Monday, March 29, 2010

Shin Kibayashi & Kunio Okawara in Latest Mecha Series Kihei Senki Legacies

A new sci-fi mecha anime series was announced at Tokyo International Anime Fair 2010 held at Tokyo Big Sight last week. From creator Shin Kibayashi (樹林伸), mecha designer Kunio Okawara and character designer Daisuke Nakayama (中山大輔) comes a 'robot animation for the next generation' (による次世代に向けたロボットアニメ), "Kihei Senki Legacies" (機兵戦記レガシーズ).





Anime News Network reports that "Kihei Senki Legacies" is going to be a 52-episode TV anime series.

The story will set in Kissyo City, a modern but deteriorating oasis city from the result of past wars. The wars leave behind Legacies, remnants of deformed and customized giant robots. The city is under attack from armed groups that raid for resources and 'secrets' of the city. The city's hope lies in a group of hired rogues who can operate Ω99 (Omega Double Nine), the hardest among Legacies to pilot. The robot chooses its own pilot, who can synchronize with it, and one of the pilots chosen by Ω99 is a teenager called Yamato, an ordinary young boy who is only good at playing games.

The background setting of the story kind of makes it sounds like it belongs to the 80's, ^^ especially when it's set to have 52 episodes, a long-running series quite uncommon nowadays for a new title. How it's going to turn out is still too early to tell, but broken and patched up robots left from the past is quite a new idea. With the story set in desert and barren land, I wonder if it's going to have a cowboy feel added to it. ^^

Images are from Gigazine. Information is from Anime News Network.