Caligula (TV series)

Caligula is a Japanese anime television series adapted from the video game The Caligula Effect. Produced by studio Satelight, it aired from April 8 to June 24, 2018.

Plot

The story follows Ritsu Shikishima, a high school student who starts noticing oddities in his seemingly perfect world—like a mysterious voice coming from his phone and inconsistencies in his surroundings. These clues lead him to realize that his reality is actually a virtual world called Mobius, built by the sentient virtual idol μ (Mu) to protect people from suffering by trapping them in a fake paradise. Wanting to escape back to the real world, Ritsu teams up with eight other students to form the "Go-Home Club." They face challenges and enemies, including the "Ostinato Musicians," followers of μ who work to keep Mobius’s illusion intact. As the group explores the false reality, they confront their own past traumas and the reasons they sought refuge in Mobius, all while searching for a way back to their true lives.

Anime

The voice cast differs slightly from the game. Ritsu Shikishima is voiced by Chiharu Sawashiro (in the game, the protagonist has no name and can be male or female). Other characters include μ (Reina Ueda), Izuru Minezawa (Yūichirō Umehara, Tomoaki Maeno), Shougo Satake (Shunsuke Takeuchi), Aria (Asami Shimoda), Ike-P (Soma Saito), Kagi-P (Shouta Aoi), Suzuna Kagura (Minami Tanaka), Kotono Kashiwaba (Rie Murakawa), Mirei (Eriko Nakamura), Marie Mizuguchi (Mai Fuchigami), Naruko Morita (Ari Ozawa), Shadow Knife (Yuma Uchida), Mifue Shinohara (Rie Takahashi), Shounen Doll (Yumiri Hanamori), Thorn (Yuka Ōtsubo), Sweet-P (Emi Nitta), and Kotarou Tomoe (Yoshimasa Hosoya).

FuRyu announced the anime adaptation during a livestream, and it premiered in April 2018. Directed by Junichi Wada at Satelight, the series composition was handled by Touko Machida, character designs by Kenji Tanabe based on Oguchi’s original designs, and music by Yasuharu Takanashi, Funta7, Tsukasa Masuko, Kenji Iwata, and RegaSound.

The opening theme is "Paradigm Box" by Chiharu Sawashiro and Shunsuke Takeuchi, and the ending theme is "Hypno" by Minami Tanaka, Rie Murakawa, Ari Ozawa, and Rie Takahashi. The series has 12 episodes. Crunchyroll streamed it, and Discotek Media licensed it for a North American physical release.