Crunchyroll revealed their pickup of the new Legend of Galactic Heroes anime adaptation and that show kicked off earlier today on the streaming service. We learned previously that episodes would be going live on Tuesday’s at 9:00 am ET for their members. That may still hold but the second season is now set to start tonight at 7:30 pm ET for their members. Availability for it is pretty good as it’s open to viewers in the USA, Canada, South Africa, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, Central America, and South America.
The show is set to be directed by Shunsuke Tada based on the series composition by Noboru Takagi. Character designs are being handled by Youko Kikuchi, Iwao Teraoka, and Kei Tsushima with Takayuki Goto serving as the chief animation director for it at Production I.G.
The Japanese cast includes Mamoru Miyano as Reinhard von Lohengramm, Kenichi Suzumura as Wen-li Yang, Yuuichirou Umehara as Siegfried Kircheis, Junichi Suwabe as Paul von Oberstein, Daisuke Ono as Wolfgang Mittermeyer, Yuichi Nakamura as Oskar von Reuenthal, Yuki Kaji as Julian Mintz, Tokuyoshi Kawashima as Alex Cazellnu, Shinichiro Miki as Walter von Schenkopp, Aya Endo as Frederica Greenhill, and Yoshimitsu Shimoyama as the narrator,
Though there’s a lot of history with the original work, the potential for retelling the story in a more streamlined form with fresh animation holds a lot of appeal in exposing the property to new fans that may not care for the older designs or the sheer volume of animated material.
Hiroyuki Sawano is composing the opening theme song with “Binary Star” with Uru providing the vocals which you can sample here. The ending theme song is “Wish” as performed by ELISA.
Property Concept: The year is UC 796 (Imperial Calendar year 487). The Free Planets Alliance expedition, thirty million soldiers strong, entered Imperial territory and engaged with Fleet Admiral Reinhard’s massive fleet as well as the entire Galactic Empire Space Fleet, also led by Reinhard as its new vice commander. As a result, the Alliance lost three of its eight fleets. However, after learning the intentions of the Free Planets Alliance High Council, Commander-in-Chief Lobos gave the order for the surviving fleets to assemble and continue the battle. Reinhard, desiring a perfect victory, advanced on the Amritsar Starzone, where the remaining Alliance fleets were amassing. And so the curtain rose on the Battle of Amritsar.
