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Monogatari Series' Hanamonogatari Delayed Until August 16

The official website for the Monogatari Series Second Season anime announced on Tuesday that the Hanamonogatari (Flower Story) anime has been delayed from its planned premiere on May 31 "due to production issues." Instead of debuting on May 31 and running for five straight weeks, all five episodes will premiere in a marathon on Saturday, August 16.

The anime will debut first on the Tokyo MX TV station on August 16 from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., followed by the BS11 channel and the Niconico streaming service later that evening. Instead of the Hanamonogatari anime itself, character commentaries from the earlier Blu-ray Disc and DVD releases will premiere on television on May 31 and run for five straight weeks. Fans can vote for which character commentaries will air.

Michiko Neya (Shaman King's Tao Jun, The Familiar of Zero F's Aniesse) and Kana Asumi (Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream's Aira, Nyaruko: Crawling with Love!'s titular character) will join the cast as Tooe Kanbaru and Rōka Numachi, respectively. Miyuki Sawashiro and Kaori Mizuhashi will return to play their characters Suruga Kanbaru and Ougi Oshino.

Text: A mother's words...
Mrs. Kanbaru: You have to be either medicine or poison. Otherwise, you're just water.
Suruga: She was the kind of mother to say that.
Suruga: Yes. If you ask me, she was a demon-like person.
Ougi: Do you know the rumor about the demon? It seems like she's a girl who's in high school.
Suruga: The demon who wanted everything, but lost everything... Might be me!
Rōka: The kind of person who goes as far as to come to the demon's own home to talk with her is someone who's 11th place out of ten people.
Suruga: Someone who has ended everything in the beginning, and holds nothing. That is me, Suruga Kanbaru. I wonder if there will come a day when I can sleep without duct tape wrapped around my arm.

Tomoyuki Itamura is directing Hanamonogatari, while Akiyuki Shinbo is acting as chief director and series script supervisor along with Fuyashi Tou. Akio Watanabe is designing the characters based on VOFAN's illustrations for NisiOisin's original novel. Watanabe, Nobuhiro Sugiyama, and Taisuke Iwasaki are also serving as chief animation directors at SHAFT. Satoru Kousaki is handling the music.