Sunday 11 December 2016

Wake Up, Girls! Gets New TV Anime With New Staff, Added Characters in 2017

Director Shin Itagaki at Millepensee replacing Yutaka Yamamoto at Ordet

The "Wake Up, Girls! Festa 2016 Super Live" event announced on Sunday that production on a new Wake Up, Girls! television anime has been green-lit for broadcast next year. The event showed a teaser trailer with new character designs and a new visual from Wake Up, Girls! Shin Shō (Wake Up, Girls! New Chapter or Arc). The teaser visual features Mayu Shimada and the six other main characters who have the same original voice cast, but with new designs.
Shin Itagaki (Wake Up, Girls! episode 10 storyboards, Teekyū) is replacing Yutaka Yamamoto as the director of the new anime, and Miyuki Sugawara is replacing Sunao Chikaoka as the character designer, although Chikaoka is still credited for the original character designs. Similarly, Millepensee is replacing Ordet as the main animation studio. Satoru Kousaki and monaca are returning to compose the music at DIVE II Entertainment, and the original story and scripts are credited to "Green Leaves."
The new anime will feature the previous Wake Up, Girls! group members, but it also add new characters. The project is holding a "Wake Up, Girls! Audition" before the anime to cast the new characters.
In the story of the original anime, Green Leaves Entertainment is a tiny production company on the verge of going out of business in Sendai, the biggest city in Japan's northeastern Tohoku region. The agency once managed the careers of magicians, photo idols, fortune-tellers, and other entertainers, but its last remaining client finally quit. In danger of having zero talent (literally), the president Tange hatches an idea of producing an idol group. On the brash president's orders, the dissatisfied manager Matsuda heads out to scout raw talent. Matsuda makes a fateful encounter with a certain girl…
The television anime premiered in Japan in January 2014 along with a limited theatrical run. Crunchyroll streamed the series outside of Japan alongside the Chinese media services Tudou and Youku. Two sequel films,Wake Up, Girls! Seishun no Kage and Wake Up, Girls! Beyond the Bottom, opened on September 25 and December 11, respectively. Additionally, an original net anime spinoff titled Wake Up, Girl Zoo! premiered in 2014. Crunchyroll also streamed that spinoff series.
Sentai Filmworks released the original movie on home video on June 7, and also released the television anime series on home video in August. Most recently, the seven main voice cast members of Wake Up, Girls!performed the ending theme song for the Scorching Ping Pong Girls anime series.
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Shinjuku Swan II Live-Action Film Reveals 'Battle' TV Ad, New Poster

Film adapting manga's Yokohama Kingdom arc premieres in Japan on January 21

Sony Pictures began streaming a "battle version" television ad on Thursday for Shinjuku Swan II, the sequel to the live-action film of Ken Wakui's Shinjuku Swan manga.
Sony Pictures also revealed a new "Shinjuku vs. Yokohama" poster for the film.
The film adapts the manga's "Yokohama Kingdom" arc, and is slated for January 21. UVERworld and MAN WITH A MISSION will once again perform songs for the film. UVERworld's insert song is titled "Emyu," while MAN WITH A MISSION's theme song is titled "Dead End in Tokyo."
The film's new cast members include:
Returning from the first film are:
The manga follows Tatsuhiko Shiratori, a 19-year-old with no money or job in the (in)famous Kabukichō red-light district of Tokyo's Shinjuku ward. Then one day, a man named Mako recruits him to become a scout. Tatsuhiko's job has him finding new talent for clubs, adult videos, and other areas of Kabukichō's night life. Tatsuhiko has taken his first step into the cutthroat business of Tokyo's underworld.
Wakui launched the manga in Young Magazine in 2005, and ended it in 2013. Kodansha published the manga's 38th and final compiled book volume in December 2013. The manga already inspired a six-episode live-action television series in 2007. In that version, Yōsuke Kawamura played Tatsuhiko. The first film opened in Japan in May 2015.
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Ai Mai Mi Anime's 3rd Season Reveals More Cast, January 3 Debut

NeekoSayaka NakayaAyane Sakura, more join cast

The official website for the third anime season based onChoboraunyopomi's Ai Mai Mi four-panel manga revealed additional cast and the January 3 premiere date for the series on Saturday. The site has also revealed the third season's full title: Ai Mai Mi: Surgical Friends.
The five-minute anime series will premiere on January 3 on AT-X at 11:30 p.m. The series will then air on TV Saitama, tvk, KBS Kyoto, andSun TV. Additionally, the show will stream on NiconicoBandai Channel, d Anime Store, and U-NEXT in Japan.
A special program for the anime (that will also be five minutes long) will air on December 24 on AT-X at 11:25 p.m., and will then later air on TV Saitama, tvk, KBS Kyoto, and Sun TV.

The additional cast includes:
Ai Kayano as Ponoka
The three main cast members are reprising their roles:
Yuka Ōtsubo as Ai Ebihara

Aya Uchida as Mai

Maaya Uchida as Mī
The three also sang the first two anime seasons' opening theme songs, and will perform the theme song "Zenin Shūgō Ai Mai Mi!!!" for the third season as well.
Itsuki Imazaki is returning to direct the new season at the animation studio Seven, just as he did for the first two seasons. Imazaki is also serving as the scriptwriter, producer, character designer, and animation director. Fūga Hatori is also returning from the first two seasons to compose the music. Nobuyuki Abe (Kemono Friends,Bananya) is the sound director. Dream Creation is in charge of the production, and On Lead is producing the sound.
Choboraunyopomi's four-panel manga follows girls in a manga club — Ai, Mai, Mī, and Ponoka-sempai — who might be fighting evil invaders threatening Earth, facing off against rivals in tournaments, and dealing with other absurd situations when they are not drawing manga.
The first anime season aired in 2013, and the second season aired in 2014. Crunchyroll streamed both series as they aired in Japan.
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Kickstarter Campaign for Nekopara Reveals OVA Format, Launch Date on December 29

Sekai Project had announced planned Kickstarter campaign based on adult visual novel at Anime Expo

Game developer NEKO WORKs announced on Friday that its planned Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for an anime adaptation of its NEKOPARA adult visual novel will launch on December 29. NEKO WORKs alsolaunched a teaser website for the project, which reveals that the anime project is an OVA.
Video game and manga publisher Sekai Project announced at Anime Expo in July that it would launch a Kickstarter campaign for an anime based on Sayori and NEKO WORKs' NEKOPARA adult game. Sekai Project released the Nekopara Vol. 1 visual novel on PC via Steam in December 2014. The company describes the story:
What's NEKOPARA? Why, it's a cat paradise!
Kashou Minazuki, the son of a long line of Japanese confection makers moved out to open his own shop "La Soleil" as a patisserie.
But upon moving out, hidden amongst his things were two of the catgirls ("neko"), Chocola and Vanilla, that the family had been raising. When he tried to send them back, they begged and pleaded until he gave in and now they've opened La Soleil together.
With two nekos who really, REALLY love their master trying their very best and occasionally failing -- a heartful comedy opens for business!
Sekai Project also released the Nekopara Vol. 0 fandisc prequel on PC in August 2015, and the Nekopara Vol. 2game on February 20. Sekai Project also released the first game in an uncensored adult version. NEKO WORKsrevealed in May that a Nekopara Vol. 3 is under development.
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