News

One Room 2nd Season Premieres on July 2 With New Studio, Staff

The official website for the One Room television anime revealed the new staff, visual, and the July 2 premiere for the One Room Second Season anime on Tuesday.

The anime will premiere on Tokyo MX on July 2 at 1:35 a.m. (effectively July 3 morning).

Zero-G (DIVE!!, Doreiku The Animation, Tsugumomo) replaces Typhoon Graphics as the main animation studio. Takuya Tani is the new animation character designer and chief animation director for the anime, replacing character designer Yasuhiro Okuda from the first season. Tani was the animation director for episodes 5-8 of the first season. Shinji Takasuka joins as art director alongside returning art director Hiroki Matsumoto. Atsushi Furukawa replaces Chieko Hibi from the first season as color key artist. The rest of the main staff are returning from the first season.

The anime's new cast includes:

Inori Minase as Mashiro Amatsuki, a 21-year-old college student. She used to do rhythmic gymnastics, but she quit due to an injury. Although job hunting has been going well for her, she is still disheartened. After a peculiar meeting with the protagonist she lives in the same mansion with, they start to confide in each other. Mashiro has a reserved and shy personality, but she also has a side that likes cute things.

Rie Takahashi as Minori Nanahashi, a 17-year-old third-year high school student. Her grandfather manages the Nanahashi Yu bathhouse that she loves and helps out at every day. Her relationship with the anime's protagonist, who is a student living at Nanahashi Yu, is like that of a younger sister to an older brother. She gives the impression of a cheerful and lively modern girl, but she also has an old-fashioned side that likes historical districts in towns and culture.

Additionally, M.A.O will return as Yui Hanasaka in the second season. Yui is a 17-year-old girl from Hokkaido who goes to Tokyo in order to take her college entrance exams. She lives with her older sister while in Tokyo, and she is a neat and earnest person who does everything with the utmost effort.

Crunchyroll, which streamed the first season as it aired in Japan last year, describes the story of the series with "first-person narrative":

You are the protagonist. A new project in virtual anime from SMIRAL Animation that also brought you the "Anitore" series and "Makuranodanshi." This time, the project is about 3 stories that develop in your (one) room.

Kantoku (The "Hentai" Prince and the Stony Cat., Garakowa -Restore the World- original character designer) designed the original characters for One Room, and Yasuhiro Okuda (Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha) adapted those character designs for animation in the first season. Typhoon Graphics (animation production assistance for Digimon Adventure tri. films) animated the first season. Eiji Mano is credited for the original story concept, and Aose Shimoi wrote the scripts. Takashi Sakuma was the executive producer, Hiroki Matsumoto of Atelier PLATZ was the art director, Chieko Hibi was in charge of color design, Fumi Nanba was the composite director, and Shun Tokuda edited the series. Entertainment label SMIRAL (Anime De Training! Ex, Makura no Danshi) was in charge of the original concept.

A spinoff anime series titled Room Mate: One Room side M premiered in April 2017. The series told "another story" featuring male characters. The franchise is also getting a VR project starring M.A.O's character Yui Hanasaka, and a the staff launched a successful crowdfunding campaign in December to expand the project. The app will debut this summer.

Images ©SMIRAL/「One Room セカンドシーズン」製作委員会