Scarlet 2026

Princess Scarlet, Mana Ashida, is pulled into a sprawling, Hamlet-inspired saga that blends a queenly Denmark with a perilous underworld and a present-day frame. In this world, Scarlet is the daughter of a beloved king, Amleth, whose rule is challenged by his ruthless brother, Claudius, who seeks not only the throne but the heart of Scarlet’s mother, the vain Gertrude. When Claudius believes Amleth betrayed the realm, he sentences him to death. Before the execution, Scarlet watches with horror as her father speaks his last words, though she cannot hear them; Claudius is crowned, and his rise sows fear and hunger across the land.

Scarlet refuses to let the trauma define her. She trains relentlessly in swordsmanship, driven by a fierce need for vengeance. At a critical ball, she confronts Claudius—a tense, swift exchange—only to be drawn into a ploy when wine is spiked to kill the king. As the night ends, Scarlet finds Claudius in the hall and, with a blade in hand, attempts to strike him down. But the drink reveals itself to have poisoned her instead, and she collapses as Claudius laughs. The vow for revenge burns bright, even as she slips into a perilous new realm of existence.

Scarlet awakens in the underworld, a liminal space where the living and the dead coexist. An ancient, enigmatic old woman explains that Amleth has become ash, a nothingness, while her uncle remains partly alive but not fully among the living. Fear and fury surge through Scarlet as she battles revenant knights who try to capture her for transport to the Infinite Land, a realm where the dead live anew. With armor and swords scavenged from fallen knights, Scarlet fights her way through, aided by the old woman’s guidance, and escapes into the night with the help of a fearless rescue.

In the present day, a paramedic named Hijiri—a man who has become disoriented by this strange world—encounters Scarlet and must be convinced that he is truly dead. Scarlet’s claim that he belongs to the underworld meets his stubborn disbelief, but as more soldiers close in, she shows her prowess in combat, fending them off until she and Hijiri cross paths with Cornelius, one of Amleth’s assassins. A pivotal moment comes when Hijiri retrieves a bow and arrow and uses a whistle to distract Cornelius, allowing Scarlet to wound him in the leg. Hijiri then becomes a reluctant ally, nursing Cornelius back to health and pressing Scarlet to reveal where her uncle might be headed—the Infinite Land.

Along the journey, an elderly caravan—robbed by bandits—crosses their path. Hijiri pleads for mercy, but danger escalates as a dark bolt of lightning disintegrates the caravan master, and a dragon-like presence haunts the skies. The pair are welcomed by the elderly travelers, who are charmed by Hijiri’s care and by Scarlet’s resolve. A moment of cultural bonding emerges when the pair share a dance—an intimate conversation with a god through movement rather than words. The elderly are grateful, but danger remains, as Voltemand and his allies threaten their progress. When Voltemand corners Hijiri and Scarlet, Claudius’s war drums echo through the clouds and the world around them seems to tilt toward the Infinite Land. Scarlet’s arm is wounded, yet she presses on, with Hijiri tending to her and steering them toward safety.

The pursuit intensifies as Voltemand and his soldiers collide with Scarlet’s band. Polonius, one of Amleth’s killers, and Laertes, another hunter of Scarlet, close in. The fight ends with Cornelius killing Polonius using a hidden sword, and Laertes falling to Voltemand’s gun, prevented from firing by Voltemand’s counterstrike. Cornered at the summit, Scarlet learns that Claudius has found a route to the Infinite Land via a celestial stairway, and she and Hijiri push forward with renewed urgency.

At the gates of the Infinite Land, Claudius confronts his own sins and is barred from entry. Scarlet, driven by anger and a desire for retribution, raises her blade again, but a higher moral voice interrupts—her father’s appeal to forgive. In that moment, Scarlet falters, hearing a spectral version of Amleth urging her to choose life over vengeance. The moment is charged with a haunting, ethereal vision of her father asking her to live a brighter future. The gate’s power sparks, and Claudius’s fate is sealed not by a single strike but by the dragon’s fury, which strikes him down as if the heavens themselves condemn him.

Hijiri and Scarlet reconcile their fates in the wake of the gate’s drama. The old woman returns to explain that only one of them can return to the world of the living. Scarlet pleads for Hijiri to come back, but she learns that Hijiri has already died in the present day, having been stabbed by Rosencrantz during a prior confrontation. In a tearful farewell, Scarlet offers Hijiri a final kiss as he disintegrates and she steps back into the living world.

Back in Denmark, Scarlet regains consciousness from the poison’s grip, an antidote restoring her. She learns that Claudius has died from the same poison she drank—a cruel mirror of fate. Gertrude mourns her husband and blames Scarlet for surviving, but Scarlet chooses a different path: she rises as Denmark’s new queen and pledges to build a future free from war, a realm of love and harmony. As she speaks to her people, Scarlet looks toward the sky with a quiet, hopeful smile, knowing that her life’s mission has shifted from revenge to peace.

Forgive