The Villainess Is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor Kingdom anime confirms January 2026 release and more with visual

On Monday, August 4, 2025, the official website and X (formerly Twitter) account of The Villainess Is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor Kingdom anime unveiled a key visual and announced that the television anime series will premiere in January 2026. The details regarding the anime's main cast and staff have also arrived.

The Villainess Is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor Kingdom anime serves as an adaptation of author Puni-chan and illustrator Akeno Naruse's eponymous light novel series. Enterbrain has been publishing the novels since October 2016, with 14 volumes released thus far. The series also has a manga adaptation by Hoshina, which has been serialized on Enterbrain's B's Log Comic service.

The Villainess Is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor Kingdom anime

According to the latest information from the official staff on Monday, August 4, 2025, The Villainess Is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor Kingdom anime is set to debut in January 2026. However, an exact release date has yet to be disclosed. That said, the official staff unveiled a key visual for the anime. The visual depicts the Aquasteed, the crown prince, and the count's daughter, Tiararose, facing each other.

Mai Fuchigami has joined The Villainess Is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor Kingdom anime as Tiararose, who happens to be the daughter of a count from the Lapis Lazuli kingdom. Yuichiro Umehara stars as the male lead, Aquastead, who is the crown prince of Lapis Lazuli's neighboring kingdom, Marine Forest.

Takuya Sato voices Hartknights, the crown prince of the Lapis Lazuli kingdom, while Yumiri Hanamori plays Akari's role. Akari is described as the heroine of the otome game, The Ring of the Lapis Lazuli. In other words, the cast members are reprising their roles from the novels' otome game adaptation in the anime.

Coming to the main staff, Takayuki Hamana, who has recently worked on The Witch and the Beast, directs the rom-com fantasy anime at Studio DEEN, with Yoshimi Narita handling the series scripts. Majiro is listed as the show's character designer.

A brief synopsis of The Villainess Is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor Kingdom anime

Based on the original light novel series, The Villainess Is Adored by the Prince of the Neighbor Kingdom anime centers on the protagonist, who is reincarnated as Tiararose, the villainess of her favorite otome game. Tiararose reluctantly accepts the in-game judgment and awaits her terrible fate.

However, when her fiancé breaks off the engagement, the otome game throws a marriage proposal that wasn't in the original game's mechanics. As such, Tiararose gets a marriage proposal from none other than Aquasteed, the crown prince of a neighboring country.

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Apratim is an anime writer at Sportskeeda who first forayed into creating engaging content 3 years ago out of his penchant for the written word and his love of anime and manga. He holds a Master's degree in English Language and Literature from Calcutta University and it is here, where he developed a passion for writing.

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Edited by Apratim Chakraborty