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Satoshi Mizukami’s manga Spirit Circle is getting a TV anime, and it starts airing and streaming in December 2026. The run is 18 episodes. Director and series composition duties went to Tatsuo Sato, who passed away in April 2026, making this his final work as a director. Animation production is a joint effort between NAGOMI and EOTA, with Twin Engine producing.
For the cast, Kazuki Ura voices Fuuta Okeya, a middle schooler who can see spirits; Anna Nagase plays Kouko Ishigami, the transfer student out to kill him; Eri Yukimura voices Rune, the spirit who sticks close to Fuuta; and Yuichi Nakamura plays East, the spirit standing behind Kouko. The ending theme is Koko ga Donna Sekai demo, Anna Nagase’s first solo song, written specifically for the series. A teaser visual and the first PV dropped alongside the announcement.
The source manga ran in Shonen Gahosha’s Young King OURs from 2012 to 2016 across six volumes. It has sold more than 800,000 copies in total, and the anime arrives a full decade after the manga wrapped. It is a reincarnation story in which Fuuta, marked for death because of a grudge carried over from a past life, uses a tool called the Spirit Circle to relive seven separate lifetimes.
This article breaks down what was announced, the staff and cast, what the source manga is like, and what to expect from Tatsuo Sato’s final project. If you walked away frustrated from the Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer anime, this lineup is worth a look.
- Airing from December 2026 across 18 episodes. Broadcasters and streaming platforms were unannounced as of November 6
- Directed by the late Tatsuo Sato, with assistant director Kentaro Mizuno taking over to finish it
- Kazuki Ura is Fuuta, Anna Nagase is Kouko. The ending theme is Anna Nagase’s first solo track
- The source manga is six volumes from Young King OURs, a reincarnation tale spanning seven past lives
Let’s start with when and where you can watch it.
When does the Spirit Circle anime start? December 2026, 18 episodes total
Broadcast and streaming begin in December 2026. The series runs 18 episodes, an unusual length that lands right between a single cour and a double. Broadcasters and streaming services are not listed on the official site as of November 6, 2026, so we are waiting on follow-up news for those along with the air date and time.
The announcement came on November 5, 2026. Producer Twin Engine and the official X account posted simultaneously, unveiling the teaser visual, the first PV, four main cast members and the ending theme all at once. The schedule puts the premiere just a month after the reveal, and production has been announced as already complete.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Broadcast/streaming start | December 2026 |
| Episode count | 18 episodes |
| Broadcasters/streaming | Unannounced as of November 6, 2026 |
| Animation production | NAGOMI x EOTA |
| Production | Twin Engine |
| Official site/X | spiritcircle.jp, @spiritcircle_pr |
That 18-episode count is almost certainly the answer to the problem creator Satoshi Mizukami raised in his comment: the difficulty of fitting “seven different lives” into a fixed runtime. Twelve episodes would rush the past lives; twenty-four would pad them out. Read it as the number they landed on to fit six volumes without waste or shortfall.
Who is on the staff? The late Tatsuo Sato directs, with assistant director Kentaro Mizuno finishing the job
Director and series composition went to Tatsuo Sato, the two-time Seiun Award winner known for Martian Successor Nadesico, Fly! Isami and Bodacious Space Pirates. He died of liver failure on April 24, 2026, at the age of 61, with NAGOMI announcing his passing on May 7. The “anime project currently in production” referred to vaguely at the time was this one, Spirit Circle.
After Sato’s death, production continued under assistant director Kentaro Mizuno, and the studio has stated the series was completed while preserving the director’s vision. Character designs are by Satoru Fujimoto.
| Role | Staff |
|---|---|
| Original work | Satoshi Mizukami (Shonen Gahosha, Young King OURs) |
| Director/series composition | Tatsuo Sato |
| Assistant director | Kentaro Mizuno |
| Character design | Satoru Fujimoto |
| Animation production | NAGOMI x EOTA |
Mizukami’s work has a complicated anime history: the 2022 Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer adaptation split opinion among manga readers. This time the announcement says the director built the structural skeleton of the scripts himself, and that his assistant director protected that vision through completion after his death. This is the last project to carry Tatsuo Sato’s name in the credits. If there is a chance to make up for last time, it is here.
Who is in the cast? Kazuki Ura as Fuuta, Anna Nagase as Kouko, plus her first solo song as the ending theme
Four main cast members have been revealed. Kazuki Ura plays protagonist Fuuta Okeya, Anna Nagase plays transfer student Kouko Ishigami, Eri Yukimura voices Rune, the spirit haunting Fuuta, and Yuichi Nakamura plays East, the spirit who stands behind Kouko.
| Character | Role | Cast |
|---|---|---|
| Fuuta Okeya | A middle schooler who can see spirits. The protagonist | Kazuki Ura |
| Kouko Ishigami | A transfer student who wants Fuuta dead over a past-life grudge | Anna Nagase |
| Rune | The spirit who stays beside Fuuta | Eri Yukimura |
| East | The spirit standing behind Kouko | Yuichi Nakamura |
The ending theme, Koko ga Donna Sekai demo, is Anna Nagase’s first solo recording, with lyrics by UiNA and music by Tatsuya Kato. An ending sung by the actress playing Kouko herself should take on a different meaning once the story reaches its back half. In her announcement comment, Nagase revealed she read the entire manga in a single day.
Kazuki Ura said he wants viewers to feel the weight of emotions that cannot be sorted neatly into good and evil. Fuuta lives as a different person in each past life. In a series where one actor has to differentiate seven lifetimes, the load on the lead is nothing like a normal anime.
What kind of manga is it? Six volumes from Young King OURs, a reincarnation tale across seven past lives
Spirit Circle is a six-volume manga that ran in Shonen Gahosha’s Young King OURs from 2012 to 2016. Total copies in circulation top 800,000. Creator Satoshi Mizukami also wrote Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer and Sengoku Youko, making this his third work to be animated after those two.
The story opens with Fuuta Okeya, a middle schooler who can see spirits, being targeted for death by transfer student Kouko Ishigami over what she calls a grudge carried from a past life. Using the Spirit Circle, a tool Kouko possesses, Fuuta can relive his previous incarnations. He travels through seven lives stretching from ancient times to the future, confronting the sins his own soul committed along the way. The density required to tell seven complete lifetimes in six volumes has been a talking point among manga readers for years.
In his comment on the announcement, Mizukami thanked the staff and director Tatsuo Sato for pushing past the difficulty of seven different life settings and runtime constraints to make the adaptation happen. It has been a decade since the manga ended and four years since Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer. If you have not done your homework yet, a month is plenty of time to get through six volumes.
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Final thoughts: Spirit Circle premieres in December 2026 with 18 episodes as Tatsuo Sato’s last work
The Spirit Circle TV anime begins airing and streaming in December 2026. It runs 18 episodes, with broadcasters and streaming platforms unannounced as of November 6. Director and series composition credits go to Tatsuo Sato, who died in April 2026, making this his final directorial work, and assistant director Kentaro Mizuno took over to complete it. The cast features Kazuki Ura as Fuuta Okeya, Anna Nagase as Kouko Ishigami, Eri Yukimura as Rune and Yuichi Nakamura as East. The ending theme is Koko ga Donna Sekai demo, Anna Nagase’s first solo song. The source manga ran in Young King OURs for six volumes with 800,000 copies in circulation, and the adaptation arrives ten years after it concluded.
An 18-episode order, an assistant director carrying his late director’s vision to the finish line, and a completed show sitting on the shelf a month before broadcast. Adaptations that check all three boxes are rare. Why the Tatsuo Sato of Nadesico chose a reincarnation ensemble piece as his final job is a question the screen itself will answer once it airs. The manga fans whose shoulders slumped after Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer have the most reason to get their hopes up this time.
One month until December. Start the six volumes now and you will still make it.
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