The anime Draw This, Then Die! reveals its second trailer and cast

The anime industry has a peculiar habit of championing stories about its own creation—meta-narratives that pull back the curtain on the manga world’s inner workings. The latest entry, Draw This, Then Die! (Kore Kaite Shine), has just dropped its second promotional trailer.

The project heads to Japanese television this July, securing a spot in NTV’s Friday Anime Night block. Prime real estate for a series about a high school girl obsessed with manga.

The Trailer

Titled Lost World, the trailer shows protagonists navigating school life on Izu Oshima—a remote island that functions almost as a character itself. The distance between artistic ambition and practical reality isn’t just metaphorical. Sometimes it’s geographic.

Production Team

• Studio: Shinei Animation
• Director: Hiroaki Akagi
• Script: Hiroko Fukuda, with Aki Itami and Kanichi Kato

Voice Cast

Four new voice actresses join established talent:

• Akira Sekine — Ai Yasumi
• Saori Hayami — Rei Teshima
• Noriko Hidaka — Pokota, an imaginary friend who appears during creative blocks
• Atsumi Tanezaki — Nana Teramura, manager of the local manga rental shop
• Yukana — Hana Kongoji, an editor who knows the industry’s harsher realities
• Kikuko Inoue — Hebichika-sensei, a successful mangaka with an intense personality

Source Material

Minoru Toyoda’s original manga launched in Shogakukan’s Monthly Shonen Sunday in November 2021. Winner of the 70th Shogakukan Manga Awards in January 2025, with eight volumes in circulation.

What Makes It Different

The protagonist Ai Yasumi isn’t a prodigy discovering her genius through convenient montages is a first-year student whose obsession drives her toward a meeting with her favourite reclusive artist. The focus remains on process—the tedious, frustrating, occasionally triumphant process of learning to translate feeling into lines on a page.

What separates this from other making of narratives is its apparent willingness to show the mess.

The Bet on Authenticity

The production team’s choice to emphasise this aspect suggests confidence that audiences want more than wish fulfilment fantasy. They’re betting on authenticity.

How might the anime medium itself enhance or distort the manga’s exploration of artistic creation? Can animation about drawing avoid becoming too self-referential? What does the success of industry-focused stories tell us about audience appetites for behind-the-curtain glimpses versus pure escapism?