Studio SHAFT’s adaptation of Tsumuji Yoshimura’s Just Like Mona Lisa now has a main visual, a full trailer, an ending song and seven more cast members. The official website released all of it on Wednesday, along with confirmation that the anime premieres in 2027. No month or season has been named yet.
The ending theme is “Mayoi wa Hikari” (The Illusion Is Light) by singer-songwriter imase, and the trailer plays it over the new footage.
Seven names joined the cast in one announcement: Yoshino Aoyama, Nobuhiko Okamoto, Daisuke Sakuma of Snow Man, Chiharu, Kakeru Hatano, Haruna Mikawa and Shion Wakayama. The site did not say which characters any of them voice, which is unusual for a reveal this size. Chika Anzai plays the lead, Hinase Arima.
The site also posted individual character visuals for Hinase and the classmates around them: Shiori Takayama, Ritsu Kaga, Aoi Shirogane, Chiaki Kurokawa, Tamaki Beppu, Rui Kinosaki and Mahiro Goshiki. All of them are third-year high school students. Shiori is the serious one who draws, and he has feelings for his childhood friend Hinase. Ritsu is the cheerful tennis club member, and she has feelings for Hinase too. Aoi is self-conscious about her height. Chiaki has known her since kindergarten and exaggerates his own height to compensate. Tamaki plays big sister to the group. Rui is the considerate one who is good with crafts. Mahiro is gentle, easygoing and spends his time making sweets.
None of that is decoration. The premise of the manga is that everyone is born genderless and chooses a sex around the age of twelve. Hinase is eighteen and still has not chosen, and the two people closest to them have already decided and already confessed. The classmates are the pressure chamber the story runs inside.
Who is making Just Like Mona Lisa
Kana Shundo directs at SHAFT, with CyberAgent handling production. Shundo’s previous directing credit is Apocalypse Hotel.
The rest of the staff announced on Wednesday:
Katsuhiko Takayama is series script supervisor. Kōji Matsumura is assistant director. Kazuya Shiotsuki and Akihisa Takano are chief animation directors, with Yoshiaki Itō as main animator. Nobuhiro Sugiyama designs the characters and is one of the chief animation directors. Junichi Taniguchi handled art board, Morihito Ōhara did art setting, and Yukako Ogawa of KLAS is art director. Yasuko Watanabe is color key artist. Kentaro Sasaki of BUEMON and Hisato Shima are CG directors. Rei Egami is director of photography, Rie Matsubara edits, and Kōhei Yoshida is sound director.
Yūki Hayashi, whose recent work includes My Hero Academia and Medalist, composes the music. Sugiyama’s credits include Arakawa Under the Bridge and March comes in like a lion.
The manga behind it
Yoshimura launched Just Like Mona Lisa on Square Enix’s Gangan Online site in May 2018 and finished it in December 2022 at ten collected volumes. The series has passed one million copies in circulation.
English readers can find it digitally through Manga UP! Global and in print from Square Enix Manga & Books, which released the tenth volume on May 19. BookWalker also carries it digitally.
CyberAgent first teased the adaptation under the codename “Project M” before the title was confirmed, and the cast and main staff came out in stages through 2026.
Why the seven unnamed roles matter
Announcements like this usually pair each new name with a character. Withholding all seven suggests the reveal is being saved for a later trailer, or that the show is holding back how the supporting cast maps onto the group. Either way, there is more to come before the 2027 broadcast.
A 2027 window with no month is also worth reading carefully. It could be winter, spring, summer or fall, and nothing in Wednesday’s material narrows it down. Anyone claiming a specific cours right now is guessing.
What is clear is the shape of the production. SHAFT is not a studio that takes on many romance dramas, and the ones it does take tend to look distinctive. Pairing that with a story built on a single strange premise, where the whole world has a rule about gender and one person refuses to follow it, is a real match of material and studio. SHAFT’s other big 2026-2027 theatrical project, the Madoka Magica film, comes from a very different register.
Just Like Mona Lisa was never a huge seller compared to the action titles that dominate adaptation announcements, but a million copies and a finished story make it a clean candidate: ten volumes, a defined ending, no risk of catching up to the source.
The trailer and main visual are on the anime’s official site. For another romance adaptation heading into 2027, we covered The Moon on a Rainy Night’s first trailer and cast reveal.
Source: Anime News Network
Featured image: Main visual for the Just Like Mona Lisa anime, via Anime Corner.
