August 31st's Long Summer Anime Announced by Shaft — And a Live-Action Series Is Coming Too

Kodansha announced on August 31, 2026 that August 31st’s Long Summer (8月31日のロングサマー), Ikkado Ito’s time-loop manga, is being adapted twice over — a TV anime and a separate live-action TV drama, both confirmed in the same announcement.

The anime is being produced by Shaft, the studio behind Puella Magi Madoka Magica and the Monogatari series. An “ultra teaser visual” went up alongside the news. Neither project has a premiere date yet.

Two adaptations, one announcement

Kodansha’s Morning imprint, which serializes the manga, framed this as a “W映像化” — literally a double screen adaptation — rather than the more common pattern of a single confirmed anime with a live-action version floated later or never. Both are described as in development, and nothing in Kodansha’s announcement suggests one is further along than the other.

That’s worth sitting with for a moment, because it’s an unusual way to launch an adaptation. Most manga get one screen treatment announced first, with a second sometimes following years later if the anime performs well. Here, Kodansha revealed both at once, on August 31 itself — the date the manga’s entire plot revolves around.

No cast, director, or writing staff has been announced for either project. Kodansha’s release names Shaft as the anime’s animation studio and nothing more specific.

What August 31st’s Long Summer is about

The manga follows two high schoolers, Suzuki and Takagi, who are stuck reliving August 31 in a time loop. They’re the only two who remember each cycle — everyone else resets along with the day. The premise leans into the pair’s growing closeness rather than a straightforward mystery-of-the-week structure, with the story gradually shifting from something closer to a found-family dynamic into the two of them effectively living together within the loop.

Ito has kept the cause of the loop unresolved in the manga itself, though Kodansha’s own framing ties it loosely to Suzuki’s unfinished summer goals — the kind of detail that reads as a hook rather than a spoiler.

August 31st’s Long Summer began serialization in Morning in March 2023. Volume 13 released August 21, 2026, ten days before this adaptation news, making the announcement a natural marketing beat for the print series as well as a screen deal.

Morning is a seinen magazine aimed at an adult readership, and the manga itself sits closer to a coming-of-age romantic comedy than a straightforward genre thriller — the time loop is the setup, not really the point. That framing matters for what to expect from Shaft’s version specifically, since the studio’s best-known work leans heavily into stylized visual experimentation rather than grounded slice-of-life storytelling. Kodansha’s announcement doesn’t say which direction the anime will take.

Volume 13 of Ikkado Ito’s manga released ten days before the adaptation announcement. Credit: Ikkado Ito, Kodansha.

For more on Shaft’s current slate and how other Kodansha and Morning properties are making the same jump to anime this year, see our coverage of Medalist: The Movie’s release date and story.

What’s confirmed and what isn’t

Confirmed by Kodansha:

• A TV anime is in production, animated by Shaft.
• A separate TV live-action drama is also in production.
• An official teaser visual has been released for the anime.
• The announcement date is August 31, 2026.

Not yet announced:

• A premiere date or window for either the anime or the live-action series.
• Any cast for the live-action drama.
• Any director, series composer, or other creative staff for the anime.
• A streaming platform or broadcaster for either project.

Nothing in Kodansha’s announcement names a streaming service for the anime, and no broadcaster has been attached to the live-action drama. Any specific platform claim circulating online right now is getting ahead of what’s actually been confirmed.

What comes next

Adaptation announcements at this stage are typically followed by staff reveals, then cast, then a first trailer closer to broadcast. Given Shaft’s usual production timelines, a full anime staff announcement is the more likely next update, with live-action casting probably trailing behind it since that project appears to be in an earlier stage of development. Kodansha has not given any indication of when either will happen.

For now, what’s real is the manga itself — Ikkado Ito’s 13 volumes in Morning — and two separate screen adaptations that Kodansha has confirmed are moving forward at the same time.

For other recently confirmed manga-to-screen adaptations, see One Piece’s newly announced God Valley and BAAD films and GKIDS’ theatrical return of Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.