Sunrise and SHAFT Forge First-Ever Alliance for 'Fool Night' Netflix Anime

In a rare show of unity between two of anime's most distinctive houses, Sunrise and SHAFT have announced their debut joint project. The adaptation of Kasumi Yasuda's Fool Night was revealed during Netflix's Anime Studio Focus panel at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, complete with a teaser trailer, key visual, and main staff details.

Sunrise, celebrated for sweeping epics and sharp political drama, pairs with SHAFT's singular visual sensibility for the first time. Director Atsuyuki Yukawa, series composer Jin Tanaka, and character designer Robert Satō lead the effort, with voice talent including Kōki Uchiyama as protagonist Toshiro Kamiya and Minako Kotobuki as Yomiko Horai. The story unfolds in a future where perpetual winter has starved the planet of oxygen, forcing humanity to rely on the eerie transfloration process that turns the dying into living plants.

The manga, serialized in Shogakukan's Big Comic Superior since 2020 and now on its twelfth volume, follows a young man pushed to the brink by poverty and his mother's illness as he confronts the moral cost of survival in a society stripped of hope. The early footage and staff roster suggest a production that blends Sunrise's narrative scale with SHAFT's atmospheric precision.

The 2026 Netflix release marks another high-profile addition to the streamer's growing anime slate and gives fans their first real glimpse of how these two studios' strengths might reshape a story already praised for its unflinching look at human limits.