Umi Monogatari, the pachinko line that its Sanyo Bussan manufacturer describes as the most popular in Japan, has a television anime spinoff green-lit for this summer. Junichi Sato, known for Aria, Kaleido Star, and Princess Tutu, will direct. Yuu Kou, known for Chrono Crusade, Monochrome Factor, and Zero no Tsukaima: Princess no Rondo will be serving as series director. Toshihiko Tsukiji drafted the story concepts, while Yuka Yamada, known for Neo Angelique Abyss and Tide-Line Blue, is supervising the scripts. Haruko Iizuka is designing the characters.

The “transforming magical girl action” story centers on Marin and Urin, two “pure” sisters who live alongside the fish in the sea, but yearn to be in the world beyond the water and above ground. One day, a beautiful ring falls in the middle of the sea, and Marin and Urin retrieve it. The two decide to leave their waterbound world for the first time to deliver the ring. After an arduous journey, they come across an isolated island where a high school girl named Kanon lives. The encounter between Marin and Kanon — the maiden of the sea and the maiden of the skies — awakens a hidden power as the world is threatened by an enveloping darkness.

Source: Moon Phase Comments

The official site for the Kiddy Grade anime franchise has announced a new spinoff called Kiddy Girl-and. The story is set in the future, roughly five decades after the original Kiddy Grade anime. The spirited Asuk?ru and serious Ku F?yu work for the galactic government known as GTO, and are both members of ES, GTO’s finest secret agents with special abilities — or, rather, they are training to become ES.

One of the production companies for the original Kiddy Grade, gimik, created Kiddy Girl-and’s story, while Hidefumi Kimura, from the original Kiddy Grade, is supervising the scripts. Also returning from the original series is, director Keiji Gotoh and character designer Megumi Kadonosono. This time around, Satelight is producing the animation for GTO, the production entity named after the story’s fictional government. A manga version, Kiddy Girl-and Pure, will launch in Kadokawa’s Monthly Comp Ace magazine’s May issue on March 26.

On Friday, the April issue of Kadokawa’s The Sneaker magazine will reportedly confirm that a second anime season of Strike Witches has been green-lit. The announcement is also said to be made on the wraparound jacket band on Strike Witches: Otome no Kan 2 volume, which is slated for next month. Also, the official website of the anime had promised that an important announcement would be made on Friday.

Source: 2ch

On Monday, the official Japanese site for BONES’ new anime adaptation of Hiromu Arakawa’s Fullmetal Alchemist manga began streaming its third television commercial which aired on Japanese television this past weekend. Both Romi Paku and Rie Kugimiya were confirmed to reprise their roles as the Elric brothers for the new anime’s main cast in the March issue of Kadokawa Shoten’s Newtype magazine.

Two previous commercials ran in December and earlier this month. The anime series is planned to premiere on April 5 in Japan. Directing is Yasuhiro Irie, and Hiroshi Ohnogi is supervising the scripts.

Source: Moon Phase Comments