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Witch on the Holy Night Anime Film Reveals 1st Key Visual

ufotable revealed the first key visual on Saturday for the anime film of Type-Moon's visual novel PC game Mahōtsukai no Yoru (Witch on the Holy Night).

The film is slated to open this year.

The story of the original Witch on the Holy Night visual novel is set in the late 1980s, and centers on protagonist Aoko Aozaki, one of two sister heirs to a long family line of modern mages. Although she is disinterested in magic, she is suddenly declared as the heir of their family's magical art, and reluctantly begins her apprenticeship under Alice Kuonji, a young witch who lives in a lonely manor atop a hill. Aoko balances her duties of learning the arcane, while also serving as her school's student council president. She also makes the acquaintance of Sōjūrō Shizuki, a new transfer student who is unfamiliar with much of the modern world, and contends with the plots of her older sister Tōko Aozaki, who feels that her birthright has been denied.

Type-Moon most recently released the game on Steam in December 2023.

Aniplex released the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch version of the game in the West in December 2022, on the same day as the game's Japanese release date. The PS4 and Switch versions have sold more than 150,000 copies worldwide.

Mahōtsukai no Yoru was one of the first collaborations between Kinoko Nasu and artist Takashi Takeuchi in the mid-90s, preceding their founding of Type-Moon. Initially a novel, Nasu and Takeuchi only showed the draft to friends and did not officially release it. Type-Moon eventually developed it into a visual novel with graphics by Hirokazu Koyama that shipped in April 2012, with two sequels planned.

The story is noted for being one of the few tangible connections in the loosely connected "Nasuverse," the English-speaking fan term for the shared universe and cosmology in Type-Moon's works, including Tsukihime, Fate/stay night, and The Garden of Sinners. An older Aoko Aozaki is an early mentor to Tsukihime protagonist Shiki Tohno, while an older Tōko Aozaki is an employer to Garden of Sinners protagonist Shiki Ryōgi. Tsukihime -A piece of blue glass moon-, the remake of Type-Moon's Tsukihime dōjin visual novel game, launched in Japan for PlayStation 4 and Switch in August 2021. The game launched on PS4 and Switch in English in June 2024.

Sources: Aniplex's YouTube channel, Witch on the Holy Night anime's website and X/Twitter account