Steins;Gate Creator's Occultic;Nine Anime Unveils Key Visual

The official website for the anime adaptation of Occultic;Nine, the first light novel series by MAGES. head Chiyomaru Shikura (Steins;Gate), revealed the first key visual for the anime on Friday. The image features the main cast standing in a crowd.

The staff and cast will reveal more information about the anime during a presentation on August 12. 150 followers of the @occultic_nine Twitter account will be selected by lottery to attend the event itself, and others can watch on a Niconico livestream.

The "paranormal science" story follows nine idiosyncratic individuals, linked by the "Chōjō Kagaku Kirikiri Basara" occult summary blog run by 17-year-old second-year high school student Yūta Gamon. Little incongruities that occur around these nine eventually lead to a larger, unimaginable event that may alter what is considered common sense in this world.

The anime's voice cast members are reprising their respective roles from the previously announced game adaptation:

Yuuki Kaji as Yūta Gamon, a high school boy who runs an occult blog and a self-proclaimed savior

Ayane Sakura as Ryoka Narusawa, a spirit guide

Kaito Ishikawa as Sarai Hashigami, a denialist, ultra-realist first-year university student

Hitomi Yoshida as Miyū Aikawa, a moe fortune teller and first-year high school student

Shizuka Itou as Tōko Sumikaze, a reporter for the occult magazine Mumū (a nod to the real magazine Mū), with a life outside occult interests

Miyuki Sawashiro as Aria Kurenaino, a black magic proxy

Kishō Taniyama as Kiryū Kusakabe, a mysterious man

Mamiko Noto as Ririka Nishizono, a future-predicting dōjin manga creator

Tetsuya Kakihara as Shun Moritsuka, a cosplay otaku detective

Shikura began the novel series with illustrations by pako (Rental Magica, Un-Go) in August 2014, and the Overlap Bunko imprint published the second volume in May 2015.

While Shikura created Occultic;Nine, he emphasized in 2012 that it is not the fourth science-adventure title from 5pb. He did note that the novel can be considered the fourth Chiyomaru Shikura title after Chaos;HEAd,Steins;Gate, and Robotics;Notes. (Shikura eventually announced the fourth science-adventure title,CHAOS;CHILD, in 2013.)

The novel series already inspired a game adaptation and a manga series that Ganjii (Code Geass: Tales of an Alternate Shogunate) is serializing in Kodansha's good! Afternoon magazine.​