Once Upon a Witch's Death, a series of Japanese light novels written by Saka and illustrated by Chorefuji, is getting an anime television series adaptation.
The announcement was accompanied by the launch of an official website as well as a teaser trailer and key art. For those unfamiliar, the novels follow the story of an apprentice witch who discovers that she is cursed with only one year to live.
The synopsis reads:
"You'll die in a year."
Meg Raspberry, an apprentice witch, just turned 17 when her magic teacher, Faust, a "Witch of Longevity" and one of the Seven Sages, the top witches in the magical world, suddenly told her that she only had one more year to live.
Meg was under a "Death Sentence" curse.
There was only one way to avoid death by the curse. She had to create the "Seed of Life" that would grant immortality to whoever possessed it.
And the material that makes up the "Seed of Life" is a fragment of emotion - the tears of joy that people shed when they are happy.
As the curse goes, Meg must college a thousand people's worth of tears to stave off the curse. So the story follows Meg as she interacts with various people in order to collect their tears of joy.
The anime series adaption is in production at animation studio EMT Square with Atsushi Nigorikawa directing. Keiichirou Ohchi provides the series composition, while Yukishizuku provides the character designs.
It was also revealed that Meg Raspberry will be voiced by Yoshino Aoyama (Ururu in The Wrong Way to Use Healing Magic). Yoshiko Sakakibara (Sesshomaru's Mother in Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon) will voice Faust, the "Witch of Wisdom."
Written by Saka and illustrated by Chorefuj, Once Upon a Witch's Death was initially serialized as a web novel published on Kakuyomu from October 2019 to August 2019. ASCII Media Works eventually acquired it and now publishes the light novels under their Dengeki no Shin Bungei imprint.
Yen Press publishes an English language version, offering its own synopsis which adds a bit more detail:
On Meg’s seventeenth birthday, she learns that she only has one year left to live. Her mentor—the Eternal Witch, Faust—explains that she is cursed and the only way to save herself is to grow a seed of life using one thousand tears of joy. Of course, such tears aren’t easy to come by. As Meg begins her quest, she finds herself drawn into the lives of her friends and neighbors in ways she never imagined. By sharing their burdens and using her magic to comfort them, she learns how precious those moments of connection can be even in the face of death.
There's no release date yet for the anime series adaptation, although it is scheduled to premiere in 2025.