The official website for the upcoming 2016 anime adaptation of Kentarou Miura’s Berserk manga began streaming the first promotional video on Friday. The TV anime will begin its broadcast on July 1st.
The first episode of Berserk will air on Friday, July 1st at 10:30pm JST on WOWOW. The anime will also start airing on MBS, TBS and CBC a week later, with a broadcast on BS-TBS starting on the 9th.
The anime’s Twitter account has revealed the first set of character designs for the anime’s main cast:
- Hiroaki Iwanaga (Guts in Berserk: The Golden Age Arc) will be back to voice Guts
- Kaoru Mizuhara (Shirushiru from gdgd Fairies) will voice Puck
- Yoko Hikasa (Mio Akiyama in K-ON!) as Farnese
- Kazuyuki Okitsu (Jonathan Joestar in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure) is voicing as Serpico
- Hiro Shimono (Keima Katsuragi in The World God Only Knows) voices Isidro
The supporting cast includes:
- Hiroki Yasumoto (Germany from Hetalia) is going to voice Azan
- Toa Yukinari (Casca from Berserk: The Golden Age Arc) as Casca
- Takahiro Sakurai (Suzaku Kururugi from Code Geass) voices Griffith
- Akio Ohtsuka (Batou in Ghost in the Shell) is voicing Skull Knight
- Unshou Ishizuka (Jet Black in Cowboy Bebop) will be voicing the Narrator
The leading members of the anime’s production staff includes:
- Director: Shin Itagaki (Teekyuu, Devil May Cry)
- Series Composers: Makoto Fukami (Psycho-Pass, Yuruyuri San Hai!) and Takashi Yamashita (Cencoroll)
- Anime Character Designer: Hisashi Abe (Gunslinger Girl, Chobits)
- Music Composer: Shiro Sagisu (Neon Genesis Evangelion, Magi)
- Animation Studio: Liden Films (Miss Monochrome, Terra Formars)
Here is the teaser promotional video for the anime:
The project itself was announced in the recent issue of Hakusensha’s Young Animal magazine. Miura comments in the issue that the manga will be on hiatus until Summer next year. He also mentions that the new anime project will depict Guts as the Black Swordsman. The magazine has also announced that the 1997 TV anime adaptation of the series will be released as a Blu-ray boxset on April 20, 2016. The boxset will retail for ¥18,000 ($148.80 USD).
Berserk is a dark fantasy manga written and illustrated by Kentaro Miura, that began in 1989. The manga is being serialized in Hakusensha’s Young Animal magazine, where a total of 37 volumes have been published to date. The series was adapted into a TV anime series in 1997 for 25 episodes, being directed by Naohito Takahashi (Danball Senki W, Steel Angel Kurumi) and animated by OLM, Inc. (Pokémon, Inazuma Eleven). The manga also received an anime movie trilogy from 2012 under Berserk: The Golden Age Arc. The films were directed by Toshiyuki Kubooka (Gunbuster and Giant RoboAnimation Director) and produced by Studio 4°C (Tweeny Witches, Harmony).
Here is the synopsis of the first anime on MAL:
A brave young warrior named Guts fights for his fortune as a mercenary on the front lines. A fated encounter unites Guts with the charismatic and deadly young man named Griffith. Leading the rogue soldiers known as the Band of the Hawk, Griffith wields his formidable force like no other. Driven by a quest for status, the Hawks exert military and social prowess the likes of which have never been seen before. The armies of Midland will quake with fear as Griffith and Guts set off on a path that will bring the world to its knees.
The 2016 Berserk TV anime will be airing every Friday at 10:00pm JST on WOWOW starting from July 1st, during the Summer 2016 anime season. Further information about the series will be revealed soon.
You can visit the project’s website here: http://berserk-anime.com/
And follow the Twitter: @berserk_anime
