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Caligula Anime's Trailer Streamed With English Subtitles

The official English YouTube channel for Pony Canyon began streaming an English-subtitled version of the trailer for Caligula, the television anime adaptation of FuRyu's The Caligula Effect game, on Monday. The video also offers subtitles on the song "Distorted † Happiness (Anime Re:Arrange Ver.)" performed by Reina Ueda.

Seattle's Sakura-Con will host the world premiere on March 30. The anime will premiere on Tokyo MX and other networks in April.

FuRyu's Takuya Yamanaka is credited with the original concept. Jun'ichi Wada (WorldEnd, The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan, Ragnastrike Angels) is directing the anime at Satelight. Touko Machida (The IDOLM@STER, A Centaur's Life) is in charge of series composition. Kenji Tanabe (Good Luck Girl!) is designing the characters based on Oguchi's original designs. Satoshi Motoyama (Dagashi Kashi, Ms. Koizumi loves ramen noodles) is sound director. Tsukasa Masuko, Yasuharu Takanashi, Funta7, RegaSound, and Kenji Iwata are composing the music, and Pony Canyon is producing the music.

Chiharu Sawashiro and Shunsuke Takeuchi are performing the opening theme song "Paradigm Box" as their characters. Rie Murakawa, Ari Ozawa, Rie Takahashi, and Minami Tanaka are performing the ending theme song "Hypno" as their characters. The single CDs for both songs will ship on May 16. In addition, the Caligula Game Sōnyūka Anime Re:Arrange Ver. Mini Album CD, which features nine game songs rearranged for the anime, will ship on April 18.

The anime retains the main voice cast from the games, but some roles are different. The anime's cast includes:

• Chiharu Sawashiro as Ritsu Shikishima (the male and female protagonists have no default name in the games)
• Reina Ueda as μ
• Shunsuke Takeuchi as Shōgo Satake
• Yūichirō Umehara as Izuru Minezawa
• Yoshimasa Hosoya as Kotarō Tomoei
• Rie Murakawa as Kotono Kashiwaba
• Ari Ozawa as Naruko Morita
• Rie Takahashi as Mifue Shinohara
• Minami Tanaka as Suzuna Kagura
• Mai Fuchigami as Marie Mizuguchi
• Asami Shimoda as Aria
• Shōta Aoi as KagiP
• Emi Nitta as SweetP
• Yumiri Hanamori as Shōnen Doll
• Eriko Nakamura as Mirei
• Sōma Saitō as IkeP
• Yūma Uchida as Shadow Knife
• Yuka Ōtsubo as Sone

In the original game's story, written by Tadashi Satomi, a virtual idol known as μ performs user-inputted songs and gains self-awareness through exposure to users' bitter feelings and dissatisfaction toward reality. Wanting to save humanity — which she believes is continuously suffering — she lures people to a virtual reality world called Mobius with her songs. She then imprisons them in Mobius, thinking they will be free from the suffering of reality and that all their wishes will come true. The game follows the nine members of the "Going Home Club," a club that was formed because the characters want to escape from Mobius and go home. The game's title refers to the "Caligula Effect," which is a pattern of behavior where one wants to see or do something more if it is denied to them.

The in-game composer characters are represented by real independent music composers, including 40mP (KagiP), OSTER PROJECT (Sweet P), Polyphonic Branch (Shonen Doll), CyoucyoP (Mirei), Asa (IkeP), 164 (Shadow Knife), and cosMo@BosoP (Sone).

The game shipped in Japan for the PlayStation Vita in June 2016. The game launched in North America on May 2, and in Europe on May 9. The release was digital only in the West. The original game is getting a remake for the PlayStation 4 that will ship in Japan on May 17.