It has been announced that the manga "Cultural Exchange with Game Center Girl," currently being serialized on the web service "Dora Dora Sharp #" (KADOKAWA), will be adapted into a TV anime and will begin airing in July 2025. Amagi Sally will play Lily Baker, a 13-year-old girl who has moved from the UK, and Chiba Shoya will play Kusakabe Renji, who works part-time at a game center. Kikuchi Akinobu will be the director, and Nomad will be producing the anime.
The story is about a young man, Kusakabe Renji, who works part-time at a game center, meeting a British girl named Lily, and the start of a cross-cultural exchange at the game center. Amagi commented, "I've been following this work as a reader since the original work, and I strongly felt that if it was made into an anime, I absolutely wanted to play Lily! I wanted to at least audition! I just wanted to be involved! So when I heard that I had passed the audition for the role of Lily, I was so happy that I cried! You won't be able to take your eyes off the relationship between Lily and Renji, which changes drastically through their cross-cultural exchange! It's really chaotic! It's happy and chaotic! Please watch it!!"
Chiba said, "The story is about two people who meet at an arcade and communicate in a comical yet kind way. I've played rhythm games and fighting games together, and there are merchandise related to the games I've appeared in, so they are familiar to me, so I was able to get into the story right away. This is the only dubbing studio where I can hear so much English pronunciation and talk so much about English. I love studying English, so I really enjoy talking about overseas during dubbing. At first I was intimidated because all the other characters are fluent in English, including Amagi, but Renji also tries his best to communicate despite not being able to speak English, so we were able to link up. Many people might be intimidated when they hear it's English, but Lily's cuteness is global, so it's a new and exciting story that will fit right into our daily lives. I think you'll enjoy it in a warm and fuzzy way, so I hope you'll look forward to it!"
Original author Yasuhara Hirokazu commented, "When my editor first told me about the anime adaptation, I was so surprised I had to ask him twice, 'Huh? What did you say?' I couldn't believe it. As the project progressed, as I met with the staff and the character designs were submitted, I felt more and more like 'Oh... it's really going to be made into an anime...' and it finally started to sink in. It had been a dream for me to have it adapted into an anime, so I'm really happy. I'm grateful to all the readers, my editor who worked with me on this project, and Lily, Renji, and the others. The production is going smoothly, and I can really see how all the different people, from the director, producers, and voice actors, are trying to make 'Game Center Girl' a great story, so every day is so fun and fulfilling. I hope you'll be excited to see Lily and the others moving and talking until the air date!"
Director Kikuchi commented, "This work is a romantic comedy plus a comedy that expresses the humor that arises from the misunderstandings that occur in different cultural exchange, so we were particular about the language, especially British English, and we were extremely helped by the highly conscious work of the translators. We also depict various cultural exchanges in aspects other than language, so I hope you enjoy those aspects as well. It's a light-hearted work that adds a little cultural exchange to the slapstick comedy of an English girl and a Japanese man, and the people around them, so please feel free to watch it."
Character designer Rikiya Okano said, "I work hard every day to find a way to turn Yasuhara-sensei's lively, fun, and cute characters into animation without losing any of their charm. I have designed them to be familiar to a wide range of people, not only those who have been fans of the original work for a long time, but also those who have come to know about it through the anime, so I hope you will look forward to seeing Lily, Renji, and the others running around in animation!"
◇Staff (titles omitted)
Director: Kikuchi Satoshi▽Series Composition: Yamada Yasutomo▽Character Design: Okano Rikiya▽Art Director: Nishiyama Isamu▽Art Setting: Masuda Kenta (GROUND)▽Color Design: Shigemitsu Yukiko▽Editing: Takemiya Mutsumi▽Sound Director: Ebina Yasunori▽Sound Effects: Kawada Kiyotaka▽Sound Adjustment: Takeuchi Shunpei▽Sound Production: zuvo. (Kasai Kikaku LLC)▽Casting: Matsuoka Cho (Full Power Production)▽Music: Iga Takuro▽Animation Production: Nomad▽Production: Game Center Girls and Intercultural Exchange Association
