News

Battle Spirits Double Drive Anime's Video Shows Main Staff, Story

The official Battle Spirits YouTube channel began streaming a promotional video for Battle Spirits Double Drive, the latest television anime series inspired by Bandai's Battle Spirits card game, on Monday. The video describes the anime's story, reveals the staff, and previews the two new starter decks for the card game.

Kunihisa Sugishima is once again directing the anime, after directing the previous Battle Spirits Burning Soul anime. Katsumi Hasegawa is also returning from Battle Spirits Burning Soul to handle series composition. Manga creator Naoki Iwamoto (Magico) drafted the original character designs, while Yoshinori Yumoto, a key animator in previous Battle Spirits series, will redesign the characters for animation.

The cast includes (note: the character name romanizations have not yet been officially revealed):

Makoto Koichi as Shunta Mogami

Mutsumi Tamura as Yoku Albatrosa

Sawako Hata as Eto Etoshinmori VIII

Jun Fukuyama as Tatsumi

Kotori Koiwai as Mei Merryhada

Junichi Suwabe as Sandrat

Misaki Watada as Kento Mogami

Tomokazu Sugita as Toshio Mogami

Battle Spirits Double Drive will premiere on six TV Tokyo network stations on April 6.

The story of the anime begins when the protagonist, a red-haired elementary school boy named Shunta Mogami who loves the Battle Spirits game, is transported by a light from a Battle Spirits card to Spirits World, the origin of all Battle Spirits. He meets a girl named Eto, who claims to have summoned him to Spirits World in order to prevent its destruction at the hands of the revived Evil God-King, who once plotted the destruction of Spirits World before being defeated and sealed away. Together with the confident, green-deck-wielding Yoku Albatrosa, who also came from another world, Shunta sets out to find the twelve God-Kings whose power originally sealed the Evil God-King.

Masato Ichishiki (Battle Spirits: Sword Eyes, Battle Spirits Saikyō Ginga Ultimate Zero) will launch the manga version of Battle Spirits Double Drive in the May issue of Saikyō Jump on April 1. Yoshikazu Amami ended the last Battle Spirits manga, Battle Spirits Burning Soul, in the March issue earlier this month. The March issue also published a prologue of Ichishiki's Battle Spirits Double Drive manga.

The Battle Spirits anime franchise launched with the 50-episode Battle Spirits: Shōnen Toppa Bashin series on September 7, 2008. The anime adapted Bandai's original trading card game, in which cards represent dragons, demons, birds, insects, and other spirits that the players can control in battles. Bandai imported the game to America in 2009.

The current season, titled Battle Spirits Burning Soul, premiered in Japan on April 1. A New Year's special united the protagonists of the first Battle Spirits anime and the most recent Battle Spirits anime on January 6.