Bungō Stray Dogs Anime's New Key Visual, Staff, 1st 3 Character Designs Unveiled

Series will premiere in 2016
The official website for Kafka Asagiri and Sango Harukawa's Bungō Stray Dogs manga updated on Thursday with a new key visual and a staff list for the upcoming anime adaptation. The website also confirmed that the anime is slated for 2016.


Nobuhiro Arai (Chaika the Coffin Princess) is handling character design and serve as chief animation director alongside Hiroshi Kanno (Blast of Tempest). Ryō Hirata is handling prop design and sub character design, while Fumihiro Katagai (Chaika the Coffin Princess) is in charge of gun design. Taku Iwasaki (Gatchaman Crowds, Black Butler) is composing the music and Kazuhiro Wakabayashi (Ghost in the Shell, Blue Exorcist) is serving as sound director at Glovision.

Other staff members include:

• Art director: Yumiko Kondou
• Color design: Yukari Goto
• Director of photography: Tsuyoshi Kanbayashi
• Editing: Shigeru Nishiyama

As previously announced, Takuya Igarashi and Yoji Enokido, the director and screenwriter team behind Ouran High School Host Club and Star Driver, will helm the anime at Studio BONES.

In addition, the website added the anime character designs and descriptions for three of the characters. These cast members are:


Yuuto Uemura (Kamigami no Asobi's Tsukito Totsuka) as Atsushi Nakajima (Light, Wind and Dreams), who came to Yokohama after being driven out of a poor orphanage that was attacked by a man-eating tiger. On the verge of starvation, he meets Dazai and gets a job helping at the detective agency. Because he's never had friends or family and was labeled as "useless," he lacks self-confidence. The website does not list his ability.

Mamoru Miyano (Free! - Iwatobi Swim Club's Rin Matsuoka) as Osamu Dazai (No Longer Human, Shayo), a member of the Armed Detective Agency. He's a suicide enthusiast who searches for a place to die. However, he doesn't like pain, and would prefer a lovers' suicide with a beautiful woman. He's aimless and elusive and doesn't bother anyone. His last job is said to be one of the "seven wonders of detective agencies." His ability is called "human elimination."


Kensho Ono (Aldnoah.Zero's Slaine Troyard) as Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (Rashōmon, Jigoku hen), a member of the notorious "Port Mafia" that operates by the harbor. With his black cloak and cold expression, he looks like the grim reaper when he walks the streets. His ability is called "Rashōmon."

The rest of the cast includes:


Yoshimasa Hosoya (Haikyu!!'s Asahi Azumane) as Doppo Kunikida (River Mist and Other Stories)

Hiroshi Kamiya (Attack on Titan's as Levi) as Ranpo Edogawa (Private Detective Kogoro Akechi series)


Toshiyuki Toyonaga (Durarara!!'s Mikado Ryūgamine) as Junichirō Tanizaki (Naomi, The Makioka Sisters)


Hiroyuki Kagura as Kenji Miyazawa (Night on the Galactic Railroad, Kaze no Matasaburo)


Yu Shimamura (Attack on Titan's Annie Leonhardt) as Akiko Yosano (Tangled Hair)


Chiaki Omigawa (Soul Eater's Maka Albarn) as Naomi Tanizaki (The title character in Junichirō Tanizaki's novel Naomi)


Rikiya Koyama (Blood Blockade Battlefront's Klaus Von Reinhertz) as Yukichi Fukuzawa (An Outline of a Theory of Civilization, English-Japanese Dictionary)

Writer Kafka Asagiri artist Sango Harukawa began the manga in Kadokawa's Young Ace in 2012. Kadokawa will ship the 8th compiled volume of the manga on September 4. The pair also writes and illustrates the Bungō Stray Dogs novel series. Kadokawa published the third novel in May.

The "battle action" story Bungō Stray Dogs centers around a league of literary figures with supernatural powers. For example, in real life, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa wrote acclaimed stories that inspired Akira Kurosawa's Rashōmon film and theAoi Bungaku Series anime's Jigoku Hen (Hell Screen) arc. InBungō Stray Dogs, he has the power to transform and manipulate his cloak into a monster-like entity. Together, these writers solve mysteries as part of the "Armed Detective Agency."

The series mainly features Japanese authors such as Rampo Edogawa, Kenji Miyazawa, Osamu Dazai (pictured top in key art above), Atsushi Nakajima (pictured bottom in key art above), Doppo Kunikida, and Akiko Yoshino. It has also featured contemporary Japanese authors such as Yukito Ayatsuji (Another novel/manga/anime/live-action film, Tsukidate no Satsujin) and Natsuhiko Kyogoku (Requiem from the Darkness, Mōryō no Hako, Tōfu Kozō, Loups-Garous), as well as overseas authors such as Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Agatha Christie, and Dan Brown.

Japanese bookstore employees ranked the manga among the top 15 for 2014.