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Age 12 TV Anime's Cast, Staff, Premiere Date Revealed

Shogakukan opened an official website for Nao Maita's shōjo 12-Sai. (Age 12) manga and its upcoming television anime adaptation 12-Sai: Chiccha na Mune no Tokimeki (Age 12: A Little Heart-Pounding), announcing the premiere date, cast, and staff. The series will premiere on April 4 at 7:30 p.m. on Tokyo MX and 9:00 p.m. on AT-X. It will also run on Sun TV and other channels.

Ai Kakuma (Aldnoah.Zero, Magical Sisters Yoyo & Nene) and Sōma Saitō (Chaos Dragon, Future Card Buddyfight) are returning from the original video anime (OVA) to star as the heroine Hanabi and her love interest Takao, respectively. Other cast members include:

• Juri Kimura as Yui Aoi
• Mayuki Makiguchi as Marin Ogura
• Sayuri Hara as Kokoa Hamana
• Shun Horie as Kazuma Hiyama
• Tetsuya Kakihara as Ayumu Tsutsumu

Seiki Taichū is also returning from the OVA to direct the series at OLM. Fumi Tsubota (Pretty Rhythm Rainbow Live assistance) is handling series composition and Motoyoshi Iwasaki (Hamtaro, Web Ghost PiPoPa) is composing the music.

AŌP (Mr. Osomatsu) will perform the ending theme song. Rie Murakawa (Non Non Biyori, Is the order a rabbit?) will perform the opening theme song "Sweet Sensation."

The story of Maita's original manga begins with Hanabi, a sixth-grade girl who is neither an adult nor a child. She deals with issues such as accidentally witnessing her homeroom teacher kissing, and worrying about experiencing physiological changes before her friends. The manga depicts a 12-year-old girl's innocent worries and first love.

The manga has already inspired two original video anime series, with the first debuting in April 2014, and the second debuting last July. Both were bundled in issues of Ciao magazine.

The manga has also inspired a live-action adaptation, which was distributed on two DVDs bundled with Ciao magazine last year.

Maita launched the Age 12 manga in Ciao in 2012, and Shogakukan published the eighth compiled book volume in December. The manga inspired the 12-Sai. ~Honto no Kimochi~ (Age 12: True Feelings) video game for the Nintendo 3DS in December 2014.

[Via Ota-Suke]