A special live stream on Niconico titled “Love Live! Sunshine!! Aqours Niconico Live Extracurricular Activity ~First Heart-Pounding Live Broadcast!~” had some special announcements concerning the Love Live! franchise. This live stream was the first to feature the new unit Aqours. During the livestream it was announced that Aqours would be releasing their second single on April 27. Along with this news it was announced that a new TV anime has been greenlit and would begin airing in the Summer of 2016. The anime was also announced on the official Love Live! Twitter account. You can check out that Tweet below.
【告知4】そして、『ラブライブ！サンシャイン!!』2016年夏にTVアニメ化が決定いたしました！これからも『ラブライブ！サンシャイン!!』Aqoursの応援をよろしくお願いします！ https://t.co/mlUC4ylI5e #lovelive
— ラブライブ！公式 (@LoveLive_staff) January 11, 2016
The anime will be titled Love Live! Sunshine!! and will feature the members of Aqours. The anime will be produced by Sunrise. It will be directed by Kazuo Sakai and the character designs are by Yuhei Murota. The cast of Aqours is as follows:
- Anju Inami as Chika Takami
- Rikako Aida as Riko Sakurauchi
- Nanaka Suwa as Kanan Matsuura
- Arisa Komiya as Dia Kurosawa
- Shuka Saito as You Watanabe
- Aika Kobayashi as Yoshiko Tsushima
- Kanako Takatsuki as Hanamaru Kunikida
- Aina Suzuki as Mari Ohara
- Ai Furihata as Ruby Kurosawa
You can check out the designs and backgrounds for the Aqours members below.
Lantis recently posted the full music video for Aqours’ first single on their official YouTube account. The single is titled “Kimi no Kokoro wa Kagayaiteru Kai?” and was released on October 7. You can check out the music video below.
The Love Live! Sunshine!! project was announced last February. The Aqours unit name was chosen by fans during a popular vote. The poll lasted from June 1-11 and a total of 23,789 votes were cast. Aqours won with a total of 4,644 votes.
The Love Live! Sunshine!! anime is set to air this Summer. If you are interested in the anime at all you can check out the anime’s official global website HERE. You can also check out the official Japanese Twitter account for Love Live! HERE.
