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A television anime adaptation of writer Homura Kawamoto and artist T?ru Naomura‘s Kakegurui – Compulsive Gambler manga series has been green-lit. A teaser visual (pictured right) accompanies Friday’s anime announcement.

Yuichiro Hayashi (Garo the Animation, PES: Peace Eco Smile) is directing the anime at MAPPA, and Yasuko Kobayashi (Attack on Titan, Garo the Animation, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, Shakugan no Shana) is in charge of the series scripts. Manabu Akita (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure episode animation director, design assistant) is designing the characters.

The manga launched in Square Enix‘s Gangan Joker magazine in March 2014. Square Enix published the fifth compiled book volume of the manga (pictured below) in May 2016, and the company will ship the sixth compiled volume on February 22. Yen Press licensed the series for digital release, and began its simultaneous publication of the manga in October 2015. The company published the third compiled volume digitally in September 2015.

Yen Press describes the series:

Hyakkaou Private Academy. An institution for the privileged with a very peculiar curriculum. You see, when you’re the sons and daughters of the wealthiest of the wealthy, it’s not athletic prowess or book smarts that keep you ahead. It’s reading your opponent, the art of the deal. What better way to hone those skills than with a rigorous curriculum of gambling? At Hyakkaou Private Academy, the winners live like kings, and the losers are put through the wringer. But when Yumeko Jabami enrolls, she’s gonna teach these kids what a high roller really looks like!

The manga has inspired two ongoing spinoff manga series, both of which are published alongside the original series in Gangan Joker magazine. Taku Kawamura’s Kakegurui (Kari) four-panel comedy manga launched on December 22, and Kei Saiki’s ongoing spinoff manga Kakegurui Twin launched in September 2015. Square Enix will ship the third compiled book volume of Kakegurui Twin on February 22.

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Today, Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Sword Oratoria’s official website was launched, and it revealed a key visual for the spinoff anime series:

It was also revealed that Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Sword Oratoria will premiere on April 14th of this year.

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Masato Hayashi, the producer of Asobimo’s Btooom! Online game app, promised at the end of the game’s unveiling event on Monday that if the game ranks in the top 5 of Japan’s app sales chart, the second season of the Btooom! anime will be made.

The multiplayer smartphone game of Junya Inoue‘s Btooom! manga is dubbed a “stealth bomber action” game, where the mechanics center on bombs, the one weapon available to players. The game is focused on moving in concealment, and throwing bombs at enemies before they see you. Players are armed with the “BIM” bombs seen in the manga, and there are a variety of BIMs that have appeared in the story, but also types that are original to the game.

The multiplayer game allows players to go alone or team up with other players to corner targets.

The game is free-to-play, and is available for iOS and Android devices in Japan as of Tuesday.

Inoue launched a new manga chronicling the game’s development in Shinchosha‘s Monthly Comic Bunch magazine in June.

Btoom! centers around Sakamoto, a NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) young man and a top-ranked player in the online combat game Btooom! One day, he wakes up on a tropical island without remembering how he got there. He sees a figure in the distance and asks for help. However, the figure responds by throwing something at Ry?ta — a “BIM” bomb.

Inoue launched the series in Shinchosha‘s Weekly Comic Bunch magazine in 2009, and then transferred it to Monthly Comic Bunch in 2011. Shinchosha shipped the manga’s 22nd compiled book volume on January 7. The manga entered its final arc in April 2014. Yen Press is publishing the manga in English, and it released the 16th volume on February 21.

Kotono Watanabe directed a 12-episode anime adaptation of the series in 2012. Crunchyroll streamed the anime as it aired, and Sentai Filmworks released the series on Blu-ray and DVD in 2013.

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Screenings of the second Overlord anime compilation film, Overlord: Shikkoku no Senshi (Overlord: The Dark Warrior), revealed on Saturday that the Overlord television anime series is getting a second season. The screenings are showing an announcement video to reveal the new season.

The first compilation film, Overlord: Fushisha no ? (Overlord: The Undead King), opened in Japan on February 25. (The films’ titles are also the titles of the first two volumes in Kugane Maruyama‘s original Overlord light novel series.) The films added new scenes, and original character designer (and original novel illustrator) so-bin drew rough drafts for new characters.

The 13-episode Overlord television anime series premiered in Japan in July 2015. The story takes place in the year 2138 when virtual reality gaming is booming. Yggdrasil, a popular online game, is quietly shut down one day. However, the protagonist Momonga decides to not log out. Momonga is then transformed into the image of a skeleton as “the most powerful wizard.” The world continues to change, with non-player characters (NPCs) beginning to feel emotion. Having no parents, friends, or place in society, this ordinary young man Momonga then strives to take over the new world the game has become.

Funimation streamed the anime series as it aired in Japan, and the company released the series with an English dub on Blu-ray Disc and DVD on November 8.

The 11th novel volume also bundled a Blu-ray Disc in September that contains 30 minutes of new footage of the Ple Ple Pleiades chibi anime short series, featuring the appearance of the Pleiades combat maids, as well as the rest of the Floor Guardians.

Maruyama began the original light novel series online in 2010, and Kadokawa’s Enterbrain imprint then published it in print with illustrations by so-bin in 2012. The series has over 2.5 million copies in print in Japan. Yen Press licensed the novel series for North America, and it released the third volume on January 31. Yen Press released the third volume of Hugin Miyama and Satoshi ?shio‘s manga adaptation on December 20.

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The official Twitter account for the anime adaptation of Natsumi Eguchi‘s Hozuki no Reitetsu manga announced on Saturday that the anime is getting a second season that will premiere in October, and revealed a visual for the new season. An event held in Tokyo on Saturday originally revealed the news.

The official website for the anime had teased in December that the event would reveal the third work in the new anime project. The event itself was the second part of the project.

The first part of project is an original animation DVD (OAD, visual pictured at right) that will ship with a limited edition of the manga’s 24th volume on March 23. The event on Saturday screened the new anime. Hiro Kaburagi, who directed the previous television anime series, returned as chief director for the OAD. Midori Gotou also returned to write the script. Studio DEEN animated the OAD (Wit Studio animated the television anime and previous three OADs).

The manga inspired a 13-episode television anime series that premiered in January 2014. Crunchyroll streamed the anime as it aired, and Sentai Filmworks released the series on home video in February 2015 under the title Hozuki’s Coolheadedness. The manga also inspired three previous OADs that shipped with the 17th, 18th, and 19th volumes of the manga in 2015. Advance screenings of the three OADs were held in theaters in Japan in December 2014.

The dark comedy manga revolves around H?zuki, the fierce aide to the Great King Enma. Calm and super-sadistic, he tries to resolve problems that often occur in Hell.

Eguchi launched the manga in Kodansha‘s Morning magazine in 2011. Monaka Shiba launched a four-panel spinoff series titled Hozuki no Reitetsu ~Shiro no Ashiato~ (Hozuki’s Coolheadedness: Shiro’s Footprints) in Kodansha‘s Nakayoshi magazine in December 2015.

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A stage panel at the “Dengeki Game Festival 2017 & Dengeki Bunko Spring Festival 2017 & Dengeki Comic Festival 2017” event in Tokyo revealed on Sunday that Katsuwo‘s Mitsuboshi Colors manga is getting an anime adaptation. The event didn’t specify the format of the anime. The anime’s staff have opened a website and launched a Twitter account for the project.

Tomoyuki Kawamura (AntiMagic Academy “The 35th Test Platoon”, Good Luck Girl!) is directing the anime at the studio SILVER LINK. Shogo Yasukawa (Hyperdimension Neptunia, Alderamin on the Sky) is handling the series composition, and Takumi Yokota (Pupip?!) is the character designer.

The anime will star Y?ki Takada as Yui, Marika K?no as Sacchan, and Natsumi Hioka as Kotoha.

Katsuwo launched the manga in Kadokawa’s Monthly Comic Dengeki Daioh magazine in 2014, and Kadokawa published the manga’s third compiled volume on October 27.

The manga takes place in a certain corner of a certain park in a certain Ueno area of Tokyo. In this corner exists the secret base of the “justice organization” called “Colors.” A group of three elementary school girls lead Colors, and the members of the group roam the park day and night (actually just until evening) to protect the peace of the park.

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Recently, there was an online poll in Japan that asked folks which anime featured characters that all looked too similar.

According to Goo Research (via Excite News), over five thousand votes were cast. Here are the top ten choices of anime with a spitting-image cast:

10. Sword Art Online – 119 votes

9. Clannad – 124 votes

8. Love Live! – 139 votes

7. Attack on Titan – 187 votes

6. Sazae-san – 279 votes

5. Touch – 378 votes

4. Captain Tsubasa – 381 votes

3. YuruYuri – 403 votes

2. Mr. Osomatsu – 542 votes

1. K-On! – 564 votes

The reason many of these characters look the same (save for their hairdos and hair color) is because certain studios like Kyoto Animation have house styles.

Sometimes, there are different reasons for the similarities. Mr. Osomatsu, for example, isn’t only a gag animation, (and the similarity is part of the gag!), but these characters are sextuplets.

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Back in 2013, Hayao Miyazaki retired from feature filmmaking, saying, “This time is for real.” Now, his long time producer says Miyazaki is coming out of retirement for another full-length movie.

Even though he had retired from features, Miyazaki continued to come into Studio Ghibli and work. After initially stepping away from directing features, Miyazaki began learning how to animate on a computer and was working on a CG short called Kemushi no Boro. As Kotaku previously reported last fall, Miyazaki wanted to make a new feature film.

Miyazaki pitched Suzuki the idea, but there was no official decision on whether or not the movie would be made. Nothing was official.

During an a pre-Oscars interview with Toshio Suzuki for The Red Turtle, the producer apparently confirmed that, yes, Miyazaki is now working on a new feature film.

According to the published Kyodo report, Suzuki said that Miyazaki has come out of retirement and was currently doing prep work. “Right now in Tokyo, he’s putting all his effort into making it [the feature].” Suzuki is producing the picture.

As reported previously, the idea was to have the film out before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

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Last December, we first got a look at upcoming Pokémon The Movie: I Choose You! The teaser made it seem like the flick was a reboot. The latest trailer confirms it, showing how Ash and Pikachu teamed up.

Their relationship doesn’t start out so great, but Pikachu eventually warms to Ash. (That is, even after the kid tied him up! But hey, he did say, “I like you.” Heh.)

If you’ve seen the anime’s first episode, you should know the story, but for a new generation of kids, which these annual movies are primarily aimed it, this origin yarn might be new.

Pokémon The Movie: I Choose You! will hit Japanese theaters this July.