Why ‘Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia’ Could Be 2026’s Most Fascinating Historical Anime
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- "Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia" premieres July 4 on Japan's TV Asahi network, adapted from Tomato Soup's manga "A Witch's Life in Mongol" and set in early 13th-century Persia, where slave girl Sitara's life transforms after the Mongol invasion
- Science Saru hired cultural advisors for both Persia and the Mongol Empire, cast two Mongolian sumo wrestlers based in Japan, and had Japanese voice actors deliver lines in Mongol—a linguistic challenge director Abel Góngora said was meant to put viewers in Sitara's perspective
- Chief director Naoko Yamada ("The Colors Within") acknowledged the production broke historical accuracy at times for representation, including weighing whether to show a smoking character because "if you go to a bazaar in modern-day Iran you would have a lot of people smoking shisha"—ultimately cutting that figure
- Góngora, the Spanish-born director of episode one ("Scott Pilgrim Takes Off!"), layered Disney Renaissance-era character animation onto the manga's Tezuka-influenced designs, citing the studio's high proportion of foreign staff as enabling a hybrid visual style
- The series competed in the TV competition at this year's Annecy International Animation Film Festival, and Yamada framed the story's thematic core: Sitara's growing respect for the Mongols after initially plotting vengeance against them, with characters repeatedly stating that seeking knowledge is a sacred duty for Muslims
- A North American streaming date has yet to be announced, despite the anime arriving during a broader surge of prestige historical anime including Netflix's "Orb: On the Movements of the Earth" and the upcoming "Historie" about Alexander the Great's secretary Eumenes
Why it matters: By openly choosing anachronism over period fidelity—using a modern-day Iranian bazaar's smoking culture as a yardstick for what audiences associate with Persia—the Science Saru team is making a deliberate argument that representation of contemporary cultures can outweigh strict historical accuracy. The July 4 Japan-only premiere leaves the international audience (and any streaming deal) still in limbo as prestige historical anime crowds the 2025-2026 slate.
