A television anime adaptation of Keisuke Masano’s Tsuki to Laika to Nosferatu (Moon, Laika, and the Bloodsucking Princess) light novel was announced by publishing label Gagaga Bunko on Wednesday, scheduled for a 2021 airing. Bandai Namco Arts simultaneously opened an official website, revealing the main staff, cast, a teaser visual (pictured) and teaser promo.

Synopsis
The first astronaut in human history was a vampire girl.

Following the end of World War II, the world-dividing superpowers, Federal Republic of Zirnitra in the East and United Kingdom of Arnack in the West, turned their territorial ambitions toward space. Both countries have been competing fiercely for development.

East history 1960. Gergiev, the chief leader of the Republic, announces the manned space flight program Project Mechtat (Dream), which, if successful, would be the first feat for humankind. At that time, Lev Leps, a substitute astronaut candidate, is ordered to perform a top secret mission. The “Nosferatu Project”—a program that experiments with vampires prior to manned missions—will use Irina Luminesk as a test subject, and Lev is to monitor and train her.

Even while trifled by the walls of the race and ego of the nations, Lev and Irina share a genuine sentiment as they aim for the universe.

Staff
Director: Akitoshi Yokoyama (Cutie Honey Universe, RahXephon episode director)
Character Design: Hiromi Katou (Guilty Crown, Kobato.)
Art Director: Yuuji Kaneko (Hisone to Maso-tan, Black Fox)
Studio: Arvo Animation

Original creator and playwright Keisuke Masano is handling the series composition. The anime series will have a stage event at this year’s AnimeJapan event on March 27, featuring the lead cast.

Cast
Irina Luminesk: Megumi Hayashibara (FLCL Progressive)
Lev Leps: Kouki Uchiyama (Kanata no Astra)
Mikhail Yashin: Satoshi Hino (Yuukoku no Moriarty)
Rosa Plevitskaya: Mikako Komatsu (Hanyou no Yashahime: Sengoku Otogizoushi)
Anya Shimonyan: Hina Kino (Asobi Asobase)

Gagaga Bunko began printing the romantic sci-fi light novel in December 2016, featuring illustrations by Karei. Shogakukan will publish the sixth volume on Thursday. Hougu Souji began drawing a manga adaptation on the Comic Days web manga portal in March 2018. Kodansha shipped the first volume in November 2018.

Tsuki to Laika to Nosferatu ranked fourth in the 2018 Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! rankings’ Paperback category.

Official site: https://tsuki-laika-nosferatu.com/
Official Twitter: @LAIKA_anime

Source: LN News

Tsuki to Laika to Nosferatu on MAL

A television anime adaptation of Tomoki Izumi’s Mieruko-chan manga was announced by Kadokawa on Thursday. The publishing company also opened an official website, revealing the main staff, a teaser visual (pictured), teaser promotional video, and its 2021 premiere.

Synopsis
Miko is a typical high school student whose life turns upside down when she suddenly starts to see gruesome and hideous monsters. Despite being completely terrified, Miko carries on with her daily life, pretending not to notice the horrors that surround her. She must endure the fear in order to keep herself and her friend Hana out of danger, even if that means coming face to face with the absolute worst. Blending both comedy and horror, Mieruko-chan tells the story of a girl who tries to deal with the paranormal by acting indifferent toward it. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

Staff
Director: Yuuki Ogawa (Ishuzoku Reviewers, FLCL Progressive)
Series Composition, Script: Kenta Ihara (Youjo Senki, Vinland Saga)
Character Design, Chief Animation Director: Chikashi Kadekaru (Juuni Taisen, Sora no Otoshimono: Forte)
Monster Design: Makoto Uno (High School DxD Hero, Witchblade)
Studio: Passione (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Gou, Rokka no Yuusha)

Izumi originally posted the comedy horror manga on his Twitter account in September 2018, which garnered over 60k retweets and 180k likes. Kadokawa’s ComicWalker web manga portal began serializing the manga in November that year. The fourth volume shipped on September 23, with the fifth volume scheduled for release on March 22.

Yen Press licensed the manga in English last July and published the second volume on February 23. The third volume is planned for a June 22 release.

Mieruko-chan ranked tenth under the Web Manga category in the 5th Tsugi ni Kuru Manga Taisho in 2019—a joint award by Kadokawa’s Da Vinci literature magazine and streaming platform Niconico.

Official site: https://mierukochan.jp/
Official Twitter: @mierukochan_PR

Source: Press Release, Comic Natalie

Mieruko-chan on MAL

Animator Yasuo Ootsuka died on Monday, March 15. He was 89 years old. Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki revealed the news on the same day at the 2021 Tokyo Anime Award Festival.

Ootsuka was born on July 11, 1931, in Shimane Prefecture, Japan, and joined Toei Animation in 1956. His early contributions included animation for Hakujaden (The Great White Snake) and Wanpaku Ouji no Orochi Taiji (Orochi, the Eight-Headed Dragon), the latter of which he collaborated on with the late Isao Takahata. He served as an animation director alongside Takahata (director) and Hayao Miyazaki (layout design, key animation) on Taiyou no Ouji: Horus no Daibouken (The Little Norse Prince), and was a mentor to both in their early years at Toei Animation.

The three collaborated again at Tokyo Movie Shinsha (now TMS Entertainment) on Lupin III, for which he was an animation director and character designer. Ootsuka continued to work on Lupin III anime until finishing Lupin III: Cagliostro no Shiro (The Castle of Cagliostro) in 1979. He returned to the franchise for Lupin III: Kiri no Elusive (Lupin III: Elusiveness of the Fog) in 2007, which would be his final credit as an animator. His other notable projects as an animation director and character designer include Mirai Shounen Conan (Future Boy Conan) and Jarinko Chie.

Ootsuka had a passion for automobiles—particularly military vehicles—and wrote and illustrated numerous books dedicated to them beginning in the 1980s. Genkousha published a collection of his vehicle illustrations from the Lupin III series in 2020.

Studio Ghibli produced the documentary Ootsuka Yasuo no Ugokasu Yorokobi (Yasuo Ootsuka’s Joy of Motion) in 2004, highlighting his work as an artist and animator. He was a lecturer at Yoyogi Animation Gakuin in his later years, and received the Special Award from the Association at the 42nd Japan Academy Prize—Japan’s equivalent of the Academy Awards—in 2019. That year, comedian Akira Kawashima portrayed a character based loosely on Ootsuka in NHK’s 100th Asadora, Natsuzora, which was partially set at a fictionalized Toei Animation.

Source: Animage Plus

The official website for the Kuro Gal ni Natta kara Shinyuu to Shitemita. anime revealed two new cast members on Tuesday. The anime is scheduled to premiere on April 5 at 1:00 a.m. on Tokyo MX.

Hajime Tsuzuki: Yoshiyuki Shimozuma (Diamond no Ace)

Mayu Uehara: Marin Mizutani (Boku no Kanojo ga Majimesugiru Sho-bitch na Ken)

Kazutomi Yamamoto (Nande Koko ni Sensei ga!?) and Makoto Furukawa (Yuukoku no Moriarty) are starring as Shion Chihara and Rui Chihaya, respectively.

The anime series adapts Yupopo Orishima’s adult web manga Kuro Gal ni Natta kara Shinyuu to Yattemita., which they began publishing on WWWave Corporation’s ComicFesta website in October 2019. WWWave Corporation also published the manga in English through Coolmic. Suiseisha released the first volume on July 18 last year, with the second volume set to be released on April 18.

Source: Anime Recorder

An official website opened for an original television anime titled Fairy Ranmaru: Anata no Kokoro Otasuke shimasu (Fairy Ranmaru: We Will Help Your Heart) on Friday, revealing a teaser visual featuring four school boys and a bartender. The anime series will premiere in April 2021.

A production presentation will announce more information for the anime on January 18 at 9:00 p.m. JST (7:00 a.m. EST). The director and cast will attend the stage event.

The copyright footer for the anime credits Taiga Umatani—the original creator of RobiHachi—indicating Umatani to be the original creator for this anime as well. The website domain appears to be listed on name servers owned by Studio Pierrot.

Official site: https://f-ran.jp/
Official Twitter: @FairyRanmaru

Source: Pash! Plus

The Argonavis AAside New Year Live Broadcast ‘Navi Hajime’ Online announced an anime film for BanG Dream!’s Argonavis from BanG Dream! television anime on Saturday.

SANZIGEN produced the 13-episode anime series, which aired on MBS and TBS’ Super Animeism programming block in Spring 2020.

Argonavis BanG Dream AAside, the smartphone game which will serve as a sequel to the anime series, is set to be released on January 14 by DeNA. Nobuhiro Mouri (Uchuu Sentai Kyuuranger) and Hikaru Miyoshi (Kanshikan Tsunemori Akane) returning as the game’s scriptwriter and original character designer, respectively.

Bushiroad launched the boy band multimedia project in May 2018, releasing singles, hosting live events, and web radio programs. A manga adaptation by Kyouhei Miyajima has been serialized in Shounen Jump+ since August 11 last year.

Source: Comic Natalie

Frontier Works announced on Sunday that Kazuya Minekura’s Saiyuuki manga will receive a new television anime adaptation titled Saiyuuki Reload: Zeroin. The anime series produced by LIDENFILMS will adapt the Even a worm arc from Minekura’s Saiyuuki Reload manga. The announcement also revealed a teaser visual (pictured above) and teaser promotional video.

Houchuu Ootsuka (Golden Kamuy) is joining the main cast returning from the previous anime series, composed of Toshihiko Seki as Sanzou Genjou, Soichiro Hoshi as Son Gokuu, Akira Ishida as Hakkai Cho, and Hiroaki Hirata as Gojou Sha.

Studio Pierrot adapted the manga into three television anime in Spring 2000, Fall 2003, and Spring 2004. Platinum Vision produced the latest installment, Saiyuuki Reload Blast, in Summer 2017. An anime movie subtitled Requiem – Erabarezaru Mono e no Chinkonka premiered in 2001. The manga also received multiple original video anime.

Minekura serialized the original fantasy action manga in GFantasy from February 1997 to January 2002. The Saiyuuki Reload sequel ran in Comic ZERO-SUM from March 2002 to June 2009.

Saiyuuki Reload Blast, the latest manga in the franchise, began in the same magazine in December that year and has three volumes in print as of October 2017. The manga series has a cumulative of 25 million copies in circulation worldwide.

Official Twitter: @saiyuki_re

Source: PR Times

Toei Animation opened an official website for a new anime film for Takehiko Inoue’s Slam Dunk manga on Thursday.

Inoue serialized the basketball manga in Weekly Shounen Jump from 1990 to 1996. Shueisha published the manga in 31 volumes between 1991 and 1996 and republished 24 new edition volumes under the Jump Comics Deluxe imprint in 2001–2002. As of August 2018, Slam Dunk has over 121.4 million copies of its volumes in print.

Toei Animation adapted the manga into a television anime that aired for 101 episodes from October 1993 to March 1996. The animation studio also produced four short films featuring side stories during the television series’ broadcast.

Geneon Entertainment USA, in partnership with Toei, released the first 20 episodes across four DVD volumes in North America in 2005 before ceasing distribution. Crunchyroll currently streams the anime with subtitles.

Gutsoon! Entertainment published the first five manga volumes in English under the Raijin Comics Imprint in 2003–2004 before going defunct. VIZ Media reacquired the series and published all 31 volumes from 2008 to 2013. The manga has also been published in multiple foreign languages, including Chinese, Spanish, and French.

Slam Dunk won the 40th Shogakukan Manga Award for best Shounen manga in 1994 and was voted the greatest manga of all time at the 10th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2006.

Synopsis
Hanamichi Sakuragi, a tall, boisterous teenager with flame-red hair and physical strength beyond his years, is eager to put an end to his rejection streak of 50 and finally score a girlfriend as he begins his first year of Shohoku High. However, his reputation for delinquency and destructiveness precedes him, and most of his fellow students subsequently avoid him like the plague. As his first day of school ends, he is left with two strong thoughts: “I hate basketball” and “I need a girlfriend.”

Haruko Akagi, ignorant of Hanamichi’s history of misbehavior, notices his immense height and unwittingly approaches him, asking whether or not he likes basketball. Overcome by the fact that a girl is speaking to him, the red-haired giant blurts out a yes despite his true feelings. At the gym, Haruko asks if he can do a slam dunk. Though a complete novice, Hanamachi palms the ball and makes the leap…but overshoots, slamming his head into the backboard. Amazed by his near-inhuman physical abilities, Haruko quickly notifies the school’s basketball captain of his feat. With this, Hanamichi is unexpectedly thrust into a world of competition for a girl he barely knows, but he soon discovers that there is perhaps more to basketball than he once thought.

Official site: https://slamdunk-movie.jp/
Official Twitter: @movie_slamdunk

Source: PR Times

Here is a collection of promotional videos (PV), television ads (CM), and trailers for the last week. This thread excludes videos that have already been featured in an article. Please check the News Board, under the Preview tag, for articles that feature a promotional video. Last week’s PV thread can be found here.

Etotama: Nyankyaku Banrai | ONA | PV, Teaser
A teaser and promotional video for Etotama: Nyankyaku Banrai were revealed during a live-stream event which was held on Sunday. The promotional video reveals that cast members from previous seasons’ are reprising their respective roles. The video also announces that Na-tan will be voiced by Aina Suzuki. Streaming service Abema is airing the ONA episode in 2021.

Soukou Musume Senki | TV | PV
The fifth and final character video for the Soukou Musume Senki anime was released through the series’ official website on Friday. The video previews the character Suzuno, who will be voiced by Saki Miyashita. Studio A-CAT is producing the television series that is scheduled for January 7.

World Witches Hasshin Shimasu! | TV | PV
A promotional video for the latest anime in the Strike Witches franchise. The video is narrated by Misato Fukuen as her character Yoshika Miyafuji from Unit 501. The World Witches Hasshin Shimasu! short anime premieres on January 13 and will be co-produced by Acca effe and Giga Production.