Promise Me the Spotlight casts its idol drama and names a Yuika opening, with Seiji Kishi directing at TEAM TillDawn

Mizuki Natsuno is the member nobody lines up for. In Melty Strawberry, an idol group famous across Japan, she sits last in popularity, and at handshake events a single fan, Koichi, waits in her line. When he swears he will lift her all the way to the center position, she answers with a promise of her own: pull that off, and she will marry him.

That bargain drives Jun Wakatsuki's manga Promise Me the Spotlight (Watashi wo Center ni Suru to Chikaimasu ka?), and on November 4 it gained voices. Bandai Namco Filmworks revealed the TV anime's key visual, a teaser PV, the main cast and the opening theme, four months after the adaptation was first announced in July.

The cast

Haruna Mikawa plays Mizuki and Taihi Kimura plays Koichi. Mai Kanno joins as Awayuki Shiroi and Yukari Anzai as Hatsune Fukuba. Alongside the reveal, the official site posted comments from the cast, character profiles, and an in-world social feed called Berrytter, where the characters post updates of their own.

Behind the camera

Seiji Kishi, whose credits include Assassination Classroom and Yuki Yuna Is a Hero, directs at TEAM TillDawn. Yuko Kakihara is in charge of series composition, and Kazuaki Morita designs the characters.

The opening comes from singer Yuika, whose song "Nanimono demo nakatta Watashi dakara" (rendered by Anime.com as "Because I Was No One") plays in the new teaser. No ending theme has been named.

From an X post to TV Tokyo

Wakatsuki first shared the opening chapter on X in 2023, and the series went on to run in Kodansha's Magazine Pocket app. Six volumes are on sale in Japan, according to the official site, and Anime.com puts circulation above 200,000 copies. In English, Kodansha releases it through its K Manga service.

The anime will air on six stations of the TV Tokyo network. A premiere date has not been set.