A new anime set amid the Mongol conquests of the 13th century is emerging as one of the most notable shows of the summer 2026 season. Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia, now streaming internationally on Crunchyroll, combines medieval history, political intrigue and the story of a young woman who uses knowledge as her principal means of survival.
Produced by the Japanese animation studio Science SARU, the series premiered with a one-hour broadcast of its first two episodes in Japan on 4 July. An English-language dubbed version followed on 18 July, while subtitled and dubbed episodes are available through Crunchyroll.
The anime is based on Tomato Soup’s award-winning manga A Witch’s Life in Mongol, known in Japanese as Tenmaku no Jādūgaru. The manga began appearing on Akita Shoten’s Souffle website in 2021 and has attracted attention for its depiction of women, learning and political power during the expansion of the medieval Mongol Empire.
Knowledge as a weapon
The story begins in 1213 in Tus, a city in northeastern Iran. Its protagonist, Sitara, is a five-year-old girl who has lost her mother and been separated from her homeland. She is sold into slavery but is taken into the household of Fatima, a woman from a scholarly family.
Sitara initially has little interest in studying and repeatedly attempts to escape. Her attitude begins to change through her conversations with Fatima’s son, Muhammad, who explains that learning can provide a person with the means to respond to even the most difficult circumstances. Sitara eventually embraces education and begins to see knowledge as a form of protection in an unpredictable world.
That world is soon transformed by the westward advance of the Mongol armies. After Tus falls to forces commanded by Tolui, the fourth son of Genghis Khan, Sitara is taken captive. Deprived of her home and the people who cared for her, she resolves to survive by relying on her intellect.
She later assumes the name Fatima and seeks a place within the Mongol court, while quietly considering how she might strike back against the empire responsible for destroying her former life.
Her path eventually crosses that of Töregene, a wife of Ögedei, who would become the second ruler of the Mongol Empire. Töregene also possesses reasons for resenting the empire and its ruling family. Their meeting draws Sitara into the rivalries and political calculations of the Mongol court, where royal wives and consorts could exercise considerable influence.
Although revenge helps drive the plot, the series is also about the movement of people, texts and ideas across the enormous territories connected by Mongol expansion. Sitara’s search for knowledge links the scholarly communities of medieval Persia with the political centre of the Mongol Empire.
Bringing the manga to the screen
First volume of the manga
The original manga had already achieved considerable recognition before the anime premiered. It placed first in the women’s category of the 2023 edition of Kono Manga ga Sugoi! and was nominated for the Manga Taishō in both 2023 and 2024. In 2026, it received the Grand Prize in the Comic Division of the Japan Cartoonists Association Awards.
Producer Kazuki Endo explained what initially attracted him to the story:
When I first read the original manga, I found it incredibly fascinating and knew immediately that I wanted to bring it to the screen with my own hands. As you will see when you watch it, the series possesses a truly unique balance; it features highly stylized, adorable character designs, yet contrasts them with a serious plot and a gritty, intense storyline.
Science SARU, the studio behind the adaptation, is known for productions including The Ghost in the Shell and DAN DA DAN. Abel Góngora serves as director of Jaadugar, with Naoko Yamada as executive director.
Reconstructing medieval Persia and Mongolia
Anime Expo 2026 Jaadugar A Witch in Mongolia Reveal. Photo courtesy CyberAgent
The production team placed particular emphasis on researching the societies and landscapes portrayed in the series. Members of the staff travelled to Mongolia, visited museums and stayed with a nomadic family in a traditional ger. According to Endo, this allowed them to experience aspects of daily life and consider how characters unfamiliar with Mongolian society might have adapted to their new surroundings.
The team also consulted Tomato Soup, university professors and other subject specialists. The manga’s creator supplied a detailed list of historical references and answered questions about the accuracy and intended meaning of particular scenes.
“Depicting the culture and history of that era is an immense challenge,” Endo explains, “so our entire production team approached it with the utmost sincerity, researching countless documents and historical records.”
Historical research was especially important for the opening episodes, which recreate the streets and buildings of Tus before the arrival of the Mongol army. One sequence showing Sitara running through the city was created specifically for the adaptation and does not appear in the manga.
— Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia (@Jaadugar_global) February 14, 2026
Animation Producer Rie Misumi commented on the scene at the beginning of Episode 1 where Sitara runs through the city:
This is a completely anime-original sequence that does not exist in the original manga. I was told that the director decided to include it because he found the ancient Persian cities to be breathtakingly beautiful and charming, and he wanted to showcase as much of that splendor as possible within the series. Furthermore, although Sitara is set to be only five years old at this point in the story, the scene was also designed to highlight her immense courage as she escapes from a slave market.
The production uses other visual elements to connect Sitara with her Persian homeland. Pomegranates, for example, appear as recurring reminders of the place she came from and the life she knew before the Mongol conquest.
Early praise for Jaadugar
Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia has received strong early reviews, with critics particularly praising its visual style, historical setting, emotional storytelling and distinctive protagonist. Geoff Thew of the YouTube Channel Mother’s Basement rates it as one of the best shows to come out this season. “You won’t find a more thoughtful and nuanced exploration of Islam anywhere in anime, or most media for that matter and rare few can rival this one’s ability to transport you to another time and place, be it real or imagined,” he says.
Meanwhile, Caitlin Moore writing on the Anime News Network, praises the series’ visual style: “The cartoonish character art makes the historical details in the architecture and costume design stand out even more, while being just as expressive as standard anime art, if not more so. The warm shades of Fatima’s house contrast with the cool tones of the desolate landscape that Sitara and her compatriots are forced to trudge through. The effect raises the highs and makes the lows all the more heartbreaking.”
Akira Sekine voices Sitara in the Japanese production, while Cristina Vee performs the role in the English dub. The Japanese cast also includes Houko Kuwashima as Fatima, Jun Saitō as Muhammad, Miyu Irino as Shira and Ryōta Suzuki as Tolui.
Several prominent members of the Mongol ruling family enter the story as it moves eastwards. Misaki Kuno voices Sorghaghtani, the influential wife of Tolui. Ayaka Asai plays Möge, one of Ögedei’s wives, while Mayumi Shintani voices another consort identified in the anime as Kirgistani.
Kujira joined the cast as Boraqchin, presented by the series as Ögedei’s first wife and Great Khatun. The character is depicted as a calm and composed political strategist who is deeply concerned about the balance of power within the empire. Her position places her in potential conflict with Sitara and Töregene as their competing ambitions emerge within the imperial household.
The production has also found small roles for two professional sumo wrestlers. Tamawashi and Tamashōhō make their television voice-acting debuts in the series as Mongol soldiers.
With a story stretching from medieval Iran to the heart of the Mongol Empire, Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia offers an unusual setting for a historical television series. Its focus on scholarship, displacement and women navigating the politics of empire also gives the anime a perspective rarely seen in screen portrayals of the Mongol conquests.
A new anime set amid the Mongol conquests of the 13th century is emerging as one of the most notable shows of the summer 2026 season. Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia, now streaming internationally on Crunchyroll, combines medieval history, political intrigue and the story of a young woman who uses knowledge as her principal means of survival.
Produced by the Japanese animation studio Science SARU, the series premiered with a one-hour broadcast of its first two episodes in Japan on 4 July. An English-language dubbed version followed on 18 July, while subtitled and dubbed episodes are available through Crunchyroll.
The anime is based on Tomato Soup’s award-winning manga A Witch’s Life in Mongol, known in Japanese as Tenmaku no Jādūgaru. The manga began appearing on Akita Shoten’s Souffle website in 2021 and has attracted attention for its depiction of women, learning and political power during the expansion of the medieval Mongol Empire.
Knowledge as a weapon
The story begins in 1213 in Tus, a city in northeastern Iran. Its protagonist, Sitara, is a five-year-old girl who has lost her mother and been separated from her homeland. She is sold into slavery but is taken into the household of Fatima, a woman from a scholarly family.
Sitara initially has little interest in studying and repeatedly attempts to escape. Her attitude begins to change through her conversations with Fatima’s son, Muhammad, who explains that learning can provide a person with the means to respond to even the most difficult circumstances. Sitara eventually embraces education and begins to see knowledge as a form of protection in an unpredictable world.
That world is soon transformed by the westward advance of the Mongol armies. After Tus falls to forces commanded by Tolui, the fourth son of Genghis Khan, Sitara is taken captive. Deprived of her home and the people who cared for her, she resolves to survive by relying on her intellect.
She later assumes the name Fatima and seeks a place within the Mongol court, while quietly considering how she might strike back against the empire responsible for destroying her former life.
Her path eventually crosses that of Töregene, a wife of Ögedei, who would become the second ruler of the Mongol Empire. Töregene also possesses reasons for resenting the empire and its ruling family. Their meeting draws Sitara into the rivalries and political calculations of the Mongol court, where royal wives and consorts could exercise considerable influence.
Although revenge helps drive the plot, the series is also about the movement of people, texts and ideas across the enormous territories connected by Mongol expansion. Sitara’s search for knowledge links the scholarly communities of medieval Persia with the political centre of the Mongol Empire.
Bringing the manga to the screen
The original manga had already achieved considerable recognition before the anime premiered. It placed first in the women’s category of the 2023 edition of Kono Manga ga Sugoi! and was nominated for the Manga Taishō in both 2023 and 2024. In 2026, it received the Grand Prize in the Comic Division of the Japan Cartoonists Association Awards.
Producer Kazuki Endo explained what initially attracted him to the story:
When I first read the original manga, I found it incredibly fascinating and knew immediately that I wanted to bring it to the screen with my own hands. As you will see when you watch it, the series possesses a truly unique balance; it features highly stylized, adorable character designs, yet contrasts them with a serious plot and a gritty, intense storyline.
Science SARU, the studio behind the adaptation, is known for productions including The Ghost in the Shell and DAN DA DAN. Abel Góngora serves as director of Jaadugar, with Naoko Yamada as executive director.
Reconstructing medieval Persia and Mongolia
The production team placed particular emphasis on researching the societies and landscapes portrayed in the series. Members of the staff travelled to Mongolia, visited museums and stayed with a nomadic family in a traditional ger. According to Endo, this allowed them to experience aspects of daily life and consider how characters unfamiliar with Mongolian society might have adapted to their new surroundings.
The team also consulted Tomato Soup, university professors and other subject specialists. The manga’s creator supplied a detailed list of historical references and answered questions about the accuracy and intended meaning of particular scenes.
“Depicting the culture and history of that era is an immense challenge,” Endo explains, “so our entire production team approached it with the utmost sincerity, researching countless documents and historical records.”
Historical research was especially important for the opening episodes, which recreate the streets and buildings of Tus before the arrival of the Mongol army. One sequence showing Sitara running through the city was created specifically for the adaptation and does not appear in the manga.
Animation Producer Rie Misumi commented on the scene at the beginning of Episode 1 where Sitara runs through the city:
This is a completely anime-original sequence that does not exist in the original manga. I was told that the director decided to include it because he found the ancient Persian cities to be breathtakingly beautiful and charming, and he wanted to showcase as much of that splendor as possible within the series. Furthermore, although Sitara is set to be only five years old at this point in the story, the scene was also designed to highlight her immense courage as she escapes from a slave market.
The production uses other visual elements to connect Sitara with her Persian homeland. Pomegranates, for example, appear as recurring reminders of the place she came from and the life she knew before the Mongol conquest.
Early praise for Jaadugar
Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia has received strong early reviews, with critics particularly praising its visual style, historical setting, emotional storytelling and distinctive protagonist. Geoff Thew of the YouTube Channel Mother’s Basement rates it as one of the best shows to come out this season. “You won’t find a more thoughtful and nuanced exploration of Islam anywhere in anime, or most media for that matter and rare few can rival this one’s ability to transport you to another time and place, be it real or imagined,” he says.
Meanwhile, Caitlin Moore writing on the Anime News Network, praises the series’ visual style: “The cartoonish character art makes the historical details in the architecture and costume design stand out even more, while being just as expressive as standard anime art, if not more so. The warm shades of Fatima’s house contrast with the cool tones of the desolate landscape that Sitara and her compatriots are forced to trudge through. The effect raises the highs and makes the lows all the more heartbreaking.”
The women of the Mongol court
Akira Sekine voices Sitara in the Japanese production, while Cristina Vee performs the role in the English dub. The Japanese cast also includes Houko Kuwashima as Fatima, Jun Saitō as Muhammad, Miyu Irino as Shira and Ryōta Suzuki as Tolui.
Several prominent members of the Mongol ruling family enter the story as it moves eastwards. Misaki Kuno voices Sorghaghtani, the influential wife of Tolui. Ayaka Asai plays Möge, one of Ögedei’s wives, while Mayumi Shintani voices another consort identified in the anime as Kirgistani.
Kujira joined the cast as Boraqchin, presented by the series as Ögedei’s first wife and Great Khatun. The character is depicted as a calm and composed political strategist who is deeply concerned about the balance of power within the empire. Her position places her in potential conflict with Sitara and Töregene as their competing ambitions emerge within the imperial household.
The production has also found small roles for two professional sumo wrestlers. Tamawashi and Tamashōhō make their television voice-acting debuts in the series as Mongol soldiers.
With a story stretching from medieval Iran to the heart of the Mongol Empire, Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia offers an unusual setting for a historical television series. Its focus on scholarship, displacement and women navigating the politics of empire also gives the anime a perspective rarely seen in screen portrayals of the Mongol conquests.
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