ASMIK Ace revealed on Thursday the first episode preview, main cast members, and July premiere of Dōga Kōbō’s original television anime Mebius Dust, based on Hajime Shinagawa’s story of the same title, which won the grand prize for the “Kids/Game” category of the Project Anima competition in 2019. The company also revealed that artist Leo Ieiri will perform the anime’s opening theme song “Mebius.”
The anime will star:
Yuto Takenaka as Araki, a high school student living in a downtown neigborhood
Image courtesy of Asmik Ace
© MEBIUS DUST Production Committee
Nene Hieda as Stella, Araki’s younger sister and classmate
Image courtesy of Asmik Ace
© MEBIUS DUST Production Committee
Haruka Satō as Olga, Araki and Stella’s childhood friend
Image courtesy of Asmik Ace
© MEBIUS DUST Production Committee
The announcement on Thursday also confirmed the anime will air for one cours (quarter of a year).
Image courtesy of Asmik Ace
© MEBIUS DUST Production Committee
ASMIK Ace describes the anime’s story:
Araki, Stella, and Olga are high school students living in a cozy downtown neighborhood.
Playing games, visiting the bathhouse, and heading home – this is the story of their everyday lives… or is there more to it?
Tarou Iwasaki (Baki the Grappler, Bibliophile Princess, One Week Friends) is directing the anime at Dōga Kōbō and Yoriko Tomita (The Elusive Samurai, My Dress-Up Darling two seasons, Senpai is an Otokonoko) is in charge of series scripts.
Mebius Dust will be the third anime produced from the winners of the Project Anima contest. When Project Anima announced the story as the winner of its “Kids/Game” category in 2019, it was tentatively slated for after 2020.
Project Anima accepted story submissions from the general public through DeNA’s MangaBox, Everystar, and similar user-submitted content platforms. DeNA, Sotsu Co., Ltd., Nippon Cultural Broadcasting, and MBS hosted competitions in three categories.
The project announced the winner for the “Science-Fiction/Robot” category in August 2018, with Nekotarō Inui’s Sakugan Labyrinth Marker (Drilling Labyrinth Marker) novel as the runner-up (the judges did not award the novel a grand prize), with an anime adaptation by Satelight initially slated for 2020. That project eventually spawned the Sakugan television anime, which premiered in October 2021. Crunchyroll streamed the anime as it aired in Japan.
The project announced the winner for the “Isekai/Fantasy” category in October 2018, with Yuzuki Akasaka’s Mahō Tsukai ni Narenakatta Onna no Ko no Hanashi (The Story of the Girl Who Couldn’t Become a Wizard) novel as the grand prize. J.C. Staff’s anime adaptation premiered in October 2024. The anime was initially slated for a 2021 debut.
Source: Press release
