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Yutaka Yamamoto's 'Twilight' Anime Casts Sora Amamiya

Yutaka Yamamoto's original anime project Hakubo (Twilight) announced on April 20 that it has added Sora Amamiya (Tokyo Ghoul's Tōka Kirishima, Aldnoah.Zero's Asseylum, KONOSUBA's Aqua) to its cast. The project also streamed a new promotional video for the anime on the same day.

The crowdfunding campaign for the anime met its goal of 15 million yen (about US$137,000) on April 24. The campaign ended on Saturday with a total of 21,036,500 yen (about US$188,643) raised. The anime is slated to open in theaters in 2018.

Yamamoto himself is credited with the original work, script, direction and sound direction. Sunao Chikaoka (Wake Up, Girls!) is designing the characters, Fuyuto Muraguchi is handling for color design, and Yō Yamada (Black Bullet) is in charge of sound production. Sōhei Kano (Fractale) is composing the music. Twilight Studio will be in charge of animation.

The main cast also includes Kana Hanazawa, Kaori Fukuhara, and Sumi Shimamoto.

Yamamoto is planning the anime as the last of his self-described "Tōhoku trilogy" set in Japan's Tōhoku region in the northeast. Hakubo in particular follows youths living in "the now and present" in Iwaki City, Fukushima Prefecture after the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011. (The previous two Tōhoku projects, blossom and Wake Up, Girls!, were set in the town of Otsuchi, Iwate Prefecture and Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, respectively.)

Yamamoto said that he first conceived of the project's initial concept two decades ago when he was in college. When he mulled over what would be a good perspective to depict Fukushima, he recalled this idea from his past and set it in Tōhoku.

"A way of life that could be anywhere, experienced by a girl who could be anywhere.
A life that could be anywhere.
A love that could be anywhere."

Yamamoto has posted his original novel that inspired the anime online.