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Utena Director Kunihiko Ikuhara's Sarazanmai Anime Unveils 3rd 'Linked' Promo (Update)
posted on by Karen Ressler
The official YouTube channel for Kunihiko Ikuhara's original television anime project Sarazanmai began streaming the anime's third "linked promotional video" on Friday. The anime begins with the same clips as last week's video, but adds more footage and a new character at the end.
The narration in the video is as follows:
1st Character: This world is overflowing with connections. Blood connections, town connections, connections over feelings. A world where everyone is connected. So I wonder why I'm not connected.2nd Character: In this town, that which vanishes is forgotten. Stores, buildings, people... they're all overwritten by the new. No one cares about that. I don't believe in connections.
3rd Character: I believe that there are bonds between us that can't just be cut. I'm sure we'll be able to connect again one day.
1st Character: Will you and I...
2nd Character: You and I...
3rd Character: You and I...
1st Character: Ever be able to connect?
All: Sarazanmai
The YouTube channel will stream five weekly "linked promotional videos."
The studios MAPPA (Yuri!!! on Ice, In This Corner of the World, Rage of Bahamut: Genesis) and Lapin Track (Yurikuma Arashi) are producing the series. "Ikunirappa" is credited with the original story; the original story of Ikuhara's earlier Yurikuma Arashi anime was similarly credited to "Ikunigomamonaka."
Illustrator Migi provides the original character designs. The two characters below are Reo and Mabu, who are a policemen team and are key to the show's plot.
A spinoff manga titled Reo to Mabu: Futari wa Sarazanmai (Reo and Mabu: We are Sarazanmai) launched in Gentosha's Rutile magazine on May 22. Gentosha is publishing Rutile in odd-numbered months. The sister web comic site "Rutile Sweet" is publishing the manga in even-numbered months. Misaki Saitō is drawing the manga (manga image previewed below). The spinoff tells "another story" that links to the anime, chronicling the heartwarming daily life of Reo and Mabu.
Ikuhara is perhaps best known as the director of the Revolutionary Girl Utena anime, a 1997 series he co-created with the Be-Papas creative group, which consisted of him, writer Yoji Enokido, animator and character designer Hasegawa Shinya, manga creator Chiho Saito, and producer Yūichirō Oguro. Before Revolutionary Girl Utena, he worked at Toei Animation, where he directed Sailor Moon R, S and SuperS. After Revolutionary Girl Utena, he did not direct another anime series until Mawaru Penguindrum in 2011. Until now, his most recent directorial work is Yuri Kuma Arashi in 2015.
Source: Sarazanmai anime's YouTube channel
Update: Video transcript added.
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