tankobon volumes as of July 2025. A novelization of the manga series was published by Kadokawa Shoten in December 2023. Yen Press releases the manga and novel in English for North America.
Yen Press describes the main synopsis of The Summer Hikaru Died as:
It has Hikaru’s face. It has Hikaru’s voice. It even has Hikaru’s memories. But whatever came down from the mountains six months ago isn’t Yoshiki’s best friend. Whatever it is, it’s dangerous. Carrying on at school and hanging out as if nothing has changed—as if Hikaru isn’t gone—would be crazy…but when it looks so very like Hikaru…and acts so very like Hikaru…
Source: press release
