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Nobuhiko Okamoto, Sphere, Oldcodex Work on Arata: The Legend

This year's 11th issue of Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine is revealing the cast and more of the staff for the television anime adaptation of Yuu Watase's Arata: The Legend (Arata Kangatari) manga on Wednesday.

Cast

Nobuhiko Okamoto as Hinohara Arata
Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Arata
Ayahi Takagaki as Kotoha
Yūki Ono as Kannagi
Ryōhei Kimura as Masato Kadowaki
Tatsuhisa Suzuki as Akachi
Junko Minagawa as Katena
Souichiro Hoshi as Yorunami

Staff

Directors: Kenji Yasuda, Park Woo Hyun
Series Script Supervisor: Mayori Sekijima
Character Designers: Katsuki Aizawa, Lee Seong Shin
Music: Kô Ôtani
Animation Production: Satelight, JM Animation

Not only are Takagaki and Suzuki co-starring in the voice cast, but their musical units are also contributing to the soundtrack. The four voice actresses of Sphere — Minako Kotobuki, Takagaki, Haruka Tomatsu, and Aki Toyosaki — are contributing the opening theme song, while Suzuki's unit OLDCODEX is contributing the ending theme song.

The anime will begin airing in Japan this spring.

Watase launched the manga in Weekly Shonen Sunday in 2008, and it is still running in the magazine. Viz Media publishes the manga in North America, and it describes the story:

In a mythical world where humans and gods co-exist, Arata has the unfortunate honor of being the successor to the matriarchal Hime Clan. This means he has to pretend to be a girl or face death if his true gender is discovered! On the day of his inauguration, an assassination plot forces him to flee - and he somehow winds up in modern-day Japan! Meanwhile, a boy named Arata Hinohara gets sucked into the first Arata's world and finds himself dealing with people after his life!

Watase's Ceres: Celestial Legend and Fushigi Yûgi manga also inspired a television anime series.

[Via Manga News]

Image © Yuu Watase, Shogakukgan/Arata: The Legend Production Committee