Once Upon a Witch’s Death Anime Casts Hina Yomiya as Sophie Hayter
New visual also revealed in 2025 anime
The staff for the television anime of Saka and Chorefuji‘s Once Upon a Witch’s Death: The Tale of the One Thousand Tears of Joy (Aru Majo ga Shinu Made: Owari no Kotoba to Hajimari no Namida) light novel series revealed the anime’s third “situation visual,” and a new cast member, on Friday. The new visual features the “Otherworld Festival,” an annual festival in the town of Lapis, and Meg enjoying the festival with the new character Sophie.
©坂/KADOKAWA・「ある魔女が死ぬまで」製作委員会
The newly announced cast is Hina Yomiya as Sophie Hayter, the “witch of blessings” who performs shows in festivals across the land.
©坂/KADOKAWA・「ある魔女が死ぬまで」製作委員会
©坂/KADOKAWA/ある魔女が死ぬまで製作委員会
The anime will debut in 2025.
The anime stars:
Atsushi Nigorikawa (A Destructive God Sits Next to Me, Between the Sky and Sea, Beast Tamer) is directing the anime at EMT Squared. Yuki Shizuku (Smile of the Arsnotoria the Animation character design assistant, Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout chief animation director) is adapting Chorefuji‘s character designs for animation. Keiichirō Ōchi (Adachi and Shimamura, The Quintessential Quintuplets) is overseeing the series scripts.
Yen Press is releasing the novels in English, and describes the story:
On her seventeenth birthday, the apprentice witch Meg learns that she only has one year left to live. Her teacher, the long-lived witch Faust, explains that the only way to undo the death curse is to collect tears of joy and grow the seed of life. To find them, Meg will have to leave the sheltered life she’s always known and head out into the world. There will be meetings, partings, and friendships aplenty, and of course many tears. Meg will learn that the most important lessons for a witch are bright, sweet, and somewhat heart-wrenching.
Saka launched the story on the Kakuyomu website in October 2019, and ended it in August 2022. Kadokawa is publishing the novels in print with illustrations by Chorefuji, and published the second volume on July 17.
Kenu Amearare launched a manga adaptation in March 2023 on the KadoComi (Comic Walker) website. Kadokawa released the third volume on September 27.
Source: Press release
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