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Aniplus Asia Simulcasts Visual Kei Anime Visual Prison
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Aniplus Asia announced on Tuesday that it will air a simulcast of Visual Prison, the original television anime from Uta no Prince-sama and Symphogear series creator Noriyasu Agematsu and Aniplex's A-1 Pictures. The simulcast will premiere on October 8 at 12:30 a.m. GMT +8 (effectively October 9 morning).
The anime will premiere in Japan on Tokyo MX, Gunma TV, Tochigi TV, and BS11 on October 8; on ABC TV and Nagoya TV on October 9; and on WOWOW on October 13.
Aniplex describes the project as portraying visual kei musicians as vampires. The visual kei genre is a subgenre of Japanese rock characterized by elaborate visual presentations, gothic aesthetics, balladic melody writing, and musicians who present androgynously. In the anime's story, vampires perform visual kei music, and gather together in Harajuku in an event known as "Visual Prison" under a red moon once a year, performing visual kei songs to entrance an audience and offer the best song to the red moon above.
The story begins when Ange Yuki, a lonely boy with no family, travels to Harajuku to see his favorite artist, and there sees an intense musical battle between the bands Eclipse and Los†Eden, their energetic performance striking a pain through his heart.
Takeshi Furuta (Utano☆Princesama Legend Star, Saint Seiya: Soul of Gold) is serving as the chief director with Tomoya Tanaka directing at A-1 Pictures. Yukie Sugawara (The Idolm@ster SideM, Overlord) is supervising the series scripts. Minako Shiba (Black Butler, DAKAICHI -I'm being harassed by the sexiest man of the year-, Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee) is adapting the original character designs by Ikumi Katagiri (Sakura Kakumei ~Hana Saku Otome-tachi~, Are You Alice?) for animation. Jinshichi Yamaguchi, Hiroshi Yakou, and Honoka Yokoyama are handling the sub-character designs, and Yakou, Yamaguchi, and Reina Kawasaki are also serving as chief animation directors.
The in-story band Oz performs the opening theme song "Zankoku Shangri-La" (Cruel Shangri-La). The in-story band Los†Eden performs the ending theme song "Bloody Kiss." The in-story band Eclipse performs the insert song "Gyokuza no Gemini" (Gemini of the Throne).
Source: Aniplus Asia's Facebook page
