"Alice Gear Aegis Expansion" depicts the exploits of girls who fight using equipment called Alice Gear. It's based on a smartphone app game. It's garnering attention as one of the most talked-about anime of the spring. Many are curious about the staff behind this highly anticipated series. Today, we'd like to introduce you to the production team!
Introduction: What's the Story?
The sudden appearance of the mechanical lifeforms "Weiss" forced Earth to evacuate humanity. During the escape, humanity successfully developed "Alice Gear," a high-dimensional weapon capable of countering the Weiss. Girls deemed worthy of controlling Alice Gear are now known as "Actresses." The story of these Actresses, who hold the key to saving humanity, begins now!
Director: Hirokazu Hanai
The director is Hirokazu Hanai. In addition to directing anime, he also works as a director. In addition to "Alice Gear Aegis," his other works include "Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro" and "The Sinner Dances with the Dragon." He has worked on many other well-known titles. Hanai is active on Twitter, where he retweets Alice Gear-related tweets and frequently posts message comments through quote retweets. Whether the anime will follow the game's story or include original elements will largely depend on the director's direction, so we're excited to see what happens!
Character and Mechanical Designer: Kanetake Ebikawa
Kanetake Ebikawa is in charge of character and mechanical designers. Influenced by the anime he watched as a child, he became interested in robots and decided he wanted to become a mechanical designer. When Ebikawa began considering a career, the PlayStation was released, and the level of visual expression in games had risen dramatically. He believed there would be a demand for designers at a time like this, so he considered working in the game industry. It's wonderful to choose a career path not only in your field of interest, but also in anticipation of demand. While I primarily work in mechanical design, for Alice Gear I also worked on character design.
Character and Mechanical Designer: Fumikane Shimada
Because this series places a strong emphasis on design, there are several character and mecha designers. In addition to Ebiwara, I'd like to introduce another artist: Fumikane Shimada. She's known for her "moe" style of cute, girlish illustrations. She's also known for sparking the mecha girl boom that began in 2000. Examples of works she has worked on include "Strike Witches" and "Girls und Panzer," both of which are famous for combining beautiful girls with mecha. Shimada's art style is distinct from the traditional style of dressing girls in armor, featuring unique designs that blend human and machine.
Music by ZUNTATA
Music is also an essential element of the work. The music for this work is handled by ZUNTATA, Taito's music development division. They actively produce music, primarily for games, and provide music for companies other than Taito. In 2019, he received the Taito President's Award in recognition of his many years of work. It was truly gratifying to be personally congratulated by the president of his own company.
Staff Summary
It's clear that a wide range of people are involved in the production of anime. Especially in works like Alice Gear, which place a great deal of emphasis on design, the hard work and dedication of the production staff is particularly apparent. I think anime has a different kind of appeal than games, so whether you're a gamer or not, be sure to look forward to the anime airing!
