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Bakumatsu Rock TV Anime's 1st Promo Video Previews Opening

The official website for the Bakumatsu Rock television anime began streaming the first promotional video on Monday. The video previews the opening theme song "Jack" by the visual kei and vistlip (Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's).

The website also announced that the anime will premiere on the Tokyo MX TV station on July 2 at 11:30 p.m.

The anime adapts the game of the same name, which Marvelous AQL describes as a "Bakumatsu-era revolutionary adventure where you fight by singing." Its tagline is, "Start a revolution in the Bakumatsu Era with songs!"

The story is set in the Bakumatsu era, at the end of the shoguns' rule over Japan in the middle of the 19th century. The Tokugawa shogunate uses the brainwashing "Heaven's Songs" by the top idols in Shinsengumi to subjugate the country and its people. In this Japan, writing or singing any songs besides the "Heaven's Songs" is a capital offense. Ryōma Sakamoto and the other rockers rise up and change the world with rock 'n' roll for freedom and justice.

Itsurō Kawasaki (Sengoku Basara - Samurai Kings, The Legend of the Legendary Heroes, Arc the Lad) is directing the anime at Studio DEEN. Mitsutaka Hirota (The Prince of Tennis II, X-Men) is in charge of the scripts, and Akiharu Ishii (The Prince of Tennis, Blood+, Loups=Garous - The Motion Picture) is designing the characters. The anime is retaining the main cast from the game:

Marvelous AQL released the game for PSP on February 27. The game already had several animated promotional videos:

Marvelous AQL filed for the trademark "Samurai Jam -Bakumatsu Rock-" in the United States, but Xseed Executive Vice-President Ken Berry said, "If Marvelous AQL registered it, that probably has to do with the anime. We don't have any plans to do that title."

Image © 2014 Marvelous AQL/Bakumatsu Rock Production Committee