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Aniplex USA Adds Sword Art Online, Blast of Tempest, Magi Anime

North American anime publisher Aniplex of America announced at its New York Comic Con panel on Friday that it has licensed the Sword Art Online, Blast of Tempest, and Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic television anime series.

Crunchyroll is streaming all three series in various countries outside of Japan as they air. Magi is also streaming on Hulu.

Sword Art Online adapts Reki Kawahara's (Accel World) light novel series of the same name. The story revolves around a boy named Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya who enters a virtual-reality, massively multi-player online (MMO) world called "Sword Art Online." There is no escape from this world unless the player clears the game, but "game over" means the death of the player. The half-year television series premiered in July.

Blast of Tempest adapts Kyou Shirodaira, Arihide Sano, and Ren Saizaki's fantasy mystery manga. The story centers around Yoshino Takigawa (played by Kōki Uchiyama), an ordinary high school student with a mysterious friend named Mahiro Fuwa (Toshiyuki Toyonaga). Mahiro made a deal with a witch named Hakaze to hunt down the killers of his parents and sister. Now Mahiro is missing, and Hakaze confronts Yoshino. Yoshino finds himself involved in a crisis that may doom the entire world.

Studio Bones is producing the project. Masahiro Andō (Sword of the Stranger, Hana-Saku Iroha) is directing the series, and Mari Okada (Black Butler, anohana, Hana-Saku Iroha) is serving as series script editor. The anime premiered in Japan on October 4.

Magi re-imagines tales from the classic story One Thousand and One Nights (also known as Arabian Nights). Shinobu Ohtaka, the creator of Sumomomo Momomo, has been serializing the manga since 2009, and Shogakukan published the 14th compiled book volume on September 18. The manga has 4.4 million copies in circulation.

Director Koji Masunari (Read or Die, Welcome to THE SPACE SHOW) is helming the anime adaptation at A-1 Pictures. Toshifumi Akai (Kokoro Connect, Sound of the Sky) is serving as the character designer and chief animation director, and Hiroyuki Yoshino (Accel World, Guilty Crown, My-HiME) is handling the scripts. Shiro Sagisu (Bleach, Evangelion, Berserk films) is composing the music. The visual-kei band SID is performing the opening theme song "V.I.P."

The all-star cast includes Kaori Ishihara as Aladdin, Yūki Kaji as Ali Baba, Haruka Tomatsu as Morgiana, Daisuke Ono as Sinbad, Ryōhei Kimura as Judal, and Toshiyuki Morikawa as Ūgo-kun. Magi premiered in Japan on October 7.