Blu-ray Disc ships with original manga's 13th volume on August 4

The official Twitter account for the Bungo Stray Dogs anime franchise revealed on Friday that it has cast Masakazu Morita as the new character Shōsaku Katsura (pictured below). The character will appear in the original anime that Kadokawa will publish on Blu-ray Disc as a bundle with the 13th volume of Kafka Asagiri and Sango Harukawa's Bungō Stray Dogs manga on August 4. The anime is titled "Hitori Ayumu" (Walk Alone). The deadline to pre-order the bundle is May 1.

The Twitter account revealed last Friday that Minako Kotobuki will play the new character Aya (pictured below)

The first 12-episode television anime adaptation of the manga aired in April-June 2016, and Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired in Japan. The anime's second 12-episode series aired from October-December, and Crunchyroll again streamed the series as it aired. Funimation and Crunchyroll plan to release the series on home video with an English dub.

The manga is also inspiring a new film project and a stage play adaptation.

The "battle action" story centers around a league of literary figures with supernatural powers. For example, in real life, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa wrote acclaimed stories that inspired Akira Kurosawa's Rashōmon film and the Aoi Bungaku Series anime's Jigoku Hen (Hell Screen) arc. In Bungō Stray Dogs, he has the power to transform and manipulate his cloak into a monster-like entity. Together, some of these writers solve mysteries as part of the "Armed Detective Agency," while others appear as antagonists.

Yen Press published the second volume of Kafka Asagiri and Sango Harukawa's original manga in March.

[Via Nijimen]