I'm sure I'm not alone around here as a huge fan of director Jun'ichi Satou's works such as Sailor Moon, ARIA, Kaleido Star, Yume no Crayon Oukoku, Fushigiboshi no Futago Hime, and many others. It's not surprising that his latest anime starting this summer involves magical girls, but it is a bit surprising that it's a spin-off of a popular pachinko game produced by Sanyo called Umimonogatari ("Sea Story").
The anime, titled Umimonogatari ~Anata ga ita kureta koto~, follows sea people Marin-chan and her younger sister Urin after they find a ring that fell into the sea and go to land to find its owner. The owner of the ring is a high school student named Kanon who's been down on her luck lately, with her boyfriend dumping her and seemingly no hope for the future. However, Kanon and Marin have hidden powers as the Sea Priestess and Sky Priestess, and together they fight the darkness enveloping the world, deepening their bonds.
The rest of the staff includes series director Kouyuu (Zero no Tsukaima 2nd/3rd seasons), original story creator Toshihiko Tsukuji, series composition Yuka Yamada (Hataraki Man, Rental Magica), and character designer Haruka Iizuka (Skygirls), with animation production handled by ZEXCS. Two manga versions will run in Comic Blade (2/28 issue) and Comic High! (3/21 issue). The official site is up with some teaser content.
As a huge fan of the magical girl genre and of Satojun (Jun'ichi Satou's nickname) I'll definitely be adding Umimonogatari to my list of things to watch this summer.
[Via Moonphase]