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Hell Mode TV Anime's 1st Promo Video Unveils More Cast, Staff, Theme Songs

The official website for the television anime of writer Hamuo and illustrator Mo's Hell Mode - The Hardcore Gamer Dominates in Another World with Garbage Balancing (Hell Mode - Yarikomi Suki no Gamer wa Hai Settei no Isekai de Musō Suru) light novel series unveiled a new promotional video and visual for the anime on Friday. The video announces more cast members, the main staff, and information on the theme songs.

The new cast members include (Note: Character name romanizations not official):

Hideo Ishikawa as Rodan

Sayaka Ōhara as Theresia

Makoto Koichi as Matthew

Masato Tamagawa (Saint Seiya: Saintia Shō, The Genius Prince's Guide to Raising a Nation Out of Debt, The Great Cleric) is directing the anime at Yokohama Animation Lab. Daishiro Tanimura (Magical Destroyers) is in charge of the series scripts. Kei Tsushima (The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These) is designing the characters. Misaki Tsuchida, Moyu Kanazaki, Junko Nakajima, Kanada Sakuma, Reiko Abe, Kaho Sawada, BeauDamian, and Tsugumi Tanaka are all omposing the music.

The band Atarayo performs the opening theme song "Haku" (as heard in the video above), and singer Kaya performs the ending theme song "Sanctuary."

The anime stars:

The anime will premiere on Tokyo MX, MBS, and BS NTV in January 2026.

J-Novel Club releasesboth the light novels and Enji Tetta's manga adaptation in English, and it describes the story:

"'Level up even while offline'?! That's not a game on 'easy mode'—that's just an AFK game!" The online game Yamada Kenichi had been playing religiously is shutting down its servers, leaving him with a void in his heart. He looks for a new game to fill it, but everything he finds is way too easy. The kind of game he likes—the kind punishing enough to make players want to spend thousands of hours on it—just isn't around anymore.

"What's this? 'You are invited to a game that will never end.'"

Kenichi stumbles upon an untitled game, one promising incomparable challenge with unprecedented potential. Without hesitation, he selects the "Hell Mode" difficulty. Lo and behold, he finds himself reincarnated in another world as a serf!Now called Allen, he sets out to unlock the secrets his mystery-laden Summoner class; without the convenience of walkthroughs, game guides, or online forums, he must grope his way to the top of his new world!

Hamuo launched the story on the Shōsetsuka ni Narō website in November 2019, and the story is ongoing. Earth Star Entertainment began publishing the series in print in July 2020.

Tetta launched the manga on  Comic Earth Star in October 2020 and the manga is ongoing.

Sources: Hell Mode anime's website, Comic Natalie