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Monkey Punch's Roman Phantom Thief Game Gets TV Anime

The music company Nippon Columbia revealed on Thursday that CR Ginroku Gijinden Roman, the pachinko game with original character designs by Lupin III creator Monkey Punch, is getting a television anime series that will premiere on January 7, 2013. The game's story follows Roman, a phantom thief who operates at night in the Genroku era (1688-1704). The anime Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman will shift the timeframe to Bakumatsu, the era that spelled the end of the shoguns' rule over Japan.

Yukino is performing the opening theme song "RanTiKi," while fellow Nippon Columbia artist HiGE is performing the ending theme song "Zarathustra."

The anime will premiere on TV Tokyo on Monday January 7 at 26:05 (effectively Tuesday, January 8 at 2:05 a.m.), and it will also run on TV Tokyo's affiliate stations as well as on AT-X.

[Via Tower Records]

Update: Hirofumi Ogura (Black Butler II, The Knight in the Area) is directing at TMS Entertainment. Tatsuto Higuchi (scripts in Inazuma Eleven, Hanasaku Iroha, Phi-Brain - Puzzle of God) is in charge of the series scripts, and Satoshi Hirayama (Lupin III specials, Glass Mask) is adapting Monkey Punch's designs for anime. Hiroshi Takaki (AKB0048, Kyousogiga) is scoring the music.

The main cast is as follows:

• Kazuya Nakai as Roman
• Eri Kitamura as Koharu
• Kenichi Suzumura as Magoichi
• Maaya Uchida as Okuni
• Chihiro Suzuki as Yasuhiro
• Saori Sudo as Kana
• Takashi Matsuyama as Hans
• Kenichi Ogata as Gennai
• Fumihiko Tachiki as Yanagisawa

Update 2: In the fantasy historical story, the main character is a "helper" named Manjirō by day and a phantom thief "retriever" named Roman by night. Roman steals back people's precious items that were unfairly taken from them. Comic Natalie posted images of the characters.

Image © MP Works/Takao