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Vatican Miracle Examiner Anime's Original Anime DVD Previewed in Video
posted on by Karen Ressler
Kadokawa revealed with a preview video on Friday that an original anime DVD (OAD) will ship with the 17th volume of Rin Fujiki's Vatican Miracle Examiner (Vatican Kiseki Chōsakan) mystery novel series in April 2018. The OAD adapts Fujiki's "Majo no Soup" (Witch's Soup) short story from the 11th volume, and focuses on a questionable recipe and an "unexpected side" to Hiraga and Roberto.
The staff revealed at AnimeJapan in March that the Vatican Miracle Examiner anime will have 12 television episodes and one original video anime.
The television anime premiered on July 7 at 10:30 p.m. in Japan on WOWOW, and will also air on Tokyo MX, KBS Kyoto, TV Aichi, Sun TV, and BS 11. Amazon's Anime Strike is streaming the series in the United States and HIDIVE is streaming the series in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Central America, and South America.
A flyer from Kadokawa's booth at AnimeJapan 2017 describes the story in English:
To detect lies, refuse fakes, and reach the miracle of God - that is our mission as Vatican Miracle Examiners. Hiraga, a scientific genius and Roberto, an expert on the decryption of cryptography and ancient documents are not only good partners but also "Miracle Examiners" belonging to Vatican branch. They are secret examiners, who are requested to examine and identify the authenticity of miracles from all over the world. They encounter strange events at the places they visit for examination, such as an emerging stigma and an image of the Virgin Mary shedding tears. A bizarre incident suddenly occurs while the authenticity of a miracle is identified. The case file of the genius priest duo has just begun!
The cast members include:
Nobuhiko Okamoto as Josef Kō Hiraga (left in picture below), a genius scientist, and Junichi Suwabe as Roberto Nicholas (right), an archives and cryptanalysis expert. The two work as a team as the Vatican's "miracle examiners," traveling the world to investigate the authenticity of claims of miracles.
Masashi Ebara as Archbishop Saul, Hiraga and Roberto's pious superior, who is one of the few people in the modern era to have experienced an exorcism.
Koji Yusa as Priest Julia, a beautiful young priest who works with the poor in the republic of Sofma in Africa. He is revered like a saint by them and Hiraga is deeply impressed by his devotion.
Hiroki Yasumoto as Bill Suskins, an FBI investigator who cooperates with Roberto and Hiraga on cases. He's a devout Catholic who respects the two greatly.
Tsubasa Yonaga as Ryōta Hiraga, Hiraga's younger brother who is receiving medical care in a hospital in Germany.
Yoshitomo Yonetani (Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma, Brave King GaoGaiGar) is directing the anime at J.C. Staff (The Disastrous Life of Saiki K., Little Busters!). Kazunori Iwakura (Aria the Scarlet Ammo, Ai Yori Aoshi) is designing the characters, and Seishi Minakami (A Certain Scientific Railgun, Heaven's Memo Pad) is in charge of series composition.
SCREEN mode will perform the show's opening theme song "Mysterium," and Nobuhiko Okamoto will perform the ending theme song.
Fujiki launched the series under Kadokawa's Horror Bunko label in 2011. Thores Shibamoto (Trinity Blood character design, Attack on Titan: Before the Fall illustrator) designs the covers of the novels. The novels have more than one million copies in print.
Anju Hino launched a manga adaptation in Comic Gene's September issue last August, and the first compiled book volume shipped on February 27. Eiji Kaneda previously drew a two-volume manga adaptation, and Kadokawa published the second compiled volume in January 2014.
