Staff for the Ikoku Nikki (Diary of a Stranger Land/ 違国日記) TV anime have revealed a new promotional video and the anime’s first key visual. It’s also been confirmed that the anime will premiere in January 2026 on the ABC TV, Tokyo MX and BS Asahi channels.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1LtPWp8BbM]
Oshiro Miyuki is directing the anime at Shuka Studio, and the anime will star Sawashiro Miyuki as Makio Kodai and Mori Fuko as Asa Takumi.
The anime is based on Yamashita Tomoko’s Ikoku Nikki manga. Yamashita (Sankaku Mado no Sotogawa wa Yoru, Hibari no Asa, Butter!!!) serialised the manga from June 2017 to June 2023 in Shodensha’s Feel Young magazine. The manga’s first tankoubon volume was released in November 2017, and its 11th and final volume in August 2023.
The manga focuses on Makio Kodai, a novelist, who cannot bear to see her 15-year-old niece, Asa, being passed around by relatives after her sister’s funeral. She decides to take her in on the spur of the moment; however, her natural shyness kicks in.
Makio had forgotten how unsuitable she was to live with someone. Asa, on the other hand, is not shy and agrees to live with Makio, an adult who is not like an adult, in an unusual but honest way. This is the story of two polar opposite worlds awkwardly trying to interact.
In 2020, Ikoku Nikki was nominated for the 13th Manga Taisho Awards; in 2024, it was nominated for the 28th Annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize. The manga was ranked fifth on the women’s list of the 2024 edition of the Kono Manga ga Sugoi! and first on Kadokawa’s Da Vinci magazine’s 23rd annual Book of the Year list for manga in December 2023.
