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Children of the Whales Anime's Video Reveals Theme Song Artists, October 8 Debut

The official website for the television anime of Abi Umeda's Children of the Whales (Kujira no Kora wa Sajō ni Utau) manga began streaming the first promotional video and two commercials for the anime on Wednesday. The videos reveal and preview the anime's opening and ending theme songs, and reveal its October 8 premiere.

The first video previews the anime's ending theme song "Hashitairo" by rionos. The latter two videos preview the anime's opening theme song "Sono Mirai e" (To That Future) by singer-songwriter RIRIKO.

The CD singles for both songs will ship on October 25. Both artists are making their major label debuts with these songs on Lantis.

The anime will premiere on October 8 on Tokyo MX, KBS Kyoto, Sun TV, and on Netflix Japan. It will premiere on October 10 on BS11. Netflix will premiere the anime outside of Japan in 2018. Tokyo's Shinjuku Wald 9 theater will host a preview screening on September 22 with the three main voice cast members.

The cast includes:

• Natsuki Hanae as Chakuro
• Manaka Iwami as Rikosu
• Yuichiro Umehara as Ōni
• Nobunaga Shimazaki as Suō
• Mikako Komatsu as Ginshu
• Daiki Yamashita as Ryodari
• Hiroshi Kamiya as Shuan

Kyōhei Ishiguro (Your Lie in April, Lance N' Masques, Occultic;Nine) is directing the anime at J.C. Staff, and Michiko Yokote (Shirobako, ReLIFE) is in charge of the series scripts. Haruko Iizuka (Umi Monogatari, Little Busters!, School-Live!) is designing the characters. Toshiharu Mizutani (Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Yuri!!! on Ice, Summer Wars) is the art director at Moon Flower. Hiroaki Tsutsumi (Kuromukuro, Orange, Blue Spring Ride) is composing the music. Miyuki Ishida (Gatchaman Crowds) is the color key artist. REAL-T's Masahiro Goto (Urara Meirocho) is the editor, and Yoshio Ookouchi (Taboo Tattoo) is the director of photography. Jin Aketagawa (Re:CREATORS) is the sound director.

The manga's story takes place in a world covered in sand. A boy named Chakuro lives on the giant vessel Mud Whale that drifts over the sea of sand. Chakuro and his friends have never seen anyone from the outside world, and they spend their days yearning to explore and learn about it. One day, a ruined ship suddenly drifts ashore, and Chakura meets a girl inside.

Umeda launched the series in Akita Shoten's Monthly Mystery Bonita magazine in 2013 as her second shōjo manga. Akita Shoten released the ninth compiled book volume on March 16. Viz Media licensed the manga, and will begin releasing it in November. The series inspired a stage play adaptation that ran at AiiA 2.5 Theater Tokyo in April 2016, and it will get a new run in January 2018.