★ 表発営本大回四第 ★

Ｄｅｓｐｅｒａ is an upcoming anime by the creators of Serial Experiments Lain, written by Chiaki J. Konaka and featuring character designs by Yoshitoshi ABe. It was originally to be directed by Ryūtarō Nakamura.

A companion light novel serialization relating to the anime was published in Japanese magazine Animage, with thirteen chapters released in serial form between July 2009 and July 2010. The complete novella was published as a single volume on April 28, 2011, and included new story content and illustrations.

The story is set during the Taishō era and centers around a 12-year-old girl with a familiar hairstyle, named Ａｉｎ. She lives in the cellar of the Ryōunkaku, Japan's first skyscraper, and builds devices far ahead of the current time period, including computers with cathode ray tube display monitors and typewriter keyboards. Her inventions are funded by a mysterious man called Ｔａｋｅｓｈｉｔａ , who claims he can see the future in Ain's computer screens.

Other people who take an interest in Ａｉｎ and her inventions are Enoshi, a military officer sent to investigate some unexplained electrical currents, and an aristocrat named Kimiyasu Fuenokōji. Living with the latter is Ｂａｒｂａｒａ , a Russian aristocratic refugee from Harbin.