The second album by the girl unit ClariS, *Second Story*, will be released on June 26. To commemorate the album’s release, an event will be held on June 25 at Nicofarre in Roppongi, Tokyo.
The newest stage play for *Yowamushi Pedal*, a popular manga currently serialized in *Weekly Shonen Champion* (published by Akita Publishing), will be performed this summer.
On July 8, the anime *No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!*, or *WataMote* for short, will begin broadcasting on TV.
Animate is Japan’s most famous anime store, and we recently visited Animate’s main store in Ikebukuro! This definitely isn’t your average anime shop!
ClariS, a popular singing group whose songs have been used on such anime as *Puella Magi Madoka Magica*, and Ufotable, an animation studio responsible for such high quality work as *Fate/Zero*, are collaborating.
A lot of hurdles come with anime that take place on the ocean for the whole duration, so I would really like people to appreciate that we tried hard, at least.
Recently, the diversity of voice stars’ work is increasing. In addition to anime, voice stars have begun to perform dubbing for overseas films as well as music and narration work.
Based on the popular manga that has sold more than 15 million copies, the live-action adaptation of *Black Butler* will star popular actor Hiro Mizushima.
General screenings for director Masaaki Yuasa’s short anime *Kick-Heart* finally began at the commemorative event “Kick-Heart Masked Ball” held in Roppongi, Tokyo on May 26.
The *Sailor Moon* musicals, which dominated the generation from 1993-2005, will be returning this year with a new musical titled “Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon.”
The original short animated film *Kick-Heart* has been nominated in the short animation category at the 2013 Annecy International Animation Film Festival.