Netflix has already delivered big amidst the Summer 2025 anime season. Western fans have enjoyed the premiere episodes of Dandadan Season 2, Sakamoto Days‘ second cour, and the brand new horror anime, The Summer Hikaru Died. All three shows have been tremendously successful in the US, but, expectedly, Japanese fans are taking their anime fandom to the next level. The latter series is also streaming on Netflix in Japan, and it has bypassed some of the biggest new releases on the streaming chart.
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Based on the manga by Mokumokuren, The Summer Hikaru Died blends BL themes with John Carpenter-esque body horror to create a unique horror experience. Two episodes of the anime are available to stream on Netflix (at the time of writing), with new episodes dropping weekly. While the series has yet to crack the US Netflix Top 10, it shot past this Summer’s other major releases in Japan, proving that The Summer Hikaru Died‘s fandom goes hard, and that the series may have a very healthy future ahead of it.
The Summer Hikaru Died Is a Streaming Hit on Netflix
After just two episodes, The Summer Hikaru Died has blasted its way up the Japanese streaming chart on Netflix. The Summer Hikaru Died is the third most-watched series on Netflix Japan this week, and the second most popular anime. The medical drama, The 19th Medical Chart, holds the top spot, and No. 2 goes to this season’s big seinen release: Season 2 of My Dress-Up Darling.
Reaching the third spot on Netflix’s weekly streaming chart is an impressive feat in and of itself. But, The Summer Hikaru Died has done so while beating out this season’s major shonen anime. Gachiakuta sits just behind it in fourth place, with two episodes currently available to stream. Most surprisingly, Season 2 of Dandadan, which is many people’s most anticipated release this Summer, is in fifth. The immensely dark, Takopi’s Original Sin, also made the cut, sitting in eighth place.
The Summer Hikaru Died Episode 3 Drops This Week
As previously mentioned, two episodes of The Summer Hikaru Died are currently available to stream on Netflix. The first two episodes have already impressed audiences, but fans of the manga know that the best is yet to come.
The series follows Hikaru and Yoshiki, two high schoolers who live in a remote village. Over the summer, Hikaru went into the mountains and disappeared, only to return two weeks later as though nothing had happened. After a couple of months have passed, Yoshiki suspects that the “Hikaru” that returned isn’t his best friend, and is something far more sinister.
H/T: Flix Patrol
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