My Anime World

Historical anime Kingdom is officially set to return with Season 5 on January 7, 2024!

A second key visual and four new cast members were revealed along with the airdate.

Kentaro Ito will play Kan Ki.

Haruka Nagamine will play Koku'Ou.

Kenji Nomura will play Rai Do.

Motoki Sakuma will play Ma Ron.

Adapted from Yasuhisa Hara's manga series, Kingdom is set in China’s Warring States period. The story follows two young men, with one hoping to become a top general and the other an emperor who will unite all of China.

Season 1 of the TV anime aired from June 2012 to February 2013, with Season 2 following from June 2013 to March 2014, Season 3 from April 2020 to October 2021, and Season 4 from April to October 2022.

A live action film adaptation starring Kento Yamazaki was released in April 2019, with two sequels following in July 2022 and July 2023.

Kingdom Season 5 will begin airing on January 7, 2024.

©Yasuhisa Hara/Shueisha, Kingdom Production Committee
Adapted with permission from Anime!Anime!

Comedy isekai series KonoSuba: God's Blessing on this Wonderful World! has revealed that its third season will premiere in 2024 and released a special promo video!

Three new cast members have also been confirmed. Kanon Takao will play Iris.

Sayuri Yahagi will play Claire.

Reina Ueda will play Rain.

KonoSuba is adapted from the popular light novel series by Akatsuki Natsume with illustrations by Mishima Kurone. The story follows a young NEET reincarnated in a fantasy world, where he works towards defeating the Demon King with a hilariously dysfunctional party.

The first series of the TV anime aired in 2016, with Season 2 following in 2017. An anime film titled KonoSuba: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World! Legend of Crimson premiered in 2019, and a spin-off anime focussed on Megumin, KonoSuba: An Explosion on This Wonderful World!, aired from April to June 2023.

KonoSuba: God's Blessing on this Wonderful World! Season 3 will air in 2024.

©2024 Natsume Akatsuki, Kurone Mishima/KADOKAWA/KonoSuba 3 Production Committee
Adapted with permission from Anime!Anime!

Hit anime Spy x Family has released its main trailer for Season 2, which features the upcoming theme songs!

The opening theme song is "Kurakura" by Ado, and the ending theme song is "Todome no Ichigeki" by Vaundy, featuring Cory Wong.

Adapted from Tatsuya Endo's manga series, Spy x Family revolves around a spy codenamed Twilight, who is ordered to create a fake family to facilitate his latest mission. Unbeknownst to him, however, the woman he chooses as his “wife” is actually an assassin, the little girl he “adopts” is a telepath, and even the family dog has the ability to predict the future.

The first season premiered in April 2022, airing 25 episodes in two parts.

A film titled Spy x Family the Film: Code: White is also set to premiere on December 22, 2023.

Spy x Family Season 2 will air in Japan from October 7, 2023.

©Tatsuya Endo/Shueisha, Spy x Family Production Committee
Adapted with permission from Anime!Anime!

Hit horror anime Chainsaw Man's stage play adaptation has premiered in Tokyo, and now fans can see what Denji and the crew look like with a set of snapshots!

Directed and written by Fumiya Matsuzaki, the play debuted on September 16 at the Galaxy Theatre in Tokyo.

Naotake Tsuchiya stars as Denji.

Mizuki Umetsu plays Aki Hayakawa.

Mahiru Coda plays Power.

Aya Hirano plays Makima.

See the rest of the snapshots at the full album below this article.

Originally created by Tatsuki Fujimoto, Chainsaw Man follows a young man named Denji who becomes a devil hunter in order to pay off his dead father's debts to the yakuza. After falling victim to a plot by the yakuza, he merges with his demon dog Pochita to become Chainsaw Man.

The manga was originally serialized from 2018 to 2020, with Part 2 also coming out in July 2022. Fujimoto's other recent projects include one-shot manga titles Look Back, Goodbye, Eri and Futsu ni Kiitekure.

Produced by MAPPA, the highly anticipated anime adaptation aired from October to December 2022.

Chainsaw Man: The Stage Production will be performed in Tokyo until October 1 at the Galaxy Theater in Tokyo. It is also set to run from October 6 to 9, 2023, at Kyoto Theater.

©Tatsuki Fujimoto/Shueisha, Chainsaw Man: The Stage Production Committee
Adapted with permission from Anime!Anime!

Fantasy anime My Happy Marriage is officially getting a second season!

The new season was announced after the twelfth and final episode, which aired on September 20. Info on the airdate is yet to come.

Celebratory illustrations by Tsukiho Tsukioka, the original light novel's artist, and Rito Kosaka, the manga adaptation's artist, have also been revealed.

Originally a light novel series written by Akumi Agitogi and illustrated by Tsukiho Tsukioka, My Happy Marriage follows an engaged couple in a fantasy version of 19th-century Japan. After a mistreated young woman named Miyo Saimori is betrothed to Kiyoka Kudo, a famously ruthless commander, she discovers that he might just be her chance to find happiness.

The TV anime adaptation ran from July to September 2023 with 12 episodes.

©Akumi Agitogi, Tsukiho Tsukioka/KADOKAWA/My Happy Marriage Production Committee
Adapted with permission from Anime!Anime!

The legendary Godzilla franchise's latest film, Godzilla Minus One, has revealed a violent visual and fifteen snapshots in addition to a November 3 release for Japan!

November 3 not only marks Godzilla Day in Japan, but will also be the iconic kaiju's 70th anniversary.

Set in post-war Japan, the new film is directed by Takashi Yamazaki, who has previously led acclaimed titles like The Eternal Zero and Stand by Me Doraemon. It will star Ryunosuke Kamiki and Minami Hamabe as a young couple.

Other confirmed cast members include Yuki Yamada as Shiro Mizushima, Munetaka Aoki as Sosaku Tachibana, and Hidetaka Yoshioka as Kenji Noda.

For more snapshots, check out the full album below this article.

Godzilla Minus One will be released in Japan on November 3, 2023. It will also be screened in North America from December 1, 2023.

©2023 TOHO CO., LTD.
Adapted with permission from Anime!Anime!

Just two weeks after its release, Netflix's live action adaptation of One Piece is set to receive a second season!

The show premiered with eight episodes on August 31, 2023, going on to become Netflix's No. 1 title globally.

Based on Eiichiro Oda's phenomenally popular manga, One Piece follows the adventures of aspiring pirate Monkey D. Luffy and his crew, the Straw Hat Pirates, as he pursues his lifelong dream of becoming the King of Pirates.

To celebrate the new season, Netflix released a special video starring Oda, who also served as a creative consultant for the live action series. With the help of a trusty Den Den Mushi, he thanked new and longtime fans alike and commented that everyone's hard work was "truly worth it."

In addition to Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy, the live action cast includes Mackenyu Arata as Roronoa Zoro, Emily Rudd as Nami, Jacob Romero Gibson as Usopp, and Taz Skylar as Sanji.

Netflix's live action One Piece is currently streaming worldwide.

©Eiichiro Oda/Shueisha
Adapted with permission from Anime!Anime!

Hit anime Spy x Family is officially returning with Season 2 on October 7!

The announcement was accompanied by key visuals starring Anya (and her iconic expression) surrounded by her friends and family.

A pair of "cool" and "comical" teaser visuals centered on the unconventional family was also released.

Adapted from Tatsuya Endo's manga series, Spy x Family revolves around a spy codenamed Twilight, who is ordered to create a fake family to facilitate his latest mission. Unbeknownst to him, however, the woman he chooses as his “wife” is actually an assassin, the little girl he “adopts” is a telepath, and even the family dog has the ability to predict the future.

The first season premiered in April 2022, airing 25 episodes in two parts.

A film titled Spy x Family the Film: Code: White is also set to premiere on December 22, 2023.

Spy x Family Season 2 will air in Japan from October 7, 2023.

©Tatsuya Endo/Shueisha, Spy x Family Production Committee
Adapted with permission from Anime!Anime!

The Kyoto Soundtrack Festival, called Kyobansai, is a music festival taking place in Kyoto on September 16, 2023. This festival celebrates anime soundtrack and the very important role it plays in creating a series’ atmosphere. Six legendary composers are participating in the Kyobansai with an amazing roster of series under their belts ranging from Jujutsu Kaisen to Free!

The composers participating in the Kyobansai have graciously agreed to answer TOM’s interview questions so they could share their points of view with all of their international fans! We’re splitting up their answers into two articles with the second part being posted next week, so make sure to check both out once they’re up!

Part 1 features Makoto Miyazaki, composer of soundtracks for series like Spy x Family, One Punch Man, and Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead; Yuki Hayashi, who has composed for My Hero Academia, Haikyu!!, and Karakuri Circus; and Taku Iwasaki, known for Bungo Stray Dogs, Gurren Lagann, and Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency.

TOM: What’s your process when composing for a new series?

Miyazaki: First, I read the original work and any scripts that are ready at that point very thoroughly. I also mark down any lines that stand out to me as being very important in the story. After that, we have meetings where we discuss how certain scenes and lines will be animated. If the director has a theme (type of genre and/or instruments) that they want to use for the story, I’ll follow that, and I’ll start building the musical story in my head, such as how to reuse the main melody and how the music will develop from the first scene to the last. By the time I’m ready to actually work on it, I’ve finished most of it in my head, so then all I have left is to refine it.

Hayashi: I read the original work first, then I make sounds that I believe fit the image in my head, the series’ universe, and what I think are cool and emotional.

Iwasaki: After reading the script and the storyboard and looking over any notes I get from the director, I make a composition chart and a template for the digital audio workspace before I start composing the music.

TOM: Has your process changed since the beginning of your career, and if so, how?

Miyazaki: This sounds like a contradiction, but I’ve stopped thinking of music as music. I’ve started purely adding music to go with the characters’ emotions and the scenes. I play music as if I’m speaking. It might be more accurate to say that the music is explaining the scene in more detail. In the past, I used to use musical theory to compose music, and while that is in no way meaningless, I realized that it wasn’t a creative way to produce an artwork.

Hayashi: Before I worked on anime, I worked a lot on live-action films. In comparison to then, I now make music with a richer and more colorful variation of musical genres, tempos, and instruments.

Iwasaki: Lately, I haven’t written my own music scores. Of course, I do orchestrate it. I used to compose, write the music, and play and record the synthesizers all by myself, but now I hire assistants for tasks not related to composition.

TOM: Where do you find inspiration for your work?

Miyazaki: I love watching movies, so I feel like I’m naturally impacted by that. Because of my job, no matter where I am, I notice the music. Music is indispensable to our daily lives, so no matter where I am, such as the supermarket or with my children at an amusement park, I’m able to find musical hints.
Also, I do my best to compose music entirely in my head without playing a single instrument. If I use an instrument, my performance quirks will come out in the music, so I can’t make any fresh sounds while the music inside my mind is infinite.

Hayashi: It’s very difficult to find the sound that fits a series.
There are some times when the answer flashes easily in my head, but it often doesn’t happen that way. When it doesn’t, I worry about it for a long time.
As a result, I get plenty of choices, and eventually the perfect answer that suits my desire comes to me like a complete jigsaw puzzle coming together.
I’m always thinking about the series to make that happen. It’s a struggle, but it’s also very fun since I’m doing what I like to do.

Iwasaki: I crawl around in my own brain looking for music.

TOM: What series do you have any particular emotion toward or was a particularly stand-out experience?

Miyazaki: That would be One Punch Man. At the time, I was struggling a little with a fixation on the kind of music that soundtracks should use. However, when I was meeting with the director of OPM, he told me to forget about making a soundtrack and instead to enjoy making music that I thought was cool.
As a result, I ended up making music that many people have praised. It made me learn that, to make people enjoy and feel something for the series, I need to enjoy myself, too.

Hayashi: There are a lot of series that fit that for me, so this question was hard to answer, but I like Run with the Wind and Insomniacs After School.
I’m often in charge of exciting and aggressive series, so I enjoyed looking for the perfect music that suited these series and their quiet yet strong faith that gradually swells with each episode and the beautiful, transient world views.

Iwasaki: Gurren Lagann. The work that was least suited to my musical style was my most financially successful one.

TOM: Have you noticed any new trends in anime/game OSTs?

Miyazaki: I think people are using more electric sounds lately. The sounds of synthesizers and orchestras have a high affinity, so you can create a deep sound. Recently, the boundary between the frequency bands of synthesizers and orchestras has disappeared, and synthesizers have been able to make a more organic sound while orchestras are able to make a denser sound.

Hayashi: There are more composers from all over the world now, and there are many more concerts featuring background music as well.
Both of these things are great, so I want both of them to continue increasing.

Iwasaki: There has been an increase in the use of different pulses as well as drone music.

TOM: How do you feel about participating in events such as the Kyobansai?

Miyazaki: This is a chance to have more people listen to anime soundtracks as well as a chance to have people fall in love with series that use those soundtracks. I believe we have a duty to connect this chance with the next generation.

Hayashi: The Kyobansai is an event that I want to stake my life on to bring Japanese soundtracks to the world. I want even just one more person to know all about our unique music coming from Kyoto and Japan to the world.

Iwasaki: I hope it goes off without a hitch.

TOM: What have you been listening to lately in your private life?

Miyazaki: I often listen to the Black Adam soundtrack. These are a little older now, but also the soundtrack for Netflix’s The Witcher and 2WEI, a composer duo who make epic-style music.

Hayashi: I listen to music a lot for work, so I don’t really listen to music in my private life. However, for my son’s summer homework, I helped him write and record a song so I’ve been listening to it for so long it’s constantly stuck in my head.
Check out his son's song here!

Iwasaki: Kendrick Lamar, The Lounge Lizards, and Ligeti.

TOM: How does it feel knowing that your work has reached so many people outside of Japan?

Miyazaki: I’m delighted. It makes me feel that composers are able to bring not just music, but also intense feelings to people all around the world regardless of borders or language, which then makes me believe that this is the best job in the world. From the bottom of my heart, I’m happy to be working as an anime soundtrack composer.

Hayashi: I never imagined that this would happen in my life, so I’m very grateful to anime, one of the types of pop culture that Japan is proudest of. I also want to continue working hard so that more people can know about soundtracks as music. Thank you very much!

Iwasaki: It is not that my music reached the whole world. It was anime and anime music that spread around the world.

Thank you so much to these three for answering our questions! We’re looking forward to seeing them perform at the Kyobansai and for any new projects he and the other performers will work on in the future. Don’t forget that part 2 of this interview will be available on TOM News next week!
Now, if you’re interested in watching the Kyobansai yourself, you can buy online tickets from anywhere in the world on the English homepage here.
Please show your support for these composers by watching the show wherever you are in the world!

Little sisters are a vital part of anime culture, whether they're on good terms with their older siblings, being protected, or doing the protecting themselves. Even if you're not a fan of 'em, there's got to be someone who comes to mind when you hear "little sister." Anime!Anime! took a survey to find out just who that is, so let's see who's the biggest little sister this year!

10. Nemu Aohitsugi, Hypnosis Mic: Division Rap Battle
9. Gin, Bungo Stray Dogs
8. Suguha Kirigaya/Leafa, Sword Art Online
7. Komachi Hikigaya, My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU
6. Raiha Uesugi, The Quintessential Quintuplets
5. Ruby Hoshino, Oshi no Ko
4. Flandre Scarlet, Touhou Project

While My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU's Komachi took the crown in 2017, it looks like she's fallen down the ranks. Which little sisters have taken the top spots five years on?

3. Kagura, Gintama

This fiery little sis earned third place with 8% of the overall vote! Kagura may badmouth and clash with her brother Kamui every time they meet, but it's clear that they genuinely care for each other.

2. Naomi Tanizaki, Bungo Stray Dogs

【アイコンプレゼントキャンペーン】毎週金曜13時にツイッターアイコンをプレゼント♪第8弾は谷崎ナオミ！公式サイトでも配布中です！ https://t.co/3Zqco5c5Fp">https://t.co/3Zqco5c5Fp https://twitter.com/hashtag/bungosd?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#bungosd https://t.co/qBDWmT1hJb">pic.twitter.com/qBDWmT1hJb

— アニメ「文豪ストレイドッグス」公式 (@bungosd_anime) https://twitter.com/bungosd_anime/status/766484850899464192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 19, 2016

The little sister of Junichi Tanizaki, Naomi took second place - beating Ryunosuke Akutagawa's sister Gin - with 9% of the vote. She may seem a little too close to her big bro, but we have to admire her sheer devotion and courage when she shielded him from a bullet.

1. Nezuko Kamado, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba

Aaaand Nezuko bursts into first place with 16%! The unwavering love between this little sis and her big brother Tanjiro is what saves them and countless others despite her being turned into a demon.

What did you think of this year's little sister ranking? Let's see what happens next year!

Adapted with permission from Anime!Anime!

Isekai anime The Eminence in Shadow has revealed that its second season will premiere on October 4!

A promo video, key visual, and info on new cast members was also released.

Saori Hayami and Miku Ito will play Elisabeth and 559 respectively.

Originally a light novel series by Daisuke Aizawa, The Eminence in Shadow follows a boy who has been reborn in a fantasy world after death by truck. In pursuing his goal of manipulating the world from the shadows, he becomes entangled in a complex power struggle.

The TV anime adaptation's first season aired from October 2022 to February 2023 with 12 episodes.

The Eminence in Shadow Season 2 will air from October 4, 2023.

©Daisuke Aizawa, KADOKAWA/Shadow Garden
Adapted with permission from Anime!Anime!

Animation legend Hayao Miyazaki's latest film, The Boy and the Heron, has revealed its very first teaser trailer!

Produced by Studio Ghibli with music by Joe Hisaishi, the film premiered in Japan on July 14, 2023, without any traditional publicity, leaving fans with only an official poster.

It then made its international premiere on September 7 at the Toronto International Film Festival, and is now set to be released in the US on December 8 by GKIDS Films.

Soma Santoki stars as Mahito Maki alongside Masaki Suda as the Grey Heron and Aimyon as Himi.

The Boy and the Heron is currently screening in Japan. Its US release is set for December 8, 2023.

©2023 Studio Ghibli
Source: GKIDS Films YouTube channel