News

Mamoru Oshii's VladLove Anime Casts Ayane Sakura

The official website for Ichigo Animation and Mamoru Oshii's new anime series Vladlove revealed on Wednesday that Ayane Sakura will voice the character Mitsugu Bamba in the anime. It posted a subtitled video previewing Bamba's voice, and also posted another video inviting viewers to guess the voice actress for the character Mai Vlad Transylvania.

The site also revealed a new character named Chihiro Chimatsuri.

The anime's main characters are:

Ayane Sakura as Mitsugu Bamba: She is in the second year of high school and is passionate about donating blood. Because she has very exceptional type chimera blood, her blood is hardly useful for other people. She safeguards Mai, a beautiful vampire girl who she happens to meet, and struggles to get blood for the hungry girl. She sets up the Blood Donation Club at school and assumes the post of its captain.

Mai Vlad Transylvania: A beautiful vampire girl lost in an unfamiliar land. Mai is descended from the Transylvania clan, a prestigious vampire family. She is shy and faint-hearted, and can't bite and suck people's blood even though she is a vampire. She was hungry and had no one to turn to, but met Mitsugu, who decided to help her and take her home.

The new anime will be a slapstick comedy centering on a vampire girl named Mai and a high school girl. Oshii noted that the anime "won't have any handsome men (ikemen)," and its story will solely focus on five young girls. He added that he wanted to "seriously tackle a story centering on a girl-meets-girl concept," and teased that Mai "feels similar to Urusei Yatsura's Lum."

Mitsugu Bamba is a high school girl who finds meaning in donating blood. She frequently visits a blood bank to donate blood, despite being harshly treated by the nurse. One day, she encounters a beautiful girl who looks like she's from overseas at the blood bank. The pale girl looks like she's about to faint any minute, but then, she starts destroying the blood bank. The girl loses consciousness and Mitsugu takes her home...

The anime will premiere in fall 2020, and will run for 12 episodes.

Oshii is the executive director and is credited with the original work, and Junji Nishimura (Ranma ½, You're Under Arrest: The Motion Picture, True Tears) is directing the anime. Kei Yamamura (The Next Generation -Patlabor-) is penning the scripts with Oshii. Issei Aragaki (Monogatari Series key animator/episode animation director) is designing the characters.

Daisuke Miyachi is the music producer for the anime. Comic Animation is credited for the production, and Drive is credited for the animation production. Production I.G is credited for production cooperation. Ichigo Animation, the subsidiary of the Ichigo Japanese real estate and energy company, is funding the project to promote its Akiba Cultures Zone retail building in Tokyo's Akihabara district.

Kazuhiro Wakabayashi is the sound director for the anime. Wakabayashi has also worked with Oshii on Patlabor: The Movie, Jin-Roh - The Wolf Brigade, The Sky Crawlers, Ghost in the Shell, and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence.

Frequent Oshii collaborator Kenji Kawai (The Sky Crawlers, Stray Dog, Ghost in the Shell, Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence, Patlabor the Mobile Police) is composing the music for the anime. Kanako Takatsuki (Love Live! Sunshine!!'s Hanamaru Kunikida) is performing the anime's theme song as part of the vocal and performance unit BlooDye, who will serve as the "ambassador unit" for the anime. Karin Isobe will also be Takatsuki's "vocal partner" in the unit, and Sayaka Akagi, Ayano Furutaka, and Chisami Itō are also joining the unit.

Thanks to Kougeru for the news tip.

Source: Vladlove website