Gonzo's Shangri-La Dream Team

[Chris Beveridge]

Crunchyroll and Gonzo are teaming up again to bring the animated 3D-CGI sci-fi property, based on the original novel by Eiichi Ikegami, SHANGRI-LA to Crunchyroll for a worldwide debut starting on April 06, 2009.

SHANGRI-LA is an anime series put together by a dream team of acclaimed talents including director Makoto Bessho, writer Hiroshi Ohnogi, creative producer Takeshi Mori and character designer Range Murata...

More... (http://www.mania.com/gonzos-shangrila-dream-team_article_113840.html)

[TheGreenMan]

So, I guess this could be the spiritual successor to Last Exile? It certainly has an assortment of interesting characters...

[DangerMouseDM]

It definitely seems to be, in addition to Murata and the look of the show from screenshots released so far, the soundtrack also has a huge Last Exile connection.

The recent Dengeki article with screenshots of the show and characters/props/weapons images also confirmed the first soundtrack name in addition to the May'n (of Macross Frontier fame) OP and the main music credit should make Last Exile soundtrack fans very pleased.

It lists Hitomi Kuroishi, who did both the main music and ED theme of Last Exile (with her group Dolce Triade) as doing the music for Shangri-La.

She also seems to work relatively often with Shuntaro Okino who did the OP of Last Exile (and I believe the insert song for the Claus and Lavie flashback) so I wouldn't be too surprised if he shows up somewhere too for an ED or an insert song (if there are any), but I don't think they've announced any other music yet besides the OP and now the main music.

Last Exile is still one of my all time favorite shows.
Must try to keep my expectations of the show reasonable but this is more good news after learning that Ohnogi was writing since he's done some very good scifi anime. :)

[njchobitsfan]

I really enjoyed everything about Last Exile, but the ending seemed rushed. Here's to Shangri-La emulating the quality of Last Exile....sans the ending, 'natch.

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Currently watching - Ghost Talker’s Daydream
Finished watching - Negima ? Spring and Summer Specials
In the queue - Ai Yori Aoshi