Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia Anime Casts Mongolian Sumo Wrestlers Tamawashi, Tamashoho

CyberAgent revealed on Friday that Jaadugar: A Witch in Mongolia, the television anime of Tomato Soup‘s A Witch’s Life in Mongol (Tenmaku no Jādūgar) manga, has cast Mongolian wrestlers Tamawashi and Tamashoho (full names Ichirō Tamawashi and Manpei Tamashōhō) in the series. Both are active professional sumo wrestlers and are from the Kataonami stable. Tamawashi will voice Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire. Tamashoho will play a resilient Mongol soldier. Both will also voice other characters in the series.

CyberAgent also released an English-subtitled video featuring the two wrestlers discussing their anime voice acting debut.

The anime will premiere on July 4 at 11:00 p.m. JST (10:00 a.m. EDT) in the “IMAnimation W” programming block on TV Asahi and 23 of its affiliated channels, as well as on BS Asahi. The anime will premiere with its first two episodes as a one-hour special.

The anime will have its world premiere screening of the first 3 episodes on June 13 at United Cinemas Aqua City Odaiba.

The anime will screen in competition at this year’s Annecy International Animation Film Festival in France in the TV Films category. Anime Expo will also host the U.S. premiere screening of the anime on July 3. The anime’s chief director Naoko Yamada and director Abel Góngora will be in attendance at the screening.

The anime stars:

• Miyu Irino as Shira
• Jun Saitō as Muhammad
• Akira Sekine as Shitara (also written as Sitara)
• Houko Kuwashima as Fatima
• Ryōta Suzuki as Tolui
• Kenji Nojima as Jochi
• Ami Koshimizu as Töregene
• Hiro Shimono as Ögedei
• Daisuke Namikawa as Chagatai

Naoko Yamada (The Heike Story, A Silent Voice, The Colors Within) is serving as chief director, and Abel Góngora (DAN DA DAN season 2, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Star Wars: Visions‘ “TO-B1”) is directing the anime at Science SARU. Kenichi Yoshida (Eureka Seven, Gundam: Reconguista in G) is designing the characters and serving as animation chief, and Kanichi Katō (Black Clover, The Eminence in Shadow) is overseeing the series scripts. Kōshirō Hino is composing the music.

Additional staff includes:

• Technical Director Chief: Takuya Fujikura
• Art Director: Yuri Kabasawa
• Color Key Artist: Narumi Konno
• Compositing Director of Photography: Naoki Takahashi
• Editing: Kiyoshi Hirose
• Sound Director: Noriyoshi Konuma

SEKAI NO OWARI performs the opening theme song “Stella.”

Yen Press is releasing the manga in English, and it describes the story:

The time: the thirteenth century. The place: Yeke Mongol Ulus, the greatest empire the world has ever known. The woman: Fatima, hailing from Persia, where medical technique and scientific knowledge have been perfected beyond all precedent. Fatima’s desire for a stage where she can put her knowledge to work has brought her to the palace of the Mongols, where she falls under the wing of Töregene, the sixth wife of Ögedei, the second Great Khan—a mighty woman with complicated feelings about the direction of the empire. These two women are the axel upon which the politics of the palace, and soon the very world, will turn…

Tomato Soup launched the manga on Akita Shoten‘s Souffle website in September 2021. Akita Shoten will publish the manga’s sixth compiled book volume on July 15.

The series began publishing simultaneously in Akita Shoten‘s Mystery Bonita in March 2025, on top of its publication on the Souffle website. The manga was being published bimonthly until last summer, where it then went on hiatus for Tomato Soup‘s maternity leave. The manga returned on March 25.

The manga topped the Kono Manga ga Sugoi! 2023 rankings for female readers, and ranked #11 in the 2024 rankings for female readers. The manga was nominated for the 16th Manga Taisho Awards in 2023, and was nominated once again for the Manga Taisho Awards the following year in 2024. The manga was nominated for the Best New Manga category in the second American Manga Awards. The manga recently won the grand prize in the Comic division of the 55th Japan Cartoonists Association Awards.

Source: Press release