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New Legend of the Galactic Heroes Anime Reveals Music Staff, Posts Main Theme

The official website for Production I.G's new anime of Yoshiki Tanaka's epic science fiction novels The Legend of the Galactic Heroes announced its music staff, including opening and ending theme song performers, last Wednesday. Sin Hashimoto is composing the music, and the website has posted an eight-minute track of the main theme.

Composer Hiroyuki Sawano (Attack on Titan, Re:CREATORS) is composing the opening theme song "Binary Star" as part of his SawanoHiroyuki[nZk] project, and Uru (Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans, live-action Kōnodori) is providing the vocals. The single CD, which also includes songs performed by Tielle and Gemie, will ship on April 25.

ELISA (The World God Only Knows, A Certain Scientific Railgun) is performing the ending theme song "Wish."

The first season, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These Kaikō (The New Thesis: Star-Crossed), will premiere in April as a 12-episode television series. The event screenings of the second "season," The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These Seiran (The New Thesis: Stellar War), will then play in theaters, as three films of four episodes each, in 2019.

The new cast stars:

• Mamoru Miyano as Reinhard von Lohengramm
• Kenichi Suzumura as Yang Wen-li
• Yuichiro Umehara as Siegfried Kircheis
• Yoshimitsu Shimoyama as Narrator

Shunsuke Tada (Kuroko's Basketball, STARMYU) is directing the anime at Production I.G. Noboru Takagi (Durarara!!, Kuroko's Basketball) is in charge of the series scripts. Yōko Kikuchi (Junjō Romantica, Kuroko's Basketball, Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi - The World's Greatest First Love), Iwao Teraoka (The Brave Police J-Decker guest character designs, Kuroko's Basketball storyboarder), and Katsura Tsushima (Kuroko's Basketball episode animation director) are designing the characters, and Takayuki Goto (Kuroko's Basketball, Blood-C) is serving as chief animation director.

Atsushi Takeuchi (Napping Princess) is directing the special effects, and Atsushi Takeuchi (Appleseed, Ghost in the Shell, Yukikaze), Shinji Usui (009 Re:Cyborg), and Shinobu Tsuneki (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Psycho-Pass) are drafting the mecha designs with original mecha designs by Naoyuki Katō (The Legend of the Galactic Heroes novel illustrations, Starship Troopers). Tanaka's Wright Staff management firm is supervising the project, and Kitty Entertainment is collaborating on the planning. Tokuma Shoten is collaborating on the production, and DMM Pictures is collaborating on producing with Shochiku and Production I.G.

Tanaka's space opera novel series follows the epic conflict between the Galactic Empire and Free Planets Alliance, as well as the personal stories of Imperial Admiral Reinhard von Lohengramm and the Alliance's Yang Wen-Li. The 10 main novel volumes and four side-story volumes in The Legend of the Galactic Heroes saga have sold 15 million copies and earned Tanaka a Seiun Award. Besides Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Tanaka also wrote the original novel inspirations for The Heroic Legend of Arslan, Ryoko's Case File, Sohryuden - Legend of the Dragon Kings, and Tytania anime projects.

Viz Media's Haikasoru imprint has licensed the original novel series and published the fifth novel in November.

The late director Noboru Ishiguro (Macross, Orguss, Megazone 23) and his Artland anime studio spent more than a decade adapting the novels into a theatrical and video anime franchise, with over 100 installments, from 1988 to 2000. Sentai Filmworks has licensed the video anime series for home video and it is streaming on HIDIVE.

Chinese film production company Jiaxuan Global Pictures is producing a live-action screen adaptation that is slated for 2020.

Source: Animate Times

Update: Novel release schedule corrected. Thanks, LegitPancake