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Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Impure King Arc Anime Reveals January Premiere, More Cast
posted on by Crystalyn Hodgkins
This year's November issue of Shueisha's Jump SQ. magazine is announcing on Tuesday that the Ao no Exorcist: Kyoto Fujō Ō-hen (Blue Exorcist: Kyoto Impure King Arc) television anime series will premiere in January 2017, and will air on MBS's "Animeism" programming block.
The magazine is also revealing a new key visual drawn by original manga author Kazue Katō, and more cast for the series:
Takashi Inagaki as Tatsuma Suguro
Katsuyuki Konishi as Jūzō Shima
Kishō Taniyama as Kinzō Shima
M.A.O as MAMUSHI Hōjō
Kazuhiro Yamaji as Saburōta Tōdō
Inagaki is reprising his role from the previous anime series.
The anime's official site will also stream a new promotional video on Tuesday.
The new cast joins the following returning cast:
Nobuhiko Okamoto as Rin Okumura
Jun Fukuyama as Yukio Okumura
Kana Hanazawa as Shiemi Moriyama
Kazuya Nakai as Ryuji Suguro
Kōji Yusa as Renzo Shima
Yūki Kaji as Konekomaru Miwa
Eri Kitamura as Izumo Kamiki
Ayahi Takagaki as Kuro
Rina Satō as Shura Kirigakure
Hiroshi Kamiya as Mephisto Pheles
Keiji Fujiwara as Shiro Fujimoto
Koichi Hatsumi (Deadman Wonderland, Gangsta., Berserk: The Golden Age Arc I - The Egg of the King) is replacing Tensai Okamura as the director of the new series at A-1 Pictures. Toshiya Ono (The Perfect Insider, tsuritama, Gatchaman Crowds) is handling the series composition, replacing Ryota Yamaguchi. Keigo Sasaki is returning from the first season to design the characters, and he is also the chief animation director alongside Akira Takata (Durarara!!, Natsume's Book of Friends). Shigeki Kawai (episode director for Kingdom, Galilei Donna) is serving as assistant director. Hiroyuki Sawano is additionally returning to compose the music alongside newcomer Kohta Yamamoto (the same Legendoor management company represents both artists).
The anime will adapt the "Kyoto Impure King Arc" that started in the fifth volume of Kazue Katō's original manga. Viz Media describes the manga's fifth volume as follows:
In the late Edo Period, a demon known as the Impure King killed thousands of people. After defeating the demon, the Knights of the True Cross kept its left eye safely sealed away on Academy grounds - but now someone has stolen it! Hearing the thief has taken a child hostage, Yukio and Rin go to help. The investigation and pursuit will lead Rin and his friends to Kyoto and involve them even deeper in a sinister plot! But will his friends' knowledge that Rin is the son of Satan drive a wedge between them?
Katō launched the manga in Jump SQ. magazine in 2009, and Shueisha published the 17th compiled volume on July 4. The manga inspired a 25-episode television anime adaptation in 2011, and an anime film in 2012.
The supernatural manga focuses on Rin Okumura, a boy raised by a famous exorcist named Father Fujimoto. After an argument between the two, Rin discovers he is the son of Satan. Rin decides to fight his fate by joining the True Cross Academy to become an exorcist and defeat demons. However, when he draws his father's sword, it releases a dark power within him.
Viz Media publishes the manga in English simultaneously digitally as new chapters are published in Japan, and the company also releases the manga in print. Aniplex of America released the previous anime adaptations. The manga has also inspired several stage plays, the most recent of which ran in Tokyo in August. The latest stage play also adapted the Kyoto Impure King Arc.
