#project anima

Synopsis: Kurumi Mirai is in the first year of high school. She enrolled in junior high section of the Redrun Magic School, the world's only facility for mages that approved by International Mage League and able to work under royal families when graduated, and she was always top of the class. However, when she applies for the high school section and took the examination to get into a mage training class "Ma-gumi (Mage Class)", she wasn't able to get in in spite having full scores and was top of the class for the whole three years. (via MAL)

As she walked down the dusty dirt road, movement in her periphery caught her eye, causing her to jerk to the side just as a black bag came whizzing down, missing her head by ilms. Holding it was an Imperial Shadow, two more flanking him with weapons already drawn.

With a gasp, the architectus drew her gunrapier and set loose the small, hovering apparatus she had only recently crafted anew, allowing it more autonomous movement from her hand, borrowing from magitek bits and their own proximity-based hovering systems.

Without a word, the carbontwine bag was dropped on the ground, forgotten, and two hand signs from the offending Shadow warned Corelyn of an impending magical attack. Not a moment later, a thunderous bolt of lighting came crashing down as the man unleashed a Raiton at her, causing the otherwise-translucent shell around her to flash crimson and the woman beneath to wince in surprise. However, she was unharmed for the moment, allowing her to gather her wits and defend herself... if the Shadows hadn’t taken that moment of distraction to vanish.

In their place was a man far less welcome than the trio from before, silvery hair tied back behind his head in a tight braid and a smug, predatory look on his face.

“Found you,” Neilas growled, and, with a shifting of his stance, blades sprung up all over his magitek-enhanced armour.

Corelyn had no time to even shout his name in disbelief before she found herself reflexively twisting to the side to avoid the Tribunus as he ducked low and sprung upward, aiming a spinning kick for her head with an almost unnatural grace and terrifying ferocity. Did he mean to kill her?

Drawing Dianthus back, she aimed a precise thrust with the gunrapier for Neilas’s landing leg, hoping to trip him up. She was not fighting to kill - only to flee. Unfortunately, holding back was not on the silver-haired Tribunus’s mind, and, in his ferocious attacking, seemed to predict the attempt to disable him, twisting his leg to deflect the blade with his armour’s bladed plating before the other came down to kick the blade free.

“Dammit!” was the only thing Corelyn could say before the man raised an arm and, with a loud report, her magitek shell took the brunt of a full shotgun blast from his gauntlet, the barrier flickering blue from the sheer physical force it was made to absorb. She took several steps to the side, weaving her legs in what almost resembled a dance to gain room before a bladed punch soared through the space she’d only recently occupied.

“Diremite and his pets won’t save you this time,” the man hissed with a vicious sneer, “Either you come with me or you die a traitor to the Empire. Your fate is sealed, Ms. Bellor.”

“You forget yourself,” Corelyn spat in response. The hovering apparatus floated down with a click of her gunrapier, it was drawn toward the base of the grip to connect and glow brightly for a brief moment. The connected mechanisms began to charge quickly while Neilas, in turn, charged at her. With another step and a duck, she evaded a kick aimed again for her head. Another step back and Dianthus was aimed for the man’s back before its trigger was pulled, a charged crimson shot priming the barrel and the aetheric mechanisms inside the weapon.

“Is that all?” Neilas laughed, the shot absorbed by his armour and leaving little more than a scorchmark. He turned to charge her again, only to be met by a second report from the gunrapier’s charged barrel as, expanding rapidly on its release, a whirling vortex of condensed, tearing wind aether was fired for his chest, causing him to grunt, physically lifted from the ground and thrown backward by the force.

“Bastard,” she sneered, charging the weapon again as Neilas recovered, “Had you paid more attention to Anima instead of your sick machinations, you’d know what you face now.”

The Tribunus’s only response was a shout of, “You whore! How dare you!” With impressive speed, he was suddenly before her, and a fist jammed through her shield, fortunately without a blade. She had no time to contemplate why as the blow took the air out of her, causing her to double over before he forced her to the ground with an axe kick that impacted her shoulder roughly when she tried to crane her head away from its trajectory.

Corelyn groaned, just barely having avoided eating dirt in the most literal, but unwilling, sense. Above her, the Tribunus’s foot rose to come down on her head in a display of dominance, to humiliate her and possibly to knock her out. However, it never met its mark. With a bright blue flash, she activated a pulse in her magitek shield, forcing him to stagger back, caught off guard by the defence.

“You think me so weak, Neilas,” she seethed as she rose, breath still returning, “How much did you ever care to actually learn about me beyond your own selfish desires? After how many years?” Dianthus was charged, but it wasn’t opportune to strike him again - not yet.

“It matters not,” he spat in return, seething as he regained his composure, “You will be mine or you will be dead. I don’t give a damn which it is, now.” He darted around to her left, attempt to feint so that he could get another shot at her stomach, but his eyes betrayed his movement. 

With a single, calculated motion, the Animatus took a step to the side and plunged her rapier forward toward empty space. This, in turn, caused Neilas to baulk at an attack that came far too close to his intended destination, and he ducked back to the left... only to be met with the sight of Dianthus’s barrel pointed in his direction when she brought it back after her own feint was proven successful. With a bright white flash, the firearm rang out, its aetherial ammunition flying toward him as a whitish-green streak that impacted his chest again, suddenly exploding into stone shards that spiked outward then fell to the ground, dissolving into aether once more.

Neilas cried out in pain and surprise as one of the stone spikes dented his breastplate and caused him to take a sharp breath inward. Staggering back, a hand over the damaged armour, he coughed once and sneered at Corelyn.

“I meant what I said, Bellor,” he growled breathlessly, no doubt having the wind knocked out of him by the hit, “I am everywhere. You cannot escape me. And Diremite’s little pets *won’t* save you.”

Corelyn opened her mouth to protest, but no sooner did she than a flash enveloped Neilas, an emergency teleport beacon pulling him off and away, leaving the woman alone on the road to her destination. She swallowed hard, the words lingering and causing her to shiver.

“...Aurelia. Of course,” she muttered to herself before setting off down the road again, her steps more brisk and face locked in an anxious expression and a hand worrying at the space between a quickly-bruising shoulder and her neck. She’d be peering over that shoulder at every opportunity for some time...

Il sito ufficiale del Project ANIMA di DeNA, Sotsu e Nippon Cultural Broadcasting ha rivelato quale sarà il concept che verrà usato per la categoria sci-fi/robotica e trasformato in una serie animata da Satelight (Macross, Aquarion, Symphogear). Ad essere scelto è stato il romanzo di Nekotarou Inui intitolato “Sakugan Labyrinth Marker” (Drilling Labyrinth Marker), attualmente pubblicato su Everystar.

Siamo in un futuro molto lontano, dove l’umanità vive in affollate colonie sotterrane. Questo nuovo mondo viene chiamato il Labirinto e offre una gran quantità di metalli preziosi, ma anche una vera sfida alla sopravvivenza, viste le alte temperature e le gigantesche creature in agguato nei meandri più oscuri della terra. I protagonisti della storia sono Memenpuu, una bambina di nove anni e suo padre Gaganbaa. Entrambi lavorano come semplici Worker, estraendo minerali con l’aiuto di un robot. Un giorno decidono di tentare la fortuna, intraprendendo un pericoloso viaggio verso l’ignoto come Marker. Il loro compito sarà quello di mappare nuove porzioni del Labirinto, un lavoro pagato profumatamente che potrebbe cambiare la loro vita per sempre. Non è però la prospettiva del denaro a muoverli, ma la speranza di ritrovare la madre di Memenpuu, scomparsa dopo aver lasciato la loro colonia.

L’opera è stata scelta fra le centinaia inviate per il progetto, scremate su tre fasi da editori, produttori e registi. Come giudici hanno partecipato membri di DeNA, Sotsu, Nippon Cultural Broadcasting, Mainichi Broadcasting System e Satelight. Curiosamente nessuna di quelle sottoposte alla giuria corrispondeva al criterio di originalità ricercato per il progetto e non si è dunque giunti ad un vero e proprio vincitore assoluto. Inui riceverà comunque un premio in denaro di 1 milione di yen (circa 7912 euro) e nel corso del 2020 la sua idea diventerà un anime.

Come già riportato in precedenza, Project ANIMA sta raccogliendo proposte per altre due serie: una di genere fantasy/isekai, da affidare allo studio J.C Staff (Ano Natsu de Matteru, Planet WIth, Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma) e l’altra che rientrerà nel genere gioco/per bambini, da commissionare allo studio Doga Kobo (Plastic Memories, Majestic Prince, New Game!).  I concept vengono accettati sia da professionisti che da amatori, ideati da singoli o da gruppi e compagnie. I formati approvati sono: romanzo, sceneggiatura, manga, illustrazione e video. 

SilenziO)))