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Aikatsu Friends! Anime's Promo Video Introduces Main Characters
posted on by Karen Ressler
The official website for the Aikatsu! anime franchise posted a promotional video for the upcoming Aikatsu Friends! anime on Thursday. The video introduces the anime's main characters.
The YouTube channel also began streaming a promotional video for the Aikatsu Friends! Data Carddass arcade game.
The anime will premiere on TV Tokyo in April, and the accompanying Aikatsu Friends! Data Carddass arcade game will also launch in April.
Tatsuya Igarashi (Unlimited Psychic Squad) is directing the anime at BN Pictures. Yuuko Kakihara (Digimon Adventure tri., Tsuki ga Kirei, Aikatsu Stars!) is in charge of series composition. Satomi Watanabe is designing the characters. Ryuichi Kimura, the director of the Aikatsu! and Aikatsu Stars! anime, is credited as supervisor. Hiromi Kikuta is the sound director, and DIGZ MOTION SOUNDS is composing the music.
The cast includes:
- Akane Matsunaga as Aine Yūki (front row left in image to the right)
- Ibuki Kido as Mio Minato (front row right)
- Karen Miyama as Maika Chōno (back row left)
- Yui Ninomiya as Ema Hinata (back row right)
- Azusa Tadokoro as Karen Kamishiro (back row center left)
- Ayaka Ōhashi as Mirai Asuka (back row center right)
- Sumire Morohoshi as Koko
The new anime will have a theme of "Aikatsu! with your friends!" and will center on a new protagonist named Aine Yūki, who is good at making friends, and is enrolled in Star Harmony Academy's general education track. She befriends Mio Minato, the school's top idol, and becomes an idol herself.
Aikatsu Friends! is the third entry in the Aikatsu! franchise, which began with the original arcade card game in October 2012. The original game inspired a television anime that ran from 2012 to 2016, and three anime films. The second entry in the franchise, Aikatsu Stars!, inspired a television anime that premiered on TV Tokyo and its affiliates in April 2016 and is currently airing. The series airs on Thursdays, and also airs on BS Japan on Mondays. Aikatsu Stars! received an anime film in August 2016.
The arcade games have shipped over 250 million cards.
