Yes to more theatre girls in anime! A newly-launched website announced this Wednesday the TV anime adaptation of Kumiko Saiki’s Takarazuka-inspired Kageki Shoujo!! manga series slated for a 2021 release.
(For those unaware of Takarazuka Revue, it’s a popular all-female theatre troupe in Japan. The Bushiroad franchise Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight is loosely based on them.)
Check out the first teaser visual below!
The announcement of a TV anime series for the manga was also revealed on the cover of the MELODY magazine’s December 2020 issue, which was released today:
The TV series is set to be helmed by Kazuhiro Yoneda (Hozuki no Reitetsu season 2) as director, with Tadashi Morishita (Detective Conan) in charge of series composition. Character designs will be done by Takahiro Kishida (Durarara!!), with soundtrack music to be done by Tsuneyoshi Saito (Fafner in the Azure). PINE JAM will be producing the series.
Kageki Shoujo! was first launched by author Kumiko Saiki in Shueisha’s Jump Kei magazine in 2012. The series ran there and ended when the magazine ceased publication in 2014. In 2015, Saiki published the sequel series, Kageki Shoujo!! (yes, with two exclamation points) in MELODY magazine. So far, 9 tankobon volumes have been released for the sequel series, with the 10th to be shipped on November 5. The series was also nominated for the Best Shoujo Manga category in this year’s Kodansha Annual Manga Awards.
Shueisha re-released the original manga (Kageki Shoujo! with one exclamation point) into one compiled volume in 2019 and re-titled it as Kageki Shoujo!! Season Zero. This is the volume that will be adapted into the TV anime series, and is also the volume that publisher Seven Seas has licensed in English and will be releasing on November 24.
The series is titled Kageki Shoujo!! The Curtain Rises in English, with Seven Seas describing the story as such:
“Like the Takarazuka Revue, the young women who go to the arts academy Kouka Kageki High School play all the parts of musical theater, be they female or male. Narada Ai is a jaded former idol performing female roles—her roommate, playing male roles, is bright-eyed country girl Watanabe Sarasa. From the school to the stage to the rest of their lives, there is no challenge these young women can’t face with their passion for performance.”
Source: Crunchyroll News