NTV Expands “Friday Anime Night” to One Hour, Snowball Earth Anime to Premiere on April 3
NTV revealed on Thursday that its “Friday Anime Night” programming block will be extended to a one-hour format starting in April. As part of the expansion, the television anime adaptation of Snowball Earth will premiere on the block on April 3 at 11:30 p.m. JST.
The anime stars Takuto Yoshinaga as Tetsuo Yabusame, Daisuke Hirakawa as Yukio, Ami Koshimizu as Ao Nogi, and Konomi Tamura as Hagane Takimura.
©辻次夕日郎／小学館／「スノウボールアース」製作委員会
Munehisa Sakai (Zombie Land Saga, Dance Dance Danseur, One Piece Film: Strong World) is directing the series at Studio KAI, with Takeshi Iwata serving as assistant director. Shigeru Murakoshi is in charge of series composition and scripts, while Toshiya Kōno is handling character design and also serves as chief animation director. TOHO animation is producing the anime.
Additional staff members include Se Jun Kim (mecha design), Ryuta Yanagi (monster design), Mari Fujino (art director), Hironori Nochi (color design), Hiroki Motooka (CG director), Hiromu Ōshiro (motion graphics), Kenta Hayashi and Shōta Kodera (director of photography), Tomoki Nagasaka (editing), and composers Tatsuya Katō, Hiroaki Tsutsumi, and Yuki Kanesaka.
Viz Media, which releases the manga in English, describes the story as set in the year 2025, when Earth is invaded by colossal alien beasts. Humanity’s last hope lies in a giant robot named Yukio, piloted by Tetsuo Yabusame. After a devastating final battle, Tetsuo survives in cryosleep—only to awaken eight years later to a frozen, ruined planet now known as Snowball Earth. With humanity’s fate unknown, Tetsuo must uncover what happened to the world and whether he can fulfill his final promise.
The manga, created by Yuhiro Tsujitsugu, launched in Shogakukan’s Monthly Spirits magazine in 2021. The series’ 10th collected volume shipped in Japan on December 26, and Viz Media will publish the eighth English volume on February 17.
