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Great Pretender razbliuto Sequel Anime's 1st Promo Video Reveals Cast, February 23 Premiere in Japan, January 9-10 Screenings in N. America (Updated)

The official website for Wit Studio's original television anime series Great Pretender unveiled the first promotional video for the Great Pretender razbliuto sequel anime on Tuesday. The video reveals the anime's cast, additional staff, February 23 Japan premiere, and January 9 and 10 North America cinema screenings.

Update: Crunchyroll streamed an English-subtitled trailer:

The sequel anime's cast are (image above, from top to bottom left):

• Yuka Komatsu as Dorothy
• Shunsuke Takeuchi as Jei
• Yasuhiro Mamiya as Ai
• Kazuyuki Okitsu as Lin
• Yasuyuki Kase as Wan
• Mitsuaki Kanuka as Sai
• Mariya Ise as Bin

The anime features much of the staff from the first anime returning. Hiro Kaburagi returns as director, but is now also in charge of series composition alongside Taku Kishimoto, with previous head writer Ryota Kosawa now credited for script supervision. Mai Teshima is now the assistant director. Shōsuke Ishibashi replaces Kyoji Asano as chief animation director, joining returning Hirotaka Katō in the chief animation director credits. Keita Shimizu is now no longer credited for design, while Akiyo Okuda and Shōsuke Ishibashi remain credited. Yumiko Sudou is now credited as art director alongside returning art director Yūsuke Takeda.

The newly announced staff includes:

• Character Design: Hirotaka Katō
• Original Design: Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
• Concept Design: Yōko Tanji
• Image Design: syo5
• Art Setting: Kazushi Fujii
• Color Design: Yuko Kobari
• Compositing Director of Photography: Kazuto Izumita
• Editing: Daisuke Imai
• Music: Yutaka Yamada
• Sound Director: Shōji Hata
• Animation Producer: Maiko Okada

The anime will premiere and stream exclusively in Japan on the DMM TV streaming service on February 23 at 24:00 JST (effectively, February 24 at 12 midnight JST). The anime will screen in cinemas in North America on January 9 and 10. Crunchyroll will stream the anime in over 200 countries outside of China, and Manga Productions holds the master license for the anime in 16 countries in the Middle East. The anime is planned for release in the Middle East and South Africa the same time as in Japan.

The sequel anime centers on Dorothy, a gifted swindler, who is supposedly dead after losing a game with a Shanghai organization. She finds herself in a small town in Taipei, without any memory of her past. Chased by Taipei's black society, Dorothy heads to Kyoto, but there, something awaits her too.

The anime's first series premiered in July 2020 on Fuji TV's +UItra programming block. The anime ran for two cours (quarters of a year) for a total of 23 episodes.

Netflix began streaming the anime outside of Japan in August 2020. Netflix streamed the anime exclusively worldwide, but released it in Japan ahead of the rest of the world.

Artist Daichi Marui launched a manga adaptation of the anime on Mag Garden's Mag Comi website and LINE Manga service in June 2020, but the manga went on hiatus in September 2020 due to Marui's poor health.

Update: Added English-subtitled trailer. Source: Crunchyroll's YouTube channel

Sources: Great Pretender anime's website, Crunchyroll (Mikikazu Komatsu)