Back in April of this year, it was announced that the Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet anime series would not be getting a sequel in the form of an anime as originally conceived. “Various circumstances” forced the staff to cancel the anime sequel. Though the anime adaptation of the sequel was cancelled the series would still be getting a sequel in the form of a novel. The sequel will use the scenario the staff planned to use for the second season of the anime. Not much information was revealed about the sequel novel at first but recently the official blog for Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet posted some more information on the sequel. The information included character designs for an 18 year old Ledo, the new protagonist Russell, the new heroine of the series Sukaya, and a new humanoid mecha named Ignite. The character designs can be seen below:

Original Male Protagonist Ledo

New Male Protagonist Russell

Heroine Sukaya

Humanoid Mecha Ignite Piloted by Sukaya

Also included in the official blog was a story outline for the sequel. Here is the synopsis for the sequel as translated by the staff at Anime News Network:

Russell, a boy who makes his living off of chasing whale-squids in the oceans off of the land nation Liberistan, meets a strange entity called Liv in the depths of the water. Using Liv’s power to greatly increase the control over a Yunboro, Russel is determined to succeed in life in a safe land.

On the other hand, Sukaya, the daughter of the cabinet minister of the opposing nation Augustonia, was exhausted from her days in which her efforts would not bear fruit. However, her situation changes when the humanoid robot Ignite awakens and chooses her as its pilot.

A boy who holds hope for the land, and a girl who seeks freedom. And so, a new story begins to move in the various lands that the giant ship Gargantia travels to.

The scriptwriter for the original anime series, Daishiro Tanimura, will be returning to pen the sequel novel. Hanaharu Naruko, the anime’s character designer, returned to do the designs and illustrations for the sequel novel. Makoto Ishiwata, from Nitroplus, will return to do the mechanical designs. Kazuya Murata, the director of the original Gargantia anime, returned to help supervise the project.

The original Gargantia anime was animated by Production I.G. It began airing on April 3, 2013 and ended on June 30, 2013. It had a total of 13 episodes and 4 OVAs. The original anime is currently licensed for release in North America by VIZ Media. The sequel novel’s story will take place two years after the events of the last OVA. The Gargantia sequel novel is currently slated for release on August 29 of this year in Japan.

SOURCES: 1, 2, 3, 4