New promotional video also reveals "Stars' Ensemble!" opening song for July 7 anime

The staff for the television anime of Happy Elements' Ensemble Stars! smartphone game franchise revealed on Tuesday that the anime's new director is Masakazu Hishida ( KING OF PRISM by PrettyRhythm , King of Prism: PRIDE the HERO , King of Prism: Shiny Seven Stars ). The director was previously announced under the pen name Junpaku Yagurashita.

The anime's website also began streaming new promotional video for the anime on Tuesday. The video reveals and previews the anime's opening theme song "Stars' Ensemble!" by the in-story idol group Yumenosaki Dream Stars.

The series will premiere on Tokyo MX on July 7 at 10:30 p.m. Sun TV, KBS Kyoto, TV Aichi, BS11 will also run the anime.

The cast from the game is returning for the anime.

Yasufumi Soejima is still the series director for the anime at david production. Novelist Akira ([email protected]), who wrote the original scenario for the game, is in charge of the series scripts for the anime. Shinichi Inotsume (Hayate the Combat Butler, PERSONA 5 the Animation, Sket Dance) is the chief writer, and Haruko Iizuka (Children of the Whales, The [email protected] SideM, Little Busters!), Tomoyuki Shitaya (Bakuman., Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma), and Eri Nagata (Blade & Soul) are adapting the original character designs by Happy Elements (Cacalia Studio) for animation.

Satoru Kuwabara (Arte Refact) is producing the music, and Tatsuya Katō (APDREAM, Free! - Iwatobi Swim Club, Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma, Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya) is composing the music. Saho Yamane is directing the art, and Eri Suzuki is the color key artist. Daisuke Kusaka is directing the 3D, and Tomoya Kamijō is the compositing director of photography. Mai Hasegawa is editing, and Takatoshi Hamano is handling sound effects.

The "idol-training produce game" takes place at a private boys' idol-training school with a history of turning out many great talents in show business. The protagonist is the school's lone female student who transfers to the school because of a special situation, and enters the school's producer department. The game features eight different idol units and has a cast of more than 30 male voice actors.

Happy Elements had confirmed the adaptation in 2015, and GENCO and Happy Elements had originally planned to release it in 2017. However, GENCO and Happy Elements announced in February 2017 that they were postponing the planned adaptation due to "various circumstances." GENCO is not currently listed in the anime's staff credits with david production.

The game's fourth stage musical adaptation ran in Osaka from January 19-21 of last year, and in Tokyo from January 25 to February 5. The first stage play, which debuted in June 2016, received VR software for PlayStation VR in October 2016 .

The franchise also includes a manga, novels, and CDs. A new rhythm game will launch in the second half of 2019 under the title Ensemble Stars!! (with two exclamation points).

Update: The article previously stated that the director was changed, but it has now been corrected to reference the previous announcement as a pen name for director Masakazu Hishida. Source: Masakazu Hishida's Instagram account. Thanks to JR-1 for the tip.

Sources: Ensemble Stars! anime's website, Comic Natalie