A birthday, 17 deaths, and the only survivor: The Aosawa Murders is becoming a series

A birthday celebration, 17 people dying at the same table, and a visually impaired young girl who survived the poisoning…

The Japanese broadcaster WOWOW is bringing Riku Onda’s novel, published in Japan as Eugenia and internationally as The Aosawa Murders, to the screen. The dark mystery series, consisting of six episodes, will start airing and streaming in Japan on November 8, 2026. The first episode will be released for free.

Along with the production, the first images of the character Makiko Saiga, portrayed by Yukino Kishii at different ages, have also been shared.

The drinks sent to the celebration killed 17 people

At the center of the story is a birthday celebration held at the wealthy Aosawa family's home in Japan's Hokuriku region.

Seventeen people who drank sake and soft drinks sent to the house by an unidentified person were poisoned and died. A letter in the form of a poem, containing the incomprehensible word “Eugenia,” is left at the scene.

The family's visually impaired young daughter, Hisako Aosawa, becomes the only family member to survive the massacre. Her survival turns her into the most important witness of the case, while also placing her at the center of suspicions regarding her connection to the incident. However, the series will explore how the same night is remembered differently by various people, rather than simply posing the question, “Who is the killer?”

Yukino Kishii plays not the surviving girl, but the woman investigating the case

In the lead role, Yukino Kishii will portray Makiko Saiga, one of the first witnesses of the incident, rather than the survivor Hisako.

Makiko, who was 11 years old when the murders occurred, reopens the case ten years later for her university graduation project. While interviewing witnesses of the incident, she encounters her childhood friend Hisako again, and her research later turns into a bestselling book.

After this book, Makiko suddenly goes missing. About 30 years later, when another journalist reignites the investigation, both Makiko and Hisako, who has been living in the U.S. for a long time, return to the city. Old testimonies, repressed memories, and conflicting accounts resurface.

Kishii will portray the character at ages 22 and 43 by herself. The first images also show the actress in two different time periods of the story.

Twenty-year-old novel comes to the screen for the first time

Riku Onda’s novel was first published in 2005 under the title Eugenia. The work won the Best Novel Award from the Japan Mystery Writers Association the following year.

The book, which has sold over 380,000 copies in Japan, has been translated into English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Korean. The English translation was published as The Aosawa Murders and made it into The New York Times' list of notable books of the year in 2020.

Onda stated that he received adaptation offers from both Japan and abroad for years but that the project is happening around the 20th anniversary of the novel's initial publication.

The series' screenplay was written by Nao Adachi

The screenplay for the adaptation was penned by Nao Adachi, known for Japanese series like What Did You Eat Yesterday? and Welcome Home, Mone.

The main direction is handled by Go Furukawa, while Hayato Kawai is among the directors of the episodes. This production will be WOWOW's first series project with both Riku Onda and Yukino Kishii.

The producers of the series emphasize that the story will not provide a single, simple answer. The Aosawa Murders will investigate how people reconstruct the same event over the years rather than solving the murder; it will explore why what is remembered differs from what is recorded.

The six-episode series will begin on WOWOW on November 8. The cast, apart from Kishii, has not yet been announced.