Actualités

Hitsugi no Chaika's 1st Promo With Animation Streamed

Japanese publisher Kadokawa began streaming a new advance promotional video for the Hitsugi no Chaika (Chaika the Coffin Princess) fantasy anime on Monday. This is the first promotional video with actual animated footage. It also features the opening theme song "Darakena" by Iori Nomizu.

The cast includes:

Chika Anzai (Danbōru Senki Wars, Akuma no Riddle) will play Chaika Trabant, a 14-year-old sorceress carrying a coffin.

Junji Majima (A Certain Scientific Railgun, Is This a Zombie?, Toradora!) will play Toru Acura, a 20-year-old retired soldier meandering through life now that the war has ended.

Yuko Hara will play Akari Acura, Toru's adopted sister and the employed member of the group.

Chiwa Saito (Madoka Magica, Dog & Scissors, Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere) will play Fredrica (not pictured).

Also in the cast are Yoshimasa Hosoya as Alberic Gillette, Kensuke Satō as Nicolai Avtotor, Iori Nomizu as Vivi Holopainen, Yumeha Kōda as Zita Brusasco, Shūta Morishima as Matheus Caraway, and Kazutomi Yamamoto as Leonardo Stora.

The series adapts Ichiro Sakaki's Hitsugi no Chaika fantasy light novels. Sakaki launched the light novel series with illustrations by Namaniku ATK (Nitroplus) in 2010, and Fujimi Shobo published the eighth volume in January. Shinta Sakayama began drawing a manga adaptation in Kadokawa Shoten's Monthly Shōnen Ace magazine in 2011, and Kanikama started a four-panel comic adaptation in Kadokawa Shoten's 4-Koma Nano Ace in 2011.

Sōichi Masui (Anyamaru Tantei Kiruminzū, Crayon Shin-chan: Arashi o Yobu Ōgon no Spy Daisakusen, Crayon Shin-chan: Arashi o Yobu! Ora to Uchū no Princess) is directing the television series at the anime studio BONES (Eureka Seven, Star Driver). Masui and BONES also collaborated on 2003's Scrapped Princess, another anime based on Sakaki's writings. Touko Machida (Karneval, Lucky Star, The IDOLM@STER, Tears to Tiara) is in charge of the series scripts, and Nobuhiro Arai (animation director on Blast of Tempest, Shakugan no Shana film) is designing the characters. Seikou Nagaoka (Strike Witches, Tenchi Muyo!) is composing the soundtrack. Other staff members are listed here.

Sakaki's other works include Scrapped Princess, Strait Jacket, Magician's Academy, Polyphonica, CODE-E, and Outbreak Company - Moeru Shinryakusha — all of which inspired anime.

Hitsugi no Chaika will premiere on April 9 at 25:05 (effectively April 10 at 1:05 a.m.) on Tokyo MX and other channels.

Images © Ichiro Sakaki, Namaniku ATK (Nitroplus)/Kadokawa's Fujimi Shobo/Hitsugi no Chaika Production Committee