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Caligula Anime's New Promo Video Previews Opening Theme

Pony Canyon began streaming a new promotional video on Friday for Caligula, the television anime adaptation of FuRyu's The Caligula Effect game. The video previews Chiharu Sawashiro and Shunsuke Takeuchi's opening theme song "Paradigm Box."

Pony Canyon screened the anime's first episode at the Sakura-Con event in Seattle on Friday.

The anime will premiere on Tokyo MX on April 8 at 11:30 p.m., and will also air on YTV, BS-Fuji, and AT-X. In addition, the show will stream in Japan on more than 20 different streaming services. The show is listed with having 12 episodes.

FuRyu's Takuya Yamanaka is credited with the original concept. Jun'ichi Wada (WorldEnd, The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan, Ragnastrike Angels) is directing the anime at Satelight. Touko Machida (The IDOLM@STER, A Centaur's Life) is in charge of series composition. Kenji Tanabe (Good Luck Girl!) is designing the characters based on Oguchi's original designs. Satoshi Motoyama (Dagashi Kashi, Ms. Koizumi loves ramen noodles) is sound director. Tsukasa Masuko, Yasuharu Takanashi, Funta7, RegaSound, and Kenji Iwata are composing the music, and Pony Canyon is producing the music.

Rie Murakawa, Ari Ozawa, Rie Takahashi, and Minami Tanaka are performing the ending theme song "Hypno" as their characters.

The anime retains the main voice cast from the games, but some roles are different. The anime's cast includes:

• Chiharu Sawashiro as Ritsu Shikishima (the male and female protagonists have no default name in the games)
• Reina Ueda as μ
• Shunsuke Takeuchi as Shōgo Satake
• Yuichiro Umehara as Izuru Minezawa
• Yoshimasa Hosoya as Kotarō Tomoei
• Rie Murakawa as Kotono Kashiwaba
• Ari Ozawa as Naruko Morita
• Rie Takahashi as Mifue Shinohara
• Minami Tanaka as Suzuna Kagura
• Mai Fuchigami as Marie Mizuguchi
• Asami Shimoda as Aria
• Shōta Aoi as KagiP
• Emi Nitta as SweetP
• Yumiri Hanamori as Shōnen Doll
• Eriko Nakamura as Mirei
• Sōma Saitō as IkeP
• Yūma Uchida as Shadow Knife
• Yuka Ōtsubo as Sone

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 cosMo@BosoP (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.