Dark Machine Anime Sets October TV Premiere, Adds Four Cast Members
BUCK-TICK performs the opening theme, while Fuji TV will offer the series on television and streaming.
Dark Machine the Animation revealed an October television debut, four new cast members and its opening song in a second promotional video released Wednesday.
The staff of Dark Machine the Animation released its second promotional video on Wednesday, announcing an October television premiere. The original anime belongs to the Dark Machine game and anime project.
The video also revealed four additional cast members and previewed the opening theme, BUCK-TICK's "Sonzai Riyū Kai" (Reason to Live, Renewed).
The new cast members portray players on e-sports teams competing against Kairi's Carbuncle team:
- Ryūnosuke Watanuki as Nyūdō of Great Cluster
- Jun Kousaka as Hachiman of Great Cluster
- Minori Suzuki as Bianca of Esmeralda
- Rikuya Yasuda as Weiss of Esmeralda
Fuji TV will carry the anime on television and streaming. Global distribution is also planned.
The anime will use its own distinct world setting in the near future, where Dark Machine is a popular gaming metaverse.
The series stars:
- Kenshō Ono as Kairi
- Miyuki Sawashiro as Rudora
- Kōki Uchiyama as Shinn
- Riho Sugiyama as Bran
- Saya Aizawa as Isana
- Yūichi Nakamura as Ajima
- Kazuyuki Okitsu as Myōjin
- Ryōta Suzuki as Ryō
- Genta Nakamura as Kinji
- Sōhei Horikane as Hiru
The staff behind the pilot trailer, which debuted at Comic-Con International in July 2024, will return for the television series. Kazumi Terada directs at Production +h..
Team Carbuncle handles the series scripts. Takaaki Suzuki, Tatsuhiko Urahata and Atsuo Ishino received writing credits under that name for the pilot trailer; Satohito Sata now joins them.
The additional staff are:
- Main character design: Kō Yoshinari
- Sub-character design: Akira Mitani
- Costume design: Mebachi
- Chief animation directors: Yumi Kuroiwa, Hideki Itō
- Storyboards: Masatsugu Arakawa
- Color key artist: niko＊miko
- Art setting: Hiromi Tateiwa, Engawa, Nariyuki Ogi
- Art directors: Hiromi Tateiwa, Yusuke Ikeda
- CG director: Akira Inami
- CG action director: Ryou Kimura
- Compositing director of photography: Naoko Tanaka
- Photography supervision: Kentarō Waki
- Editing: Yuki Honda
- Sound director: Takeshi Takadera
- Sound effects: Tomoko Ohtsuka
- Music: SUGIZO
- Music production: Flying Dog
The Dark Machine game was announced in 2023 and entered Early Access in 2024. Described as an "asynchronous big team arena shooter," it features 7-versus-7 mech combat played from a third-person perspective.
The game's story takes place in 2079. Humanity enjoys an energy boom following Dr. Robert Palmer's discovery of the Palmer crystal, which supplies more energy than people could ever need.
Access to this abundant energy remains unequal, fueling underground battles worldwide. Underground groups convert the factory robots used to cultivate this future energy into combat mechs, fighting for enormous stakes.
The Palmer crystal reportedly also contains small amounts of dark energy. Attempts to harness it through hyper AI technology aim to gain an advantage in battle. Whether mechs can control that energy remains unknown.
The team raised more than US$8.7 million from over 6,000 investors, including Tencent, web3 game platform Immutable and blockchain company Sui. Development uses Unreal Engine 5.
The game includes the blockchain-based currency MACHINA ($MXNA), NFT asset ownership and an NFT marketplace supporting direct sales and peer-to-peer exchanges.
Players can install and play without buying NFTs and receive free NFTs to begin. Decentralized tournaments form an integral part of gameplay.
Keiichi Yano created the project. Its creative producer is Code Geass director Gorō Taniguchi, while Macross artist Hidetaka Tenjin serves as chief mechanical designer.
Taniguchi and Tenjin hold those same roles on the game. Yuya Saito directs the game, and Koji Hakuta produces it.
Sources: Press release via ANN
