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Once Upon a Witch's Death Novels Get TV Anime in 2025

Kadokawa announced on Friday that author Saka and illustrator 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 is getting a television anime adaptation in 2025.

Manga adaptation artist Kenu Amearare drew an illustration to celebrate:

The anime will star Yoshino Aoyama as Meg Raspberry (pictured first below) and Yoshiko Sakakibara as Faust (pictured second).

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.

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 will publish the second volume on July 17.

Kenu Amearare launched a manga adaptation in March 2023 on the KadoComi (Comic Walker) website. Kadokawa released the first volume in July 2023, and will release the second volume on July 26.

Source: Press release