The official website for the Dark Machine: The Animation television anime revealed additional cast members, opening theme, and a second promotional video on Wednesday. The anime is scheduled to premiere in October 2026 at 1:45 a.m. on Fuji TV, followed by Kansai TV and BS Fuji.

Cast

Nyudo: Ryuunosuke Watanuki (Blue Lock)

Hachiman: Jun Kousaka

Bianca: Minori Suzuki (Pokemon (2023))

Weiß: Rikuya Yasuda (Mayonaka Heart Tune)

Rock band BUCK∞TICK (Shiki, xxxHOLiC) is performing the opening theme “Sonzai Riyuu Kai,” which is previewed in the promotional video below.

Kazumi Terada (Chikyuugai Shounen Shoujo assistant director) is helming the anime at Production +h. Team Carbuncle, which consists of Takaaki Suzuki (High School Fleet original creator), Tatsuhiko Urahata (Muv-Luv Alternative series composition), and Atsuo Ishino (Gundam Build Divers Re:Rise script), is handling the series composition and script.

Kou Yoshinari (Kamiina Botan, Yoeru Sugata wa Yuri no Hana) is credited as the main character designer and SUGIZO (Kidou Senshi Gundam: The Origin – Zenya Akai Suisei ending theme song composition) is composing the music.

PV 2

Source: Comic Natalie

Netflix confirmed on Wednesday that it will stream Mononoke The Movie: Chapter III – The Curse of the Serpent (Gekijōban Mononoke Dai-San-Shō: Hebigami), the third installment in the Mononoke franchise‘s film trilogy, on September 29.

The film opened in Japan on May 29.

Mononoke The Movie: Phantom in the Rain (Gekijōban Mononoke: Karakasa), the first film, premiered in Japan in July 2024. Mononoke the Movie Trilogy: Chapter 2: The Ashes of Rage (Gekijōban Mononoke Dai-Ni-Shō: Hinezumi) opened in Japan in March 2025. Netflix is streaming the first two films. 

In February 2023, Twin Engine announced that the first film was delayed, and stated that voice actor Takahiro Sakurai would no longer reprise the role of the protagonist the Medicine Seller as originally planned. Hiroshi Kamiya replaced Sakurai in the role of the Medicine Seller in the trilogy. The character in the film trilogy is a different Medicine Seller from the one who appeared in the television series.

The Weekly Bunshun tabloid newspaper reported in October 2022 that Sakurai had been engaged in an extramarital affair for at least 10 years with a writer for his P.S. Genki Desu. Takahiro travel radio show. Sakurai’s talent management agency Intention published a statement the day after the report, which acknowledged the article’s report and apologized to the unnamed woman, Sakurai’s fans, and all involved.

Twin Engine had stated in the announcement of replacing Sakurai: 

…the animated film “MONONOKE” sets in Ōoku (historically the women’s quarters of Edo Castle) and tries to depict the suffering and remedy of women. Judging from the standpoint of the story, we decided to change the cast of the Medicine Seller. 

The staff did not announce before the third film released that the original character would appear in the film, or that they had recast Sakurai to reprise the role. Theatergoers noticed the cameo in the film, and noted there was no previous announcement of Sakurai reprising the role, which caused controversy: some fans supported the decision and some were against it. Oricon confirmed that the third film had featured  Sakurai as the original Medicine Seller character, who appeared in the film in a cameo role. 

The film trilogy’s planning producer Kōji Yamamoto then posted an apology on his X (formerly Twitter) account on June 5, and also announced he was retiring from producing. Yamamoto confirmed in the statement that staff had recast Sakurai who had been previously replaced, apologizing for the way in which the information about this was handled.

The franchise will have a new project with a third Medicine Seller “Ken no Tsurugi.” Actor Hirofumi Araki, who starred as the Medicine Seller in the recent Mononoke stage plays will voice the new character.

The Mononoke franchise inspired two previous stage plays in 2023 and 2024, and a prequel stage play with an original story, which ran from May 14-17. Jun Yoriko directed the three stage plays, which all starred Hirofumi Araki.

Update: English-dubbed trailer added.

Sources: Press release, Comic Natalie

The staff for Dark Machine the Animation, the original anime for the Dark Machine game and anime project, unveiled the second promotional video for the anime on Wednesday. The video announces more cast members, announces and previews the anime’s opening theme song “Sonzai Riyū Kai” (Reason to Live, Renewed) by BUCK-TICK, and announces the anime’s October television premiere.

The new cast members all play members of rival e-sports teams of Kairi’s Carbuncle team, and include:

Ryūnosuke Watanuki as Nyūdō, a player from the Great Cluster team

Jun Kousaka as Hachiman, a player from the Great Cluster team

Minori Suzuki as Bianca, a player from the Esmeralda team

Rikuya Yasuda as Weiss, a player from the Esmeralda team

The anime will have its own unique world setting, which will include Da rk Machine being a popular gaming metaverse, and will take place “in the not too distant future.” The anime is planned for global distribution.

The series stars: 

The staff for the anime’s pilot trailer that premiered at Comic-Con International in July 2024 has been confirmed to work on the television anime. Kazumi Terada is directing the anime at Production +h.. The overall project credits Code Geass director Gorō Taniguchi as the creative producer, and Macross artist Hidetaka Tenjin as the chief mechanical designer. Keiichi Yano is the project’s creator. “Team Carbuncle” — featuring Takaaki Suzuki, Tatsuhiko Urahata, and Atsuo Ishino, — which was listed for writing credits in the pilot trailer, is in charge of the anime’s series scripts with the addition of Satohito Sata.

Other staff members include:

The anime will be available for TV and streaming via Fuji TV.

The Dark Machine “asynchronous big team arena shooter” game was announced in 2023, and Early Access started in 2024.

The game’s staff describe the story:

The year is 2079.

Humankind is living in an energy bubble after Dr. Robert Palmer discovered the Palmer crystal to give humankind all of the energy it would ever need and more. Unfortunately, not all of humankind has benefited from this hyper energy source and underground battles for this energy have developed at a global scale. The factory robots that have been helping to cultivate this energy of the future have been transformed to fighting mechs by these undergrounds and they are fighting for huge stakes.

However, dark energy is said to reside in small quantities in the Palmer crystal. The use of hyper AI technologies was used in an attempt to harness this dark energy and use it for battle advantages. It is currently unclear whether this dark energy can be controlled by mechs…

Taniguchi is the creative producer on the game, and Tenjin is the chief mechanical designer. Yuya Saito is the game director and Koji Hakuta is the producer. The game is a 7-versus-7 mech third-person shooting game.

The staff raised more than US$8.7 million from more than 6,000 investors including Tencent, web3 game platform Immutable, and blockchain company Sui. The staff are developing the game with Unreal Engine 5. The game features the blockchain-based in-game currency MACHINA ($MXNA), and also features NFT asset ownership and an NFT marketplace for direct sales and peer-to-peer exchanges. Players can install and play the game without having to purchase any NFTs, and get free NFTs to start playing the game. Decentralized tournaments are integral to the gameplay.

Source: Press release