1st 12-episode series inspired by smartphone game premiered in April

The official website for Sanrio's Show By Rock!! TV anime series announced on Sunday that the show is getting a sequel, as well as a new short anime. The Twitter account for the franchise stated that it would announce the "broadcast information" for each of the works at a later date. The website features a key visual with the tagline: "I believe. In music, and in my friends, and in the future."

Sanrio began distributing the game developed by geechs for iOS and Android in 2012. The game is free to play, but has in-game items that can be purchased.

Sanrio previously described the story of the original game as follows:

Metropolis of music, MIDICITY. A kitty girl wearing gothic lolita clothing named Cyan is scouted by Maple Arisugawa, the president of a music agency. From there, she meets Chuchu (a pun off of the sound that rabbits make) the honor student rabbit girl, a net geek dog girl named Retoree (from "Retriever"), and an alien sheep (?) girl named Moa. Together, they form the band named "Plasmagica," and aim for the top of the world. However, the path there is long and tough, and keeping in high spirits is important. By battling against other strange bands, Plasmagica slowly grows toward a top-grade band. In the end, they'll be a band that becomes the driving force of MIDICITY's music industry... Maybe? Gonna be a music millionaire!

The game inspired a 12-episode television anime series in April, and Funimation streamed the series as it aired with both English subtitles and an English dub.

The game is also inspiring a musical in February that will feature the franchise's Shingan Crimsonz four-member visual kei band as the main characters.

Images © 2012, 2014, 2015 Sanrio Co., Ltd. Show By Rock Production Committee

[Via Otakomu]