Cast Details and More are Revealed for "The Piano Forest" Anime

The official cast, staff and theme song artist are out for the upcoming anime series “Piano no Mori’ a.k.a. “The Piano Forest.”

Revealed via its official website, the series will be having Gaku Nakatani as the director and he will be working at Fukushima Gainax. Working on the series composition for the production are Aki Itami, the series composer of “Rainbow Days”, and Mika Abe, the scriptwriter of “Danchi Tomoo.” Sumie Kinoshita, who worked on the character designs of “Girlish Number” will be working as both the character designer and chief animation director of the series.

The ending theme for the series is titled “Kaeru Basho ga Aru to Iu Koto”/”To Have a Place to Come Home to” and will be performed by Aoi Yuuki, the performer behind the second ending theme of “The World God Only Knows.”

Based on the manga created by Makoto Isshiki, the story tells of two completely different boys. One is named Kai, a young boy with a prostitute for a mother and the skills to play a thought to be broken and abandoned piano in the forest. The other is a boy named Shuuhei and the son of two prestigious pianists. While the two are as different as can be with Kai’s boisterous personality and Shuuhei’s serious demeanor, the two discover that they do have one thing in common, a connection to music.

Playing the role of Kai Ichinose is Souma Saitou, who is currently playing the role of Ruze in the shoujo series, “Dame×Prince Anime Caravan.”

Ryoko Shiraishi, known for having played the role of Hayate Ayasaki in “Hayate the Combat Butler” will be playing the role of Kai as a child.

For character Shuuhei Amamiya, Natsuki Hanae, the voice behind Takumi Aldini in “Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma” will be taking on his voice.

Voicing the second lead as a child is You Taichi, who voiced as Dorothy in “Princess Principal.”

Last but not least is Junichi Suwabe, the voice of Undertaker in “Black Butler” will be playing as Sousuke Ajino.

The series will be making its debut in April and air on NHK.

As stated, the series is based on the manga of the same name by Makoto Isshiki. It was launched in 1998 under the publication of Kodansha’s Young Magazine Uppers until 2004 when it ceased publication. The series was then picked up by Morning magazine in 2006 and spanned until November 2015. In December 2015, a 26th and final volume of the series was released by Kodansha.

Prior to the anime series, an anime film of the manga was released in 2007 and mainly features the two boys’ meeting and learning their paths on playing the piano as children.

Source: AnimeNewsNetwork