A preview screening for Kaina of the Great Snow Sea (Ōyukiumi no Kaina), the new television anime project from BLAME! and Knights of Sidonia collaborators Tsutomu Nihei and Polygon Pictures, announced that the project will have a film sequel.
The "boy-meets-girl high fantasy" is set in a world where land is being swallowed by the encroaching Great Snow Sea. Humanity ekes out a harsh life above the Tenmaku (a wordplay on the Japanese word for tent) that stretches from the roots to the tops of giant Orbital Trees.
The story centers around Kaina, a boy who lives above the Tenmaku, and Liliha, the princess of the small country Atland in the Great Snow Sea.
Hiroaki Ando (Ajin, Listeners) is directing the anime, and Sadayuki Murai (Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters, Juni Taisen: Zodiac War, Natsume's Book of Friends) and Tetsuya Yamada (episodes of Knights of Sidonia, Juni Taisen: Zodiac War) are writing the scripts. The anime commemorates Polygon Pictures' 40th anniversary.
The rock duo yorushika performs the opening theme song "Telepath," and the vocal group GReeeeN performs the ending theme song "Juvenile."
The television anime will premiere in Fuji TV's Ultra+ block on January 11.
The anime will also run on Kansai TV, Tokai TV, TV Nishinippon, Hokkaido Cultural Broadcasting Co, Ltd, and BS Fuji. Crunchyroll will stream the anime outside Asia. Crunchyroll hosted the anime's world premiere of the first four episodes at Crunchyroll Expo on August 6.
The manga version of the story launched in Kodansha's Monthly Shōnen Sirius magazine on February 26, and Crunchyroll announced that it is offering the manga outside Asia.
Nihei is credited with the original story, and Itoe Takemoto (The Beast Player novel illustrator and manga artist) is drawing the manga.
