From Live-Action to Anime by Studio Signal M.D.: Video Girl Ai

It’s only been a few weeks since the live-action adaptation of sci-fi series “Video Girl Ai” has been released. No “Video Girl Ai 2018’s” official website reveals that the series will be having an in-work anime.

With a character design by the creator Masakazu Katsura himself, the anime will be having his design as its basis and will be making its debut in the third episode of the series. For animation, Signal.MD will be taking charge, the studio having just worked on the “Ancien and the Magic Tablet” film. In the episode itself, Katsura’s design will be introduced through protagonist Shou who will debut the character as part of an in-work animation that he and his club members are working on.

It was on January 13 that the live-action work was released on TV Tokyo and currently it has episodes streamed a week early on Amazon Prime in Japan.

The staff working on the production of the series include:

Director: Kazuaki Seki
Script Writer: Kohei Kiyasu
Chief Producer: Futoshi Asano is the chief producer
Producer: Kimitaka Goka, Yuta Kurachi and Kyōhei Sudachi.
Studio: TV Tokyo Robot

Set in modern day, the story takes focus on Shou Moteuchi, a high school boy and the nephew of the original protagonist Yota. He’s a regular boy and holds a secret crush on his beautiful classmate Nanami. While at his uncle’s house one day, he discovers an old broken video cassette recorder and decides to fix it. Upon fixing it however, a mysterious girl named “Video Girl Ai” pop out.

Casted in the series are the following:

Shūhei Nomura as Shō Moteuchi
Nanase Nishino as Ai Amano
Marie Iitoyo as Nanami Shibahara
Hiroya Shimizu as Tomoaki Furuya, Shō’s old childhood friend
Karen Ōtomo as Rika Ōmiya, Shō’s underclassman who has a crush on him

“Video Girl Ai” was first released in 1989 as a manga series created by Masakazu Katsura and published by Shueisha’s Weekly Shōnen Jump. Spanning for 15 volumes until 1992, the series at the time gained a live-action film in 1991. Followed after, was a six-part OVA series released in 1992 then a 1993 light novel.

The story of the original series told of high school boy named Yota Moteuchi. One day, he discovers that his crush Moemi Hayakawa, is in love with his best friend, Takashi Niimai. While heading in disappointment, Yota discovers a mysterious video store and makes the decision to rent a video.

Upon playing the video on a broken video recorder, a video girl named Ai pops out. Due to the broken recorder, she has popped out “faulty” but still makes it her mission to help Yota with his love life. From this point the story takes on change and growth of the relationship between the two.

Source: AnimeNewsNetwork