The Hikari no Ou anime adaptation will premiere sometime in January 2023, a new update has revealed. A teaser visual and more staff information were also released.

Takuya Saitou (Outlaw Star, Macross 0) is designing the characters for the WOWOW original and is also one of its three chief animation directors, while Kenji Kawai (Ghost in the Shell) is composing the music. The other two chief animation directors are Kazuchika Kise (xxxHOLIC and Blood-C character designer) and Toshihisa Kaiya (Ascendance of a Bookworm co-character designer, World Trigger Season 2 and 3 character designer).

It was previously announced that Junji Nishimura (True Tears, Ranma 1/2 Nettou Hen Ep 70 onwards) is directing with Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell director, Urusei Yatsura Ep 1-Ep 129 chief director) as series composer and scriptwriter. Nishimura and Oshii previously worked together on shows like the 2021 vampire comedy Vlad Love and 1984’s Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer movie.

Hikari no Ou was announced back in November 2020. The show will be broadcast via the WOWOW channel and is produced by Signal.MD.

Hikari no Ou is based on the fantasy novels by Rieko Hinata, which began in 2018 and ended in 2020 with four volumes. Akihiro Yamada was the illustrator. 

The story takes place after mankind’s final war, with the land covered by a black forest where fiery creatures roam. The setting also includes a pathogen that causes human bodies to ignite. With the creatures being the source of the only fire that humans can safely handle, sickle-armed fire hunters (Hikari) venture into the forests to seek these beings. Among the hunters, there is a talk of a thousand-year comet, and of how the one to hunt it will be called the King of the Fire Hunters (Hikari no Ou). The main characters are 11-year old Touko and 15-year old Koushi, whose intersecting fates set the story in motion.

Sources: @HikarinoOuAnime, Comic Natalie