Persona 5: The Animation is an anime television series produced by CloverWorks based on the Persona 5 video game by Atlus. The anime series is directed by Masashi Ishihama and written by Shinichi Inotsume, with Tomomi Ishikawa adapting Shigenori Soejima's original character designs for the animation. Atlus employee Kazuma Kaneko created the original demon designs, while music composer Shoji Meguro reprised his role from the game. The 26-episode series aired in Japan between April and September 2018, followed by four special episodes; one aired in December 2018, a second in March 2019, and two more releases bundled with the Blu-Ray releases in May and June 2019. Additionally, an animated television special by A-1 Pictures, The Day Breakers, aired prior to the game's Japanese release in September 2016. The series is licensed in North America by Aniplex of America. Voice cast While most of the voice cast from the original game reprise their roles, several voice actors from the original game were replaced. In the Japanese dub, Miyu Matsuki and Kazunari Tanaka, the voice actors of Chihaya Mifune and Junya Kaneshiro respectively, died in 2015 and 2016, so they were recast by Haruka Terui and Takahiro Fujimoto. In the English dub, Shinya Oda is voiced by Eden Riegel (who also voices Hifumi Togo), rather than Barbara Goodson. Production The anime television special The Day Breakers was announced in September 2015 during Atlus' stage event at the Tokyo Game Show. In July 2016, the title of the special was revealed as Persona 5: The Animation – The Day Breakers with Takaharu Ozaki as the director, Shinichi Inotsume as writer, Toshiyuki Yahagi and Keita Matsumoto as the character designers and A-1 Pictures as the studio. It premiered on September 3, 2016 with a runtime of 24 minutes on Tokyo MX, later airing on GTV, GYT and BS11. Aniplex of America licensed the special in North America in October 2016. The 26-episode anime television series adaptation was announced in July 2017 for a 2018 premiere, with CloverWorks animating the series. The anime series is directed by Masashi Ishihama and written by Inotsume, and features adapted character and demon designs from the game by Tomomi Ishikawa and Kazuma Kaneko, respectively. The soundtrack was written by the game's original lead composer Shoji Meguro, who wrote both new material and arranged music from the game. Lyn performs the series' opening and ending themes; the opening themes are