FuRyu's game originally shipped in June 2016

FuRyu announced during a livestream presentation on Friday for its The Caligula Effect game that the game is getting a television anime adaptation that will premiere in April 2018.

In the original game's story, written by Tadashi Satomi, a virtual idol known as μ performs user-inputted songs and gains self-awareness through exposure to users' bitter feelings and dissatisfaction toward reality. Wanting to save humanity — which she believes is continuously suffering — she lures people to a virtual reality world called Mobius with her songs. She then imprisons them in Mobius, thinking they will be free from the suffering of reality and that all their wishes will come true. The game follows the nine members of the "Going Home Club," a club that was formed because the characters want to escape from Mobius and go home. The game's title refers to the "Caligula Effect," which is a pattern of behavior where one wants to see or do something more if it is denied to them.

The in-game composer characters are represented by real independent music composers, including 40mP (KagiP), OSTER PROJECT (Sweet P), Polyphonic Branch (Shonen Doll), CyoucyoP (Mirei), Asa (IkeP), 164 (Shadow Knife), and [email protected] (Sone).

The game's main cast is as follows:

Chiharu Sawashiro as the protagonist

Rie Murakawa as Kotono Kashiwaba

Shunsuke Takeuchi as Shogo Satake

Rie Takahashi as Mihue Sonohara

Yoshimasa Hosoya as Kotarō Tomoe

Minami Tanaka as Suzuna Kagura

Yuichiro Umehara as Izuru Minezawa

Ari Ozawa as Naruko Morita

Shouta Aoi as Kensuke Hibiki and KagiP

Reina Ueda as μ

Eriko Nakamura as Mirei

Emi Nitta as SweetP

Sōma Saitō as IkeP

Yumiri Hanamori as Shonen Doll

Yūma Uchida as Shadow Knife

Yuka Ōtsubo as Sone

The game shipped in Japan for the PlayStation Vita in June 2016. The game launched in North America on May 2, and in Europe on May 9. The release was digital only in the West. The original game is getting a remake for the PlayStation 4 that will ship in Japan on May 17.

Update: The anime retains the main voice cast from the games, but not necessarily in the same roles: