Hot of the heels of the massive success of their feature-length anime film Promare, Studio Trigger is gearing up for the launch of their next project. Fans of anthropomorphic animal-focused series like the recent hit Beastars are in for a treat, because the latest Studio Trigger anime series is titled BNA: Brand New Animal, and it’s got animal action a-plenty.
The official website for BNA: Brand New Animal dropped a heap of new information about the upcoming television series, alongside a brand new trailer that shows off more scenes from the show. Much like Beastars before it, the latest Studio Trigger anime is also set to stream exclusively on Netflix in Japan. This likely means that the show will only be available through Netflix globally, which also means American fans will likely have to wait a few extra months before they can see it. As for Japanese fans, they’ll be able to catch the show when it premieres in April. It will have a debut airing on Fuji TV’s “+Ultra” television block, before later running on BS Fuji and then streaming on Netflix.
The story of BNA: Brand New Animal focuses on Michiru Kagemori, an adorable sports-obsessed high school girl who one day finds that she’s turned into a tanuki-human. In this world, the existence of animal-humans is a recently discovered fact after years of them being hidden in the darkness of history. They aren’t exactly respected in society, though, so Kagemori runs away to a city called “Anima City” that was set up 10 years ago specifically to give animal-humans somewhere to live and form their own society. When she arrives there, she meets Shirou, a wolf-human who can’t stand regular humans. He helps Michiru learn about the ups, downs, and harsh realities of living as an animal-human, and as the two team up to try and find out why Kagemori was turned into a tanuki-human in the first place, the unlikely duo end up getting wrapped up in a huge conspiracy.
Michiru Kagemori is voiced by Sumire Morohoshi in BNA: Brand New Animal. Morohoshi previously voiced Hinami Fueguchi in Tokyo Ghoul and Ichigo Hoshimiya in Aikatsu. The rest of the cast is as follows:
- Yoshimasa Hosoya as Shirou Ogami, a wolf-human and misanthrope who comes to look after Michiru after a certain development leaves him no choice.
- Maria Naganawa as Nazuna Hiwatashi, a beautiful girl who is friends with Michiru and yearns to be an idol.
- Kaito Ishikawa as Alan Sylvasta, the young CEO of the Sylvasta drug manufacturer, and member of a distinguished family.
BNA: Brand New Animal is being directed by Yoh Yoshinari, who previously directed Little Witch Academia at Studio Trigger. Scripts for the series, meanwhile, are being written by Gurren Lagann and Kill la Kill scriptwriter Kazuki Nakashima. Genice Chan is contributing concept art to the series, while Yusuke Yoshigaki (Space Patrol Luluco, Ninja Slayer From Animation) is the character designer for the show. Naoki Takeda is chief animation director, while Masanobu Nomura is the art director and Yukiko Kakita is the color key artist. The compositing director of photography is Nozomi Shitara, and editing is being handled by Kentarou Tsubone. Mabanua, the composer previously responsible for music from Kids on the Slope and Megalobox, is composing music for the series.
