The Persona 4: Animation team have unexpectedly reunited to work on Blue Orchestra

As reported by Anime News Network, Blue Orchestra, or Ao no Orchestra, has a few familiar names from the 2011 anime series based on the PlayStation 2 game Persona 4. NHK, which will broadcast the anime, released a promotional video that opens with a sweet violin melody of Pachelbel’s “Canon in D.” In the video, Blue Orchestra announces the director, screenwriter and character designers. Seiji Kishi, the chief director of Persona 4, is directing the music anime. Yuuko Kakihara, who wrote the script and series composition of Persona 4, is writing and overseeing the scripts. Kazuaki Morita, who designed the characters in the supernatural anime, is coming onto the Blue Orchestra team as the character designer.

Jun Sakata (To Your Eternity and Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!) will serve as chief producer and Ryota Higashi will perform the violin pieces for the protagonist Aono Hajime. Produced by Nippon Animation (Antique Bakery and 1999 Hunter x Hunter), Blue Orchestra has released other promotional videos, including an animated video of the characters performing “Imperial Wars” from Star Wars to celebrate Star Wars Day.

Persona 4’s Monster Mystery

The team worked on Persona 4, which aired from October 2011 to March 2012. Produced by AIC A.S.T.A., the 25-episode series follows Yu Narukami who discovers a hidden world inside a mysterious TV channel filled with monsters called Shadows. Yu and his friends discover that the channel is connected to a string of murders where dead bodies turn up during foggy days. Yu gains a power called Persona, allowing him to fight against the Shadows. The anime adaptation received praise for how faithfully the story followed the original plot in the video game. Developed by Atlus and inspired by mystery novelists, Persona 4 is the fifth installment of the Persona series.

Written and illustrated by Makoto Akui, Blue Orchestra follows a music prodigy named Aono Hajime, who stopped playing violin due to personal reasons in his final year of middle school. He meets a girl, a novice violinist, who brings his desire to play music to the forefront once more. As the two of them work together to enter a high school with a prestigious school orchestra, Aono faces his past and future of music.

Blue Orchestra premieres in April 2023.

Source: NHK via Anime News Network