'The Piano Forest' TV Anime Latest News: New Key Visual and Cast Details Released
The official key visual art and the main cast and crew details have been released for the upcoming television anime adaptation of "Piano no Mori (The Piano Forest)."
The image, which can be seen above, shows the protagonist, Kai Ichinose, as a child at the background and as a young man in the foreground. The series is based on the Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Makoto Isshiki, which has previously been adapted into a 2007 animated feature film produced and directed by Madhouse and Masayuki Kojima, respectively.
It tells the story of two boys named Kai and Shuhei Amamiya. Kai is a boy who lives in the red light district and who escapes each night to play an abandoned piano in the forest. On the other hand, Shuhei is the son of a professional pianist. Shuhei transfers to Kai's elementary school. When Shuhei gets bullied into playing the mysterious piano in the forest, this incident leads to the boys' first encounter and their lives will thus be intertwined as they both aim to become excellent pianists.
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Kai will be voiced by Ryoko Shiraishi as a child and by Soma Saito as a young adult, while Shuhei will be voiced by Yo Taichi as a child and Natsuki Hanae as a young adult. Junichi Suwabe will also be part of the cast as the voice of Sosuke Ajino, the former master pianist who will help hone Kai and Shuhei's skills.
The upcoming series will be animated by Fukushima Gainax under the direction of Gaku Nakatani, who previously worked as the CG supervisor for the 2012 comedy animation film, "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted." Aki Itami will be handling the series composition, while Sumie Kinoshita takes charge of the character designs, and will also be serving as the series' chief animation director.
The ending theme song, titled "Kaeru Basho ga Aru to Iu Koto (To Have a Place to Come Home To)," will be sung by Aoi Yuki, with the CD single scheduled for release on April 25.
"The Piano Forest" television anime series will premiere sometime in April on NHK. Information on the official broadcast schedules and online resources will be available on the series' official site at a later date.
