Virtual YouTuber (VTuber) Asano Ruri won the final round of auditions on Saturday to play the vampire princess Ecute in Dropkick on My Devil! X , the third anime season based on the manga Dropkick on my Devil (Jashin-chan Dropkick).
1,1661 applicants took part in the audition, which staffers announced in May is open to professionals and amateurs regardless of age or gender. The 11 finalists competed in the third round and final round at the Tokyo Midtown venue on Saturday. Asano Ruri won 7,040 out of 20,545 total fan votes.
A new music video “Thank You Dropkick!” collaboration with Hatsune Miku also debuted on YouTube on Saturday:
(“Thank You” is a Japanese pun on “Miku”, as both are pronounced the same way as “3 9.”)
The “Thank You Dropkick in Sapporo” event will feature the cast with Hokkaido’s mascot Yuki Miku as a special guest on November 7.
The third season is slated to premiere in spring 2022, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the original manga.
Rena Hasegawa will voice Atre, Ecute’s instructor.
A campaign supporter has pledged 1.1 million yen (approximately US$10,000) to the new season’s title, and interprets the title as showing affection in the hope that “Yurine and Jashin-chan will continue continue to surpass each other and fight forever.” Backers also pledged 220,000 yen (about US$2,000) to name each of the season’s 10 episodes, and 20 backers pledged the same amount to voice the background characters. The franchise will have a partnership with three cities in Hokkaido (Obihiro, Kushiro, Furano) and one city in Nagasaki prefecture (minamishimabara). In particular, the upcoming season will have an episode set in Kushiro.
The anime’s website previously acknowledged that production on the new season will take at least a year. The dilemma for the staff is that they want to continue providing content for fans to enjoy until then, but don’t have the advertising budget to do so. The crowdfunding campaign aims to get staff members to make a TV anime series, while still providing content for fans every month or so.
Yukiwo’s original comedy manga revolves around Yurine Hanazono, a college student who summons Jashin-chan, a demon from the underworld. Now they have to live together in a shabby apartment in the Jinbōchō district of Tokyo. If Yurine dies, Jashin-chan will return to the underworld, so she constantly plots to kill Yurine.
The first anime season premiered in July 2018. The anime is streamed exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in and out of Japan. Amazon Prime Video premiered its final bonus episode in October 2018.
The second season, Dropkick on my Devil!! Dash, which premiered in April 2020 with 11 episodes.
Yukiwo launched the manga in Flex Comix’s Comic Meteor web magazine in April 2012, and the series is ongoing.
