Tencent Video and B.CMay Pictures have announced the global release details for Lord of Mysteries, the highly anticipated donghua (Chinese anime). The series will premiere globally on June 28th and will be available to stream on Crunchyroll (as well as Tencent Video, Muse, and additional platforms to be announced).
The announcement was accompanied by a new trailer of the adaptation, which is based on the popular Chinese web novel of the same name, written by Cuttlefish That Loves Dining. Lord of Mysteries is a dark-fantasy series, set in a Victorian-inspired world, that blends steampunk, Lovecraftian horror, and Xuanhuan elements. The story follows Zhou Mingrui, a modern-day Chinese man, who mysteriously awakens in the body of Klein Moretti in an alternate Victorian-era world filled with steampunk machinery and occult lore. As he searches for a way home, Zhou Mingrui (now Klein Moretti) gains powerful supernatural abilities as a "Beyonder".
The synopsis teases:
Through the storm of steam and machinery, who can achieve the extraordinary? In the mist of history and darkness, who whispers to me? When I woke up from the haze of mystery, I found myself in a world of guns, cannons, giant ships, airships, difference engines; potions, divination, curses, hanged men, and sealed artifacts. But the light still shines between it all, and the mystery is never more than two steps away. This is the legend of the Fool.
Lord of Mysteries has gained massive popularity, both in China, where it has over 400 million reads on Qidian, and internationally. It stands alongside Reverend Insanity and The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation as one of the "Big Three" Chinese web novels internationally. The donghua adaptation was first announced in August 2021, and excitement has only grown since.
Crunchyroll had already confirmed Lord of Mysteries as part of its Summer 2025 anime lineup. However, a new trailer for the highly anticipated series confirms some additional exciting details.
Lord of Mysteries will debut on Crunchyroll on June 28th with a two-episode premiere. In addition to it release in Chinese with subtitles, the series will also have English, Latin American Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese dubs available at launch, with other languages like Japanese, German, French, and Korean coming later on. The trailer above even gives us a sneak peek at some of the dubbed versions.
The first season of the Lord of Mysteries will adapt the entirety of Volume 1. A second novel, Lord of Mysteries 2: Circle of Inevitability, was released in March 2023. Assuming the first season of the anime is a hit -- and by all accounts it should be -- then we can probably expect a second season that adapts book two.