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Ani-One Lines Up 'So I'm a Spider, So What?,' Otherside Picnic, Cute Executive Officer Anime for January Simulcast
posted on by Adriana Hazra
Hong Kong content distributor MediaLink Entertainment Limited's Ani-One YouTube channel announced three upcoming anime for January simulcasts on Facebook on Tuesday and Wednesday. The channel will stream:
- The anime of Odeko Fujii's Cute Executive Officer (Yōjo Shachō) manga from January 1.
- The television anime of Iori Miyazawa's Otherside Picnic (Urasekai Picnic) science fiction yuri novel series from January 4.
- The television anime of author Okina Baba and illustrator Tsukasa Kiryu's So I'm a Spider, So What? (Kumo Desu ga, Nani ka?) novels from January 8.
Alongside Hong Kong, Ani-One will stream the anime in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, the Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and Singapore. Cute Executive Officer and Otherside Picnic will also stream in Taiwan.
Cute Executive Officer will premiere on January 1 and stream every Friday on its official website and Twitter account.
The social commentary gag comedy centers around Najimu Mujina, the president of Mujina Company who is neither an adult nor a genius, but an aggressively average five-year-old girl. All the familiar trappings of adulthood like match-making parties, contracts, and socializing while golfing are new experiences to her. The story follows Najimu as she navigates modern life with her capable but too indulgent secretary, her office worker of unknown nationality, and her employee who plays the comedy straight man role to her antics.
The previously announced cast includes:
- Rina Hidaka as Najimu Mujina
- Hisako Kanemoto as Mayu Warito
- Sumire Uesaka as Yuki Karuizawa
- Sayaka Kaneko as Garcia Dekasegi
- Chinami Hashimoto as Riya Motohashi
- Aoi Koga as Nowani
- Tomokazu Sugita as Claimer (Complaining Customer)
- Chō as Konpota-ojisan ("Mr. Corn Potage")
- Houchu Ohtsuka as Bakery Manager
- Aya Hisakawa as Garcia's Mother
- Kazuyuki Okitsu as Futo-Riiman ("Fat Salaryman")
- Tesshō Genda as Tanryūsai Suda
- Jun Fukuyama as TV Director
- Kotori Koiwai as Designer
- Yukari Tamura as Najimu's Mother
Kazuya Iwata is directing the anime at project No.9 (100 Sleeping Princes and the Kingdom of Dreams: The Animation, High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even In Another World). Satoru Sugizawa (Pastel Memories, SUPER HXEROES: "H"EROES SAVE THE WORLD scripts) is in charge of the series scripts, and Susumu Watanabe (Didn't I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?!) is designing the characters. H ZETT M is composing the music, while FABTONE is handling music production. Jin Aketagawa (Fairy gone, Fruits Basket) is directing the sound at Magic Capsule. Najimu Mujina, Mayu Warito, Yuki Karuizawa, and Garcia Dekasegi (as voiced by their respective cast members) are performing the opening song "Susume! Mujina Company" (March Onward! Mujina Company) with Neko Hacker, and Mayu Warito is singing the ending theme song "Kaisha ni Kaerō!" (Let's Go Back to Work!) with Kotori Koiwai. The singles for both songs will go on sale on January 26.
Kadokawa published the first volume of the manga in April 2019, and the third volume will ship on January 14.
The Otherside Picnic anime will premiere in Japan on Tokyo MX, Sun TV, BS11, and AT-X on January 4.
The anime stars:
- Yumiri Hanamori as Sorao Kamikoshi
- Ai Kayano as Toriko Nishina
- Rina Hidaka as Kozakura
- Miyu Tomita as Akari Seto
Takuya Satō (Kase-san and Morning Glories, Steins;Gate, Fragtime) is directing the anime at Liden Films and Felix Film, and he is also in charge of the series scripts. Ayumi Nishibata (Kuromukuro animation director) is the character designer and chief animation director. Kazutaka Ema is the creature designer. Hiroki Matsumoto is the art director, and You Iwaida is the color designer. Takeshi Kuchiba is the director of photography. Yūya Shiraishi is the 3D director. Masahiro Goto is the editor. Takeshi Watanabe (To Love-Ru, Saki, Ro-Kyu-Bu!) is composing the music.
ChiCO with HoneyWorks perform the opening theme song "Minikui Ikimono" (Ugly Creatures) and Miki Satō performs the ending theme song.
J-Novel Club is publishing the novel series digitally in English, and it describes the first volume.
Her first encounter with Toriko Nishina was on the Otherside after seeing "that thing" and nearly dying.
Ever since that day, exhausted university student Sorawo Kamikoshi's life changed. In this Otherworld, full of mystery, which exists alongside our own, dangerous beings like the Kunekune and Hasshaku-sama that are spoken of in real ghost stories appear. For research, for profit, and to find an important person, Toriko and Sorawo set foot into the abnormal.
A tale of two girls' bizarre exploration and survival, brought to you by an up-and-coming Sci-fi author!
Hayakawa Publishing has been publishing the novels with illustrations by shirakaba since February 2017.
Eita Mizuno's manga adaptation of the novel series launched in February 2018 in Square Enix's Shonen Gangan magazine. Square Enix Manga & Books licensed the manga, and will release the first volume in English on May 25, 2021.
So I'm a Spider, So What? will premiere on January 8 on AT-X, Tokyo MX, BS11, KBS Kyoto, Sun TV, and TV Aichi, and will run for two consecutive cours (quarters of a year). The anime was previously slated to premiere this year, but the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) greatly affected the anime's production schedule.
Aoi Yūki will star in the anime as the unnamed protagonist. Other cast members include:
- Shun Horie as Shun
- Nao Toyama as Katia
- Kaito Ishikawa as Hugo
- Yui Ogura as Sue
- Eri Kitamura as Fei
- Kaya Okuno as Filimøs
- Aimi Tanaka as Yuri
- Junya Enoki as Julius
Shin Itagaki (Teekyu, Berserk 2016, Cop Craft) is directing the anime at Millepensee, with Shinichiro Ueda as assistant director. Okina Baba, the author of the original novels, is collaborating with Yūichirō Momose (Infinite Dendrogram, My Sister, My Writer) for head writing duties. Kii Tanaka (Hitori Bocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu, Hinomaru Sumo) is drawing the character designs. Masahiko Suzuki, Ryo Hirata, and Hiromi Kimura are credited for monster design. Tomohiro Yoshida is the chief animator. Shinji Nagaoka is the art director, while Chieko Hibi is the color designer. Hideki Imaizumi is the director of photography, Takashi Sakurai is in charge of editing, and Kazuo Yamaguchi is credited as the CG director, with exsa as the CG animation studio. ENGI is credited for CG animation production assistance. Shuji Katayama is composing the music.
Riko Azuni is performing the opening theme song "keep weaving your spider way." Aoi Yūki will perform the ending theme song "Gambare! Kumoko-san."
The novels take place in a world where the hero and the demon king are locked in a continuous dispute. Their grand magic crosses into another world, and ends up exploding in a classroom, killing the students inside. The students are then reincarnated into a fantasy world. The protagonist, who has the lowest position in the class, is reincarnated as a one-meter-long monster spider. But she accepts this fate and adapts to her new life and situation quickly. The story follows the protagonist as she survives in this new world.
Baba launched the novel series on the "Shōsetsuka ni Narō" website in May 2015. Kadokawa published the 13th novel volume on July 10. The 14th novel ships on January 9. The series ranked #2 on the list of best novels in the 2018 edition of Takarajimasha's Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! (This Light Novel Is Amazing!) guidebook, and ranked #3 on the 2017 list.
Asahiro Kakashi's manga adaptation runs on Kadokawa's free manga website Young Ace UP, and Kadokawa published the ninth compiled book volume on October 10. The manga and novels have a combined 1.2 million copies in print.
Yen Press is releasing the novels and the manga in English.
