News

'86' Sci-Fi Battle Anime Reveals Cast, Staff, 2020 Premiere

The "Aniplex 48-hour TV" livestream event on the AbemaTV streaming service announced the cast, staff, and 2020 premiere on Sunday for the television anime adaptation of Asato Asato's 86 light novel series. Shōya Chiba is playing Shinei Nōzen, and Ikumi Hasegawa is playing Vladilena Mirizé. The event also revealed a teaser video and key visual for the anime.

Toshimasa Ishii (episode director for Space Brothers, ERASED, Occultic;Nine) is directing the anime at A-1 Pictures. Toshiya Ono (The Promised Neverland, Land of the Lustrous, Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Saga) is in charge of series composition, and Tetsuya Kawakami (Interviews with Monster Girls, Robot Girls Z, The Asterisk War: The Academy City on the Water) is designing the characters.

Yen Press is publishing the light novel series in English, and it describes the story:

The San Magnolia Republic has long been under attack by unmanned weapons from the neighboring Empire. Against this onslaught, the Republic has also deployed similar weapons, narrowly avoiding great loss of life and impending disaster-or at least that's how it seemed.

The truth is that it has never been possible to have no casualties. Young men and women drawn from the Republic's supposedly non-existent 86th district are organized into the "86 unit" and then ordered to pilot the "unmanned weapons" before heading to battle.

Asato launched the novel series under Kadokawa's Dengeki Bunko imprint in April 2017. Shirabi (The Ryuo's Work Is Never Done!, Myriad Colors Phantom World) is drawing the illustrations, and the artist I-IV (Aldnoah.Zero, Re:CREATORS) is in charge of mechanical design. The seventh volume shipped in September, and the eighth volume will ship on May 9. The light novel series has a manga adaptation by Motoki Yoshihara in Square Enix's Young Gangan magazine. The light noel series is also inspiring a Gakuen 86 (Academy 86) manga by Suzume Somemiya in Kadokawa's Monthly Comic Alive magazine.

The novel series won the grand prize in the 23rd Dengeki Novel Prize competition in 2016. The novels ranked #2 in the bunkobon rankings for the 2018 edition of Takarajimasha's Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! (This Light Novel Is Amazing!) guidebook, and ranked #5 in the 2019 edition.

Sources: Aniplex 48-hour TV livestream, 86 anime's Twitter account

Update: Key visual and video added.