Says anime was originally planned to be 24 episodes

The 12th and final episode of the Stars Align TV anime debuted in Japan on Friday. According to director Kazuki Akane, however, this episode does not mark the end of the story. Furthermore, the series was originally planned to be 24 episodes long, and the TV anime's ending reflects that structure.

"Stars Align ended its television run with its 12th episode today. But the story has a continuation, and the characters' drama will continue in the future," he wrote on Twitter. "The anime was originally planned to be 24 episodes, and the second cour would have aired after a three-month break. So there is an episode 13 that follows from episode 12.

"In spring, there was a last-minute change in the schedule to make the show 12 episodes long, but we've been working on this anime for over two years, and the animation production was already proceeding, so I deemed it impossible to turn it into a 12 episode structure at that juncture. Thus, we made 12 episodes with the 24 episode structure intact.

"I wanted to make this anime different from your ordinary anime, so this way of ending things might be another characteristic aspect of Stars Align. I'll make the story for the next 12 episodes myself, so I hope you give me the chance to show youo what happens in Maki and Toma's future, along with all the others.

"The form that this media will take is in flux right now, so please look forward to seeing how Stars Align will turn out. I hope that everyone who has watched Stars Align so far can support us to make the continuation a reality."

Stars Align premiered on October 10. Kazuki Akane (Escaflowne series and film, Code Geass: Akito the Exiled, Birdy the Mighty: Decode, Noein - to your other self) is directing the anime at 8-Bit and is also supervising and writing the series scripts. The teen adolescence story revolves around the coming of age of boys in a junior high school's soft tennis team, which is on the verge of shutting down.

Source: Kazuki Akane's Twitter account