News

Crunchyroll to Stream Bofuri Season 2, Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion, A Galaxy Next Door, The Fire Hunter, My Clueless First Friend, More Anime (Updated)

Crunchyroll announced at its panel at this year's CCXP event on Thursday that it will stream the BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense. Season 2, Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion, Chillin' in My 30s after Getting Fired from the Demon King's Army, My Home Hero, Sorcerous Stabber Orphen -Chaos in Urbanrama-, A Galaxy Next Door, The Fire Hunter, and My Clueless First Friend anime in 2023.

The second season of the anime of Yuumikan's Bofuri: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt, So I’ll Max Out My Defense light novel was originally scheduled to premiere this year, but it was moved to January 2023.

The novels' story centers on Kaede Honjō, who is invited by her friend Risa Shiramine to play a virtual reality MMO game with her. While Kaede doesn't dislike games, what she really, truly dislikes is being in pain. She creates a character named Maple, and decides to put all her points in VIT to minimize pain. As a result, she moves slowly, can't use magic, and even a rabbit can get the best of her. But as it turns out, she acquires a skill known as "Absolute Defense" as a result of her pumping points into VIT, as well as a "Counter Skill" that works against special moves. Now, with her ability to nullify all damage, she goes on adventures.

Shin Oonuma (Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya, WATAMOTE) is back to direct the anime's second season at SILVER LINK. (Mirai Minato co-directed the first season with Oonuma). Fumihiko Shimo (Anima Yell!, New Game!) is again in charge of series composition. Kazuya Hirata (Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya, Sunohara-Sō no Kanrinin-san) will again design the characters and serve as chief animation director. Hiroyuki Honda will also serve as chief animation director. Taro Masuda is returning to compose the music.

The first anime of Yuumikan's Itai no wa Iya nano de Bōgyoryoku ni Kyokufuri Shitai to Omoimasu. novels premiered in Japan in January 2020. Funimation streamed the first season as it aired in Japan. The company also streamed an English dub.

The television anime of Milcha and Whale's Why Raeliana Ended Up at the Duke's Mansion (Kanojo ga Kōshaku-Tei ni Itta Riyū in Japanese) manhwa will premiere in April 2023.

Yen Press publishes the manhwa in English, and it describes the isekai fantasy romance story:

Eunha Park was just a regular girl desperate to get into college, but when she finally does, her elation is cut short as she's pushed off a roof—only to wake up as Raeliana McMillan, a character from a novel whose death serves as the catalyst for the story's events. But Raeliana refuses to die a second time and is determined to change her fate, no matter what!

Whale based the manhwa on Milcha's original novel. The service Piccoma serializes the manhwa in Japan, and Kadokawa will publish the seventh compiled volume on December 5.

Junichi Yamamoto (Armor Shop for Ladies & Gentlemen, More Than a Married Couple, But Not Lovers) is directing the anime at Typhoon Graphics. Mitsutaka Hirota (Bibliophile Princess, The Prince of Tennis II, Rent-A-Girlfriend) is in charge of the series scripts. Haruna Hashimoto is designing the characters, and Kio Edamatsu is designing the props. Kenji Kato is directing the art, and Chieko Hibi is the color key artist. Yuzuru Funakoshi is the compositing director of photography. Tetsuya Watanabe is in charge of the 3D CG. Ichirō Chaen is editing. Yasunori Ebina is directing the sound at Glovision. Keiji Inai (Armor Shop for Ladies & Gentlemen, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?, The Misfit of Demon King Academy, The Royal Tutor) is composing the music, and Lantis is producing the music.

The television anime of Rokujūyon Okazawa's Chillin' in My 30s after Getting Fired from the Demon King's Army (Kaiko Sareta Ankoku Heishi (30-Dai) no Slow na Second Life) series will premiere on January 7.

Fumitoshi Oizaki (Romeo × Juliet) is directing the series at Encourage Films. Yoshihide Yuuzumi (Onee-chan ga Kita) is the assistant director. Hitomi Amamiya (Merc Storia: The Apathetic Boy and the Girl in a Bottle) is handling the script and series composition. Satomi Yonezawa is designing the characters. Tsubasa Ito (I'm Standing on 1,000,000 Lives.) is composing the music. Akari Kitō is performing the anime's ending theme song "Dear Doze Days."

The story centers on Dariel, a soldier in the Dark Lord's army who cannot use magic. Instead, he wields his intellect and initiative as an assistant to one of the Dark Lord's most trusted captains. But when the captain is summarily replaced, Dariel also loses his privileged position and is fired. In disappointment, he retires in a village of humans, getting a new start in life by using his abilities to accept requests for help.

Okazawa began serializing the story on the Shōsetsuka ni Narō website in November 2018, and ended it in July 2020. Kodansha began publishing the story in print in August 2019, with art by sage joh.

The television anime of Naoki Yamakawa and Masashi Asaki's My Home Hero manga will premiere in April 2023.

Takashi Kamei (Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy - Earthrise chief director) is directing the anime at Tezuka Productions. Kohei Kiyasu (Run with the Wind) is writing and supervising the series' scripts. Masatsune Noguchi (Hakushon Daimaō 2020) is designing the characters. Yukio Abe is the art designer. Kenji Kawai (Patlabor, Gundam 00, Ghost in the Shell) is composing the music, while Takumi Itō is the sound director. Kiyotaka Kawada is credited for sound effects.

Yamakawa and Asaki launched the manga in Weekly Young Magazine in May 2017. The manga's 18th volume shipped on October 6. The manga resumed with its third and final part in the 29th issue of Weekly Young Magazine on June 20. The final arc picks the story back up seven years after the second part. The manga entered a hiatus after it ended its second part in October 2021.

The manga centers on a salaryman who has a reliable wife and a daughter in university who can sometimes act a bit rebellious, but has a happy life in his own way. Until one day he finds out his daughter has been beaten, and thus begins his journey into a dangerous world to protect his family.

Sorcerous Stabber Orphen -Chaos in Urbanrama- (Majutsushi Orphen Haguretabi: Urban Rama-hen), the third season for the new television anime of Yoshinobu Akita's Sorcerous Stabber Orphen (Majutsushi Orphen Haguretabi) light novel series, will debut in January 2023.

Takayuki Hamana (Library War, Mushibugyō, The Prince of Tennis) is returning from the first two seasons to direct the new season at Studio DEEN, but Kenji Konuta is replacing Reiko Yoshida for series composition. Yōko Kikuchi and Rio are returning from the second season as the character designers, and the new CG director is Shinsuke Ōshima. Shinnosuke is again composing the music.

J-Novel Club licensed the novels and is releasing them digitally. The company describes the beginning of the story:

Orphen is a Sorcerer drop-out from the prestigious Tower of Fangs. His journey to save Azalie, a girl he looked up to like a sister, has brought him to the bustling city of Totokanta. Here they are reunited for the first time in five years. But what is the truth behind her monstrous transformation, and just what secrets lurk behind the Sword of Baldanders...?

The first season premiered in January 2020, and ended with 13 episodes. Funimation streamed the anime in Japanese with English subtitles as it aired in Japan, and also streamed an English dub. The second season premiered in January 2021. Funimation again streamed the series as it aired and also streamed an English dub.

The television anime of Gido Amagakure's A Galaxy Next Door manga will premiere in April 2023.

Ryuichi Kimura (Aikatsu! Kemono Friends 2) is directing the anime at Asahi Production, and Gigaemon Ichikawa (Chikasugi Idol Akae-chan, The Fruit of Evolution: Before I Knew It, My Life Had It Made, Kedama no Gonjiro) is in charge of the series scripts. Yasuka Ōtaki is designing the characters.

Crunchyroll describes the story:

Ever since their father died, Ichirou Kuga has struggled to support his two younger siblings on nothing but a small inheritance and his passion for drawing manga. A Galaxy Next Door, tells the story of what happens when Kuga's new mysterious assistant, Shiori Goshiki, declares them to be engaged to be married.

Amagakure launched the manga in Kodansha's Good! Afternoon magazine on April 7, 2020.

The television anime of Rieko Hinata and Akihiro Yamada's The Fire Hunter (Hikari no Ō) fantasy novel series will premiere on January 14 at 10:30 p.m. (8:30 a.m. EST) on the premium subscription television channel WOWOW. The channel will air the anime's first episode for free in Japan.

Junji Nishimura (Ranma ½, You're Under Arrest: The Motion Picture, True Tears, Vladlove) is directing the anime at Signal.MD (Recovery of an MMO Junkie, Napping Princess, The Wonderland), and Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell, Angel's Egg, Jin-Roh - The Wolf Brigade, Blood: The Last Vampire, Vladlove) is overseeing and writing the scripts.

The novel series' story is set in a world in the chaotic aftermath of humanity's apocalyptic Last War. A great forest, infested with flameling creatures and other fallen beasts, covers the world, and pockets of humanity live in small protected communities. Due to a special weapon used in the Last War, human beings spontaneously burst into flame even when merely getting close to a small source of fire. The only safe energy source for humanity lies within the bodies of flamelings, and the duty to hunt them falls to the sickle-wielding firecatchers who brave the depths of the great forest. Among the firecatchers, they whisper tales of one who would be "Firecatcher Lord," an individual who will be able to harvest the fire of the thousand-year comet, the "Wandering Spark" that has flown in the sky since it was sent up before the Last War, but is now returning to earth.

The story begins with Tōko, a young girl from a paper-making town who finds herself in the forbidden forest, assailed by flamelings, when a flamecatcher rushes to protect her. In another place, a young capital-born boy named Kōshi shelters his younger sister after losing his mother to factory poison.

Hinata debuted the first book of the series in December 2018, with illustrations by The Twelve Kingdoms illustrator and RahXephon character designer Akihiro Yamada. Hinata published the fourth book in the series on September 3, 2020, followed by a side-story volume on December 21, 2021.

The anime adaptation of Taku Kawamura's My Clueless First Friend (Jijou wo Shiranai Tenkousei ga Guigui Kuru.) manga will debut in 2023.

Square Enix Manga & Books licensed the manga, and it describes the story:

One lonely, gloomy fifth-grade girl is the target of her classmates' relentless bullying and teasing—that is, until a new kid arrives on the scene. Friendly Takada is as clueless as he is well-meaning, but somehow he possesses the magic ability to start drawing "Grim Reaper" Nishimura out of her shell. As the elementary schoolers experience all the fun of a childhood summer together—from going to the pool to picking sunflowers to watching fireworks—an unusual friendship blossoms!

Shigenori Kageyama (DYNAMIC CHORD, Himawari!, Himawari Too!!) is directing the anime at St.Signpost, and Chikashi Kadekaru (Mieruko-chan, Juni Taisen: Zodiac War) is designing the characters. Takafumi Hoshikawa (Shaman King Storyboard, Unit Director) and Shogo Yasukawa (Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma, Ayakashi Triangle) are in charge of series scripts, and Toshio Masuda (Kamisama Kiss, Naruto) is composing the music.

Kawamura launched the manga in Square Enix's Gangan Joker magazine in May 2018. Square Enix published the manga's first compiled book volume in October 2018, and it will publish the 13th volume on November 22. Square Enix Manga & Books will publish the first volume in English on March 7, and the second volume on June 6.

Update: Crunchyroll also announced it will stream the third season of the Saint Seiya: Knights of the Zodiac CG anime in North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, and the Middle East and CIS. The company did not give a release window.

Source: Press release