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'Virtualsan-Looking' TV Anime for VTubers Premieres in January

The "Dwango Anime Kaigi (Working Title)" event announced on Tuesday that a new television anime titled Virtual-san wa Miteiru (Virtualsan-Looking) will premiere on Tokyo MX and other channels on January 9 at 24:00 (effectively January 10 at midnight). The series features over 30 virtual YouTubers or VTubers — characters popularized via videos on streaming services and user-generated content sites.

The virtual stars of the series include (in the order they appear in the teaser movie above) Mirai Akari, Dennō Shōjo Siro, Tsukino Mito, Tanaka Hime, Suzuki Hina, and Nekomiya Hinata. These six characters form a special unit called "Virtual Real" to perform for the series. Also starring is enka singer and more recently, "virtual grandmother" star Sachiko Kobayashi.

Daigo Abe is directing the anime at Lide, a new production studio established by Dwango, Kadokawa, Khara, INCS Toenter, and Asobi System Holdings for virtual anime and virtual characters. Daisuke Yokosawa is serving as "unifying producer," and Shinnosuke Suzuki is the production producer. Anime director Hideaki Anno (Evangelion) contributed ideas to the project; the Virtual Real group members wear the uniforms from Evangelion.

Yasutaka Nakata (Five Numbers!, Modest Heroes, Crayon Shin-chan movies' theme songs), a producer for such musical acts as Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and Perfume, is composing the background music and the two theme songs. Kizuna Ai sings the theme song for the first six episodes, and the "Virtual Real" group sings the theme song for the last six episodes.

The series will have 12 24-minute episodes. Each episode will be an omnibus of segments, each highlighting different VTubers. The series will stream on Niconico Live and Periscope simultaneously with the television broadcast. The main Niconico service, d Anime Store, and other streaming services will then debut the episodes on Wednesdays at 24:30 (effectively Thursdays at 12:30 a.m.)

One regular segment of the series will introduce "dream girls," created by fans with images and videos from the VTuber creation app Custom Cast and then submitted to the series via Twitter.

Source: Virtualsan Looking anime's official website, Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web via Hachima Kikō

Update: Lide's information added. Thanks, Kamieichi