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Rosario + Vampire's Inagaki Directs First Love Monster Anime at Studio DEEN

The teaser site for the television anime of Akira Hiyoshimaru's First Love Monster (Hatsukoi Monster) manga opened on Saturday and announced some of the anime's main staff. Takayuki Inagaki (Rosario + Vampire, Sky Wizards Academy) is directing the anime at Studio DEEN, and Mariko Oka (Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, Hell Girl) is designing the characters.

Yen Press is releasing the manga in North America, and it describes the series:

When fifteen-year-old Kaho Nikaidou leaves her sheltered home to start life anew in a Tokyo high school dormitory, the last thing she expects is to nearly get hit by a truck! Saved in the nick of time by a handsome stranger, Kaho falls head over heels for him and, after finally tracking him down, boldly confesses her feelings. Turns out Kaho's mystery savior, Kanade, is the son of Kaho's new landlord! The handsome object of Kaho's affection agrees to go out with her, but her newfound bliss is short-lived when it turns out that her new boyfriend...is a fifth-grader?!

The anime will star:

• Yui Horie as Kaho Nikaidō, the heroine in high school who falls for Kanade
• Takahiro Sakurai as Kanade Takahashi, the fifth grader who looks like someone older and handsome
• Showtaro Morikubo as Tomu Kaneko, the brawling delinquent grade schooler and Kanade's friend
• Tomokazu Sugita as Ginjirō Sannomiya, a grade school boy and Kanade's weird friend who communicates with space
• Ayumu Murase as Kazuo Noguchi, Kanade's regular-sized friend
• Kenichi Suzumura as Jōji Takahashi, Kanade's cousin
• Nobuhiko Okamoto as Kōta Shinohara, the high school first-year-student who loved Kaho
• Kaito Ishikawa as Atsushi Taga, the college student and Kaho's born enemy
• Kenjiro Tsuda as Arashi Nagasawa, Kaho's weird neighbor
• Hikaru Midorikawa as Daikoku Nikaidō, the Kaho's big brother
  

The anime series will premiere this summer.

Hiyoshimaru launched the manga in ARIA in March 2013, and Kodansha will ship the sixth compiled book volume in Japan on May 13. Yen Press published the manga's third volume in North America in January.

Source: Comic Natalie