[TGS2015] SEGA – Phantasy Star Online 2 Got TV Anime Adaptation

As we mentioned before in SEGA general information, there’s a bunch of featured titles that appeared at TGS 2015. Most of them held an event on stage to inform the audience about the latest news from each title. This time Kojacon Report was given opportunity to attend SEGA Stage : Phantasy Star Online 2. Guess what, this game will appear on TV next year as an anime! They also will announce about additional casts soon.

Phantasy Star Online 2 is a video game in Phantasy Star series published by Sega. It was released for Microsoft Windows on July 4, 2012, and for PlayStation Vita on February 28, 2013. A spin-off game, Phantasy Star Online 2es, was released for Android on April 7, 2014 and for iOS on May 14, 2014. The game is currently only available commercially in Japan and Southeast Asia, but an English-language patch has been released before.

Phantasy Star is one of the longest running JRPG franchises in the industry. Developed and published by Sega, the first game in the series was released in Japan by Sega Master System in late December, 1987. Since the first game’s release, over 10 games have been produced. The series eventually expand internationally with the release of Phantasy Star Online in 2000, a MMORPG that was released in Dreamcast, Xbox and PC. Since its release, the online version has its own series. All of the games are set in the near future with various solar systems and clusters. The latest game in the series is Phantasy Star Nova, a single player RPG based on PSO2.

With 2015 marking the 15th anniversary of Phantasy Star Online, Sega Japan have announced a brand new project. The project is a new TV anime series based on the popular MMORPG Phantasy Star Online 2. The anime is currently scheduled for a 2016 broadcast.The announcement of the anime, titled Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation, was made at the offline ARKS Caravan event in Okinawa. The anime will have a brand new original story set in a near future off Earth setting, within the universe of Phantasy Star Online 2. It will feature stories from the players of the game in PC, PlayStation Vita and mobile devices. Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation is currently scheduled for a 2016 broadcast. In current TGS 2015, SEGA held a special stage featuring Anime producer, Satoshi Sakai, and seiyuu from PSO2 for TV anime. Beside the talks and discussion, they also announced the additional cast for this anime!

Full cast for TV anime as below:
Shouta Aoi as Itsuki Tachibana
Ayaka Suwa as Rina Izumi
M.A.O as Aika Suzuki
Tesshou Genda as SORO
Nobunaga Shimazaki as Kouta Kayano
Rie Murakawa as Mika Konoe
Takuya Satou as Masaya Kudou
Aki Kanada as Yutaka Sasaki
Shun Horie as Seiya Urisaka
Minami Kabayama as Mayu Urisaka

It was also announced that the theme song for this PSO2 anime will be performed by Shouta Aoi (cast of Itsuki Tachibana). This song will debut at the Symphaty 2015 event on November 23rd at Pacifico Yokohama. Tickets for the concert costs ¥7,500 and ¥9,500.

In the end of the event, PSO2 cosplayers appeared on stage! What a kakkoii Itsuki Tachibana and kawaii Rina Izumi!

Message from featured guests was closing this stage.

Message from Producer Satoshi Sakai:

I heard many people talked about the contents of a whole PSO2 lately. So this anime version just makes the appropriate part to make it complete. Together with all game staff and development staff, we’d like to deliver a new world to all of you. Please keep supporting this  works, for PSO2 in PS4 and also PSO2 the animation. Let’s enjoy this PSO2’s world together! Nice to meet you all who are coming to the stage today and thank you so much for loving PSO2!!

Shouta Aoi:
Hi everyone! As we could see just now this anime adaptation series is a very beautiful, I am really excited and I feel the same as you all. Not only for casting the main character in this anime, but as an audience who look forward to watch and enjoy Phantasy Star Online 2. Don’t you all think the same? We could go into PSO2’s world together! In addition, I’m very glad to sing this anime soundtrack. Hope everything goes well! Thank you for coming to SEGA stage today and see you again soon!

Ayaka Suwa:
Phantasy Star online is the famous game among all gamer in the world. I’m very happy that finally this game get it’s anime adaptation and I joined in the production! So everyone, let’s wait together for this fascinating TV anime to be aired next year! Thank you very much!

M.A.O:
Today, I’m standing here in front of you all, give the latest information, and enjoy this excitement together. I was trying so hard on recording this anime, and now I’m really glad that all audience look so happy about this. Please keep supporting us! Thank you for coming today!

Looking forward to this anime series soon! Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation is directed by Keiichiro Kawaguchi. The series will begin broadcast-ed in Japan  in 2016 on TBS, BS-TBS, and other tv stations.