Kaketa Tsuki no Mercedes anime premieres in January 2027 with studio Teddy

The anime adaptation of Kaketa Tsuki no Mercedes will premiere in January 2027. The production has released its first trailer and key visual, and has confirmed Anna Nagase as the voice of the protagonist. Studio Teddy is handling the animation.

The original work is a light novel series by Entō with illustrations by KeG, published by TO Books under the full title Kaketa Tsuki no Mercedes: Kyūketsuki no Kizoku ni Tensei Shitakedo Suterare Sō nanode Dungeon wo Seiha Suru. The story follows Mercedes, a Japanese office worker who reincarnates as a vampire from an impoverished noble family. She carries the regret of an empty previous life, and in this second existence she decides to become a dungeon explorer to carve her own path. Her goal: to live without regrets and die laughing.

The trailer previews combat sequences and presents the protagonist under a large full moon, in an image that aims to reflect her dual nature: the mystique of the vampire and an inner determination that the story explores from the first pages. The adaptation comes after five published volumes of the novel —the last two only in digital format— and six of the manga drawn by Edo-ya Pochi.

Main staff and first words from the cast

Direction is handled by Kunihisa Sugishima, with Jun Kumagai on series composition and Nami Shōyama on character design. Music is by R・O・N and Shūhei Mutsuki. Studio Teddy, a production company with less history than other usual names in the industry, takes on the animation.

Nagase, who plays Mercedes Grunewald, commented that reading the original hooked her with "a dense world and characters full of personality." About her character, she describes her as "a girl who fights to make her way while carrying the regret of her previous life and anxiety about the future."

"Her life and the way she lives it will surely stir something in whoever watches her," the actress says.

The original author, Entō, has acknowledged that the news of the adaptation is "truly gratifying" and that he had long imagined Mercedes "moving, talking, and fighting." KeG, the illustrator of the novels, points to a specific scene he is especially curious about: the depiction of Benkei, a character with six arms and armor, "a headache for the animators."

A dungeon fantasy with a vampire protagonist

Director Sugishima has teased that the music will have "a fairly aggressive approach," a detail that fits the tone of a story where dungeon exploration is not a simple pastime but an escape route from an existence condemned to the margins. Kumagai, for his part, warns: "It's a work that will hurt you if you watch it with a superficial mindset."

The difference here is the starting point: a protagonist who seeks neither glory nor revenge, but simply a death with no loose ends. The anime will have to decide how much of that rawness it retains compared to the original material.