Fool Night, the First Sunrise and Shaft Collaboration, Comes to Netflix in 2026

What was announced

Netflix has announced Fool Night, a new anime the official Netflix Anime account describes as "an exhilarating new sociopolitical murder mystery animated by Sunrise x Shaft," premiering exclusively on Netflix worldwide in 2026. The project was unveiled at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, where Netflix also released a first teaser.

What it's about

Per Netflix, the series follows Toshiro, whose life takes a turn when he begins hearing the voices of "plants," an ability he uses to uncover the truth behind an attack on a longtime friend. The source manga sets this in a bleak future where sunlight has all but vanished and people can be turned into plants through a process the story calls transfloration, a premise that has made Fool Night a standout in dark science fiction. The teaser leans hard into that mood, all rusted pipes, dim light, and a single red flower where a face should be.

A historic studio pairing

According to Anime News Network and Variety, Fool Night is the first collaboration between Sunrise, the studio behind the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise and Cowboy Bebop, and Shaft, known for Puella Magi Madoka Magica and the Monogatari series. The two have built nearly opposite reputations over the years, Sunrise on mechanical spectacle and grounded drama, Shaft on stylized, experimental direction, which is exactly why a first-ever team-up is drawing attention.

The manga behind it

Fool Night adapts Kasumi Yasuda's manga, serialized in Shogakukan's Big Comic Superior since 2020 and published in English by Viz Media. Per Variety, the series runs 12 collected volumes with roughly 600,000 copies in circulation, and it earned a placing in the Kono Manga ga Sugoi! 2023 rankings. The dark, idea-driven premise has given it a reputation that outsizes its volume count.

Why it matters