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I Left my A-Rank Party to Help My Former Students Reach the Dungeon Depths! , an upcoming TV anime based on the fantasy light novel series, has revealed new information about the official theme songs for the series. The series will broadcast in Japan on the Nippon TV network beginning in January 2025. Rei (the solo performance name for The Rampage's Kazuma Kawamura) performs the opening theme song for the series, which is entitled “Enter”. Yuki Tanaka performs the ending theme song for the series, which is entitled “Treasure Chest”. The original light novels are written by Kosuke Unagi, illustrated by Super Zombie, and published by Kodansha under their Kodansha Ranobe Books imprint. Kodansha USA also publishes a manga adaptation with artwork by Yuri. Katsumi Oni directs the TV anime at animation studio Bn Pictures. Kazuyuki Fudeyasu provides the series composition, Masakazu Yamazaki provides the character designs, and Go Sakabe provides the music.

The Ringu franchise has a much more convoluted history than most people realize, with Koji Suzuki’s original novel actually being part of a genre-bending trilogy that differs greatly from the established mythology of the films. In fact, before Sadako ever made the leap to the big screen (and consequently overseas), her first live-action appearance was in an obscure TV movie that preceded Hideo Nakata’s film by 3 whole years – and that’s not even mentioning the Korean adaptation from 1999.

My point is that the Ringu films have always thrived on iteration and innovation, with each new installment adding something new to the Suzuki’s original story and helping to propel Sadako to international infamy. These updates don’t always work, like in the case of 2012’s absurd Sadako 3D, but even then, the results are still usually entertaining. The latest of these narrative refurbishings comes in the form of Hisashi Kimura’s Sadako Dx,...