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Aniplus Asia Airs Simulcast of I Made Friends with the Second Prettiest Girl in My Class, Marika's Love Meter Malfunction
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Aniplus Asia announced last week that it will air a simulcast of the I Made Friends with the Second Prettiest Girl in My Class and Marika's Love Meter Malfunction anime. Aniplus Asia already aired the first episode of Marika's Love Meter Malfunction on Sunday.
Aniplus Asia licensed the television anime adaptation of Takata's I Made Friends with the Second Prettiest Girl in My Class (Class de 2-ban Me ni Kawaii Onna no Ko to Tomodachi ni Natta) light novel series for Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. The anime will be available on Anigamer in all three territories, and on Hami Video, MOD, LINE TV, friDay, and My-Video in Taiwan.
The anime will premiere in Japan on April 7.
Yen Press is publishing the manga adaptation in English, and it describes the story:
Maki Maehara is always on his own at school. He has no friends or hobbies others share, and he doesn't expect the upcoming academic year to be any different, even surrounded by new faces. And six months later, it seems like he was right—until he runs into his popular classmate Umi Asanagi at a video store! Always at the center of attention and called the “second prettiest in class” by the boys, Asanagi's from a totally different world. But it turns out the two have more overlapping interests than just the B-grade movies they came to check out...and Asanagi asks Maehara to be her friend!
The anime stars:
- Haruki Ishiya as Maki Maehara
- Manaka Iwami as Umi Asanagi
- Sayumi Suzushiro as Yū Amami
- Ikumi Hasegawa as Nina Nitta
- Yūko Kaida as Masaki Maehara
- Shizuka Itō as Sora Asanagi
- Minami Tsuda as Miki Yagisawa
Hideki Tachibana (Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? franchise, Armed Girl's Machiavellism) is directing the anime at CONNECT. Keiichirō Ōchi (The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten, The Quintessential Quintuplets) is both overseeing and writing the series scripts, and Shoko Takimoto (Armed Girl's Machiavellism, Death March to The Parallel World Rhapsody) is designing the characters.
The television anime of Rin Komugi's Marika's Love Meter Malfunction manga streamed early on AnimeFesta on March 13 at 5:00 p.m. JST (4:00 a.m. EDT), with the "on-air version" (as opposed to the uncut version) free to stream. The anime then ran on the Tokyo MX and BS11 television channels on April 5 at 25:00 JST (effectively, April 6 at 1:00 a.m. JST).
The anime stars:
- Kōhei Amasaki as Kanata Kitami
- Maaya Uchida as Marika Chitose
- Ayasa Itō as Sayuki Toyotomi
- Yurie Igoma as Kokona Mikasa
- Rie Kugimiya as Niino Hidaka
Sumito Sasaki (The Share House's Secret Rule director, PriPara, The Gorilla God's Go-To Girl episode director) is directing the anime at Studio Leo. Masamitsu Ōtake and Scenario Engineering Institute (Scenario Kōgaku Kenkyūjo) are in charge of series scripts, and Rena Nasu (Ren Arisugawa Is Actually a Girl, Unexpectedly Naughty Fukami) is designing the characters. Marika Chitose, as voiced by Maaya Uchida, performs the theme song "Hakaritai Kōkando."
WWWave Corporation publishes the romantic comedy manga in English on its Coolmic platform, and it describes the story:
Confessing to my childhood friend Marika was impossible for someone as unpopular as me. So, I did what any desperate boy would do—I wished upon a shooting star! When I woke up, that dream had come true?! I could see a love meter for people, just like in a love simulation game. Once I realized this was real and not a dream I went straight to see Marika. Her love meter was so low it had broken and practically fallen all the way to hell! If she hated me so much why was she so nice?! Is this how she really felt or...?!
The manga launched in 2024, and Suiseisha has been publishing the manga digitally. Suiseisha will start publishing the manga in print with the first and second volumes on April 17.
