The official website for the new anime of Hidekaz Himaruya’s Hetalia World Stars manga began streaming a new promotional video on Thursday. The video reveals and previews the theme song “Chikyū Marugoto Hug Shitainda” (I Want to Hug the Whole Earth) performed by Daisuke Namikawa as his character Italy.
The album with the full version of Italy’s theme song will ship on May 26. The album will also include the long version of the anime’s opening theme song “Hetalia no Kagaku Sekai” (Hetalia’s Shining World) by Conisch, as well as an audio drama featuring Italy, Germany, Japan, America, England, France, Russia, and China.
The anime will premiere in spring 2021.
The cast includes:
Daisuke Namikawa as Italy, Romano (South Italy)
Hiroki Yasumoto as Germany
Hiroki Takahashi as Japan
Katsuyuki Konishi as America, Canada
Noriaki Sugiyama as England
Masaya Onosaka as France
Yasuhiro Takato as Russia
Yuki Kaida as China, Narrator
Sumire Morohoshi as Czech Republic
Yūsuke Kobayashi as Slovakia
Yuichiro Umehara as Portugal
Go Inoue as Spain, Bulgaria
Akira Sasanuma as Austria
Atsushi Kousaka as Prussia, Greece, Estonia
Megumi Takamoto as Seychelles
Michiko Neya as Hungary
Rie Kugimiya as Liechtenstein
Kokoro Tanaka as Latvia
Takahiro Mizushima as Finland
Keikou Sakai as Sweden
Keiichiro Asai as Australia
Hiroshi Watanabe, Kazuyuki Fudeyasu, and Mariko Oka all are back as director, series script supervisor, and character designer, respectively, with Studio DEEN returning for animation production.
Himaruya’s Hetalia World Stars manga is the latest manga in the franchise. The manga launched in Shonen Jump+ on the same day the online manga service launched, but it went on hiatus in April 2018. The manga is resuming in Shonen Jump+ this winter. Shueisha has published four compiled book volumes for the manga. Himaruya launched a new manga about Japanese prime ministers in Shueisha’s Jump SQ. on December 4.
Himaruya’s original Hetalia – Axis Powers manga takes the archetypal characteristics of countries and regions throughout the world, and anthropomorphizes them as (mostly) bishōnen characters. Right Stuf released the manga in North America in collaboration with its former English-language publisher, Tokyopop, and its Japanese publisher Gentosha Comics.
Hetalia The World Twinkle, the sixth anime season inspired by Himaruya’s manga, premiered in Japan in July 2015, and Funimation streamed the series as it aired. Funimation has released all the anime seasons and the Hetalia Axis Powers: Paint it, White! film in North America. The franchise has also inspired a series of stage musicals in Japan. The “final” musical ran in March 2018.
Sources: Hetalia World Stars anime’s website, Comic Natalie