Happy Kanako's Killer Life Gets TV Anime In April 2027
The property arrives at the anime adaptation already proven in another medium: a live-action series ran on DMM TV, giving the production a concrete performance record that most first-time anime adaptations do not have.
Key Facts
- TOHO animation announced on October 17, 2026 that Happy Kanako's Killer Life will get a TV anime in April 2027.
- Shinji Takamatsu directs the Happy Kanako's Killer Life anime at Drive and oversees series scripts.
- Hana Tamegai voices Kanako Nishino, Ryota Suzuki voices Sakurai, and Junichi Suwabe voices the president in the anime.
- The Happy Kanako's Killer Life manga has nine volumes released in Japan as of May 2026 under the Seikaisha Comics label.
- A Happy Kanako's Killer Life live-action series debuted on DMM TV in February 2025, and its second season streamed in September 2026.
Reporting from 2 sources: Anime News Network, Anime Corner.
TOHO animation announced on Saturday that Toshiya Wakabayashi's Happy Kanako's Killer Life manga is getting a television anime adaptation in April 2027. Shinji Takamatsu, whose credits include Gintama and Kochikame, is directing at the studio Drive and overseeing the series scripts. Yoshiyuki Okubo is the character designer and chief animation director. Hana Tamegai voices protagonist Kanako Nishino, Ryota Suzuki plays her senior coworker Sakurai, and Junichi Suwabe plays the company president. The announcement was teased in advance with a picture of otters and the words "Otter Agent." The full-color comedy manga follows Nishino Kanako, an office worker who quits an abusive workplace, applies for a job at an agency that employs contract killers, and finds she has a natural talent for the work. It runs under the Seikaisha Comics label and is published in English by Seven Seas Entertainment.
The teaser rolled out in two stages. TOHO animation said on October 17 at midnight JST that it would reveal a new TV anime, and the mysterious image that preceded the reveal featured otters. The production had already been running in another medium: a live-action adaptation premiered on DMM TV in February 2025 with Non as Kanako and Taisuke Fujigaya as Sakurai, and a second season followed on the same service.
The source manga is a four-panel web comic. Wakabayashi launched it on Twitter and his pixivFANBOX account, and Seikaisha later serialized it on the Twi4 service. Seikaisha published the ninth compiled volume on May 27, and Seven Seas Entertainment released the eighth volume in English on July 28. Wakabayashi is also known for Tsuredure Children, which ran as a web manga from October 2012, moved to Weekly Shonen Magazine in 2015, and ended in July 2018. Kodansha USA Publishing released it digitally in English, and Crunchyroll streamed its 2017 anime with English subtitles while Funimation streamed a dub.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 2 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.