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Persona 4 Golden Gets TV Anime by A-1 Pictures in July

The staff and cast of the role-playing games by Atlus, including voice actors Daisuke Namikawa (Persona 4's Yū Narukami) and Tomokazu Seki (Kanji Tatsumi), announced during Friday's "Dark Hour TV ~Persona Hour~" live program on Niconico that a television anime adaptation of its Persona 4 The Golden (Persona 4 Golden) PS Vita video game has been green-lit. Persona 4 the Golden Animation will premiere in July.

According to the staff, the new anime will retell the events of the first television anime series, but will include new character Marie.

The official website outlines the story:

Spring. A rural town, far removed from the city, that spends its time peacefully. A boy arrives at Yaso Inaba Station, where the cherry blossom petals are falling. His name is Yū Narukami. Due to his family's situation, he moves to Inaba to live with his uncle, and attends Yasogami High School.

From there, his school life begins: The shopping mall after school. The serial murders happening in the town. The Midnight Channel that comes on late at night...

What days are waiting for Yū and his friends "this time"?

The program announced the staff for the anime:

Chief Director: Seiji Kishi
Director: Tomohisa Taguchi
Original Character Design/Persona Design: Shigenori Soejima
Persona Design Concept: Kazuma Kaneko
Character Design: Masaru Shindō
Music: Shoji Meguro, Tetsuya Kobayashi
Series Script Composition: Jun Kumagai
Animation Production: A-1 Pictures

The program also announced the cast, which will reunite the game and television anime's cast:

Daisuke Namikawa as Yū Narukami





Showtaro Morikubo as Yosuke Hanamura
Yui Horie as Chie Satōnaka
Ami Koshimizu as Yukiko Amagi
Tomokazu Seki as Kanji Tatsumi
Rie Kugimiya as Rise Kujikawa
Kappei Yamaguchi as Kuma (Teddy)
Romi Park as Naoto Shirogane
Unshou Ishizuka as Ryōtarō Dōjima
Akemi Kanda as Nanako Dōjima
Mitsuaki Madono as Tōru Adachi
Isamu Tanonaka as Igor (special performance)
Sayaka Ōhara as Margaret
Kana Hanazawa as Marie

Kana Hanazawa will reprise her role from the Persona 4 The Golden PS Vita game.

This week happens to be Golden Week, a string of Spring holidays in Japan.

Persona 4 The Golden is an expanded PlayStation Vita port of the original Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 video game that was released for the PlayStation 2 in 2008. It features remastered visuals and additional voiced dialogue. New content also include an online dungeon rescue feature, new Personas, and a new opening animation sequence with a song composed by Shoji Meguro.

The game shipped in Japan in June 2012, and Atlus released the game in North America under the title Persona 4 Golden later that year.

The original Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 game already inspired a television anime, Persona 4 The Animation, that AIC ASTA produced from October 2011 to March 2012. Sentai licensed the anime for North America, and The Anime Network streamed the anime as it aired in Japan.

Images © Atlus © Sega/P4GA Committee