The Fate Project Ōmisoka TV Special 2018 (Fate Project New Year's Eve TV Special 2018) program revealed on Monday that Makoto Sanda's Lord El-Melloi II-sei no Jikenbo (The Case Files of Lord El-Melloi II) mystery novel spinoff series will get a television anime adaptation titled Lord El-Melloi II-sei no Jikenbo -Rail Zeppelin Grace note- . The series will premiere on Tokyo MX, BS11, Gunma TV, Tochigi TV, and MBS in July 2019.

The anime will adapt the "Rail Zeppelin" story from the novels and also include original content. "Episode 0" of the anime premiered during the television special on Monday. Type-Moon previously teased a new animation project by TROYCA ( Re:CREATORS , Aldnoah.Zero , Bloom Into You ) for the program.

The anime's cast includes:

Daisuke Namikawa as Lord El-Melloi II



Reina Ueda as Gray





Daisuke Ono as Add





Inori Minase as Reines El-Melloi Archisorte



Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Flat Escardos



Seiichirō Yamashita as Svin Glascheit



Yūsuke Kobayashi as Caules Forvedge Yggdmillennia





Namikawa, Matsuoka, and Kobayashi are reprising their roles from previous anime in the franchise.

Makoto Katō (Beautiful Bones: Sakurako's Investigation, Bloom Into You) is directing the series at TROYCA. Ukyō Kodachi (Chaos Dragon, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations) is in charge of series composition. Jun Nakai (GATE, Silver Spoon) is designing the characters. Ei Aoki (Fate/Zero director) is credited as supervisor.

Other staff members include:

Prop Design: Kazutaka Ema

Occult Research: Kiyomune Miwa

Art Director: Akira Itō (Studio ARA)

Art Design: Ryū Sakamoto (Bic Studio)

Color Key Artist: Mariko Shinohara

Director of Photography: Tomonobu Kato

CG Director: Mitsutaka Iguchi

Editing: Syota Migiyama

Animation Producer: Toshiyuki Nagano

Sound Director: Jin Aketagawa

Music Production: Magic capsule

Music: Yuki Kajiura

The novels center on the titular character Lord El-Melloi II, the adult Waver Velvet from Fate/Zero , and successor of Kayneth, as well as Lord El-Melloi II's apprentice Gray. The story takes place in the Clock Tower, the Mage's Association's headquarters in England. There, Lord El-Melloi II and Gray solve various mysteries of a magical nature surrounding the Mage's Association.

Sanda published the first novel in the series in December 2014. The eighth novel shipped in Japan on August 12, and the ninth novel (seen right) shipped on Monday . Tō Azuma launched a manga adaptation of the novels in Kadokawa's Young Ace magazine in October 2017, and Kadokawa published the manga's second volume on August 4, and will publish the third volume on January 10.

Sanda published his Rental Magica light novel series from 2004 to 2013 in 24 volumes. He serialized the novel series in Kadokawa's The Sneaker light novel magazine before it ceased publication in 2011. A 24-episode television anime adaptation premiered in 2007. Right Stuf released the series on DVD in North America.

Sanda was the dungeon master for the "Red Dragon" tabletop role-playing session that inspired the Chaos Dragon television anime. Type-Moon co-founder and Fate/stay night writer Kinoko Nasu participated as player in the game, alongside Fate/Zero author Gen Urobuchi, and other Japanese authors.