Skull Dragon’s Precious Daughter is coming to television, and Kadokawa has attached its lead cast. The first main promotional video, a main visual and a 2027 premiere were all revealed together, along with the two actors at the center of the story.
Kana Hanazawa voices Eve, the girl abandoned in the Forest of Scraps. Kazuhiko Inoue plays Nemu, the skull dragon who raises her. Hanazawa and Inoue are both long-established names in anime, and pairing them as an orphaned child and her dying guardian sets the tone for what looks like an emotional series.
The story
The Forest of Scraps is a dumping ground for discarded things, and an old dragon goes there to spend his final days. Eve appears before him as an abandoned child, only five years old, and has somehow survived the dangers around her. The dragon takes pity and raises her as his own daughter, even as his own time runs out.
After five years together, he dies and leaves Eve on her own. What he did not anticipate is that she can do far more than he realized, and that a reunion might come sooner than expected. Hoping to help her control her magic before his resurrected body gives out, he sets off with his reckless human daughter and whatever trouble follows.
Staff and studio
Kuniyasu Nishina directs at Dōga Kōbō. Nishina has episode-directing credits on Oshi no Ko, Blue Period and 86. Yuka Yamada, whose work includes Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S, Nina the Starry Bride and Tokyo Mew Mew New, is handling series scripts. Tomoya Atsumi is designing the characters after key animation on Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club and The Quintessential Quintuplets.
Background art is split between Kusanagi’s Daiki Kuribayashi, who worked on 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life and the Dragon Ball Super: Broly film, and Yūki Hatakeyama, whose credits include Black Butler: Emerald Witch Arc and One Piece Film Gold.
The manga
Ichi Yukishiro launched the manga, known in Japan as Hone Dragon no Manamusume, on Mag Garden’s Mag Comi website in 2020. The sixth collected volume shipped in August 2025, and Seven Seas will publish that volume in English on December 1. The manga went on hiatus in July and is set to return in spring next year, which means the anime will have to wait on its source for anything past the current point.
Why it matters
Casting two strong leads this early gives the project something concrete to promote beyond a title. The premise leans on a father-daughter relationship between a creature at the end of his life and a child at the start of hers, and that only works if the performances carry it. Hanazawa and Inoue can carry it.
The Ghibli-adjacent look of the material is also worth noting. A dying dragon raising a human child is familiar ground, and this one arrives with a studio better known for background and key animation support than for leading its own productions. How Dōga Kōbō handles a full series will be part of the story.
For more 2027 titles already dated, see our coverage of Go with the Clouds, North by Northwest and The Record of a Fallen Vampire.
Source: Anime News Network
Featured image: Main visual for the Skull Dragon’s Precious Daughter anime, via the anime’s official website / Anime News Network.
