The story of Koyomi Araragi and the iron-blooded, hot-blooded, cold-blooded vampire: Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade continues its journey west with the middle of Shaft's theatrical anime adaptation, Kizumonogatari- Part 2: Nekketsu in 33 U.S. theaters on October 22. Meanwhile, in Japan, the feature is preparing for its sixth week in local theaters, and to get fans back in, character designer Akio Watanabe has illustrated the second in a series of original pieces for bonus postcards.

Week 5 poster

There's also a new Mayoi Hachikuji tongue-twister commercial for the Monogatari series

Speaking of Watanabe and his work designing characters for Shaft's adaptation of Nisio Isin anime...

An eight-OAV Kubikiri Cycle adaptation of the first Zaregoto novel is set to debut October 26th. A preview will be screening at the MadoGatari Shaft 40th anniversary Tokyo Encore next weekend, and, along with the announcement, there's a look at Watanabe's cover art.

The theme "Cobolt World" by Sangatsu no Phantasia will debut will the MadoGatari preview.



Kubikiri Cycle OVA Vol.#1 Trailer by pKjd

Cast

Ii/Boku aka Nonsense Bearer - Yuki Kaji

The main protagonist and narrator of the Zaregoto Series. He is close friends with Tomo Kunagisa. His real name is never revealed.

Tomo Kunagisa - Aoi Yuuki

the heiress to the Kungisa household, a genius computer engineer and hacker, and a close friend of I.

Akane Sonoyama - Yu Shimamura (Attack on Titan's Annie)

a genius scholar and one of the Seven Fools in the ER3 System.

Kanami Ibuki - Ayako Kawasumi (Fate/stay night's Saber)

a genius painter, known for having no fixed style of painting.

Shinya Sakaki - Kenji Hamada (KuroBas' Teppei Kiyoshi)

the attendant of Kanami Ibuki

Maki Himena - Aya Endo (Macross F's Sheryl Nome)

a genius fortune-teller and Esper.

Yayoi Sashirono - Haruna Ikezawa

is a genius chef, and the longest-running guest of Wet Crow's Feather Island

Iria Akagami - Mariya Ise (Hunter x Hunter's Killua Zoldyck)

heiress of the Akagami Foundation, exiled to Wet Crow's Feather Island.

Rei Handa - Noriko Kuwashima

head maid who works for Iria Akagami on Wet Crow's Feather Island

Akari Chiga - Natsuko Kuwatani

one triplets who work as maids for Iria Akagami on Wet Crow's Feather Island.

Hikari Chiga - Ryoko Shintani

one triplets who work as maids for Iria Akagami on Wet Crow's Feather Island.

Teruko Chiga -Yuko Goto

the youngest of the triplets who work as maids for Iria Akagami on Wet Crow's Feather Island. She is Iria's bodyguard.

Jun Aikawa - Yūko Kaida

known as both the most powerful private contractor in the world and the world's greatest entrepreneur.

Staff

Original - Nisio Isin

Original character designs - Take

Series Director- Akiyuki Shinbo

Director - Yuki Yase (Hidamari Sketch × Honeycomb, episode director on Madoka Magica)

Composition- Tou Fuyashi (a joint pseudonym used by the studio) , Akiyuki Shinbo

Screenplay-Yukito Kizawa (Bakemonogatari, Nisekoi)

Character design and chief animation director - Akio Watanabe

Chief animation director - Hirofumi Suzuki (Madoka Magica ending)

Storyboard · okama

Music - Yuki Kajiura

Animation production shaft

Production and Aniplex / Kodansha / shaft

Theme "Cobolt World" is by Sangatsu no Phantasia, comprised of

- Vocal: Mia (@3_phantasia)

- Composer: Scop (@scopscop)

- Illustrator: Natsu Asami (@72desuyo)

- Composer: n-buna (@nabuna2)

- Composer: Yuuyu (@yuuyu_ssry)

- Composer: 40mp (@40mP)

- Composer: buzz-G (@buzz_g)

Ending "Marchen" is from Madoka vocalists Kalafina.

The first two Zaregoto books were released by Del Rey in 2008 and 2010. They were described:

It’s the vacation of a lifetime, a trip to a remote island filled with geniuses–and murder.



On Wet Crow’s Feather Island, a tiny speck in the Sea of Japan, lives Akagami Iria, the exiled daughter of a powerful family. Born into great wealth, she was a princess of the highest pedigree–until she was cut off by the leader of the Akagami Foundation. For the last five years, she’s lived on Feather Island with her maids. But she hasn’t been alone. She has invited the best minds Japan has to offer to come and stay with her.



And so nineteen-year-old college student Ii-chan and his best friend, computer genius Kunagisa Tomo, find themselves as Iria’s guests at her elaborate mansion. Surrounded by fascinating women–a chef, a fortune-teller, a scholar, and an artist, not to mention his own friend Tomo–Ii-chan is feeling a little overmatched intellectually. But the sudden discovery of a grisly murder sends the island into shock. And Ii-chan discovers that he does possess a bit of genius: the ability to discover what is real and what is fake . . . who is who they claim to be–and who is a killer.



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Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime.