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Shinkalion Anime Casts Yoshimasa Hosoya, Ryota Ohsaka, More

The official website for Shinkansen Henkei Robo Shinkalion the Animation, the television anime adaptation of Takara Tomy's Shinkalion toy line, revealed additional cast members on Friday.

Nanami Yoshimura as Shinobu Tsukiyama, newbie pilot of Shinkalion E3 Tsubasa

Ryota Ohsaka as Ryūji Kiyosu, the pilot of Shikalion N700A Nozomi

Yoshimasa Hosoya as Byakko, a mysterious enemy Agent who makes a giant monster appear

Maxwell Powers as Genbu, a mysterious Agent

Kei Shindō as Seiryū, a mysterious Agent

The website also began streaming 28 versions of a 15-second promotional video. The different versions vary in the dialogue and on-screen text depending on where they are airing. The video below is for the Hokkaido and Tōhoku area.

The show stars:

Ayane Sakura as Hayato Hayasugi, the protagonist and driver of the Shinkalion E5

Manami Numakura as Akita Oga, the driver of the Shinkalion E6 who fights alongside Hayato

Rie Murakawa as Tsuranuki Daimonyama, the pilot of the Shinkalion E7

Yūji Ueda as Shashot, a conductor robot who supports Hayato and calls him "partner." He talks like a train conductor.

Ayana Taketatsu as Azusa Ueda, Hayato's classmate and a popular YouTuber.

Tomokazu Sugita as Hokuto Hayasugi, Hayato's father and a staff member at The Railway Museum

Sora Amamiya as Futaba Mihara, a newbie operator who supports Shinkalion pilots

Hikaru Midorikawa as SHINPEI Izumi, Futaba's boss at the "Shinkansen Ultra Evolution Institute"

Hatsune Miku appears in the anime as an 11-year-old Shinkalion driver. The character's name in the anime will also be Hatsune Miku, but the kanji character for "Hatsu" in "Hatsune" is replaced with the kanji for "departure" (the normal "Hatsu" kanji in her name is the kanji for "first.").

The anime premiered on January 6 at 7:00 a.m. on TBS and its affiliates.

Takahiro Ikezoe (Show By Rock!!, PriPri Chii-chan!!) is directing the anime at OLM. Ajia-do is credited for animation cooperation. Kento Shimoyama (Bleach, Armed Girl's Machiavellism) is in charge of series composition. Yuka Aono (Brave Beats) is designing the characters, and Keita Hattori is in charge of mechanical design. Toshiyuki Watanabe (Giovanni's Island, Space Brothers) is composing the music, and Masafumi Mima (Attack on Titan, Valvrave the Liberator) is the sound director. SMDE is credited for CG animation.

Boys and Men are performing the show's opening theme song "Shinkalion" (the title uses the kanji for the words "Evolution Theory"), and Keisuke Murakami is performing the show's ending theme song "Go One Step Ahead."

The Shinkalion robots are various models of real-life Japanese bullet trains (shinkansen) that transform into robots to fight an unknown evil to protect the safety and peace of Japan.

In the franchise's story, Hayato Hayasugi (his last name is a pun on the words for "too fast"), the train-loving son of a train museum curator, accidentally stumbles into his dad's secret research lab one day. Inside he finds the E5 bullet train. As soon as he enters, he hears an announcement that a mysterious enemy, the Bachigami ("bee god"), is attacking the city of New Saitama. Luckily, with the touch of his father's Shinca ("evolve") card, the bullet train he's in transforms into a mighty robot — the Shinkalion E5 Hayabusa.

In the anime's story, Hayato and other children will serve as conductors to pilot the Shinkalion. The children must work together with the adults of the "Shinkansen Ultra Evolution Institute" (SUEI) to defeat a monster that looks like a jet black bullet train.

The franchise has also held events and has had magazine features.

Source: The Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web