The Summer Hikaru Died: Season 1, Episode 9 - Old Man Takeda (2025)

The episode opens on a childhood memory of Yoshiki and Hikaru visiting a grave, a quiet scene that lingers on the two boys' closeness before cutting back to the present.

Yoshiki and Hikaru continue investigating the village's supernatural problems, specifically the entity known as "Nonuki-sama" and its connection to Kubitachi Village and the spreading impurities.

They go to see old man Takeda to ask what he knows, and the visit quickly turns grim as Takeda speaks about the village's history and the Takeda family's involvement with the mountain and the famine-era past tied to Hikaru's family.

As the conversation unfolds, the episode shows disturbing flashbacks of hanging corpses and other images tied to the village's older horrors, reinforcing that the truth behind the village's curse is far worse than Yoshiki expected.

At school, the boys witness a horrifying suicide that is clearly the result of possession, showing that the spreading impurities are already causing direct deaths in the present.

Afterward, the story shifts to a restaurant where Yoshiki, Hikaru, and Kurebayashi meet to talk more openly about what is happening.

Kurebayashi asks Yoshiki and Hikaru what they want to do now that the impurities are continuing to spread and more people could die, and after hearing them out, she agrees to help them.

During this conversation, Kurebayashi also reflects on her own past, explaining that her late husband once returned as an impurity and that she had tried to live with that version of him until he attacked their son, forcing her to recognize that the thing in front of her was not truly her husband.

Meeting Hikaru in person makes Kurebayashi realize that he is something different from the impurity she once knew, and she becomes an ally to Yoshiki and Hikaru rather than an enemy.

Hikaru then explains that the fragment of himself he entrusted to Yoshiki is important, and that if that fragment is harmed, he himself is harmed as well, making their bond and Yoshiki's role in protecting him even more direct.

The episode then moves to the climax at old man Takeda's home, where the search for the truth about Nonuki-sama escalates into a full horror sequence.

Tanaka appears at this point and makes his move, cutting down the Takeda apparition, stealing its sword, and using the weapon to behead Hikaru in one sudden attack.

The severed head ends up in Yoshiki's lap, and the shock of seeing Hikaru decapitated in front of him leaves Yoshiki in a state of immediate horror and trauma.

The episode ends with a dark ghost suddenly attacking Yoshiki, leaving the situation unresolved and the danger still active as the scene cuts out.

Yoshiki and the others go looking for answers about the village's haunting, but the search turns into horror when Tanaka confronts Hikaru and cuts off his head. Hikaru is not truly killed, though, and the episode ends with Yoshiki holding what he thinks is Hikaru's severed head as the creature's body keeps moving.

The episode opens with Yoshiki and Hikaru continuing their search for the truth behind the village's strange events and the being tied to Hikaru. They learn more about the impurity problem and the danger spreading through the area, and Kurebayashi tells them what she knows, including what happened to her own husband when something like this returned in a changed form.

At school, the story shows a horrifying suicide that is treated as a sign of possession, making the danger feel immediate and close to the boys' daily lives. After that, at a restaurant, Hikaru explains to Yoshiki that the fragment of himself he gave Yoshiki matters a great deal: if that piece is harmed, it hurts him too. That moment matters because it shows how physically tied Yoshiki has become to Hikaru, and it deepens Yoshiki's refusal to let go of him.

The episode then moves into the old man Takeda material. Kurebayashi's knowledge, the village history, and the investigation all lead the group toward Takeda's home, where the search for the truth turns into a much darker scene. Takeda reacts strongly to Hikaru's ignorance of the Indo family history, and the atmosphere becomes tense and hostile before Tanaka arrives and acts. Tanaka makes his move with a blade, and in front of Yoshiki he cuts off Hikaru's head to test what he really is.

Yoshiki's immediate reaction is to cradle the severed head, believing Hikaru has been killed. But the body does not stay dead: Hikaru's unusual, nonhuman form begins to seep out of the neck, showing that decapitation is not the end for him. Tanaka watches this happen, confirming that his action was meant to expose Hikaru's true nature rather than simply kill him.

By the end of the episode, Yoshiki is left in a state of shock, physically holding Hikaru's head while the rest of Hikaru remains active in a changed form. Hikaru's fate is not final death; he survives in a nonhuman state. Yoshiki survives too, but he is left directly in the middle of the horror, carrying the emotional weight of what he has just seen and what it means for his bond with Hikaru. Tanaka remains alive and in control of the situation at the end of the scene, after making his test. Kurebayashi is still present in the wider conflict as the person providing knowledge and help to Yoshiki and Hikaru, but she does not resolve the crisis in this episode. Takeda's role is to force the confrontation through his reaction to the village history, but the episode's ending centers on the aftermath of Tanaka's attack rather than on Takeda himself.

Yes. Episode 9, "Old Man Takeda," has a post-credits scene: it shows Hikaru reading fairy tales, then cuts to a more unsettling bonus beat that fans describe as a setup for a future scene rather than a standalone gag or recap tag.

The available sources do not give a full frame-by-frame official description of the scene, but they consistently indicate that it is an end-credits bonus scene and that it feels important to later story developments.

In episode 9, Yoshiki and Hikaru go to Old Man Takeda's home while trying to learn the truth about Nonuki-sama, and the visit turns into a full horror sequence as the Takeda household becomes the center of the episode's supernatural escalation. The sources indicate that this is where the search for answers stops being investigative and becomes a direct confrontation with a dangerous apparition tied to the village's occult history.

Kurebayashi Rie meets Yoshiki and Hikaru, recognizes that Hikaru is not simply the boy she expected, and decides to help them after hearing what they want to do about the spreading impurities. Her support is rooted in her own past, because she once experienced her late husband returning as an impurity and believed she could live with it until it harmed her son.

Episode 9 reveals that Kurebayashi's deceased husband came back as an impurity, and she initially tried to coexist with that version of him. The turning point came when the apparition physically harmed her son, forcing her to see that she had been projecting her grief onto something that was no longer truly her husband.

Episode 9 shows their bond becoming more explicit and more dangerous, because Yoshiki has grown unwilling to let go of the new Hikaru even as he learns more about what the entity really is. The episode also reveals that Hikaru gave Yoshiki a fragment of himself and that if it is harmed, Hikaru is harmed too, which deepens their physical and emotional connection.

According to the episode coverage and preview material, Tanaka makes a move after gaining a lead on the entity he has been searching for, and his actions become part of the episode's converging conflict. One recap specifically says he destroys the Takeda apparition, steals its sword, and then beheads Hikaru in a single decisive attack.

No--this is not family-friendly for young children, and it is better suited to older teens or adults because the series is a TV-14 horror/mystery anime with psychological and unsettling themes.

Potentially objectionable or upsetting elements that may occur in this episode and series include: - Horror imagery and atmosphere: the show is classified as horror/anime horror and is described as ominous and psychological. - Body horror / disturbing transformation imagery: reviews of the episode specifically mention "unsettling body horror." - Death-related material: the episode centers on the idea that "many more people could die," and the series premise involves disappearance, replacement, and a person returning in an unnatural way. - Grief and emotional distress: the story includes heartbreak over a late spouse "coming back" as an impurity, which suggests heavy themes of loss and trauma. - Threatening or eerie supernatural content: impurities spreading, mysterious entities, and a character hunting for the entity create a tense, frightening tone. - Possibly intense suspense and shocking moments: one review describes "gut-punch moments" and a climax likely to be shocking.

If you want, I can also give you a kid-sensitivity guide split into categories like violence, language, fear, and sexual content, without spoilers.