Nao is a screen actor with a lead role in the Netflix series Downtime, which streams worldwide on September 17, and a role alongside Riho Yoshioka in the film Shadow Work, which opens September 25. Both roles were announced in early September 2026.
Nao's coverage on Yomimono is concentrated in two September 2026 projects. In the Netflix drama Downtime, Nao is named among the cast of a series about the cosmetic surgery industry, starring Mayu Matsuoka and Riisa Naka and streaming worldwide on September 17. Nao appears alongside Shotaro Mamiya, Minami Tanaka, Reiji Nakagawa, Koki, Hana Amano, Yumi Adachi, Naoko Ken, and Shunsuke Kazama in a production whose surgery scenes were supervised by Takasu Clinic.
In the film Shadow Work, Nao is one of two women tied to a shelter for abuse survivors, playing opposite Riho Yoshioka. Director Ryuhei Yoshino adapted Hiromi Sano's novel, and the film opens September 25. Yoshitaka Hara of timelesz plays Matsubara Koji, a suspect in the murder case at the center of the story.
Both projects place Nao in serious contemporary drama rather than lighter material, and both were announced within days of each other in early September 2026. The two productions share no credited staff or production company in the available stories, and there is no reporting on Nao's role beyond the cast listing and the framing of the character as a woman tied to the shelter. Nothing in the stories indicates what Nao does after these two releases.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the cited Yomimono stories below, each itself sourced, then editorially reviewed. Every fact links the story it came from.
Structured graph also available as JSON at /public/entities/nao.
CC BY 4.0.
Half a year after an external investigation found that only about 0-1% of Chikai no Fuchi worked after four years of development, YouTuber Advanced Knight Narunii has released a video on the project's future. Development continues, with Naoki Nagai, credited on Kamaitachi no Yoru x3 and Bravely Default II, supervising the scenario. Narunii also recounted the mistakes he says he made running the project.
The three-member rock band Age Factory was appointed tourism ambassador for its hometown of Nara. Eisuke Shimizu, Naoto Nishiguchi, and Hiroto Masuko received letters of appointment from Nara Mayor Gen Nakagawa at a ceremony at Nara City Hall on October 22. The band, formed in Nara in 2010, holds its first solo Nippon Budokan show on November 8, and advance tickets are sold out.
Made in Abyss: Mezameru Shinpi opened in Japan on Friday, and the staff marked the day with a new visual and five more cast members: Nana Mizuki as Srajo, Akeno Watanabe as Nishagora, Shunsuke Takeuchi as Yataramar, Nao Tōyama as Sherumi and Yume Miyamoto as Menae. Production on the second film in the series was also confirmed.
Cinema Today reports 29 Japanese voice cast members for Avengers: Doomsday, opening in Japan and the US on December 18. Kenta Miyake voices Thor, Yuichi Nakamura voices Steve Rogers, Junpei Mizobata voices Sam Wilson's Captain America and Kanako Momota voices Shuri. Takehito Koyasu and Maaya Sakamoto join from Fantastic Four: First Steps, and Mugihito, Atsushi Goto and Naoko Koda return from the X-MEN series.
The Seven Knights of the Marronnier Kingdom anime announced four more cast members on Thursday, all voicing the royal family of the Country of Long Nights. Naomi Shindo plays Queen Hyrokkin, Atsushi Ono plays her prince consort Rollo, Ai Kayano plays heir presumptive Birgitta, and Yurie Funato plays Birgitta's daughter Kastehelmi. The arc starts in episode 4. The anime premiered on NHK Educational on October 3.
Nao Emoto launched a manga adaptation of Michiko Aoyama's novel Mokuyobi ni wa Cocoa o on Tuesday, published on Takarajimasha's Takarajima Sugoi! Web and the Liniere magazine website. The novel centers on a cafe where a woman arrives every Thursday, takes the same seat, orders cocoa and writes a letter, until one day her mood seems different. Aoyama released the original novel in August 2017 and a related novel, Itsumo no Mokuyobi, in August 2022.
Anime News Network interviewed producer Tatsuya Matsubara and scenario writer Naotaka Hayashi about Steins;Gate Re:Boot. Matsubara says the remake exists to modernize the original game ahead of new text adventure projects, with all assets rebuilt from scratch. The ending draws on the 2010 drama CD Hyde of the Dark Dimension, which Hayashi wrote after players asked for a Moeka ending, and returns the series to a traditional text-adventure format.
Isamu Kamikokuryo, a concept artist and art director on several Final Fantasy titles, will hold an original art exhibition at Boat Race Naruto UZU HALL in Tokushima Prefecture starting November 3. About 40 original artworks from Final Fantasy X, XII, XIII and XV and other titles are scheduled. The run splits into a first term from November 3 to 11 and a second term from March 5 to 10.
Square Enix's official Final Fantasy XIV account announced on October 19 that VTuber Kuzuha will appear at FF14 Fan Festival 2026, set for October 31 and November 1 at Makuhari Messe. Kuzuha is one of the guests on Naoki's Room, the Day 2 stage hosted by producer Naoki Yoshida and Toshio Murouchi. The posted guest list for Naoki's Room also includes k4sen, SHAKA, Karubi Akami, Clutch_Fi, Nekomugi Tororo, Obo, Uruka, Tonakaito, Sasatikk and Tatsuomi Hamada. The announcement said scheduling had been worked out, leaving the impression the booking was settled late. The event is billed as the largest FF14 Fan Festival yet, run with AEON Mall Makuhari New City and Toyosuna Park, and the venue program covers activities, food menus, a piano concert and a special live performance alongside the guest stages.
NHK will air a three-part NHK Special series, Hyper-AI Society, asking what AI brings to humanity. Episode 1, on the intelligence explosion and work, airs November 29; Episode 2, on creativity, December 6; Episode 3, on humanity, January 24, 2027. All run from 9:00 to 9:49 p.m., with simultaneous and catch-up streaming on NHK ONE. Comedian and Akutagawa Prize-winning author Naoki Matayoshi is the MC.
The television anime of Nao Iwamoto's The Seven Knights of the Marronnier Kingdom manga has cast Shoya Ishige as Johann, a noble house's son from Marronnier's western territory and vice captain of the Marronnier knights. Johann heads to the Country of Long Nights with Insomniac on a diplomatic mission and appears in the third episode on Saturday. The anime premiered on NHK Educational on October 3, with Amazon Prime Video streaming.
Shueisha is listing two new novel adaptations for December 4. Nanao writes The Promised Neverland: A 10th Year Gift, a 10th anniversary novel following Emma and the other children after the manga's final chapter, with stories about Cislo and the Lambda group and about Phil and the younger children. The same author writes Blue Box Epilogue, set before and after that manga's ending, including Taiki and Chinatsu's drive and Hina in university rhythmic gymnastics.
NHK announced on Friday, October 9, the hosts of the 77th Kohaku Uta Gassen: Mana Ashida, Masato Sakai, Kazunari Ninomiya, and announcer Nahoko Suzuki. The 2026 theme is "Koe te ikou, uta to tomo ni." Sakai and Ninomiya play sworn brothers in the TBS drama VIVANT, whose sequel airs from July for two consecutive cours. The show airs live December 31, 7:20 p.m. to 11:45 p.m.
Nao Oshiba said on X on Tuesday that the manga I Don't Want to Be Killed by You, My Crown Prince! is entering its final arc and climax. The series adapts Ema Okadachi's original story, which ran on Shosetsuka ni Naro in 2021. Oshiba launched the manga in Kodansha's Palcy app in December 2021. Kodansha ships the 10th compiled volume on October 29.
UraLogic Game Company, the VTuber agency run by Lighthouse Studio, published a report on its booth at Tokyo Game Show 2026, held at Makuhari Messe from September 17 to September 20. The booth recreated the agency's work PCs, showed life-size panels of five talents, and ran talent livestreams. About 9,000 flyers went out and all 500 limited-edition shoppers were claimed.
Cymbi Inc. appointed Naoki Yoshida, Director, President and COO of Tokyo Executive Search Co., Ltd., as an external advisor effective October 1, 2026. The company says the appointment brings Yoshida's knowledge and industry networks in the human resources domain into its recruiting consulting, RPO, recruiting branding, and HR and organizational development work. Yoshida wrote that he accepted because Cymbi treats recruiting as management strategy.
Hakusensha lists the sixth volume of Naoki Shigeno's Sanada Damashii as the final volume, shipping November 27. The four-panel comic depicts the Sanada clan during the Sengoku period. Shigeno launched it on Young Animal Densi in 2015, where it ran until 2017, before it moved to Manga Park. Hakusensha shipped the fifth volume in April 2025.
Naoki Bando, a voice actor whose career ran more than four decades, died on Monday, September 28. He was 69. His agency Production Ace announced the death on Friday and said he had been undergoing medical treatment. Bando voiced Robonyan in Yo-kai Watch and Torenov Y. Minovsky in Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, among roles spanning anime, games, and Japanese dubs of foreign films and television.
Viz Media announced on Thursday that it is publishing Nao Iwamoto's The Seven Knights of the Marronnier Kingdom manga in English. The company uploaded the first two chapters digitally the same day. The fantasy romance centers on seven brothers who are knights of the Marronnier Kingdom. The kingdom sits at the center of eight kingdoms, and each brother is dispatched to a different one as an ambassador on a quest to find his fated partner. The manga launched in Shogakukan's Flowers magazine in 2016, and Shogakukan shipped the 11th compiled volume on June 10. It topped the list of manga for female readers in the 2018 edition of Takarajimasha's Kono Manga ga Sugoi! guidebook. A television anime adaptation debuted on October 3 on the NHK Educational channel at 6:25 p.m. JST, and Amazon Prime Video added the series on the same day with English subtitles and an English dub.
The staff for the Mission: Yozakura Family anime released a new promotional video on Friday naming five cast members: Hochu Otsuka as Alexandryu, Miku Ito as Shura, Yumiri Hanamori as Cyber Demon Lord Giga, Sumire Uesaka as Dr. Mozu, and Naomi Shindoh as Hulang. The video also introduced the character Kosmos Akizakura without naming a voice actor. Part 2 premieres October 11 on MBS, TBS, and 26 other channels.
Junko Yagami sings the ending theme for "Yamato yo Towa ni REBEL3199 Chapter 7: Rainbow-Colored Reincarnation," the final chapter of the Space Battleship Yamato 2199 series. The song, "Haruka e, Towa e," has lyrics by Yohei Matsui, music by Hiroshi Miyagawa and Akira Miyagawa, and arrangement by Akira Miyagawa. Yagami last performed a Yamato theme in 1983 with "Love Supreme ~Shijou no Ai~" for Space Battleship Yamato: Final Chapter. The music video is out on the official YouTube channel. Seven character visuals on rainbow-colored backgrounds also released, covering figures including Susumu Kodai, Yuki Mori, and Sasha. The chapter begins screenings on Friday, October 30, 2026. General director and scriptwriter Harutoshi Fukui leads the production, with Naomichi Yamato directing and Satelight on animation. The cast includes Daisuke Ono, Houko Kuwashima, Megumi Han, and Koichi Yamadera.
Netflix's Downtime, starring Mayu Matsuoka and Riisa Naka, depicts the cosmetic surgery industry's hopes and conflicts. Ken Naoko plays Yuriko Sakashita, a 75-year-old widow seeking full-body plastic surgery. Director Yuki Saito said filming was grueling: Ken sometimes arrived around 3 a.m. for three hours of special makeup before shooting began. Ken stayed playful on set, keeping the mood light with jokes. Sakashita also has terminal cancer, so Saito told Ken to lower her voice and speak hoarsely. Special makeup was trial-and-errored to show the surgery's before-and-after. Before the operation, she looks so wrinkled that a character says, "You're all skin and bones." Cast members including Hana Amano and Yumi Adachi underwent transformations without dubbing. Saito said a year of preparation made the special makeup possible, something he called difficult for terrestrial TV dramas.
Ahead of the October 9, 2026 release of Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen, producer Naoto Oyama and director Kento Kinoshita discussed the expansion in a joint interview at Tokyo Game Show 2026. Oyama said the Switch 2 version runs at a base 30 frames in handheld and TV modes and uses FSR frame generation, Capcom's first implementation of it, which players can turn on or off in the retail version. Kinoshita described Corrupted Monsters and end-game content separate from Hard Mode.
Dynamo Amusement will run two VR attractions at City Circuit Tokyo Bay in Odaiba from September 22 to October 4, 2026. "Hobo Hobo Jet Coaster V (FUJIYAMA)" puts riders through Fuji-Q Highland's FUJIYAMA coaster with MX4D motion seats, about four minutes for one to four players. "Cosmo Balloon" is a free-roam balloon ride across world scenery, about eight minutes for one to eight players. Sessions cost 1,000 yen per person.
Square Enix director Naoki Hamaguchi told VGC that Final Fantasy VII Revelation will be around 200GB. The third and final part of the Final Fantasy VII Remake series is set for April 8, 2027. Vincent Valentine and Cid Highwind join as playable characters. The PS5 packaged version ships on a single disc, but playing it requires an internet connection and an additional data download.
Dynamo Amusement will run the free-roam VR attraction "Ao Oni VR: Blueberry Mass Production Plan" at GeoPolis B1 in Tokyo Dome City for a limited time starting Friday, October 23, 2026. It is part of the Ao Oni x Tokyo Dome City Attractions event "Ao Oni Festival ~Blueberry Festival~," which also includes collaboration tickets, GeoPolis attraction tie-ins, mascot greetings, and mini games. Details arrive Monday, September 28.
The Aniplex One Focus livestream on Saturday announced the main cast and staff for the 2027 television anime of Coco Uzuki's manga Fall in Love, You False Angels. Nao Ojika voices Otogi Katsura and Taito Ban voices Toki Ninomae. A cast reveal promo video also debuted, marking the first time Toki's voice is heard. MAPPA handles animation production, with Yasutomo Okamoto as director, Mariko Oka on character design, Yohei Yamazaki as series script supervisor, and Takumi Hashimoto as art director. Kensuke Ushio is producing the music, composed by Yunosuke Senoo and Yuhki Kurihara. The manga runs in Kodansha's Dessert magazine, launched there in April 2023, and Kodansha USA Publishing releases it in English. It won the Kodansha Manga Award in 2025 and holds a cumulative print run above 2.35 million copies as of September 2026. The seventh compiled volume shipped in Japan on June 12.
Square Enix director Naoki Hamaguchi told 4Gamer that Final Fantasy VII Revelation, the third and final part of the Remake trilogy set for April 8, 2027, will keep every location that appeared in Rebirth rather than cut areas the story does not revisit. The team concluded it had to build them all properly, adding traversal by chocobo, parachute, and the Highwind so returning regions play differently.
Square Enix gave press outlets early hands-on time with Final Fantasy VII Revelation ahead of its April 8, 2027 release. The demo covered Chapter 4, where players pilot the airship Highwind and can parachute directly from the ship to any destination rather than landing at fixed points. Previewers explored Mideel, a tropical island area new to the remake series, and Wutai, Yuffie's homeland, which was not visitable in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. The parachute descent is a real-time sequence, and the Highwind's interior functions as a base with crew interactions. New playable characters Cid Highwind and Vincent Valentine join the combat roster. A new system called WEAR lets each character equip job roles including Warrior, Black Mage, Knight, and Summoner, changing their abilities and appearance. The demo contained nine separate routes; outlets played roughly one hour each. A third playable slice of Final Fantasy VII Revelation is set for the Square Enix booth at Tokyo Game Show 2026.
Renta!'s original BL vertical comic 'Seishun no Yarinaoshi wa Isekai de' will air on TOKYO MX from January 2027 as an Anicomi, Papyless's motion comic format that adds motion and audio to manga. Tomohito Takatsuka plays Fuwa Makoto and Ryuichi Kijima plays Thanatos. The adaptation adds generative AI to some cuts. A key visual and teaser PV were released with the announcement.
New stills from Shadow Work show Yoshitaka Hara of timelesz as Matsubara Koji, a suspect in the murder case at the center of the film. Shadow Work adapts Hiromi Sano's novel and stars Riho Yoshioka and Nao as women tied to a shelter for abuse survivors. Director Ryuhei Yoshino told Hara to blink as little as possible to make the character unsettling. The film opens September 25.
Naoki Azuma, the creator of Keishicho Zoshi and Dragon & Ape, launched GLITCH WITCH on Kodansha's YanMaga Web website this week. The manga is set in the world of Masamune Shirow's Ghost in the Shell, with Shirow credited for the original concept. New chapters update every other Wednesday. The launch follows the Science SARU television anime, which ended its 10-episode run on Tuesday.
Lighthouse Studio, the CARTA HOLDINGS group company behind the game media site Kamigame Koryaku, will bring its game-specialized VTuber agency UraLogi Game Company to Tokyo Game Show 2026 with a first-time booth at Hall 01-C12. The five talents, who stream entirely in 3D, will hold live real-time chat sessions on the public days and hand out booth-limited goods. TGS 2026 runs September 17-21 at Makuhari Messe, marking the event's 30th anniversary and first five-day run.
Naoko Yamada and director Abel Góngora traveled to Mongolia for location scouting ahead of Science SARU's Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia, touring museums of Mongolian history and consulting experts on Mongolian and Persian history who supervised the project. The pair also did a homestay in a traditional dwelling and tried horseback riding. Yamada said the manga's 13th-century Persia and Mongolia setting and its basis in a true story drew her to the project.
Dark Machine the Animation revealed three additional cast members and an October 13 debut on Fuji TV. Nao Tōyama, Nonoka Ōbuchi, and Rei Nakashima join as members of team Stellatus, an idol unit and rival to Kairi's Carbuncle team. The staff also showed mecha designs for three of Kairi's machines.
Naoki Hamaguchi, director of the Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy, told a PAX West 2026 panel that the project is an attempt to pass FF7 to the next generation rather than a simple remake. He said the goal is a work that keeps producing new fans 20 to 30 years from now. The panel also covered the graphics direction and new mysteries added to the story. The finale, Final Fantasy VII Revelation, launches April 8, 2027.
Frontier Works released a promotional video for the television anime based on Atamoto's Tanuki to Kitsune manga, revealing the first footage and the voice cast. Misaki Kuno plays Tanuki, Nao Tōyama plays Kitsune, Toshiyuki Morikawa plays Ōkami, Maria Naganawa plays Usagi and the narrator, and Takuma Nagatsuka plays Kuma and Usagi. The anime premieres October 4 on TV Tokyo's Animori program. The franchise has 1.35 million copies in circulation.
The October issue of Shogakukan's Ciao magazine announced that manga creator Nao Maita will launch a new manga in the magazine's February 2027 issue on December 28. The announcement did not reveal the manga's title or other details. The same issue published the final chapter of Maita's Shining! manga.
Netflix has released 10 scene photos from its upcoming series "Downtime," which stars Mayu Matsuoka and Riisa Naka in lead roles and depicts the light and shadow of the cosmetic surgery industry. The series is set to stream worldwide on September 17. The released photos show Matsuoka as plastic surgeon Fumi Numata and Naka as charismatic cosmetic surgeon Rin Toyama performing surgery, alongside appearances by Shotaro Mamiya, Minami Tanaka, Reiji Nakagawa, Kōki, Hana Amano, Yumi Adachi, Naoko Ken, and Shunsuke Kazama. The special makeup for patients is handled by a team led by Amazing JIRO, known for work on the Netflix series "I'll Fall into Hell." Custom-made prosthetics applied to each actor reproduce the process from immediately after surgery through the recovery period to the final result. The production is supervised by Takasu Clinic, with detailed fact-checking and guidance conducted for all cosmetic surgery depictions. Director Yuki Saito, known for "Unmet: A Neurosurgeon's Diary," teams with screenwriter Junya Ikegami, who worked on "The Blood of Wolves" and "The Queen of Villains." Producers include Harue Miyake of "Tokyo Swindlers" and Katsuhito Motegi, who directed "The Queen of Villains." The series also published a keyword list explaining industry terms such as "Chokubi" and "Shadow Doctor."
The official Fukushima Prefecture YouTube channel began streaming Sunao Katabuchi's new anime short, Fukufuku no Chizu, with English subtitles on Monday. The short is the second brand movie for the prefecture's variety magazine Fukushima Map. It follows a French philosopher who gets lost in Fukushima and discovers the region's culture through detours.
The BL manga Ao to Ao by Roji is being adapted into a live-action drama starring Naoya Kusakawa (ONE N' ONLY) and Hidekazu Chinen in double lead roles. It airs on BS Asahi and other channels from October 5, with early streaming on Lemino starting at 10:00 the same day. The story follows two high school friends who become adults with mutual unrequited love over eight years.
Science Saru released a 25-minute making-of video for Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia, the series based on Tomato Soup's manga A Witch's Life in Mongol. The video features director Naoko Yamada, director Abel Gongora, and character designer Kenichi Yoshida discussing how they translated the manga's artwork and pacing into animation.
Good Smile Company announced eight new cast members for its original anime Jyuо̄ Mujin Dandivine and revealed the October 7 premiere on Tokyo TV, BS11, Gunma TV, and Tochigi TV. The cast additions include Nao Tōyama, Misaki Kuno, and Katsuyuki Konishi. The story is set 20 years after the robot Dandivine defeated the Aposdoll.
NBC Universal revealed two new cast members for the television anime of Otsuji's My Stepmother and Stepsisters Aren't Wicked manga on Monday. Hiroki Nanami plays student council president Sadame Mikuriya, and Nao Toyama plays vice-president Hachi Ura. The characters appear in the anime's eighth episode on August 26.
The dragon girl raising roguelite DRAPLINE will leave early access and launch its full version on Steam on September 24, 2026. Publisher Vaka announced the release on August 26 alongside a soundtrack containing over 30 tracks composed by developer Kanao. The game, which entered early access in June 2025, carries a 96% positive rating across more than 1,700 Steam user reviews, an Overwhelmingly Positive status, and has sold over 50,000 copies. The full version adds a new mode called DRAGON'S DISCIPLINE, which is unlocked after playing the existing DAYS OF TORNADO mode to a certain point. The new mode leads to the game's true ending and includes 25 new endings, each with its own illustration, that branch based on how the player raised the dragon girl. DRAGON'S DISCIPLINE is described as being so substantial that DAYS OF TORNADO appears to be merely the first half of the overall game. The price rises from 1,200 yen to 1,680 yen at launch, with a 20% off sale running until August 31. The game will also appear at Tokyo Game Show 2026 at the Vaka booth.
Director Sunao Katabuchi, known for In This Corner of the World and Mai Mai Miracle, said the anime industry's expansion is not good for its human workers. He cited heavy freelance outsourcing, unknown conditions for freelancers, and a weak yen that makes overseas outsourcing difficult. He warned the industry cannot train new talent or preserve skills, and that AI may lower budgets.
The live-action film adaptation of Ryo Nakama's High School Family: Kokosei Kazoku manga has added seven cast members, including Yoshihiko Inohara as Tatsuya Aoyama and Naoto Takenaka as Tomohiro Kiryu. The film is directed by Toichiro Ruto from a script by Makoto Ueda and opens in Japan on January 8, delayed from fall 2026.
The trailer for Yamato yo Towa ni REBEL3199 Chapter 7: Rainbow Reincarnation, the final chapter of the series, has been released. The chapter opens in Japanese theaters on October 30, 2026. Blu-ray and DVD volume 7 details were also announced, with pre-orders starting July 31, 2026.
Magic: The Gathering opened order sales for the Hatsune Miku collaboration deck, Secret Lair Commander Deck: Hatsune Miku, on Rakuten Books on August 11. The 24-hour order window runs until August 12 at 12:29. The deck costs 25,300 yen including tax, with delivery planned within 2027.
The anime adaptation of Ezogingitune and DeeCHA's I Became a Legend After My 10 Year-Long Last Stand light novel series has cast Naoto Kobayashi as Garuvu, a sacred wolf beast. The character debuted in the anime's sixth episode on Monday. The series premiered in July on multiple Japanese platforms and Crunchyroll.