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Angel Beats!, Randys Promo Videos Streamed (Updated)

The official website for Visual Art's/Key and Aniplex's Angel Beats! television anime series has begun streaming its fourth and fifth promotional videos on Wednesday. (As with previous videos, the new videos contain no animated footage.) The new videos confirm that the P.A. Works anime studio (CANAAN, True Tears) is producing the project. Seiji Kishi (Magikano, My Bride is a Mermaid, Tentai Senshi Sunred) is directing off a story created by Jun Maeda. Katsuzō Hirata (Cosplay Complex, Hand Maid May) is overseeing the animation and adapting the original character designs by Na-Ga. Satoki Iida (Magikano, My Bride is a Mermaid, Tentai Senshi Sunred) is the sound director.

The trailer for the live-action film adaptation of Kōichi Nagata's Randys manga began streaming at the YouTube website last Friday. The story, which originally ran in Shonengahosha's Young King magazine, follows a street fighter named Ran Sakurai (Yosuke Kawamura) and his friend Kenji (Yosuke Asari) as they run a Randys benriya, or a problem-solving contracting service. They name the service after the baseball player Randy Bass who led the Hanshin Tigers to the Japan Series championship in 1985. However, Takeshi (Hisato Izaki) of the Giants gang is back in town and he wants to settle a four-year-old score with Sakurai. The film opens in Japan on November 14.

Sources: Saishin Anime Jōhō, Nippon Cinema

Images © Visual Art's/Key © Visual Art's/Key/Angel Beats! Project
© 2009 Kōichi Nagata, Shonengahosha/Randys Production Committee

Update: Hirata notes on his official website's forum that he is not working on Strike Witches 2 because he is working on the Angel Beats! anime. Hirata was a character animation director on the first Strike Witches anime series.