On January 27, Visual Arts/Key revealed new details on its next anime project, Prima Doll, with a new trailer and character illustrations.
Key/Visual Arts media mix project Prima Doll explained
Prima Doll is a media mix project, and it was first announced as a figures collaboration project with Kotobukiya. The project continued with web novels. Now it's getting an anime too.
Prima Doll focuses on cute mechanical dolls working at a cafe. The world of Prima Doll is set in some futuristic setting, as the dolls were initially made as tools of war. After the war ended, they were repurposed to work as waitresses wearing cute kimono outfits.
It's also important to note that Prima Doll was first revealed by Key back on October 26, 2020. With the Kinetic Novel projects Project Looper, Project Lunar, and Project Porter.
Project Looper, written by Ryukishi07 (Higurashi), was released in Japan on May 28, 2021, on PC under the name Loopers.
Project Lunar was renamed to Lunaria: Virtualized Moonchild. Written by Takeshi Matsuyama (Koori no Kuni no Amaryllis), it was released on December 21, 2021 on PC in Japan.
Project Porter was renamed to Stella of The End. Written by Romeo Tanaka (Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita), the game is scheduled for a 2022 release on PC in Japan.
And now, Key revealed several new details on the Prima Doll anime adaptation, including cast, characters, and staff details.
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Prima Doll characters, seiyuu cast, chara designers and staff
- Haizakura, voiced by Azumi Waki and designed by Na-Ga
- Karasuba, voiced by Tomori Kusunoki and designed by fuzichoco
- Gekka, voiced by Miyu Tomita, designed by Yui Hara
- Houkiboshi, voiced by Yuki Nakashima, designed by En Morikura
- Retzel, voiced by Akari Kito, designed by lack
Keep in mind those are the Original Character Designers listed above. Once they were done with the designs, the character designer later redrew them all so they're easier to animate and all have an uniformed style.
The official site and Japanese press release for Prima Doll also revealed the main staff:
- Director: Tensho
- Scriptwriter and Series composition: Touya Okano, Kai
- Character designer & Chief animation supervisor: Akane Yano
- Studio: Bibury Animation Studios
Tensho was the director of the Rewrite anime adaptation so he's used to working on Key stories.
You can watch the trailer right below
The Prima Doll anime will start airing in 2022. Personally speaking, I wouldn't be surprised, knowing Key, if Prima Doll got a game adaptation in the long run. Especially seeing it's media mix project and got first announced with the other three new Kinetic Novels.
In related news, Angel Beats has been back in the spotlight lately with most notably new songs from Girls Dead Monster. However we have yet to hear anything about the Angel Beats game sequel.
Jun Maeda and Key are also working on a new game called Heaven Burns Red. It'll be available in Japan on mobile this February 2022. It's being developed by Wright Flyer Studio and looks incredibly promising.