Post-Bubble, Tetsurou Araki, the director of Attack on Titan‘s first season, Kabeneri of the Iron Fortress, Death Note, High School of the Dead) has been involved in a number of shorter form, music-related works. He directed COLORs, a music video/short film that was part of the “TOHO animation Music Films” project, and also contributed opening sequences to the second cours of Spy x Family Season 1 and Vinland Saga Season 2. That streak continues with Araki’s appearance in the credits for this season’s The Dangers in My Heart Season 2, where he is listed as the storyboard artist and unit director for its opening animation, which features the song “Boku wa…” by Atarayo.
With pronounced compositing that feels characteristic of (at least current) Araki, The Dangers in My Heart Season 2 opening is filled with angsty, moody scenes punctuated by occasional bursts of vivid color, while the chorus section delivers a cute group dance sequence captured by a rotating camera. WIT Studio is credited with production assistance for the opening animation, and some of the staff include Ryouko Mita (Vivy -Fluorite Eye’s Song- co-AI special effect artist) as make-up effect artist, Ayaka Nakamura (Pokémon: Paldean Winds) as color designer et al., and Mizutamari Higashi (co-color script artist for Spy x Family and Vinland Saga Season 2’s second cour openings) as art director.
The Dangers in My Heart Season 2 began airing in Japan on January 6 and is streamed by HIDIVE, Prime Video, and Bilibili overseas. The first season ran from April to June 2023. The anime is based on the Akita Shoten-published romantic comedy manga by Norio Sakurai, which placed first in AnimeJapan’s fourth Manga We Want to See Animated ranking.
Seven Seas Entertainment describes the manga as:
Quirky courtship awaits in this comedy nominated for the 2020 Manga Taisho Award!
Kyotaro Ichikawa, a boy barely clinging to the bottom rung of his school’s social ladder, secretly believes he’s the tortured lead in some psychological thriller. He spends his days dreaming up ways to disrupt his classmates’ peaceful lives and pining after Anna Yamada, the class idol. But Kyotaro’s not nearly the troubled teen he pretends to be…and it turns out Anna’s a bit odd herself!
The manga is currently serialized on Manga Cross with the tankoubon volumes published under the Shonen Champion Comics label. The series started in 2018 and has nine tankoubon volumes as of November 2023.
Staff (returning)
• Director: Hiroaki Akagi (Teasing Master Takagi-san)
• Series composer and script writer: Jukki Hanada (Love Live! Superstar!!)
• Character designer: Masato Katsumata (The Quintessential Quintuplets)
• Music composer: Kensuke Ushio (Chainsaw Man)
• Animation production: Shin-Ei Animation
Cast
• Shun Horie as Kyotaro Ichikawa
• Hina Youmiya as Anna Yamada
• Ayaka Asai as Chihiro Kobayashi
• Megumi Han as Moeko Sekine
• Atsumi Tanezaki as Serina Yoshida
Source: NUMAnimation YouTube channel