GoRA, King Records' Ayaka: A Story of Bonds Anime Casts Kana Hanazawa, Jun Fukuyama

The official website for GoRA and King Records' original anime Ayaka: A Story of Bonds and Wounds started streaming a character promotional video on Wednesday, which features Yuichiro Umehara's character Aka Ibuki, and two new characters Ibara Ichijō and Taihei Makita. The new characters are voiced by Kana Hanazawa and Jun Fukuyama, respectively. The two characters are Ibuki's subordinates at Ayaka Security.

Kana Hanazawa as Ibara Ichijō

© GoRA・KINGRECORDS／Project AYAKA

Jun Fukuyama as Taihei Makita

© GoRA・KINGRECORDS／Project AYAKA

The story follows Yukito Yanagi, a boy raised in a children's home on the mainland. One day, Jingi Sagawa, an arrogant young disciple of Yukito's late father, came and took Yukito to his birthplace, Ayakashima. Ayakashima is a string of seven strange islands where legend tells of dragons of fire and water. The islands are inhabited by a mysterious entity known as Mitama.

Yukito begins living at Ayakashima with three former disciples of Yukito's father. The former disciples live as hermits as they maintain Ayakashima's peace and harmony. However, there is a deep discord between Jingi's fellow disciples Haruaki Karuma and Aka Ibuki. As harmony on the islands begins to break down, Yukito faces a secret truth.

The anime will premiere in July on the Tokyo MX and BS11 channels. The anime will also stream on FOD, and other streaming services in Japan.

The other cast members include:

• Yūto Uemura as Yukito Yanagi
• Takuma Terashima as Jingi Sagawa
• Kousuke Toriumi as Haruaki Karuma
• Gakuto Kajiwara as Chatarō Fukuwake
• Yuki Sakakihara as Yako Amano
• Yuichiro Umehara as Aka Ibuki

Toriumi replaced Takahiro Sakurai for the role of Haruaki Karuma when the anime's staff announced that they will replace Sakurai "due to various circumstances."

©GoRA・KINGRECORDS／Project AYAKA

Nobuyoshi Nagayama (Are You Lost?, Happy Sugar Life, Love Flops, Smile Down the Runway) is directing the anime at Studio Blanc, GoRA is supervising and writing the series scripts. The artist redjuice (Beatless, Guilty Crown, The Empire of Corpses) is drafting the original character designs, and Misaki Kaneko (Smile Down the Runway) is drawing the finalized character designs. Naoya Tanaka is the production designer.

Kana Shibue (Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju, Sasaki and Miyano, Shenmue the Animation) is composing the music, and King Records is producing the music. Ryō Tanaka is directing the sound at Bit Grooove Promotion. angela is performing the opening theme song "AYAKASHI," and saji is performing the ending theme song "Flashback."

GoRA and GoHands' K television anime series premiered in October 2013, and had several movie and manga adaptations, as well as manga spinoff stories.

Sources: Ayaka anime's website (link 2), Comic Natalie