Kouichi Yamadera, Megumi Hayashibara Star in Insufficient Direction Anime

The production company DLE Inc. updated its website for its new project based on Moyoco Anno's essay manga Insufficient Direction (Kantoku Fuyuki Todoki). Kouichi Yamadera and Megumi Hayashibara will star in the Insufficient Direction series of 13 3-minute Flash-animated shorts, which will run from April to June. The tagline of the project is "this steep path of otaku."

Insufficient Direction is the first essay manga by the "queen of the manga world," Moyoco Anno (Sugar Sugar Rune, Hataraki Man). The comedic and heartwarming autobiographical story followed her everyday married "otaku lifestyle" with Hideaki Anno (Evangelion), "the founder of the otaku cult."


Yamadera will play Kantoku-kun ("Director," the manga's analogue to Hideaki Anno) and other characters, while Hayashibara will play Rompers (the manga's analogue to Moyoco Anno) and other characters. Not coincidentally, the two co-starred in Hideaki Anno's Evangelion franchise and other projects. Yamadera said that he thought Hideaki Anno (who starred in Hayao Miyazaki's The Wind Rises) should play himself, but was happy to accept the role after being chosen by Anno. Hayashibara said that the daily life of the Annos would be entertaining.

Azuma Tani (Haiyoru! Nyaru-Ani, Thermae Romae, Glass no Kamen Desu ga) is directing the anime at the production company DLE Inc. (Eagle Talon, Thermae Romae, Haiyoru! Nyaru-Ani, Glass no Kamen Desu ga), and prominent Flash animator Frogman (Eagle Talon, Thermae Romae) is serving as "Hypermedia Executive Director." Hideaki Anno has been a longtime fan of Frogman. AŌP, a female idol group composed of six anime fans, will "cover classic live-action special effects and anime songs of the past" for the ending theme songs.

The anime will run on Thursdays at 26:05 (effectively Friday at 2:05 a.m.) on TV Tokyo within another television program, AŌP's Animusu! It will include an original episode, "Fuyuki Todoki 2014," that was not in the manga.

Moyoco Anno serialized the series in Shodensha's Feel Young magazine from April 2002 to December 2004, and Shodensha published the compiled volume in 2005. Vertical announced in July that it will release the manga in North America. The book version of the manga includes a glossary of otaku words (created in cooperation with the anime studio Gainax).

Moyoco Anno launched the manga series Bikachō Shinshi Kaikoroku last November. Viz Media published Anno's Flowers and Bees manga in North America, Tokyopop published her Happy Mania, and Del Rey published her Sugar Sugar Rune. Publisher Vertical published her Sakuran manga. The new Manga Reborn website is also working with Anno to publish a few of her manga digitally, including Chameleon Army, The Five Buffalo Girls, Jelly Beans, and Insufficient Direction.