KanColle Franchise Confirms New TV Anime Series in Development

The “‘KanColle’ Shinshun Chinjufu Jazz Matsuri 2019 in Nippon Budōkan” (KanColle Chinjufu Naval Base New Year’s Jazz Festival 2019 in Nippon Budōkan) event on Friday confirmed that the KanColle franchise is getting a new television anime series.

Studio Engi — the new 2D/3D animation studio that publisher Kadokawa, pachinko and pachislot game machine maker Sammy, and anime holding company Ultra Super Pictures established last April — is producing the new anime. The event debuted a promotional video for the anime, but the staff have not yet streamed the video online.

昨日、日本武道館で「艦これ」の新たなTVアニメーションシリーズの制作開始PVを先行試写致しました。この新たなシリーズは、物語を私達「艦これ」運営鎮守府コアチーム：C2機関、アニメーションを新進気鋭の2D/3Dアニメーション制作スタジオ：ENGIさん、そしてKADOKAWAさんでお贈りします。#艦これ

— 「艦これ」開発/運営 (@KanColle_STAFF) January 5, 2019

The final episode of the first television anime series had revealed in March 2015 that the television anime would get a sequel. The anime’s official Twitter account indicated in August 2015 that the movie and the sequel were separate projects that went into production at the same time.

The first 12-episode TV anime series premiered in January 2015 and Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired in Japan. Funimation released the series on DVD and Blu-ray Disc with English subtitles and an English dub in June 2017.

The Kantai Collection: KanColle film opened in Japan in November 2016, and earned 560 million yen (about US$5 million) by March 2017.

The anime is based on a web browser game that launched in 2013, and is set in a world where humanity has lost control of the seas. The threat that has taken over the seas is the “deep sea fleet.” The only ones who can counter this threat are Kan-musume (literally, warship girls), girls who possess the spirit of naval vessels from days gone by.

The base for the fleet arrayed against the “deep sea fleet” is Chinjufu. There, many various Kan-musume have gathered to live together and work hard everyday in training and other matters. One day, a Kan-musume arrives at Chinjufu. She is a special class of destroyer, and her name is Fubuki.