Toei Animation‘s official website revealed the cast members playing the Katori Unit in the new anime season of Daisuke Ashihara‘s World Trigger manga on Thursday.
Megumi Han as Yōko Katori, the leader
Kenji Akabane as Rokurō Wakamura
Yudai Mino as Yūta Miura
Reina Kondo as Hana Somei
The new cast members for the anime that had been previously announced include:
Hisao Egawa as Gatlin
Toshiyuki Toyonaga as Ratarikov
Mie Sonozaki as Wen Sō
Kenjiro Tsuda as Koskero
Ayumu Murase as Reghindetz
Ryoko Shiraishi as Yomi
The anime will premiere on January 9 as part of TV Asahi‘s NUMAnimation programming block. The new season’s first two episodes will have a special screening run with exclusive footage in 12 theaters in Japan from December 25 to January 7. The anime’s website notes that the special theatrical edition of the first two episodes alone will feature 51 cast members.
The anime will feature the following returning cast:
Morio Hatano (Saint Seiya Omega‘s first season, Dragon Ball Super‘s Future Trunks Saga, episode director for Hugtto! Precure and Star Twinkle Precure) is serving as the series director. Hiroyuki Yoshino, Toshihisa Kaiya, and Kenji Kawai all return from the previous World Trigger anime to supervise the series scripts, design the characters, and compose the music, respectively.
South Korean boy band TOMORROW X TOGETHER is performing the main theme song “Force.” Motoko Ōmori of the rock band Mrs. Green Apple wrote the song specifically for the anime. Rock band Kami wa Saikoro o Furanai is performing the ending theme song “Mirai Eigō” (The Endless Future).
Ashihara debuted the manga in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 2013. The manga went on hiatus since November 2016 due to Ashihara’s poor physical health, and returned in the magazine in October 2018 for five issue before moving to Shueisha‘s Jump SQ. magazine in December 2018. The manga then took a one-month break in May 2019 so that Ashihara could recover from intestinal obstruction complications that arose from his recent cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal surgery). The manga took another one-month break in November 2019 due to Ashihara’s poor physical health. The series also had a one-month break this past August due to Ashihara’s health.
Ashihara took a one-week break in September 2014 to treat the nerve roots affected by cervical spondylosis (wear and tear on neck area of spinal column), and has since taken several one-week breaks due to sudden illness.
Viz Media publishes the series simultaneously in its digital anthology version of Weekly Shonen Jump. The manga inspired two television anime seasons in 2014 and 2015.
Sources: Toei Animation‘s website, Comic Natalie