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Sentai Filmworks Licenses The Magnificent Kotobuki Original TV Anime (Updated)

Sentai Filmworks announced on Monday that it has licensed director Tsutomu Mizushima and scriptwriter Michiko Yokote's original television anime project The Magnificent KOTOBUKI (Kōya no Kotobuki Hikōtai) for the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Spain, and Portugal. It will simulcast the anime in select digital outlets and will release the anime on home video.

HIDIVE announced that it will simulcast the series beginning on January 13 at 9:00 a.m. EST.

The anime will premiere in Japan on Tokyo MX on January 13 at 10:30 p.m. The series will also air on TV Aichi, MBS, and BS11.

The show stars:

• Sayumi Suzushiro as Kyile
• Eri Yukimura as Emma
• Sayaka Nakaya as Kate
• Asami Seto as Reona
• Hibiku Yamamura as Zara
• Miyu Tomita as Chika
• Akiko Yajima as Madame Lulu
• Keiji Fujiwara as Saneatsu
• Rumi Okubo as Natsuo
• Yōji Ueda as Johnny
• Nao Tōyama as RIRIKO
• Misaki Yoshioka as Anna
• Miho Okasaki as Maria
• Miyuri Shimabukuro as Ady
• Aoi Koga as Betty
• Natsumi Kawaida as Cindy

The anime's story will take place in a barren frontier where people trade goods with each other in order to help each other survive. The Kotobuki Squadron are bodyguards for hire, led by a strict but beautiful squadron leader, an unreliable commanding officer, and a true artisan of a crew chief. Alongside pilots who don't lack for personality, they take to the air in dogfights, letting the engine noise of their Hayabusa fighters ring out in the skies.

Mizushima (Girls und Panzer, Shirobako) serves as both the director and sound director for the anime, with Yokote (Shirobako, Prison School, Cowboy Bebop, Rurouni Kenshin) credited for series scripts. Hiroyuki Kanbe (Oreimo) is the assistant director. Hidari (Natsu-iro Kiseki, Santa Company, Phantom in the Twilight) drew the original character designs, and Shou Sugai (The Princess and the Pilot, The Sky Crawlers key animation) is adapting those designs for animation. Shigeyuki Ninomiya (Girls und Panzer, Shirobako, Kuromukuro) is credited for military supervision, while Tetsuya Nakano, Hideyuki Kikuchi (Vampire Hunter D), and Jirō Tokihama are credited for military setting. Digital Frontier is credited for production, while GEMBA is producing the animation. Wao World is handling key animation production.

ZAQ will perform the opening theme song "Sora no Ne" (Sound of the Sky), while the six main cast members will perform the ending theme song "Tsubasa o Motsu Mono-tachi" (Those Who Have Wings). ZAQ is composing and writing the lyrics for the ending song.

Source: Press release

Update: HIDIVE stream added.