News

Granblue Fantasy Anime's 1st TV Ad Previews Bump of Chicken Song

The official website for the anime of Cygames' Granblue Fantasy smartphone game began streaming the anime's first television commercial on Friday. Like the second promotional video, the commercial previews BUMP OF CHICKEN's theme song "Go." (Note: The YouTube video on the official website is region-locked to Japan.)

The website also revealed a poster for the Zankutinzeru-Hen (Zankutinzeru Arc) special that will debut on the Tokyo MX television station and AbemaTV streaming service in Japan on January 21, before the main television series. The television series will premiere in April after a delay.

The cast includes:

Yūki Ono as Gran
Nao Tōyama as Lyria
Rie Kugimiya as Vyrn
Miyuki Sawashiro as Katalina
Hiroaki Hirata as Rackam
Yukari Tamura as Io
Rie Tanaka as Rosetta
Emiri Katō as Sierokarte
Tomokazu Sugita as Drang
Kanae Itō as Sturm

Yuuki Itoh (Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ViVid) is directing the anime at A-1 Pictures with Ayako Kurata as anime series director. Cygames itself is credited for the scripts, and Toshifumi Akai (Kokoro Connect, Sound of the Sky) is designing the characters. Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy games I-XI), Tsutomu Narita (Final Fantasy XIV composer and arranger), and Yasunori Nishiki are composing the music.

The other staff members include:

• Chief Animation Directors: Mami Komatsu, Akira Takata, Yuki Imoto
• Prop Design: Akira Takata
• Effects Animation: Takashi Hashimoto
• Art Design: Shiho Takeuchi, Kazushi Fujii
• Art Director: Masatoshi Kai (Studio KAIMU)
• Color design: Kazuko Nakashima
• 3D Director: Shūji Shinoda (BUEMON)
• Director of Photography: Yoshihiro Sekiya (Graphinica)
• 2D Work/Special Effects: Saya Utsumi (Graphinica)
• Editing: Akinori Mishima (Graphinica)
• Sound Director: Yoichi Hayakawa
• Sound Production Tôhoku Shinsha

Aniplex of America will stream the series on Crunchyroll and Daisuki as it airs in Japan.

Cygames released Granblue Fantasy for iOS and Android devices in December 2013, and it has since registered over 12 million users. The game features music from Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu and art by Final Fantasy VI and Final Fantasy IX art designer Hideo Minaba. Cygames previously announced that the game will receive an English version.

Illustrator Kendi Oiwa (Welcome to the NHK, Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag -Kakusei-, Goth) and writer Makoto Fugetsu launched a manga adaptation of the game in April.

Thanks to Dennis R. for the embedded video.