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Forest of Piano, Last Hope Anime to Premiere on Netflix in September
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Forbes reported last week that Netflix will premiere the Last Hope (Jūshinki Pandora) anime on September 14, and the Forest of Piano (Piano no Mori) on September 28.
Netflix began exclusively streaming Last Hope in Japan on March 29, and previously announced a "worldwide release." The anime premiered on television on Tokyo MX on April 4. The anime then premiered on WOWOW and BS11 on April 6, and on MBS on April 7. The 23rd episode debuted on Thursday.
Hidekazu Sato (Basquash!, Nobunaga The Fool, Aquarion Logos) is directing the anime at the studio Satelight. Toshizo Nemoto (Log Horizon, Macross Delta) is in charge of the scripts, and Risa Ebata (Macross Frontier, AKB0048) is drafting the original character designs. Kawamori himself is credited for the original work (with Satelight), for the Jūshinki mechanical designs, and as chief director.
Forest of Piano premiered on NHK on April 8 at 12:10 a.m. (effectively April 9 morning). The first season's 12th and final episode aired on July 2. Netflix exclusively streamed the anime inside Japan, debuting new episdoes immediately after they aired on NHK. Netflix previously announced plans to release all the episodes at once in more than 190 countries outside of Japan "around this fall."
The anime will get a second season in January.
Gaku Nakatani (Madagascar 3 CG supervisor) directed the first season at Fukushima Gainax. Aki Itami (Flowers of Evil, Mushi-Shi, Rainbow Days) and Mika Abe (Danchi Tomoo) were in charge of series composition. Sumie Kinoshita (Girlish Number, A Sister's All You Need) designed the characters, and is also credited as chief animation director.
The pianists, and the characters they performed pieces for, include Kyohei Sorita (Sōsuke Ajino), Takagi Ryoma (Shūhei Amamiya), Niu Niu (Wei Pang), Szymon Nehring (Lech Szymanowski), and Juliette Journaux (Sophie Ormesson). The anime also featured performances by junior pianists Kotone Uehara, Modan Oyama, Kamuro Sahara, and Ayano Baba to portray the performances of the show's main characters Kai, Shūhei, or Takako in their childhood years. Nippon Columbia hosted an audition for the junior pianists.
Source: Forbes (Erik Kain)
