Yeah, I feel just as silly saying that title out loud as you do. Fans have been long expecting that a second season to Re:Zero – Starting Life in Another World would be available to watch soon, but it seems like that isn’t the case yet again this year. Instead, the director Masaharu Watanabe and Re:Zero illustrator Shinichiro Otsuka have teamed up over at Nexus to create a brand new original series known as Granbelm.
Granbelm is produced by Takayuki Nagatani’s company infinite. Nagatani is well known in the industry for his track record when it comes to producing original projects and he will frequently work with animation studios to coordinate these. I actually interviewed Nagatani last year to find out exactly how an original anime can be produced. What I learned was that it all starts with a core idea, and whilst Nagatani might contribute this idea or theme himself, he’ll often push for someone else’s idea if he thinks it will be interesting.
He’ll then talk to various other companies and try to sell them on this idea. Thankfully, Nagatani has a great track record with titles like Shirobako, Flip Flappers and The Devil is a Part-timer, so he’s built up a lot of trust within the anime industry and it’s likely easier to get a show greenlit with his help than it is otherwise.
The series will feature magic, high school girls, and castles, but beyond that, we’re not aware of the finer details of the series or further similarities to Re: Zero – Starting Life in Another World. The last time Masaharu Watanabe directed at Nexus was for the short series Wakaba Girl. Hopefully the team has expanded since then, though, because fans are going to expect some stunning action from this new project.
Granbelm will air in Summer 2019 and will reveal more details about its world during Anime Japan 2019.