News: Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 Anime to Air in Japan in July.

“BONES, the anime studio behind Cowboy Bebop and Sword of the Stranger, has announced at Tokyo International Anime Fair 2009 on Wednesday that it is animating an original series  called Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 for airing on Fuji TV’s Noitamina timeslot and on other stations in Japan this July. The project’s official website has launched with a promotional video.

The series will replace Eden of The East, the anime that will premiere in the Noitamina timeslot this April. Masaki Tachibana, a unit and episode director on Ghost in the Shell:  Stand Alone Complex, Moribito – Guardian of the Spirit, and Noir, is directing Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 at BONES and Cinema Citrus.

The premise of the project is the 70% or higher possibility that a magnitude 7.0 earthquake will occur in Tokyo in the next 30 years. The anime will depict what would happen if an 8.0 earthquake took place. BONES will attempt to realistically portray the consequences of such a tremor after collecting data on actual earthquakes and interviewing people.

The story will center on Mirai, a middle school freshman girl who goes to Tokyo’s artificial Odaiba Island for a robot exhibition with her brother Yutaka at the start of summer vacation. A powerful tremor emanates from an ocean trench, the famed Tokyo Tower and Rainbow Bridge crumble and fall, and the landscape of Tokyo changes in an instant.

With the help of a motorcycle delivery woman named Mari who they meet on Odaiba, Mirai and Yutaka strive to head back to their Setagaya home in western Tokyo.”

Taken from anime news network and corresponding sites. BONES taking up a new anime seems pretty cool, and it’s an original concept. Seem it will be under the slice of life and drama categories and featuring some pretty decent cgi. Here’s an official poster for it:

We can hope it’s good, I guess. More great anime is always welcome, especially by myself.

Shimus Darkraven

Resident Nerd and News Writer