Wednesday saw the release of a brand-new trailer for the Modern Love: Tokyo “Samazama na Ai no Katachi” (Various Forms of Love) original anthology series on Amazon Prime Video Japan. This series will feature an episode of animation directed by Naoko Yamada (K-ON!, The Heike Story, A Silent Voice). Yamada’s episode may be seen in the video preview at 0:43. The series’ theme music, “Setting Sail Modern Love Tokyo” by Awesome City Club, is also included.
Yamada’s episode, “Kare ga Kanaderu Futari no Shirabe,” will include voice actors Haru Kuroki and Masataka Kubota (He Plays Their Very Own Melody). In addition to Kuroki and Kubota, the series also stars Asami Mizukawa, Atsuko Maeda, Nana Eikura, Tasuku Emoto, Ran Ito, Ryo Ishibashi, Ry Narita, Kaho, Hiromi Nagasaku, Ysuke Santamaria, Naomi Scott, Sosuke Ikematsu, Wakana Matsumoto, Shinobu Terajima, Meiko Kaji,
Anthology of short tales on the topic of modern love, all situated in Tokyo. On October 21, the series will make its online video debut on Amazon Prime. There will be one anime episode and six live-action productions. By focusing on the universal topic of love, the showrunner of the series and one of its directors and scriptwriters, Atsuko Hirayanagi hopes to give viewers a picture of contemporary Japan. Along with Hirayanagi and Yamada, the series also has Ryichi Hiroki, Nobuhiro Yamashita, Naoko Ogigami, and Kiyoshi Kurosawa as directors and writers (all directors apart from Yamada are also listed as scriptwriters).
Before leaving the company and taking a director’s position at Science SARU in 2021, Yamada had directed a number of Kyoto Animation productions. The Heike Story, which released in September 2021, was the first project she directed for the studio. She served as the director of some of Kyoto Animation’s most well-known productions, including K-ON!, A Silent Voice, Liz and the Blue Bird, Tamako Market, and Tamako Love Story. She was also Sound! Euphonium’s series director. Her current project is the brand-new original animation Garden of Remembrance.