Earlier a mysterious countdown timer appeared on the official website of Angel Beats! ticking down to 8:00pm JST on December 9th. The countdown has finally finished ticking and has revealed a new Angel Beats! project and a project collaboration between Aniplex and Key is currently in production, which will be announced and revealed at a press conference on December 22.
The new unknown big project will be a new mysterious project in a collaboration between anime distributor Aniplex and visual novel developer Key, which will be unveiled at a conference on December 22 titled Aniplex X Key Presents The New Project. The event will also reveal some information about an upcoming Angel Beats! project in time for the 5th anniversary of the series and the 15th anniversary for Key’s first visual novel, Kanon. The conference will feature producers Hironori Toba and Yuma Takahashi from Aniplex, with Visual Arts (publisher of Key’s Visual Novels) representative Baba Takahiro and Director Kai.
The conference itself will be livestreamed on Niconico: http://live.nicovideo.jp/watch/lv202205367
Here is the commercial for the December 22nd conference:
Angel Beats! is a series created by Jun Maeda, which started off as a light novel series in 2009 that ran for half a year in ASCII Media Works’ Dengeki G’s Magazine. A 4-koma manga series was also created by Maeda that ran in the same magazine in the same year. In 2010, an anime adaptation was created by P.A. Works (Hanasaku Iroha, Another), which was also written by Maeda himself and directed by. The series received high praise and gained popularity, but was criticised for the lack of character development for many stories. A manga was adapted in 2010 titled Angel Beats! Heaven’s Door, which is an adaptation of the prequel light novel Angel Beats! Track Zero. Jun Maeda and Key, who are known for producing acclaimed and popular visual novels, announced that they were producing a visual novel on Angel Beats!, expanding many of the character’s backstory. Angel Beats! -1st Beat- and its subsequent releases, will be written by Jun Maeda. A mobile game based on the series was also produced.
Here is a synopsis of the series from MAL:
Otonashi awakens only to learn he is dead. A rifle-toting girl named Yuri explains that they are in the afterlife, and Otonashi realizes the only thing he can remember about himself is his name. Yuri tells him that she leads the Shinda Sekai Sensen (Afterlife Battlefront) and wages war against a girl named Tenshi. Unable to believe Yuri’s claims that Tenshi is evil, Otonashi attempts to speak with her, but the encounter doesn’t go as he intended.
Otonashi decides to join the SSS and battle Tenshi, but he finds himself oddly drawn to her. While trying to regain his memories and understand Tenshi, he gradually unravels the mysteries of the afterlife.
Aniplex and Key will be revealing The New Project on December 22, as well as some new information regarding Angel Beats! The former is a big announcement since it will be a major collaboration. Whether the two projects are connected we will have to wait. And whether the new Angel Beats! project will be more about the visual novel, or an adaptation of it, will be all revealed at the event.
Visit the conference’s website here: http://aniplex-key1222event.com/
Visit the Angel Beats! website here: http://www.angelbeats.jp/
And follow their Twitter: @AngelBeats_SSS
Source – Angel Beats! Website, Aniplex X Key & Angel Beats! Project Website, Otakomu
