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Altair: A Record of Battles Anime's TV Ad Previews SID's Opening Song

The official website for this summer's television anime of Kotono Katō's historical fantasy manga Altair: A Record of Battles (Shōkoku no Altair) began streaming 15- and 30-second versions of a new television commercial for the series on Friday. The videos preview SID's opening theme song "Rasen no Yume" (Spiral Dream). (Note: The videos linked above are region-locked to Japan.)

The series will premiere on July 7 in the late-night Animeism block of the MBS, TBS, and BS-TBS channels. The series will run for two cour (two quarters of a year).

The anime stars: (Note: character name romanizations are not official.)

• Ayumu Murase as Mahmut
• Makoto Furukawa as Zaganos
• KENN as Kyros
• Katsuyuki Konishi as Sleiman
• Kenjiro Tsuda as Rui
• Kenichi Ogata as Khalil
• Junichi Suwabe as Abiriga
• Yū Kobayashi as Lelederik
• Takahiro Sakurai as Graratto
• Takuya Satō as Ibrahim
• Yōko Hikasa as Shara
• Kazuya Nakai as Balaban
• Kōki Uchiyama as Beyazit
• Ai Kayano as Ayşe
• Nobunaga Shimazaki as Orhan
• Nobuhiko Okamoto as Ismail

Kodansha Comics released the first volume of the manga digitally in English on March 21, and it describes the story:

For generations the Turkiye Devleti and the Balt-Rhein Empire have stood in stern opposition to each other. Then one night, when an imperial minister is found assassinated, the two nations are plunged into a potentially explosive situation. As the generals of Turkiye's council cry for war, Mahmut comes to discover the devious truth behind the assassination. Thus the young pasha's battle for his country, peace, and trust in his fellow man begins!

Kazuhiro Furuhashi (Getbackers, Rurouni Kenshin TV series and OVAs, Mobile Suit Gundam UC) is directing the project at MAPPA (Kids on the Slope, Yuri!!! on Ice, In This Corner of the World). Noboru Takagi (Durarara!!, Baccano!, Kuroko's Basketball) is handling the series composition, Toshiyuki Kanno (Garo the Animation, Black Blood Brothers) is the character designer, and Takashi Igari (episode director of The IDOLM@STER, Punch Line) is the assistant director. Ryo Kawasaki (Fate/Grand Order: First Order, Luger Code 1951, Reikenzan: Eichi e no Shikaku) is composing the music.

The girl pop group FLOWER (Mobile Suit Gundam AGE, The File of Young Kindaichi Returns) is performing the anime's ending theme song "Taiyō no Elegy" (Elegy for the Sun).

Katō launched the manga in Kodansha's Monthly Shonen Sirius magazine in 2007, and the 18th compiled book volume shipped on January 17. The 19th volume will ship on June 23. The series inspired the Shōkoku no! four-panel manga on Sirius' official website in 2012. The magazine serialized Shiina Soga's Shōkoku no Altair-san (Altair of the Tiny Nation) spinoff manga from 2012 to 2013, and Hirokazu Kobayashi and Chika Katō's Shōkoku no Altair Kaiden Tōkoku no Subaru spinoff series launched this past January. The first compiled book volume of Shōkoku no Altair Kaiden Tōkoku no Subaru shipped on January 17, and the second volume will ship on June 23.

Thanks to Dennis R. for the embedded videos.