ASMIK Ace has released a new teaser trailer and key visual for the new TV anime adaptation of Yu Hibari and illustrator Siso’s The Neat and Beautiful Girl at My New School Was My Childhood Friend Who I Used to Play With, Who I Thought Was a Boy light novel series. The new anime will premiere in 2026.
The anime was originally meant to air in 2023. The only known cast member so far is Ikumi Hasegawa, who voices Haruki Nikaidō.
Yu Hibari’s hit light novel series made its debut on the Shōsetsuka ni Narō website in 2020. Kadokawa began publishing the series, illustrated by Siso, in 2021. Kadokawa will publish the light novel’s ninth volume on Friday.
Ōyama began publishing the manga adaptation on Comic Walker in 2021. Kadokawa published the seventh compiled book volume of the manga on July 9.
Lastly, here’s an overview of the series via MyAnimeList:
I met my childhood friend again, and she had become a beautiful and innocent girl.
“It’s been a while, Hayato.”
“Haruki, is it?”
In the past, I used to play in the mud with my childhood friend in the countryside, and when I saw him again, there was no trace of the bratty young man I thought he was back then. Only in front of Hayato, she threw away the coat she was wearing and reacted in the same crass way she did back then. The distance between you and me has not changed.