During a stage presentation at the "Machi Asobi 14" event in Tokushima on Sunday, animation studio ufotable revealed the first promotional video for the upcoming anime adaptation of its God Eater game series.

The video revealed that the series will star Ryūichi Kijima (Beast Saga's Argyllo, Beyblade Shogun Steel's Torimaki B) as the protagonist Renka Utsugi. Renka, who is an original character, is a new "God Arc" (Jin-ki) weapon user. The staff chose Kijima for the role after auditioning more than 100 people.

The staff also revealed a new key visual at the presentation.

Returning cast members from the game series include:

Hiroaki Hirata as Lindow Amamiya

Maaya Sakamoto as Alisa Illinichina Amiella

Kazuya Nakai as Soma Schicksal

Daisuke Sakaguchi as Kota Fujiki

Sayaka Ohara as Sakuya

Additionally, the stage event revealed that Oldcodex will perform the opening theme song. The series will premiere in Japan on July 5, and it will air on Tokyo MX TV, BS 11, and other stations.

The staff of the anime noted at the event that studio ufotable will use hand-drawn animation to animate the God Arc weapons instead of CG.

Takayuki Hirao will direct the anime at ufotable with character designs by Keita Shimizu (Tales of Phantasia, ToHeart2 key animation) and music by Go Shiina (Kyousogiga, God Eater games). Hirao also was the director for the anime promotional video for the first game in 2010.

Bandai Namco announced the anime adaptation during the Tokyo Game Show 2014 event last September.

Dengeki Online and Famitsu have both posted images from the new promotional video. ufotable will release the video publicly in the future.

Sources: Dengeki Online, Famitsu