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Do you know what every great horror story needs? A little romance mixed in. That is the real fun of The Summer Hikaru Died, which has been on our radar for a while. The series manages to mix cosmic horror in the normally sweet and innocent Boys Love genre to great results and the upcoming anime adaptation looks like it is going to do the same when it hits Netflix this summer.

The Summer Hikaru Died follows Yoshiki and Hikaru, two teenage boys living in a small town in rural Japan. However, after Hikaru’s body is taken over by an eldritch being, their already complicated relationship becomes significantly more strained. The imagery in the newest trailer highlights the mix of Boys Love romance and cosmic horror in a way that shouldn’t work but clearly does. There is surreal horror mixed with touching declarations. A tender moment that suddenly becomes Hikaru’s chest opening up to consume someone. This is a show that is all about weird contrasts and tonal whiplash and we’re here for it.

Securing the rights to The Summer Hikaru Died is one of the big wins for Netflix in an increasingly packed summer 2025 anime line-up that includes new seasons of Sakamoto Days, My Dress-Up Darling, Kaiju No. 8, and Dan Da Dan. Hopefully, the cosmic horror elements of The Summer Hikaru Died help it to stand out from the crowd because this looks like a unique anime experience.

The Summer Hikaru Died comes to Netflix on July 5, 2025 and we’re ready for it to creep us out and break our hearts all at the same time.

Each week, Popverse's resident anime expert Trent Cannon runs down the latest and, dare we say "greatest," in anime and manga in Popverse Jump. Some recent columns have included... 

• Why the finales of My Hero Academia, Jujutsu Kaisen, and One Piece feel like the end of an era in manga
• Why is One Piece more popular now that the anime is 25 years old? We asked around and found out
• Dan Da Dan is weird, profoundly inappropriate, and the perfect anime this season
• Why One Piece's Monkey D. Luffy is the perfect anime hero for the dark times ahead
• 40 years after its debut, Dragon Ball is a pop culture force like few others
• Dan Da Dan's most emotionally devastating sequence proves that sometimes words aren't necessary
• Gnosia, the "Among Us meets Everything Everywhere All at Once" visual novel is getting an anime adaptation that needs to be as weird as possible
• Assassination Classroom is a Shonen anime well worth revisiting, ten years on
• Sony is making big moves to own the anime industry by buying Kadokawa, publisher of Oshi no Ko, Sword Art Online, and Konosuba
• 2025 is the year One Punch Man season 3 finally adapts the cosmically weird Monster Association Arc and I can't wait