New visual, July 3 premiere also revealed

The official website for the television anime adaptation of Marvelous' The Thousand Musketeers ( Senjūshi: The Thousand Noble Musketeers ) smartphone game revealed on Thursday that Tomoaki Maeno is replacing Yuichiro Umehara in the role of Ieyasu (pictured below).

Maeno is also replacing Umehara in the Caligula anime.

Umehara was hospitalized in May after being diagnosed with acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, an autoimmune disease that affects the nervous system. The actor is focusing on treatment and recovery and is taking an indefinite hiatus from work.

The website also revealed that the anime will premiere on Tokyo MX on July 3 at 11:00 p.m., before airing later that evening on Sun TV, TV Aichi, and BS11. The series will air through September.

The site also revealed a new visual.

Cast and characters based on weapons from the American Revolutionary War include:

Taku Yashiro as Brown Bess, an England musket gun that was used when the British Empire was established







Shinnosuke Tachibana as Charleville, the first French musket gun, which was standardized for the military







Shouta Aoi as Springfield, the first American domestically produced flint-lock type musket gun







Yuuki Kaji as Kentucky, a rifle musket gun active in the American Kentucky regiment







Cast and characters based on black powder weapons from the Napoleonic era and the Wars of the Coalition include:

Daisuke Namikawa as Napoleon, Emperor Napoleon's flint-lock type shotgun







Wataru Hatano as Rapp, a flint-lock type gun, which was given from Emperor Napoleon to General Rapp







Ayumu Murase as Nicola and Noël, based on a pair of pistols that belonged to Napoleon, manufactured by Nicolas-Noël Boutet of the Versailles state arms factory







Cast and characters based on weapons from the Siege of Osaka include:

Tomoaki Maeno (replacing Yuichiro Umehara) as Ieyasu, based on a firearm wielded by Tokugawa Ieyasu







Sōma Saitō as Hidetada, based on a firearm wielded by Tokugawa Hidetada







Yoshiki Nakajima as Yukimura, based on a firearm wielded by Sanada Yukimura







Cast and characters based on weapons from the Wars of German Unification include:

Takuya Satō as Dreyse, based on the Prussian Dreyse needle gun, the world's first bolt-action rifle







Takuya Eguchi as Chassepot, based on the 1866 Chassepot, the main French armament in the Franco-Prussian War







Hiroki Takahashi as Tabatiere, based on the French Army rifle used in the Franco-Prussian War







Kōtarō Nishiyama as Lorenz, based on the Austrian Lorenz rifle used in the American Civil War and Austro-Prussian War







Marvelous describes the anime's story in English:

The story takes place at the subsequent era after the whole world was devastated by the nuclear war. Under the strong rule by the World Empire, people are all suppressed and deprived of their own lives. A resistance team secretly keeps fighting to break the suppression while everyone is forbidden to possess any force of arms.

The team challenges the fight with the "antique guns" that were left as works of art, and the incarnations of those antique guns are called "Musketeers" appear and join the team, as if they responded to the soul of the team.

In their battles with the incarnations of contemporary guns who represent and are dispatched from the Empire, the "Musketeers" turn their "Absolute Noble" mode to give a powerful boost to themselves, and bring hope to the world!

Kenichi Kasai (Honey and Clover, Nodame Cantabile, Bakuman) is directing the anime at TMS Entertainment. Takashi Aoshima (Sanrio Boys, Himoto! Umaru-chan) is the series supervisor, Majiro (Barakamon, Macross Delta) is the character designer, and Hiroshi Takaki (Devils and Realist, AKB0048) is composing the music.

The game launched on iOS and Android on March 22. The game is also inspiring an ongoing manga adaptation by Miki Daichi that launched in Kadokawa's Young Ace magazine on June 4.

Source: The Thousand Noble Musketeers anime's official website via Nijimen