A mirror in a bedroom becomes a doorway into a castle full of strangers in Lonely Castle in the Mirror, Keiichi Hara's animated adaptation of Mizuki Tsujimura's bestselling novel.
What is Lonely Castle in the Mirror about?
Kokoro has stopped going to school, spending her days alone at home instead of facing whatever is waiting for her in the classroom. Then her bedroom mirror starts glowing, and she steps through it into a castle where six other students, each avoiding school for reasons of their own, have gathered. A girl in a wolf mask lays out the rules of a strange game: somewhere in the castle is a key, and finding it grants a wish, but anyone caught inside past a certain hour will be eaten by the wolf. As the seven of them return to the castle again and again, the story becomes less about the game and more about the group itself, the trust that slowly forms between kids who have nothing in common except the reasons they stopped showing up.
About the cast
The Japanese voice cast is led by Ami Touma and Mana Ashida as the central pair of students, with Yuki Kaji, Takumi Kitamura, Sakura Kiryu, Rihito Itagaki, Naho Yokomizo and Minami Takayama filling out the rest of the castle's seven guests.
Context & significance
Keiichi Hara, known for a career spanning television animation and acclaimed feature work, directs this adaptation of Mizuki Tsujimura's novel, a Japanese-American co-production released in 2022. The book won major recognition in Japan for its portrayal of school avoidance and adolescent isolation, and the film carries that same grounded emotional core into its fantasy premise rather than treating the castle as a simple gimmick.
Watching Lonely Castle in the Mirror on Ktime
It streams on K-Time with a free account login, available in Persian dub and with Persian subtitles, giving Farsi-speaking viewers full access to a story that leans on quiet, careful dialogue.