Shaft, the animation studio known for Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica (Puella Magi Madoka Magica) and Monogatari series, is producing the anime series.

Itou began serializing the sci-fi comedy manga in Morning magazine in March 2023. Kodansha published the 13th volume on August 21.

Kodansha began publishing the manga digitally in English in September 2024 on its K Manga service under the title The Long Summer of August 31st. Seven Seas Entertainment licensed the manga for physical release in October 2024 and published the sixth volume on August 25. The seventh volume is scheduled for a November 10 release.

Synopsis

Caught in an endlessly repeating August 31st, high schoolers Suzuki Takaya and Takagi Kana are the only ones who remember each loop. The likely cause? Suzuki’s unfinished summer mission to secure a girlfriend and lose his virginity—the ultimate teenage goal. A hilarious yet heartfelt time-loop comedy! (Source: Seven Seas Entertainment)

Official manga site: https://morning.kodansha.co.jp/c/831longsummer.html

Official manga X: @831longsummer

Source: Denfaminico Gamer

Kadokawa revealed on Monday all three episodes of the anime special for the television anime based on Akumi Agitogi and Tsukiho Tsukioka‘s My Happy Marriage (Watashi no Shiawase na Kekkon) light novel series will air and stream on October 25. The company also revealed a new teaser trailer, a new cast member, and the ending theme song artist.

The below teaser previews the ending theme song “Prelude no Temae ni: ~for me&you~” (Right Before the Prelude: for me&you”) by Kashitarō Itō.

M.A.O plays the new character Kimio Nagaba.

The special will air on TV Tokyo and other stations starting on October 25 at 7:00 p.m. JST, and will stream on Netflix and other services starting on the same day at 8:30 p.m. JST. 

Reina Ueda and Kaito Ishikawa return from previous anime seasons as Miyo and Kudo, respectively.

Takehiro Kubota — who directed the first anime season, the 2024 OVA, and co-directed the second season with Masayuki Kojima — is returning to direct the three-episode special at Kinema Citrus. Kubota is also in charge of series composition for the special. Mika Tanaka, who worked on production advancement for the first season, will pen the script alongside Ikuho Negi. Shōko Yasuda returns as character designer alongside Hikaru Sato and Kuniyuki Itō (Itō was previously credited for sub-character design for the second season). Evan Call returns to compose the music.

Anna Okamatsu returns as color designer from previous seasons. Omi Noda, who previously worked on background art in the second season, is now the background art director. Yoshinori Hishinuma returns for art setting and is additionally credited for art supervision alongside Yoshihiro Sono. Mikio, Ryō Hirata, and Takeshi Takakura return for prop design. Tsunetaka Ema returns as compositing director of photography. Yūji Koshida returns as the 3D director. HALKA returns for kimono design. Hydekick returns as 2D artist. Masayuki Kurosawa returns as editor. Takahiro Ikeda is once again the music director. MIRACLE BUS is credited for music production. Kisuke Koizumi returns as sound director. Glovision is credited for sound production.

The second season premiered in January 2025 on Tokyo MX, BS11, KBS Kyoto, Sun TV, TV Aichi, and on AT-X. Netflix and other services also began streaming the season at the same time it premiered on broadcast television.

The first season premiered in July 2023 with 12 episodes. Netflix also began streaming the anime worldwide in July 2023. The eighth novel volume bundled an original anime titled “Shiawase no Katachi” (The Shape of Happiness) on Blu-ray Disc when it shipped in March 2024. The OVA also streamed simultaneously worldwide on Netflix and other streaming services in November 2024, on “Good Couples Day” in Japan.

Agitogi and Tsukioka launched the novel series in January 2019. Yen Press licensed the light novels, and it describes the story:

Born to a noble family, Miyo is raised by her abusive stepmother and married off to Kiyoka, a soldier so heartless his prior fiancées fled within three days into their engagement. With no home to return to, Miyo slowly starts to open her heart to her cold and pale husband-to-be, despite their rocky introduction… This might just be her chance at finding true love and happiness.

Rito Kohsaka‘s manga adaptation debuted on Square Enix‘s Gangan Online website in December 2018. Square Enix Manga & Books is releasing the manga physically and digitally in English.

A live-action film adaptation of the novels opened in Japan in March 2023. The film ranked at #1 in its opening weekend, and sold 479,700 tickets to earn 654 million yen (about US$4.97 million) in its first three days.

Source: Press release

Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of Anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.

No, it was not a promotion for the Team Rocket Base in Shibuya

Kotaku and IGN reported that the English Pokémon X (formerly Twitter) account (briefly) promoted a memecoin on Thursday. The now deleted post claimed the memecoin was in celebration of Pokémon‘s 30th anniversary. Kotaku reached out to The Pokémon Company for comment, but the news outlet initially did not receive a response.

The Pokémon Company then released a statement addressing the deleted post promoting the memecoin — although this statement has itself been removed. The statement said the Pokémon account was “compromised earlier for ~30 minutes. We’re aware that our X account was accessed without authorization and used to publish posts promoting a cryptocurrency. Those posts were not created or approved by Pokémon and have been removed. We have secured the account and are investigating the incident. We’re sorry for the confusion and appreciate your patience.”

Fans naturally joked about the incident, suggesting Team Rocket must have been behind the hack.

As of press time, The Pokémon Company has not issued further statements regarding the incident.

Team Rocket Takes Over Shibuya

Coincidentally, the hack occurred in the middle of the Team Rocket Base event at the ZeroBase Shibuya event venue. In the August 25-31 event, the Pokémon villains took over the building with its iconic “R” logo across several “rooms” in the building. The event also features Team Rocket members “standing” outside the event space.

The Team Rocket Base event is not connected to the memecoin incident.

Sources: Kotaku, IGN, Pokémon‘s English X/Twitter account, Pokémon Times’s X/Twitter account