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Exclusive: Stan Lee & Studio Deen's The Reflection Superhero Anime Casts 9nine Idols

Director Hiroshi Nagahama revealed during the FicZone event in Granada, Spain on Saturday that Japanese idol group 9nine (Star Driver, Magi, My Little Monster) will make an appearance as characters in the story of The Reflection anime project. According to Nagahama, the group will not appear many times in the story, but when they do, "they will get a lot of attention. It's like Hulk from The Avengers, he gets the best part." Nagahama drew the anime's original design for the group's appearance, which lists the group as the "9th Wonder after transformation."

The group is also performing the show's ending theme song. (The group was earlier credited with performing an insert song for the series.) The anime is a collaboration series between American comic pioneer Stan Lee (Spider-Man, X-Men, Heroman), his Pow! Entertainment company, Studio DEEN, and director Hiroshi Nagahama (Mushi-Shi, Flowers of Evil, Detroit Metal City).

Nagahama also revealed that this will be the first time that Stan Lee is working more directly on an anime. While Stan Lee wrote the story for the 2010 Heroman anime, he is completely involved in the production of The Reflection.

Bandai Visual previously streamed a teaser promotional video for the anime last month. The video's title lists the anime's title as The Reflection Wave One.

The video's description reveals the anime's July premiere, and it will air on NHK on Saturdays at 11:00 p.m. to 11:25 p.m. The anime will have 12 episodes.

Other staff members include Koichiro Sohtome (Mushi-Shi episode director, Bokura ga Ita chief director) as series director, Yasuyuki Suzuki (Naruto, Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal) as scriptwriter, Kanako Satō (Love Live! School idol project, Wolf Children) as in-between checker, Hiroko Umezaki (Noragami Aragoto, Flowers of Evil) as color designer, Hisaharu Iijima (Bakemonogatari, And Yet the Town Moves) as art director, and Keiichi Nozaki (Ongaku Shōjo, L/R: Licensed by Royalty) as music director.

Lee is credited with the original work, and Pow! Entertainment and Studio DEEN are credited with the project planning. Nagahama is co-creating and directing the series at Studio DEEN, and he is also providing the original character designs. Yoshihiko Umakoshi (Casshern Sins, Berserk, Mushi-Shi) is adapting those designs for animation. British music producer and songwriter Trevor Horn is producing the music for the anime.

The anime is planned for a worldwide simultaneous distribution in 2017. The series was originally planned for a Japanese television broadcast first before an expanded international release.

Studio DEEN describes the story:

After THE REFLECTION, some of the people in all parts of the world are discovered with super powers.
Some become heroes, and others villains.
How did The Reflection happen? What was the cause of it?
With many unsolved mysteries, the world is lead into turmoil.

Lee collaborated with the anime studio BONES on the Heroman television anime series. He also co-created the Ultimo manga series with Shaman King creator Hiroyuki Takei and collaborated with X Japan band co-founder YOSHIKI on a comic project. His creations at Marvel Comics have inspired several manga and anime adaptations.

Thanks to Manu Garrido for the news tip.