New animated superhero series The Reflection from American comics legend Stan Lee and popular Japanese anime director Hiroshi Nagahama is set to debut this month on Japan’s public broadcaster NHK on 22 July 2017.
The series is a collaboration between Lee’s Pow! Entertainment, Studio DEEN and director Nagahama (Mushi-Shi, Flowers of Evil, Detroit Metal City). The series consists of 12 episodes and will air on the pubcaster late Saturday nights. The project was first announced in Comikaze Expo of October 2015 in Los Angeles by Studio DEEN with a promotional video narrated by Lee.
The concept revolves around a global disaster called The Reflection after which some people in all parts of the world are discovered with super powers which they use either to become heroes or villains. The main story follows the conflict between superhero Xon and villain I-Guy, who are among those found to have gained special powers following The Reflection.
Credit of the original work is with Lee, while Pow! Entertainment and Studio DEEN have worked on the project planning. Nagahama is co-creating and directing the 30-minute series at Studio DEEN while Yoshihiko Umakoshi (Berserk, Mushi-Shi, Heartcatch Precure!) is the character designer. Key creatives on The Reflection include series director Koichiro Sohtome (Mushi-Shi), writer Yasuyuki Suzuki (Naruto) and art director Hisaharu Iijima (Bakemonogatari). British music producer and songwriter Trevor Horn is producing the music for the anime with Keiichi Nozaki as music director and Japanese idol group 9nine (Star Driver, Magi, My Little Monster) performing an insert song for the series.
The cast includes Shinichiro Miki as Xon- a mysterious hero who always appears unexpectedly, Satoshi Mikami as I-Guy- a person who has the power to use his voice to generate a concussive blast all around him and Mariya Ise as Eleanor Everts- a hero who excels in computers and intelligence gathering.