Kaketa Tsuki no Mercedes reveals its heroine for January 2027
The vampire light-novel adaptation has its first main visual, a monthly reveal campaign and a January 2027 broadcast window.
Kaketa Tsuki no Mercedes has shown its heroine at last. The production committee released the first main visual for the TV anime on 29 September and confirmed a monthly information campaign that will run all the way to the show’s January 2027 broadcast.
The visual puts Mercedes Grünevelt front and centre with her companions Benkei and Kuro, the pair who help her work through the dungeons standing between her and a comfortable second life. The committee has also lined up five reveal slots, one a month, so expect cast additions, character art and a promotional video before the year is out.
Staff and cast so far
The adaptation of Entou’s light novel, published by TO Books with original illustrations by KeG and a manga by Edoya Pochi, is being animated at TEDDY. Kunihisa Sugishima directs, Jun Kumagai handles series composition, Nami Uyama is on character design and the score comes from R.O.N and Shuhei Mutsuki. Anna Nagase voices Mercedes.
One thing to keep in check: the January 2027 window is the Japanese broadcast. No streaming service and no release outside Japan has been announced, so anyone hoping to watch it subtitled on day one should wait for word from the licence holders rather than assuming the obvious names.
Our opinion
A first key visual is a small thing to hang a story on, and that is precisely the point: the light novel has been running since 2020 and this adaptation has been public since July, so what the committee is selling today is momentum rather than news. Showing Mercedes, Benkei and Kuro suggests the marketing will lean on the dungeon party rather than the rebirth gimmick alone, which is the right call for a fantasy that lives or dies on whether its lead is worth following.
TEDDY is the interesting name in that list. The studio gets handed a lot of glossy adaptations and a January slot is a competitive one, so a monthly drip of details is as much a way to keep the production honest as it is to build hype. If those five reveals arrive on schedule, this earns its place on the winter list. If the campaign goes quiet in November, we will know why.