Here we go. SHAFT has actually locked in a release date for Walpurgisnacht: Rising: in Japanese cinemas. Maybe use permanent ink this time. Or don’t.
Let’s talk about that timeline. This film has bounced around more than a bad check. Winter 2024 became winter 2025. Then February 2026. Then — surprise — another delay last month for those vague production circumstances. The first teaser dropped in 2015. We’ve been waiting over a decade.
What We Actually Know
The creative team stuck around. That’s the good news.
- Yukihiro Miyamoto directs
- Akiyuki Shinbo handles chief direction
- Gen Urobuchi wrote the script
Same pair who defined the original look. Urobuchi’s back too, so expect his usual warmth and sunshine. (That’s a joke. Prepare to get hurt.)
The full Magica Quartet returns:
- Ume Aoki on designs
- Junichiro Taniguchi adapting them for animation
- Yuki Kajiura doing the score
- Gekidan Inu Curry on those surreal witch worlds
SHAFT remains the studio. The delays sting, but at least they’re not rushing it.
公開時期を再調整させていただいておりました『劇場版 魔法少女まどか☆マギカ〈ワルプルギスの廻天〉』につきまして、公開日が2026年8月28日に決定いたしました。
公開を心待ちにしてくださっている皆さまには、改めて深く御礼申し上げます。
公開まで、今しばらくお待ちください。#まどかマギカ pic.twitter.com/6WL3Plhyan— 魔法少女まどか☆マギカ (@madoka_magica) February 27, 2026
Context for the Uninitiated
Puella Magi Madoka Magica hit screens in 2011. It looked like a standard magical girl show. It wasn’t. Instead, it went way darker and actually smart about the genre.
The 2013 sequel Rebellion ended on a cliffhanger that split the fanbase clean in half. Walpurgisnacht: Rising exists to fix that. Finally.
The compilation films — Beginnings and Eternal — aired on TV back in October 2025. Probably to help everyone remember the specifics of magical girl existential horror.
So here’s the real question: What would need to happen between now and August for you to actually trust this date? And if SHAFT delays it again tomorrow — will you still show up when it finally drops?
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