This project will include an anime and two video games. The anime will be produced by ARMS, and overseen by Hiraku Kaneko (as director and character designer).
The series composition (screenplay) for the anime will be handled by Yosuke Kuroda. He’s well known for several well known screenplays over the years for anime such as Trigun, Honey and Clover , Mobile Suit Gundam 00 , Jormungand , Excel Saga and Please Teacher. He’s done ecchi work a few times previously- he did the writing for both seasons of Maken-Ki! and for Steel Angel Kurumi .
One of the two video games will be directed by Kenichiro Takaki, the original creator of Senran Kagura.
Of course, the big news is that Hiraku Kaneko is finally partnering with ARMS, which seems like the perfect match. ARMS has sorely needed directing talent and Kaneko has needed a studio pervy enough to match his strengths. Kaneko had previously worked with ARMS in a token role with the Queen’s Blade series as a character design consultant for Cattelya’s character.
The trailer above leaves little doubt the series will be ecchi, though it might be of the casual non-nude variety with a heavy emphasis on yuri. The lackluster production values seem to be concerning as well, though if this series panders well enough to otaku it might be in line for a high budget sequel down the road.
Of course, this series is tying into a PS Vita game franchise simultaneously. It’s not impossible for a nude ecchi anime to tie into gaming, as To Love-Ru has proven, but it is still fairly uncommon. It’s hard for me to believe that ARMS and Kaneko would join forces just to make another Cross Ange type of anime, but it remains a possibility depending on how the producers decide to market things.
An announce date for the anime has yet to be given, but considering how much we know about the project it seems likely that it will air sometime in 2015.
A link to the Valkyrie Drive site can be found here. Additional information about the series can be found at Gematsu.
