Anime

Interview: What’s New and Different in Resident Evil Veronica

Published

2 months ago

June 10, 2026

At Summer Game Fest 2026, Anime News Network got a chance to sit down in a group Q&A with Resident Evil Veronica producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi to discuss the challenges of creating remakes, the decision to change the original’s title, and what the team would add to the remake.

Note: This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Code Veronica is a classic video game, but were there any challenges or advantages when making [Veronica] as opposed to some of the other remakes?

Yoshiaki Hirabayashi: Considering the accessibility of the title and platforms, you’re aware that the number of players who could access this title was less than the others. One thing that surprised me was that when we put out the reveal trailer, there were so many fans who had played the original that were excited for this remake.

Is there an advantage or challenge to remaking a title like Veronica? Honestly, it’s very similar. This doesn’t apply to just the Veronica remake, this applies to all the other main titles we made.

Of course the development team is aware that everyone who’s played the game has certain memories of it, certain bonds that they associate with it. In addition to that, of course, the development team also plays the game again, so we can identify what we think really is the core of that experience. We also think about, since it is a remake, what are the new elements that will really elevate that original experience?

With both sides of the audience, the ones who played the original and those who haven’t, we always have to try to strike a balance, so that those who play it can see that fondness that they have for the original reflected in the remake, as well as make it a game that even new players could enjoy.

So that’s always the approach we did with remakes. I think one of the merits is that there’s a wider audience who have yet to experience the game, and that we will be able to deliver that experience to them through the remake.

For this new version, you’ve obviously changed the name compared to the original. I was wondering why that is, and if it may be an effort to reflect its importance for the mainline series. Have you ever considered numbering it, even if it meant stepping into Kingdom Hearts territory with something like Resident Evil 3.5?

Yoshiaki Hirabayashi: First off, I just want to say that the original Code Veronica, of course, we at CAPCOM and the devs included have utmost respect for it, and that includes the title. We view the original just as an important entry in the series as a numbered title. So the conversation we had was, how do we communicate that to our audience through the title?

I think you’re going to see a pattern where we’ve titled those more recent entries using a single word that really embodies the game’s concept. With that line of thinking that we are using for more recent entries, we wanted to align with that for this remake as well. So we asked ourselves, you know, “what is that single word that really exemplifies this title?” And of course we settled on the title that you see.

We really do respect the original title being Code Veronica, and we felt that we wouldn’t really think of switching that out with a number.

With this being a remake, and you mentioning new elements being added, are elements or story beats being added that will tie it closer or expand on hints or teases that were in Resident Evil Requiem?

Yoshiaki Hirabayashi: The original Code of Veronica was released in 2000. There’s been many different entries in the series since then. So as we are making this, we are very conscious of what developments were in other titles that would have a connection to Veronica. Of course, we are very conscious of that as we are reconstructing Veronica.

In some of the previous remakes, there have been bits added in which have expanded on parts of the game that were smaller in the originals. Are there any plans to do anything like that here?

Yoshiaki Hirabayashi: At this point I can’t go into any specifics of what sections are going to get longer or shorter or anything like that. What I can say is touching on a previous thing I mentioned. Our team is very conscious of looking at what it is about the original that made it the experience that it was, while also expanding upon that and adding new elements to make a truly meaningful experience.

The last few years for Resident Evil have been really good. What decisions have been made in dividing between new titles and remakes? When did Veronica enter?

Yoshiaki Hirabayashi: The development team behind the remake of Veronica is the same team that was behind the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 4.

When we are making a title, our team is fully dedicated to creating a title that could be the best that it can be. So while we’re working on that. We don’t really have enough slack to be thinking about what that next time is going to be. We are 100% focused on the current title that we’re developing.

What I can say about the timing is that since it was the same team, once development on Resident Evil 4 remake started to settle down, that was at the point in time when they looked forward and selected Veronica as the next title.

Resident Evil Veronica launches in 2027 for PC, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, and Xbox Series X|S.

Anime

Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. Season 2 Casts Yusuke Shirai – News

Published

3 hours ago

August 8, 2026

qasimgillani

The official website of Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc., the television anime based on Sekka Iwata and Yū Aoki‘s Magilumiere Co. Ltd. (Kabushikigaisha Magilumière) manga, announced on Sunday a new cast member for the second season.

Yusuke Shirai plays Shō Manao, a mysterious, but gentle man without a past or history.

magilumiere-2 — Image via Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. anime’s website

Viz Media and MANGA Plus release the manga in English, and Viz Media describes the magical girl workplace story:

Kana Sakuragi is an excellent candidate for the job. Any job! She’s motivated and organized, and has a fantastic memory. So why has she interviewed at over 15 companies without receiving a single offer? She’s trying to keep a positive attitude, but it seems like her bad luck is only getting worse when a monster crashes her latest interview. As havoc ensues, she finds herself helping the magical girl who comes to their rescue and ends up with more than just her life in return. Meet the newest magical girl at Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc.!

The previously announced cast members for the new season are:

Riki Fukushima (Beyblade the Movie: Fierce Battle, Skate-Leading Stars) is the new director of the anime at J.C.STAFF. Michiko Yokote (Prison School, RIN-NE) is the new script supervisor, Masahiro Fujii is returning as the character designer, and Makoto Miyazaki is returning to compose the music.

New staff members for the new season include assistant director Hiroyasu Oda (Delico’s Nursery, Honey Lemon Soda episode director), sound director Yoshikazu Iwanami (Ajin, Ghost in the Shell Arise), art director Shun Yoshii (background art for 2.5 Dimensional Seduction, One-Punch Man season 3), CG director Shunsuke Kasuga (Honey Lemon Soda 3D director), and editor Yūji Kondō (Fate/strange Fake, Sword Art Online: Alicization). First season’s episode color coordinator Asuka Hino is now the new season’s color key artist, and Yūsuke Noguchi, who worked on compositing and cinematography (also known as “photography”) on episodes of the first season, has been promoted to the new season’s compositing director of photography.

VTuber Marine Houshou performs the new ending theme song “BooooM!!!”

syudou×Yūsei Yagi (FANTASTICS) perform the opening theme song “Latte Magic.”

The new season premiered on NTV on July 4 at 24:55 JST (effectively July 5 at 12:55 a.m.).

The first season of the anime aired in Japan from October to December 2024. Amazon Prime Video streamed the anime globally.

Writer Iwata and artist Aoki launched the manga on Shueisha‘s Shonen Jump+ service in October 2021, and ended the manga in its 160th chapter in July 2025. The 18th and final volume shipped on September 4.

Sources: Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc. anime’s website, Comic Natalie

Anime

Voice Actor Rika Kinugawa Announces Marriage – Interest

Published

3 hours ago

August 8, 2026

qasimgillani

Rika Kinugawa, the voice actress behind Zombie Land Saga‘s Yūgiri and other roles, announced on Saturday that she had gotten married. Kinugawa stated she married a non-celebrity and thanked her fans and supporters. “My husband is a non-celebrity who wholeheartedly supports my free-spiritedness with both firmness and great kindness.”

As of press time, Kinugawa’s announcement has received 21,000 likes and over 640 replies, most of which are congratulations from her fans and colleagues. Fellow Zombie Land Saga cast member Minami Tanaka (Lily Hoshikawa) replied to the announcement saying, “Kinu-chan!!! Seriously, congratulations…!! Every single word in your letter made me cry…! I hope you’ll be happy together for a long, long time!!!”

Kinugawa has appeared in Ascendance of a Bookworm as Corinna, The Great Cleric as Lummina, Orange as Takako Chino, and Sakuna: Of Rice And Ruin as Kokorowa Hime, among others. Her agency lists her full résumé.

Sources: Rika Kinugawa‘s X/Twitter account, Minami Tanaka‘s X/Twitter account, Tokyo Actor’s Consumer’s Cooperative Society via Comic Natalie

Anime

Episodes 16-17 – Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 3: Adopted Daughter of an Archduke

Published

5 hours ago

August 8, 2026

qasimgillani

aobw4171 — ©Miya Kazuki,TO Books./Ascendance of a Bookworm Project 2026

I’m back from a weekend at Otakon, Rosemyne is back from her adventure gathering materials, and it’s back to business as usual for both of us. Maybe it’s best I’m getting back in the swing of Bookworm reviews with a two-for, as the season’s 16th episode on its own is absolutely one of those “workaday recap of Rosemyne’s to-do list” entries. There are some fun highlights, of course, and plenty of momentum propelling the overarching story, but it’s thoroughly pedestrian proceedings barely above the action of a montage before things shift around only a little more in the next episode.

Maybe it’s my fault for snarking about the Bookworm anime’s occasional dip into this kind of material converse to all the action in the previous episode. And as I said, there are advancements! The bookkeeping behind this Bookworm is business brought to the Gilberta company by Rosemyne’s advancements in study materials. It’s funny seeing Benno vacillate between coveting the extra customer base and trying not to let slip that his ability to actually manage it all is only a little overwhelmed. These are the realities of economics that Bookworm isn’t entirely based around depicting (it’s not Spice & Wolf or anything) but still has to acknowledge in its setting and scale. So the natural conclusion reached at the end, to spin off the bookmaking business into its own independent company, makes sense as a next step. But these are just the beginning and end of an episode that’s littered with a lot that’s only tangentially connected—to that plot or any of the others.

Otto quitting being a soldier to join as a merchant? Makes sense, and a nice way to keep components of Rosemyne’s previous life moving up through the story. Same for the reveal of the completed, working printing press itself. This is the big advancement that’s going to boost that bookmaking business, obviously, and this show is, as usual, going to linger on the loving depictions of the actual mechanics of the thing. It’s cute seeing Rosemyne react to it, but beyond presenting the press for its own sake, there’s not a lot of immediate tie-in to everything else that happens this episode.

That “everything else” is to the point that I’m actually glad I had to put this off to a double review so that it doesn’t simply wind up being a bullet-pointed list of every vignette. Seeing Brigitte get the titular new dress and tease at a relationship with Damuel is cute. But the dalliance with Hugo potentially becoming Rosemyne’s personal chef feels like an aside to the aside that the Italian Restaurant subplot has always come across as in this show. It’s the weakest of stock isekai storytelling: introducing something into the fantasy world purely for novelty because the writing thinks it might be neat for the main character to have. The only actual engaging instances are as fleeting as the rest of those: Rosemyne inadvertently sending a magical reply to a correspondent of the previous, executed High Bishop, and she and Wilfried learning to hold down the fort of the Mana Replenishment Hall while Sylvester is off at an Archduke Conference. But the actual occurrence of ArchCon 2026 doesn’t actually take place in the episode, so even these nominally dramatic elements feel like naught but casual errands run at this point.

Not that the story shifts up to rip-roaring as soon as Sylvester does head off to the conference in the next episode. Sure, it’s not like I was expecting Rosemyne and Wilfried to throw a raging house party now that their parents aren’t home (I’d watch it), but I was still a little taken aback by how much this shifted structure simply leads to another string of daily life being depicted. The most major shift is that Rosemyne is able to sneak in some extra reading time during these days, being flustered when it’s still not enough.

Seeing this in line with the previous episode does make the continuity of some of these tasks clear. Brigitte’s still showing off her new dress with the plot teasing that Rosemyne will need to find a way to get her and Damuel together. But of course I’m mostly going to be delighted by Angelica coming back. At first I was mildly annoyed that they just skipped over her studying and passing her classes, but in hindsight that sort of busywork wasn’t going to be the entertaining part. No, now I get to be here for her “reward” in Rosemyne charging her manablade, Ferdinand’s interference, and the resultant talking sword Angelica gets saddled with. It’s a very dryly amusing inclusion, which also showcases the outside-the-box ways Rosemyne manages to help people with—sometimes unintentionally! So Angelica basically having her own virtual assistant in the form of a sword that sternly talks with Ferdinand’s voice is a funny way to make sure she stays on top of things, even as I don’t expect it to come up a ton in the show after this.

The other continuing element is much more impactful. Gilberta company splitting off the printing business makes sense…except then the show reminds viewers that part of the plan was for Tuuli to start apprenticing with the company, meaning she won’t get to stay close to Rosemyne if her bookmaking portion gets spun off. As Lutz laments, it’s something all those close to Rosemyne must consider as her efforts and influence grow. Being brought to Rosemyne herself resonates the same way: they’re able to finagle Tuuli’s apprenticeship to keep her close for now, but the logistics of Rosemyne staying close to those she cares about are only going to get more complex. It goes in hand with Rosemyne learning about the compromises she needs to make in her principles and leadership style as she gains more authority and learns the “real” way of serving as a high-ranking member of the church. The detailed, “real-world” stylings of Bookworm‘s constructed fantasy world can’t let things shake out conveniently or optimally all the time, so goes the slow process of Rosemyne growing up.

She’s got others looking out for her. There’s a cute, mildly funny subplot in the 17th episode about Rosemyne’s adoptive grandfather watching over her, stricken by the fact that his resting bitchface might aggravate her mana-overloaded condition. It is kind of too bad that Rosemyne never actually realizes he’s got his heart of gold, but there’s time in the future for that. And it’s nice to see Otto formally transfer in to start working for the company through Rosemyne. It’s narratively satisfying for the guy who originally loaned her his tablet and initiated her quest for reading and writing in this world to loop back around into her story this way—it keeps Bookworm‘s story feeling rich and interconnected in its long-term ambitions. Touches like that make the 17th episode come off stronger than the 16th, even as it’s ostensibly the same sort of day-to-day checklist. It’s a good comparison of what the show does effectively compared to some of its lesser habits as I return to it this week.

Rating:

Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 3: Adopted Daughter of an Archduke is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll.

Chris is back to hit the books. You can see him posting about anime, transforming robots, and other quality reading material over on his BlueSky.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of Anime News Network, its employees, owners, or sponsors.