A big announcement from Disney+ revealed that five new anime projects will be slated for the streamer–some coming very soon.
This week saw some major anime moves from Disney+ announcements and its ongoing partnership with Kondansha. At this year’s Walt Disney Company’s annual content showcase in Singapore, it was revealed that the second season of the hit-anime Tokyo Revengers would begin exclusively streaming on Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar in January 2023. Later on that day, they also brought bonus news that five new projects were in the works for next year: three original projects, a reboot and an adaptation.
The beginning of the partnership between the massive streamer and the fantastic anime studio has birthed the exclusive launch of the second season of Tokyo Revengers. The new season will be called the “Christmas Showdown arc.” This was interesting to hear as Crunchyroll did simulcasting for its first season. While this was amazing news to hear on its own, it was even better to learn that many more projects were cooking up in the works for Disney+ anime shows coming in 2023–and they are from popular animation studios.
The first of the five projects was called Phoenix: Eden17, which will be a brand-new adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s classic manga. The manga was essentially a drama, sci-fi fantasy that took place during an age of space colonization. Studio 4℃ (Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko) will be producing the anime and has even put its first key visual and trailer.
In the same genre of sci-fi elements, Synduality’s second teaser trailer was dropped. It was revealed that Eight Bit studio would be animating the show, as they have found the latest success with both Bluelock and That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime. Some major voice actors have already been announced, such as Yui Ishikawa (Mikasa Ackerman in Attack on Titan) and Aoi Koga (Kaguya Shinomiya in Kaguya-sama: Love is War).
Speaking about love, Disney+ will be adding some spicy rom-com to its anime slate. An anime adaptation for Murai no Koi (English translation: Murai in Love) will be joining the anime club on the streamer, teased with a visual taken from the manga. So far, no additional details have been included, such as staff, cast or release date. It already had a live-action TV series that aired in Japan from April to May 2022, with eight episodes.
Following the news that Sunghoo Park (Jujutsu Kaisen, God of High School) had left Studio MAPPA to open his own studio, E&H Production, it was announced the studio will be working on a project temporarily called Project BULLET/BULLET. The show has been expected to join the anime roster on Disney+, revealing one key visual–but with no details on staff, cast or release date. A fun fact about this project was that Park has reportedly been working on this for ten years.
The last of the five new projects hitting Disney+ was Dragons of Wonderhatch. It will be a fantasy series that is said to be part live-action and partly animated. Production I.G. (Fena: Pirate Princess, Aoashi) has been announced as the animation studio to bring this original project to life. The story will be about Nagi, a high school girl who lives in the real world, and Thyme, a boy who lives in a world of “Dragon Riders” that form close bonds with mythical creatures. And most likely, their paths will intertwine for better or for worse, leading to some wild adventures.
Some of the main staff members were announced, which included the director of the live-action adaptation of Tokyo Ghoul, Kentaro Hagiwara; One Piece: Stampede‘s Takashi Ootsuka as the animation director; and the mangaka for The Promised Neverland who will serve as the show’s original character designer and illustrator. The show has been scheduled to be released sometime in Winter 2023. With Disney+’s success of gaining the exclusive airing of the Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War arc, and many more anime series joining, it appears like the streamer looks to be entering the growing genre against Crunchyroll, Netflix and HiDive.
