Bless anime premieres January 8 and already has its ending: HIKKA sings "New Page"

The Bless anime now has a date: the first episode airs on January 8, 2027 at 23:30 on Fuji TV's noitaminA block. The announcement came during the Anime Girls Festival 2026, on the "TV Anime 'Bless' Special Showcase" stage, the series' first event with an audience.

The key visual and the first PV were also presented there, with the ending song playing in the background. The song is called "New Page" and is performed by HIKKA.

The panel brought together Takahiro Ōno (voice of Aia Udagawa) and Yoshiki Nakajima (voice of Joe Ōsaki), who warmed up the crowd before dropping the news. Seeing the visual, Ōno let out an "incredible!" and Nakajima said it looked like the cover of a fashion magazine.

A live makeup show, the first in AGF history

The most curious part of the evening came later. Nakajima invited HIKKA and Katsuyoshi Kojima, Bless hair and makeup supervisor, who has handled the series' makeup scenes, onto the stage. And, just like that, Kojima did HIKKA's makeup live.

The makeup theme was "taking a new step," in line with the song's message. Kojima used a lot of shimmer and a fresh-looking hairstyle, and when HIKKA looked in the mirror, the reaction was pure emotion: "It's better than I imagined."

Kojima said that, upon meeting HIKKA, the first thing that caught his attention was her eyes, and that he built the look thinking about her personality, her clothes, and the overall balance.

Production and cast details

Bless adapts Yukino Sonoyama's manga, serialized in Kodansha's Monthly Shōnen Sirius. The story follows Aia, a former model who gave up her dream of becoming a makeup artist out of fear of what others would say, and Jun Sumisaki, a classmate who hides her height and freckles by slouching. Together they end up in the school festival contest, with the roles swapped: Aia does the makeup and Jun walks the runway.

Ōno shared an anecdote from the dubbing: for the first session, they sent him a video of Kojima doing makeup so he could sync the voice with Aia's hand movements. "I voiced it following those movements," he explained.

The cast includes Chiaki Miura as Jun Sumisaki, Tarusuke Shingaki as Teru Ōya, Nobuhiko Okamoto as Ginga Yoyogi, Kōki Uchiyama as Meiji Nakano, Yoshiki Nakajima as Joe Ōsaki, Yoshino Aoyama as Oroka Sumeragi, Momoka Terasawa as Shitata Sumeragi, and Kentarō Kumagai as MM. Shōtarō Kitamura directs, with Takayuki Kikuchi as assistant director at A-1 Pictures. Kyō Uwazumi handles series composition and Honoka Yokoyama is in charge of character design.

The event closed with the makeup show and the ending song presentation, and made it clear that makeup is not just the story's theme: it's also part of how the series is promoted.