The "New Anime Project The Legend of the Galactic Heroes Event ~Star-Crossed~" unveiled the main cast, main staff, first promotional video, release schedule, and titles for Production I.G's new anime of Yoshiki Tanaka's epic science fiction novels The Legend of the Galactic Heroes on Wednesday.

The new cast stars:

Mamoru Miyano as Reinhard von Lohengramm

Kenichi Suzumura as Yang Wen-li

Yuichiro Umehara as Siegfried Kircheis

Yoshimitsu Shimoyama as Narrator

Shunsuke Tada (Kuroko's Basketball, Starmyu) is directing the anime at Production I.G. Noboru Takagi (Durarara!!, Kuroko's Basketball) is in charge of the series scripts. Yoko Kikuchi (Junjō Romantica, Kuroko's Basketball, Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi - The World's Greatest First Love), Iwao Teraoka (The Brave Police J-Decker guest character designs, Kuroko's Basketball storyboarder), and Katsura Tsushima (Kuroko's Basketball episode animation director) are designing the characters, and Takayuki Goto (Kuroko's Basketball, Blood-C) is serving as chief animation director. Atsushi Takeuchi (Napping Princess) is directing the special effects, and Atsushi Takeuchi (Appleseed, Ghost in the Shell, Yukikaze), Shinji Usui (009 Re:Cyborg), and Shinobu Tsuneki (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Psycho-Pass) are drafting the mecha designs with original mecha designs by Naoyuki Kato (The Legend of the Galactic Heroes novel illustrations, Starship Troopers). Tanaka's Wright Staff management firm is supervising the project, and Kitty Entertainment is collaborating on the planning. Tokuma Shoten is collaborating on the production, and DMM pictures is collaborating on producing with Shochiku and Production I.G.

The first season, The Legend of the Galactic Heroes Die Neue These Kaikō (The New Thesis: Star-Crossed), will premiere next April as a 12-episode television series. The event screenings of the second "season," The Legend of the Galactic Heroes Die Neue These Seiran (The New Thesis: Stellar War), will then play in theaters, as three films of four episodes each, in 2019.

Ryo Horikawa, Masashi Hironaka, and Nozomu Sasaki, the voice actors for Reinhard, Kircheis, and Julian in the earlier original video anime series of The Legend of the Galactic Heroes , attended the event with Tanaka, Tada, and the new voice cast. Kei Tomiyama, the original voice actor for Yang Wen-li, passed away in 1995.

Tanaka's space opera novel series follows the epic conflict between the Galactic Empire and Free Planets Alliance, as well as the personal stories of Imperial Admiral Reinhard von Lohengramm and the Alliance's Yang Wen-Li. The 10 main novel volumes and four side-story volumes in the Legend of the Galactic Heroes saga have sold 15 million copies and earned Tanaka a Seiun Award. Besides Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Tanaka also wrote the original novel inspirations for The Heroic Legend of Arslan, Ryoko's Case File, Sohryuden - Legend of the Dragon Kings, and Tytania anime projects.

Viz Media's Haikasoru imprint has licensed the original novel series and released the fourth novel in June. It will release the fifth volume in November.

The late director Noboru Ishiguro (Macross, Orguss, Megazone 23) and his Artland anime studio spent more than a decade adapting the novels into a theatrical and video anime franchise, with over 100 installments, from 1988 to 2000. Sentai Filmworks has licensed the video anime series for home video.

[Via Hachima Kikō]

Update: Viz's latest novel releases added. Thanks, katscradle