Tune In to the Midnight Heart Anime Premieres January 6

Tune In to the Midnight Heart (Mayonaka Heart Tune) now has a premiere date. The official site for the television anime, based on Masakuni Igarashi’s manga, revealed on Thursday a second promotional video, theme song details, a new key visual, and a January 6 debut.

Suisei Hoshimachi sings the opening theme, “Tsuki ni Mukatte Ute” (Attack Toward the Moon), while Soala handles the ending theme, “Koe no Kiseki” (Trails of Voices), and the new video previews both. The show premieres January 6 on Kansai TV and Fuji TV’s newly launched Tuesday late night block at 11:00 p.m. JST, then begins on BS Asahi from January 9.

Masayuki Takahashi, who directed Butareba: The Story of a Man Turned into a Pig, is helming the anime at studio Gekkō. Yukie Sugawara of Overlord is writing the scripts, and Tomoyuki Shitaya, known for Food Wars and Bakuman, is on character designs.

The story follows Arisu Yamabuki, a boy who once found comfort in the late night voice of a radio host called Apollo, until she suddenly went off the air with no explanation. Years later, now in his second year of high school, he sets out to find her because there is something he needs to say.

His only leads come from the school broadcasting club, where he meets four girls who each dream of careers built around their voices. Igarashi began the manga in Weekly Shōnen Magazine in September 2023, and it recently reached its tenth volume in Japan. Kodansha publishes it in English, both digitally and in print.

My take: A story about chasing a voice from the past has a lovely, wistful pull to it, and pairing that with a broadcasting club full of dreamers feels just right. Suisei Hoshimachi on the opening is a sweet bonus.