Production +h. Stakes October on Dark Machine After Honda Defends Originals

Production +h. is treating this fall as a test of original television anime. Founder Fuminori Honda used the October confirmation for Dark Machine: The Animation to argue that a studio still has to mint stories, characters, and worlds from nothing, not only adapt finished manga and novels. Originals have no answer key, he wrote, and the risk is obvious — but putting out a work nobody knows yet is part of the job.

Kazumi Terada is directing at Honda's studio, with Gorō Taniguchi as creative producer, Kō Yoshinari on main character design, and Hidetaka Tenjin on the machines. SUGIZO is scoring the series. A second promo posted this week loads in-world esports mecha brawls and previews BUCK-TICK's newly written opening "Sonzai Riyuu Kai" ("Reason to Live, Renewed"). Guitarist Hisashi Imai said he hopes the track's noise, rhythm, and wording will color the setting.

The same drop filled rival benches opposite Kensho Ono's Kairi and team CARBUNCLE. Ryunosuke Watanuki and Jun Kousaka play Nyudo and Hachiman of GREAT CLUSTER; Minori Suzuki and Rikuya Yasuda play Bianca and Weiss of Esmeralda. Fuji TV will start the series in October on Tuesday nights at 1:45 a.m., with later windows on Kansai TV and BS Fuji.

Honda's shop already carried The Orbital Children and the Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction film. Dark Machine is the next original from that pipeline: a mecha-esports series with no manga spine, a rock opening, and a late-night timeslot already on the board.

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