Toshiba's Original ONA Series 'Double Circle' Announced

by tsubasalover
Nov 21, 2013 1:08 AM | 24 Comments

An original ONA series titled "Double Circle" by Toshiba has been announced, and a promotional video introducing the main characters and cast was released today. The series will air on YouTube and Vimeo beginning December 2013.

From the official Facebook page (edited):
"Double Circle" is an original web anime by Toshiba which has the theme of the smart community in Kawasaki city, Kanagawa Prefecture. This is a series of online animated short movies where the citizens of Kawasaki transform into heroes who battle and overcome the enemy; the evolving smart community and renewable energy versus a world where time stands still/a world that is without color. In cooperation with Kawasaki City, through these animated shorts, we send the action of Toshiba and Kawasaki City.

More details about the project:

Staff:
Character designer: KINAKO
Costume designer: Michael Karawata

Cast:
Asagi (personnel of Kawasaki City office): Nobuhiko Okamoto
Akane (engineer works in the smart community center): Asami Seto
Emu (foreign man who lives in a boathouse): Daisuke Namikawa
Nanoha (digital native and gifted boy of IT): Chiwa Saito
Tama-chan (mysterious girl who came from outer space): Yui Horie

Official site: http://doublecircle.toshiba-smartcommunity.com/
(Includes links to other official pages on various social media sites in both Japanese and English.)

PV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EyoSvH5Rxw

Source: Animate.tv

Double Circle on MAL

20 of 24 Comments Recent Comments

Theme song: "EVER" by fang. She is Beijing-born singer songwriter and can speak Japanese, English and Mandarin Chinese.

Edit: This tweet says it is planned to come out this week (It wrote "Next week" on December 13, 2013, so it's this week).
https://twitter.com/DoubleCircle_jp/status/411468734503452673

Nov 29, 2013 5:48 AM by tsubasalover

I think "Nanoha" is also a "guy"...it does say "boy" in the description, so...that distraught me the most...

Nov 24, 2013 9:42 PM by GreenMoriyama

Choroshi said:
awesome list of seiyuu

+1

yes, it looks really like Gatchaman Crowds :O

Nov 22, 2013 4:47 PM by Kurini

Awesome cast. Hopefully, this gets subbed.

Nov 22, 2013 4:34 AM by bwub

Same Character design as GC. Will watch

Nov 21, 2013 3:40 PM by onesnowyday_

Advertisement anime, huh. It would be nice if my laptop had some kind of Toshiba-tan pre-installed instead of that W8 trash...

Nov 21, 2013 10:32 AM by Antanaru

lol that cg

Nov 21, 2013 9:26 AM by Aria_Wright

Whoa, having Gatchaman Crowds still fresh in my mind, seeing this is quite the surprise.

More and more big company names are turning to anime for promotion purposes lately. Now if only they give out a decent story for the ONA, I'm sold.

Nov 21, 2013 8:47 AM by SeaJaeger

The location shifts from Tachikawa of Gatchaman Crowds to Kanagawa of Double Circle. I suspect the actual location is Kawasaki where Toshiba has big plant and factory, and of course the prefecture office (interesting that here we also have a civil servant among the main cast) in Yokohama. And I expect a lot of product placement from Toshiba as well.

The original character design is the same, but we don't yet know other staff or the studio. I suspect it overlaps a lot with Gatchaman Crowds...

Nov 21, 2013 8:21 AM by symbv

It doesn't look bad for something that's promoting a message, hopefully it doesn't get too preachy.

Nov 21, 2013 8:10 AM by Hoppy

I approve of that seiyuu list!

Nov 21, 2013 6:28 AM by Chibi-Alice

mecha always welcome

Nov 21, 2013 6:16 AM by Mr_Gutts

The synopsis, art and cast looks cool, so why not???? I'll watch this :3

Nov 21, 2013 5:49 AM by Tengai

Instantly thought of Gatchaman Crowds

Definitely gonna watch this :D

Nov 21, 2013 5:47 AM by Mikan

Yep looks like Gatchaman Crowds :D, that CG though... :(
Awesome cast as well, will keep an eye on this.