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Kyō, Koi o Hajimemasu Manga Gets New Anime in February (Updated)
posted on by Egan Loo
Kanan Minami's shōjo manga Kyō, Koi o Hajimemasu will spawn a new original video anime (OVA) project which will ship on February 25, 2011. French Kiss, the spinoff female idol group composed of AKB48 members Yuki Kashiwagi, Aki Takajō, and Asuka Kuramochi, will provide their second single "If" as the OVA's theme song. French Kiss's debut CD single, "Zutto Mae kara," has sold 60,000 copies since September 8.
The manga's story centers around Tsubaki Hibino, a girl who is indifferent to both romance and fashion, even though she loves giving other people adorable hairstyles. On the first day of high school, she happened to sit next to Kyōta, a mean-spirited boy who teases her. In retaliation, she spontaneously pulls out scissors and cuts off his long tresses of hair. Thus begins the long love-hate relationship between Tsubaki and Kyōta.
French Kiss will also be acting in two separate projects based on the manga. The January 19 CD single for "if" will include an original live-action drama based on Kyō, Koi o Hajimemasu. The drama will recount the bittersweet love stories of three girls, and it is set one year before the manga's story in the same school. French Kiss will then record voices for a "digital comic," in which sound effects, voices, and limited animation are added to the manga's images. This digital comic project is different from the February 25 anime release. There will be three releases of the single: a standalone CD, a CD with the drama on DVD, and a CD with the digital comic on DVD.
The manga already inspired two anime DVDs which the publisher Shogakukan bundled with the manga's ninth and 10th volumes this year. The manga has been running in Shogakukan's Sho-Comi magazine since 2008, and over five million copies of the compiled book volumes have been published.
Update: More background information added.
Update 2: The February anime DVD will contain the two previously released anime episodes with a new opening animation sequence. Source: Comic Natalie
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