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Utena Director Kunihiko Ikuhara's Sarazanmai Anime Unveils New Promo, April Noitamina Debut
posted on by Egan Loo
The official YouTube channel for Kunihiko Ikuhara's original television anime project Sarazanmai is streaming the anime's first "linked promotional video" on Friday. The video announces that the anime will premiere on Fuji TV's Noitamina programming block next April.
The teaser features a character who does not resemble the either of the characters previously unveiled by the anime's official website. The narration in the video is as follows:
This world is overflowing with connections. Blood connections, town connections, connections over feelings. A world where everyone is connected. So I wonder why I'm not connected. Will I ever be able to connect with you?
The video is the first of five weekly "linked promotional videos."
The studios MAPPA (Yuri!!! on Ice, In This Corner of the World, Rage of Bahamut Genesis) and Lapin Track (Yuri Kuma Arashi) are producing the series. "Ikunirappa" is credited with the original story; the original story of Ikuhara's earlier Yuri Kuma Arashi anime was similarly credited to "Ikunigomamonaka."
Illustrator Migi provides the original character designs. The two characters below are Reo and Mabu, who are a policemen team and are key to the show's plot.
A spinoff manga titled Reo to Mabu: Futari wa Sarazanmai (Reo and Mabu: We are Sarazanmai) launched in Gentosha's Rutile magazine on May 22. Gentosha is publishing Rutile in odd-numbered months. The sister web comic site "Rutile Sweet" is publishing the manga in even-numbered months. Misaki Saitō is drawing the manga (manga image previewed below). The spinoff tells "another story" that links to the anime, chronicling the heartwarming daily life of Reo and Mabu.
Ikuhara is perhaps best known as the director of the Revolutionary Girl Utena anime, a 1997 series he co-created with the Be-PaPas creative group, which consisted of him, writer Yoji Enokido, animator and character designer Hasegawa Shinya, manga creator Chiho Saitō, and producer Yūichirō Oguro. Before Revolutionary Girl Utena, he worked at Toei Animation, where he directed Sailor Moon R, S and SuperS. After Revolutionary Girl Utena, he did not direct another anime series until Mawaru Penguindrum in 2011. Until now, his most recent directorial work is Yuri Kuma Arashi in 2015.
Source: animeanime.jp
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