Lycoris Recoil will be the debut full series directorial debut for Sword Art Online character designer and animation director Shingo Adachi. Read on for more information on this title and the man who will bring it to life later in 2022.
So, let’s start with what we know because, unfortunately, there isn’t a lot to this so far. Aniplex of America has confirmed in an announcement tweet that Adachi will direct the new original series from writer Asaura (Ben-To) at studio A-1 Pictures. Adachi will work off character designs provided by Imigimuru. The two lead voices will be provided by Chika Anzai (playing Chisato Nishikigi) and Shion Wakayama (playing Takina Inoue).
We don’t have a firm story synopsis yet, but we have this 30-second promotional video to tease our imaginations. Stay tuned to the J-List Blog for more information as it becomes available.
Shingo Adachi is an interesting guy who has been waiting a very long time for this opportunity after slowly but surely working his way up the ranks. He got his start as a key animator in the early 90s on series such as Blue Seed and Love Hina. His first big break came in 2006 when he became attached to the Mega Man franchise as a character designer and learned how to become an animation director. This eventually led him into key animation in Darker Than Black and To Love-Ru. This only takes us up through the 2000s, though.
From there Adachi graduated up once again to animation director for an episode of Working!! From this point in his career, it was just a couple of more skips forward until he became involved with the Sword Art Online franchise as the character designer and chief animation director in 2012 which I think is when people finally started to notice who he was.
It’s amazing to me that almost 30 years after starting in the industry, Shingo Adachi is only just now getting his chance to direct a series. What makes this even more interesting and I’m certain nerve-wracking for him is that his first project will not be an adaptation of an existing property but an entirely original story. That has got to get the sweat glands working overtime! Good luck Adachi, we’ll all be rooting for you from over here!
Source: Crunchyroll News
