News

[New Life+] Young Again in Another World Anime Cast Resigns After Creator's Apology for Controversial Comments

The official Twitter accounts of voice actors and actresses Toshiki Masuda, Megumi Nakajima, and Kiyono Yasuno all announced their resignations from their respective roles in the television anime of MINE's [New Life+] Young Again in Another World (Nidome no Jinsei o Isekai de) light novel series on Wednesday. The talent management agency 81 Produce also announced Nanami Yamashita's resignation from the anime on the same day. According to their posts, Masuda, Nakajima, Yasuno, and Yamashita were slated to play the roles of the characters Renya Kunugi, Rona Chevalier, Shion Femme Fatale, and Creator in the anime.

As of Wednesday, the anime's official website is accessible within Japan, but viewers outside Japan see only an inaccessible website with a "403 Forbidden" error.

Original creator MINE has recently been involved in controversy regarding his alleged insults and discriminatory remarks directed at China and South Korea, along with allegedly discriminatory content within the story of the novels themselves.

MINE responded to the controversy and issued an apology on Twitter on Tuesday. In the first of a series of tweets, he said, "Regarding some of my past tweets, I made many people feel extremely uncomfortable, and I give my deep apologies for writing inappropriate remarks." He said he is "deeply reflecting" for posting "without accurately understanding all the facts" and without giving deep thought to his words. MINE added that he does not expect to receive forgiveness from the people he upset, but he wanted to give a "heartfelt apology."

In addition to deleting all his tweets, MINE plans to delete his Twitter account in the near future after the apology spreads.

With regard to the [New Life+] Young Again in Another World light novel series, MINE noted his "poor writing" and "rash remarks." As a result of recognizing the inappropriate content in his work, MINE will discontinue offering the novels on "Shōsetsuka ni Narō." He plans to discuss with the publisher about the possibility of correcting the relevant print versions of the novels.

The anime is slated to premiere in October.

Keitaro Motonaga (School Days, Jormungand, Digimon Adventure tri.) is directing the anime at Seven Arcs Pictures (Basilisk: The Ouka Ninja Scrolls). Takamitsu Kouno (Minami-ke Tadaima, Utawarerumono: The False Faces, Gabriel Dropout) is in charge of the series scripts, and is also penning the script alongside Touko Machida (Chaika - The Coffin Princess), Koujirou Nakamura (Mobile Suit Gundam Twilight AXIS), and Chabo Higurashi (Memories Off 3.5). Makoto Takahoko (Thunder Jet, Fastest Finger First) is adapting Kaobcha's original character designs for animation.

J-Novel Club is publishing the novel series digitally, and it describes the story:

When death tapped Renya Kunugi on the shoulder, he smiled and went willingly. After enjoying a nice, long life of 94 years, he was looking forward to shutting his eyes for the last time. He was, therefore, understandably upset when he woke up again in an empty space, devoid of memories, with a young girl in a tunic rambling on and on about how she's God. So, he did what any reasonable person would have done under those circumstances: he sent the girl flying with a kick to the face. It turned out that the girl was indeed God, and she was in a pinch. She urgently needed someone to do some interdimensional Resource smuggling, and Renya fit the bill. His mission: cross the boundary into another world, then chill for a few decades. God would handle the rest. To sweeten the deal, she offered him an eighteen-year-old body and a whole laundry list of ludicrously powerful skills, yet he remained hesitant. Then, she mentioned the food — an exotic world comes with exotic delicacies — and this sealed the deal. The next thing he knew, he was standing in a foreign land, younger, stronger, and more clueless than ever. Will he survive this world? And more importantly, will the world survive him?

MINE launched the novels on the "Shōsetsuka ni Narō" website in January 2014, and the series has since garnered over 189 million page views. Hobby Japan began publishing printed novels for the series starting in November 2014 with illustrations by Kabocha. Hobby Japan published the 18th novel volume on May 24.

Sources: Toshiki Masuda's official Twitter account, Megumi Nakajima's official Twitter account, Kiyono Yasuno's official Twitter account, 81 Produce via Nijimen