The Summer Hikaru Died Puts A New Spin On A Classic Eerie Trope
A perfect summer series.
In 1923, French psychiatrist Joseph Capgras described the case of a French woman who was convinced that her husband had been replaced with a doppelgänger. The delusion soon became known as Capgras Delusion, and evidence of these paranoid worries can be found throughout stories from Apple TV’s The Changeling all the way back to German fairy tales of fairies switching babies in their beds.
Now, a Netflix anime series is turning this trope on its head with an eerie thriller about a rural student who realizes his best friend isn’t what he seems and it’s up to him to keep the secret. There are only a few episodes out now, but it could — and should — be the sleeper hit of the summer.
The moment “Hikaru” realizes his best friend is aware of his true identity.
The Summer Hikaru Died follows Yoshiki, a student in rural Japan who spends every day with his best friend Hikaru. One day, Hikaru gets injured while hiking, but miraculously recovers. Six months later, in the first real scene of the anime series, Yoshiki asks his friend directly if he’s really who he says he is.
In most stories like this, this kind of confrontation would come after a long journey of collecting evidence and being disbelieved. But this show is different: when asked, Hikaru, or whatever is inside Hikaru, immediately fesses up. He’s actually an eldritch creature who encountered Hikaru in his final moments and took over his body. Yoshiki is terrified at first, but slowly realizes having someone with Hikaru’s body and memories is better than not having him at all.
Yoshiki must grieve his best friend and get to know the being taking his shape.
This is very much a modern anime, using plenty of diegetic music like a school choir performance or a busking performance on the street and often splicing in live-action photography for key moments. The montages surrounding Hikaru’s true form dip into the surreal, borrowing from classic horror anime imagery and some psychedelic elements, and it’s all tied together with a simplistic but eerie coming-of-age story (with some more-than-subtle queer themes).
Netflix is releasing new episodes of The Summer Hikaru Died every Saturday, and there are 12 episodes in total, so we won’t know how the season ends until late September. But even judging from the first few episodes, this show is the perfect blend of the supernatural and slice-of-life. No matter your experience with supernatural anime — or even anime itself — this show will have you coming back week after week.
