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Shaman King's Takei Collaborates on Garo Anime's Character Designs

A second promotional video for the Garo: Honoo no Kokuin (Garo: Seal of Flames) anime based on the Garo Project tokusatsu drama program began streaming on Wednesday. The television anime series will premiere on October 3.

Narrator: Where there is karma, the gate will open, and a pure black darkness will appear. Men who have swords that can cut through the darkness and don armor... They are called Makai Knights. The seal that is engraved now becomes flames.

The series will star Daisuke Namikawa (Valvrave the Liberator, Fate/Zero) as Leon Lewis, Kenyuu Horiuchi (Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi, Toriko) as Herman Lewis, Katsuhito Nomura (Mission-E, Living for the Day After Tomorrow) as Alfonso San Valiante, and Romi Park (Attack on Titan, Persona 4 The Animation) as Emma Gusman.

Yasuko Kobayashi (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Attack on Titan) will write the new story and Yūichirō Hayashi will direct. Shaman King manga creator Hiroyuki Takei is joining the series' staff to assist with character design. Studio MAPPA (Shingeki no Bahamut Genesis, Hajime no Ippo Rising) will animate the show this fall. A special screening of the first episode will be held in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward 9 theater on September 18.

Additional staff includes:

• Animation Character Design: Toshiyuki Kanno
• Art Director: Kazuyuki Hashimoto
• Director of Photography: Yusuke Tannowa
• CGI Director: Makoto Kanemoto
• Music: MONACA

Musical supergroup JAM Project will perform the opening theme, "Honō no Kokuin -Divine Flame-" Sayaka Sasaki will perform the ending theme.

The Garo drama franchise has a dark story that revolves around humans that have the job of "Makai Knights," people who fight against demonic beings called Horrors. The story of the anime begins when the King's adviser launches a witch hunt, which endangers the Makai Knights and Makai Priests, who are supposed to protect people. A Makai Priest who has been condemned to die at the stake gives birth to a child, Leon Lewis. The child is rescued by his father, a Makai Knight, but never meets his mother. When he grows up he inherits the Gold Armor as a descendant of the Gold Knights. Meanwhile the king's adviser has taken over the country as the king has become ill, and Prince Alfonso has been driven out with his mother. He comes seeking the legendary Gold Knight in hopes of retaking his kingdom.

The Garo Project began in 2005, with the first series airing into 2006 with 25 episodes. The franchise has had a total of four television series and various films and specials.

Takei is currently serializing his Shaman King manga's sequel, Shaman King Flowers. However, the fate of the serialization after Shueisha's Jump X (Jump Kai) ceases publication in October is unknown. His Ultimo manga is running in Shueisha's Jump Square magazine. Viz publishes the original Shaman King manga and Ultimo in North America.

Source: Comic Natalie

Image © "Honoo no Kokuin" Keita Amemiya/Tohokushinsha