During a livestream today, Japanese visual novel studio Key announced their 2018 visual novel Summer Pockets is getting an anime adaptation.
While word of an anime adaptation had surfaced since before the game was even released, Anime News Networks reports the staff at Key now say the anime is “in the works” and not just green-lit.
Summer Pockets is about Takahara Hairi, a young man and urbanite, traveling to the idyllic fictional island of Torishirojima. There he befriends four girls who could each be described as varying parts mysterious, shy, and aloof.
Summer Pockets was released in Japan in 2018 on PC and has since come to mobile and Switch. An English version was released for PC in 2020, and Key has since released an updated version of the game in Japan titled Summer Pockets Reflection Blue.
Previous adaptations of Key visual novels have become popular anime, most notably Kyoto Animation’s adaptation of Clannad. Clannad: After Story, a sequel season adapting the second arc of the visual novel, is the 15th highest-rated anime on MyAnimeList.
Many are hoping KyoAni will adapt Summer Pockets. Though the developer has since worked with other studios, Tatsuya Ishihara directed adaptations of Key’s first three games—Kanon, Air, and Clannad—for KyoAni. The production could come full circle as Ishihara remains at KyoAni, most recently credited as Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid S director.
This year Key released their newest game in Japan, a “kinetic novel” titled Loopers, while an updated version of their 2011 visual novel Rewrite was finally released in English just this month. Rewrite received an anime adaptation by studio Eight Bit in 2016.
Key released a special crossover anime series titled Kaginado beginning in October and concluding today, Dec. 29. Produced by Liden Films, the series features characters from across the developers’ portfolio and will see a second season next year.
Kaginado is streaming on Funimation.
Published: Dec 29, 2021 06:08 pm