Continuing new season announcements this weekend, Funimation announced on its blog two more properties on Saturday: Ultimate Otaku Teacher (Denpa Kyōshi), produced by A-1 Pictures, and a live-action drama also premiering this month, Love:Redux.
The license for Ultimate Otaku Teacher includes both streaming and home video. Its simulcast will premiere tonight on Funimation.com, April 4th, at 10:30 PM ET, and will stream regularly on Saturdays at 7:00 AM ET. Other release details have not yet been made.
Love:Redux, which premiered in Japan on April 2nd, will stream tonight on Funimation.com at 10:30 PM ET, as well, and regularly on Thursdays at 1:30 PM ET. No home video license has been announced.
Ultimate Otaku Teacher is about a science prodigy-turned-NEET, Junichiro Kagami (he was exiled from the scientific community for researching “anime-based teleportation”) who, at 24, is encouraged by his sister, Suzune, to become a teacher at his old school, Ichō Academy. Comfortable only with 2D people, and full of trivial anime knowledge, but also a potent scientific mind, he now has to interact with his very real students and help figure out their own problems. GTO meets Outbreak Company, the series is based on the manga by Takeshi Azuma, published in Weekly Shonen Sunday, and is directed by Masato Sato (Case Closed) with script writer Atsushi Maekawa (Hunter x Hunter). Character designs are by Isao Sugimoto (Girls und Panzer) with music composed by Ryuuichi Takada (The iDOLM@STER).
The opening theme, “Youthful Dreamer”, is performed by he group TrySail, made up of singers Asakura, Natsukawa, and Amamiya. The ending theme is by the group Tokyo Performance Doll. We reported earlier on the cast for the series here.
The live action romance drama, Love:Redux (Renai Jidai), is from screenwriter Kiyomi Fujii, who penned the live action Death Note movie, L: Change the World, as well as the Ruroni Kenshin live action adaptations. It stars Manami Higa (GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka) and Shinnosuke Mitsushima (Hana Kimi). This story of love off and on is about Haru and Riichiro, once fated lovers who are now apart, but are unable to truly untangle their lives from one another. Finally, they try to help each other find new partners, but after being together so long in so many intimate and unexpected ways, they may find that difficult, and heartbreaking.
Having previously released numerous live action movies from Japan, this is a new effort by Funimation to expand their entertainment offerings, and they seem to be looking for this new TV title to spark some feedback:
We’re excited to be bringing more varied Japanese entertainment to Western fans— if you’d like to see more J-dramas, be sure to watch the simulcast and let us know what you think. What kinds of J-dramas would you like to see in the future? Tell us in the comments! And if you’re primarily a fan of anime, no worries. We’re definitely not shifting focus, just adding more content for fans of Japanese media!
[source: Funimation]