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Muse Asia Licenses Snowball Earth, Rilakkuma Anime

Muse Asia announced on Wednesday and Thursday that it has licensed the Snowball Earth and Rilakkuma anime. Muse Asia will announce distribution details for the anime at a later date.

The television anime of Yuhiro Tsujitsugu's Snowball Earth manga will will premiere in Japan on April 3.

The series stars:

• Takuto Yoshinaga as Tetsuo Yabusame
• Daisuke Hirakawa as Yukio
• Ami Koshimizu as Ao Nogi
• Konomi Tamura as Hagane Takimura

Munehisa Sakai (Zombie Land Saga, Dance Dance Danseur, One Piece Film Strong World film) is directing the anime at Studio KAI, and Takeshi Iwata (The IDOLM@STER Shiny Colors, 2nd season Ajin episode director) is the assistant director. Shigeru Murakoshi (Apocalypse Hotel, Catch Me at the Ballpark!, Zombie Land Saga) is in charge of series scripts, and Toshiya Kōno ('Tis Time for "Torture," Princess character design, Fate/Apocrypha, Chainsaw Man ep. 4 animation director) is designing the characters and is also the chief animation director. TOHO animation is producing the anime.

Viz Media releases the manga in English and describes the story:

In the year 2025, huge beasts from beyond the galaxy attacked Earth. In the war that followed, humanity fought back with a giant robot named Yukio, piloted by Tetsuo Yabusame. As the massive alien swarm closed in on humanity's homeworld, Tetsuo and the Earth Defense Force deployed for the final battle with the invading horde. They lost…

Yukio was destroyed in battle and Tetsuo survived in an escape pod. After eight years in cold sleep, the escape pod finally lands back on Earth. But when Tetsuo emerges he finds a world in ruins, entirely frozen beneath a blanket of ice and snow—Snowball Earth! What happened to humanity, how did the planet freeze over, and will Tetsuo be able to keep his last promise to Yukio?

The new short anime adaptation of San-X's Rilakkuma character will premiere in Japan on April 4.

Yoshimi Itazu (The Concierge anime film, Rilakkuma anime announcement video) and Yumi Kamakura (The Grimm Variations, Mashin Sōzōden Wataru) are directing the anime at Production I.G Chiyo Morita (The Concierge anime film, Rilakkuma anime announcement video) is designing the characters, and Kōta Yokoseki (If It’s for My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord), Yoshiya Ikeda (Mobile Suit Gundam Silver Phantom VR film), and Mizuki Kanno are composing the music. Legendoor is in charge of music production, and Keiko Matsushita (The Concierge, Haikyu!! series) is the animation producer.

The Rilakkuma announcement video's staff also includes other veterans of The Concierge such as concept color designer Izumi Hirose, in-between animator Maiko Nogami, editor Junichi Uematsu, and cinematographer Hiroshi Tanaka. 

San-X launched the character that Aki Kondo created in 2003. 

Netflix premiered the Rilakkuma and Kaoru (Rilakkuma to Kaoru-san) anime series in 2019, and the Rilakkuma's Theme Park Adventure stop-motion anime series in 2022. 

Source: Muse Asia's Facebook page (link 2)