Toji no Miko's Koudai Kakimoto Directs BanG Dream! 2nd Season Anime

The official website for the BanG Dream! anime revealed the staff for the BanG Dream! 2nd Season anime on Wednesday. Koudai Kakimoto(Katana Maidens: Toji no Miko) is directing the series at SANZIGEN Animation Studio (Arpeggio of Blue Steel, Wooser's Hand-to-Mouth Life, BBK/BRNK). A promotional video revealed in May that Sanzigen would replace ISSEN and Xebec to produce the second and third anime seasons, but it did not reveal the staff.

Yuniko Ayana is returning to handle series composition and the script. Kazuyuki Ueda (Kinmoza! Kiniro + Mosaic, Hinako Note) is designing the characters for the anime based on Hitowa and Craft Egg's original designs. Takuya Chanohara and Yuka Yamori are in charge of sub-character design. Atsushi Mimura is serving as CG supervisor.

Other staff members include:

·         Modeling Director: Yasuhisa Takeuchi

·         Rigging Director: Natsuko Yashiro

·         Color Design: Junko Kitagawa

·         Director of Photography: Mari Inoue

·         Art Setting: Iho Narita (Kusanagi)

·         Art Director: Ayano Okamoto (Kusanagi)

·         Editing: Tomomi Umezu (EditZ)

·         Sound Director: Satoki Iida

·         Music Producer: Noriyasu Agematsu, Junpei Fujita

·         Animation Producer: Kazuhiro Saitō, Ryūsuke Murakami

The anime will premiere on the Tokyo MX, BS 11, KBS Kyoto, and AT-X channels on January 3 at 11:00 p.m., 11:30 p.m., 11:00 p.m., and 11:30 p.m., respectively. It will also premiere on Sun TV, TV Kanagawa, Niigata Sogo Television Inc., and AT-X at 12:00 a.m., 1:00 a.m., and 2:15 a.m. (effectively on January 4), respectively. Aomori Broadcasting Corporation will then premiere the anime at 1:56 a.m. on January 4 (effectively January 5), followed by Shizuoka Asahi TV at 1:50 a.m. on January 7 (effectively January 8), and TV Aichi at 1:35 a.m. on January 8 (effectively January 9).

The staff revealed on Wednesday that the anime will stream in over 60 countries in North America, Europe, and Asia.

The anime's third season will premiere in October 2019. The franchise's Roselia and Raise a Suilen bands are also performing opening theme songs for the upcoming second season. Roselia will perform the song "Brave Jewel" and Raise a Suilen will perform "R・I・O・T."

The BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! game app is inspiring DMM.futureworks and Sanzigen's BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! ☆ Pico mini anime, which premiered on July 5. A spinoff anime titled Pastel Life premiered in May.

The main BanG Dream! television anime's first 13-episode season premiered in January 2017, and Anime Network Online and Crunchyroll streamed the first season as it aired in Japan.

Sentai Filmworks licensed the first season, and it describes the story:

When she was a child, Kasumi Toyama (played by Poppin' Party's lead singer, Aimi) felt a heart-pounding thrill every time she gazed at the stars, and she's been looking without success for something that could inspire the same feeling ever since. One day, she comes across a star-shaped guitar in a rundown pawnshop and, for the first time, discovers the thrill she's been searching for. Kasumi becomes determined to form an all-girl band, and her search leads her to four like-minded souls: Saya, Arisa, Rimi, and Tae (all brought to life by the members of Poppin' Party). Does this band have what it takes to make their dreams of stardom come true?

Bushiroad launched the BanG Dream! multimedia project in January 2015, and the company formed the Poppin' Party band for the project in February 2015. The project's other bands include Happy World!, Pastel*Palettes, Afterglow, Roselia, and most recently, an all-male band called Argonavis. The band members consist of voice cast members who portray the characters in the story, and they play the same instruments as their characters.

The BanG Dream! Girls Band Party! smartphone game launched in Japan in March 2017, and an English version launched in April.

Source: BanG Dream! anime's website