A-1 Pictures (Kaguya-sama) announced today at AnimeJapan 2022 that they will be creating a TV original anime with the help of the writer of Saekano, Fumiaki Maruto, titled Engage Kiss. Previously announced as “Project Engage,” the anime will premiere in July of 2022.
The series follows Shuu, a down-on-his-luck businessman, throughout his daily life aboard the megafloat Baylon City, created through the discovery of an all new form of energy.
A teaser trailer for the series was also revealed, showing off the voice actors, demeanor, and setting of the anime, which you can check out below:
Who is working on Engage Kiss?
As previously mentioned, the studio handling Engage Kiss will be A-1 Pictures, known for their work on Kaguya-sama, Sword Art Online, and the Seven Deadly Sins. Character designs will be handled by Tsunako, known for her work designing the characters of Neptunia and Date A Live, with scriptwriting duties handled by the aforementioned Fumiaki Maruto.
Voicing the main cast will be Soma Saito as Ogata Shuu, the down-on-his-luck small businessman that can’t help but get himself into debt, Aizawa Saya as Kisano, the worried girl that means to help Shuu out through household chores as he isn’t too good at taking care of himself, and Lynn as Yuugiri Ayano, the scorned ex-lover of Shuu that used to be his coworker at his former employer.
The director of the project nor the scriptwriter has been announced just yet.
Why hasn’t other staff for the series been announced?
This might be a situation similar to the recently-announced Love Flops or Plastic Memories, where the team behind the series is obfuscated to give it a show of innocence despite it having darker subject material, or it may just be a withholding of information until closer to the launch of the series as to surprise the audience upon its reveal. Evidence pointing to this could be the lack of an animated teaser trailer despite A-1 Pictures’ history of accompanying any project announcement with an animated teaser.
Along with the aforementioned evidence, the mystery behind his ex-lover being an employee of his former company, him opening up his own company, the katakana name for Kisano with no last name, which is typically used for androids, and the overwhelming sci-fi setting of a new form of energy leading to a megafloat city suggests that this isn’t going to be your typical rom-com. Along with that, Tsunako has a strong history working with SciFi-related properties with regards to transformations, especially. She might have been picked especially for her capabilities in that area.
Considering the strong cast, Engage Kiss definitely won’t be an anime you want to miss!