The world is full of mixed-media projects about adorable anime girls singing and dancing to achieve their idol star dreams, from the endearing cast of Love Live! to the legendary franchise Idolm@ster and even the talented bands of modern hit BanG Dream! Yet, despite the wide range of anime and game series out there, they all tend to follow a pretty similar formula involving real girls in the real world, singing and dancing across modern Japan. KLab Games and Kadokawa are trying to shake things up with a “magic x idol” mixed-media project called Lapis Re:LiGHTs, or as the full title goes, Lapis Re:LiGHTs ~Kono Sekai no Idol wa Mahō ga Tsukaeru~ (The idols in this world can use magic). Putting a magical girl spin on adorable idol antics seems like a surefire hit, and now that coordinated strike of anime girl goodness is reaching its apex with the newly announced July premiere of the anime adaptation of this promising new idol franchise.
While the Lapis Re:LiGHTs project is still in its infancy, this anime isn’t the first entry in the mixed-media project. A manga for the series, written by Shingo Nagai and illustrated by Hiroichi, the artist behind High School DxD: Asia & Koneko’s Secret Contract!?), has been in print since October of 2019. On top of that, the first music album for the franchise, titled Start the Magic Hour, released on February 5th of this year. While you can hear some of the cast on that album, this anime will be the first time the full, massive crew of characters will be fully voiced and animated. The large cast of the series, consisting of multiple groups of girls who each belong to a unique unit, is as follows:
- LiGHTs
- Yukari Anzai as Tiara
- Risa Kubota as Rosetta
- Live Mukai as Lavie
- Iori Saeki as Ashley
- Mizuki Yamamoto as Lynette
- IV KLORE
- Hazuki Hoshino as Emilia
- Tomomi Mineuchi as Alpha
- Yū Sasahara as Salsa
- Yōko Nakayama as Garnet
- Kono Hana wa Otome (This Flower is a Maiden)
- Rina Honizumi as Nadeshiko
- Arisa Suzuki as Tsubaki
- Yūko Ōno as Kaede
- Sugar Pockets
- Yūkimi Hayase as Ratura
- Seka Hirose as Champe
- Hikaru Akao as Maryberry
- Sadistic★Candy
- Yuka Amemiya as Angelica
- Risae Matsuda as Lucifer
- supernova
- Yū Sakuragi as Yue
- Saeko Oku as Mille Feuille
- Haruka Itou as Fiona
- Ray
- Kana Hanazawa as Eliza
- Yoshino Nanjō as Chloe
- Yuka Amemiya as Angers
- Sumire Uesaka as Camilla
- Ayane Sakura as Yuzuriha
All 20 cast members and six units in Lapis Re:LiGHTs will come together to sing the opening theme song of the anime, which is titled “Watashi-tachi no Startrail” (Our Startrail) and is credited to the group Lapis Re:LiGHTs Stars. One unit from the series, LiGHTs, will be performing the ending song “Planetarium.” Both songs are set to be released as singles on July 8th.
The Lapis Re:LiGHTs anime is being produced at anime studio Yokohama Animation Lab, with Hiroyuki Hata set to direct. Hata has also worked on Kamichu!, and, recently, my sister is unusual. Kasumi Tsuchida of Nekopara fame and Hajime Asano, author of the Mayo Chiki! light novel series, will be overseeing series scripts. Taro Ikegami, who previously worked on Gamers!, will be the character designer and chief animation director. Satoshi Hono, who previously composed music for Demon Lord, Retry!, and Aggretsuko, will be composing for this series.
The scenario writer for the mixed-media project as a whole is credited as “Asa no Hajime.” Character designs for the Lapis Re:LiGHTs franchise are being handled by U35, while Yoshitaka Murayama is contributing to the worldview setting and Zuji is providing concept art.
Other staff members on the Lapis Re:LiGHTs anime include:
- Prop Design: Yoshinori Iwanaga
- Art Design: Takashi Miyano
- Art Director: Yōichirō Yamamoto
- Color Design: Yuichi Furuichi
- CG Director: Takuji Gojima (Try Slash)
- Director of Photography: Kazuya Iwai (Studio Shamrock)
- Editing: Kentarou Tsubone (REAL-T)
- Sound Director: Ryousuke Naya
- Sound Production: Studio Mausu
Additionally, a special web radio program for the Lapis Re:LiGHTs franchise is set to premiere this month. The first episode of the radio series is set to premiere on May 15th at 8:00 a.m. EDT, and each of the first three episodes in the radio program will feature the leaders from two units in the franchise as special guests. Additionally, the website for the mixed-media project will begin posting daily handwritten messages from two cast members about their respective characters to celebrate the announcement of the anime premiere date.
Source: Anime News Network
