The official Twitter account for the Little Witch Academia television anime series began streaming two commercials on Tuesday. The videos preview YURiKA's opening theme song "Shiny Ray" and Yuiko Ōhara ending theme song "Hoshi wo Tadoreba" (If You Follow the Stars).

The anime will premiere on January 8 on Tokyo MX, BS11, and Kansai TV. Netflix will stream the series.

The show's story revolves around Akko, who as a child watched the witch Shiny Chariot perform a show, and from then on dreamed of becoming a witch. She enters the Luna Nova Academy, a school for witches that Shiny Chariot attended. In this new town she meets new friends and starts a new school life. At the school she has lessons on riding brooms and the wonder of magic, but Akko and her friends Lotte and Sucy keep getting wrapped up in tumultuous events.

The returning cast includes:

Megumi Han as Atsuko "Akko" Kagari

Fumiko Orikasa as Lotte Yanson

Michiyo Murase as Sucy Manbavaran

Yōko Hikasa as Diana Cavendish

Arisa Shida as Amanda O'Neill

Rie Murakawa as Constanze von Braunschbank Albrechtsberger

Reina Ueda as Jasminka Antonenko

Noriko Hidaka as Shiny Chariot

Yoh Yoshinari is returning as director and original character designer at Studio Trigger. Michiru Shimada, who penned the script for the sequel film, is handling series composition. Shūhei Handa, a key animator in both the original short and sequel film, is handling main character design. Masanobu Nomura (Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, Kiznaiver) is the art director, and Michiru Oshima is returning from both previous Little Witch Academia anime to compose the music. The rest of the staff includes:

Color Setting: Yukiko Kakita

Director of Photography: Daisuke Okumura, Naoki Yorozu

Main Animator: Takafumi Hori

Design Works: Yusuke Yoshigaki

Editing: Kentarou Tsubone

Sound Director: Jun Watanabe

Sound Effects: Kiyotaka Kawada

The project began with a 2013 anime short that spawned the Little Witch Academia: The Enchanted Parade sequel last year. Yoshinari created and directed the first short as part of the Anime Mirai 2013 initiative. Fans supported the second short via a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign that raised US$150,000 in six hours, and eventually US$625,518 (four times its original goal) in one month. The Little Witch Academia: The Enchanted Parade sequel had its world premiere at Anime Expo in July 2015.