Shikizakura: Ritual powered mechs against invading oni

There’s a new trailer for Shikizakura and it doesn’t hold magic from the action.

Directed by Walking Meat’s Shin’ya Sugai and made by Sublimation, the same studio that did Ghost in the Shell Arise, the anime is about magically enhanced mech-suits being used to take on invading demons in the near future.

The first episode was aired at Anime Expo, and so there’s a lengthy synopsis for it.

In the place of Shikizakura (cherry trees), where autumn leaves and cherry blossoms are flourishing and where the human world intersects with the demon world, a ritual to save the human world is about to begin…
Kakeru Miwa, a high school student, gets involved in a battle between powered suits and oni that emerge from the demon world to prey on Onis manifest themselves in this world by possessing humans. Only “Yoroi,” powered suit that is a fusion of ancient secrets and cutting-edge technology, can protect people from onis. Kakeru puts on a Yoroi by chance and becomes a semi-official member of a team that fights against onis.
Determined to become a hero, Kakeru battles Onis to protect Ouka Myojin, the shrine maiden destined to save the world. In the season of Shikizakura, in midst of autumn leaves and a flurry of cherry petals, Ouka performs a dance as a shrine maiden. At the place where the past and the future, this world and the alien world, people’s thoughts and hopes all meet, a tale of heroic action-adventure begins!

Also announced at Anime Expo was that members of the YouTube band Tokai On Ar would join the cast, one of whom plays an actor who gets so into the role that they begin to hallucinate the character. Another of the band will play the hallucination.