Summer in Japan is a torpid season of hot, humid days and sensory stimulation: the ubiquitous drone of cicadas, the creature comforts of shaved ice and snacks from festival food stalls, the dizzying glint of sparklers or fireworks by night. Against this familiar backdrop, a bone-chilling secret threatens to upend a rural community in “The Summer Hikaru Died.”
The title alone sets the stage for this atmospheric anime adaptation by CygamesPictures of the eponymous manga series from artist Mokumokuren. The story centers on Yoshiki Tsujinaka, a lanky, brooding high school student with a mop of black hair, and Hikaru Indo, Yoshiki’s impish best friend with an easy smile — or rather, the creature that’s now impersonating Hikaru.
Yoshiki’s perpetually gloomy mien is forgivable in light of the burden he carries: the memory of stumbling upon Hikaru’s dead body in the mountains. When the supernatural entity posing as Hikaru returns to the town where the teens live, Yoshiki knows that this can’t really be his friend.
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