The English voice cast for Junji Ito’s long-awaited Uzumaki anime, due in late 2024, has finally been revealed.
During the Production I.G x WIT x Signal.MD panel at Anime Expo, Production I.G. unveiled the delay-riddled anime’s English voice cast. Thanks to Anime News Network (who was in attendance), here's the full list of talent and where you may have heard them before:
Abby Trott (Nezuko Kamado in Demon Slayer) as Kirie Goshima
Robbie Daymond (Megumi Fushiguro in Jujutsu Kaisen) as Shuichi Saito
Cristina Vee (Killua in Hunter x Hunter) as Azami Kurotani
Doug Stone (Psycho Mantis in Metal Gear Solid) as Kirie's father
Aaron LaPlante (Duke in Resident Evil: Village) as Shuichi's father
Mona Marshall (Izzy Izumi in Digimon) as Shuichi's mother
Max Mittelman (Red XIII in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth) as Katayama
It's been a whirlwind of a year and we're excited to finally be able to show you this! Enjoy! https://t.co/3uq8l4R7MZ
Anime fans exhaled a collective sigh of relief earlier this week when Ito confirmed Uzumaki would arrive on Adult Swim sometime later this year. Speaking to Japan Times, Ito confirmed that the first of the anime miniseries' four episodes is complete and that it lived up to his expectations. This remark not only reassured fans who’ve long felt anime can’t properly adapt to the shock and unease of Ito’s works, but it also spoke to the reason why the anime was delayed in 2021.
At the time, the anime’s official X/Twitter account released a statement about Uzumaki’s third delay, saying Production I.G needed more time to work to ensure it recreated "the quality of the intricate designs and detailed line work" of Uzumaki.
Uzumaki tells the story of a high school girl named Kirie Goshima as she and her boyfriend uncover the truth behind a mysterious spiral pattern that’s haunting their hometown.
Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh.
My Hero Academia's upcoming film, You’re Next, is coming to North American theaters on October 11, 2024.
Announced at Anime Expo, My Hero Academia: You’re Next is the fourth anime film from the mega-popular superhero anime. The film, which loosely takes place after the anime’s sixth season, sees Izuku Midoriya and his friends contend with a new villain called Dark Might.
Unlike their previous silver screen foes, Dark Might’s motivation stems from a misplaced sense of justice, believing he is the true inheritor of All Might’s will. You can peep the film’s very busy theatrical poster below.
— My Hero Academia: You’re Next (@MHAYOURENEXT) July 6, 2024
You’re Next’s North American theatrical release coincides with the broadcast of the Season 7 of My Hero Academia as well as its manga’s final chapters. My Hero Academia will officially end with its 430th chapter on August 5, 2024. Its conclusion also spells the end times for its anime, considering its most recent episodes are in the 350th chapter range of its source material.
"It was a rocky road, but I was able to draw Deku and his friends for nearly 10 years thanks to everyone who kept on reading,” creator Kōhei Horikoshi said in regarding the manga’s ending. “It was a dream. Thank you so much! Well, let's meet again in Jump!"
In our 8/10 premiere episode review for the anime’s latest season, we said, “My Hero Academia returns with a season 7 premiere full of action, some character development, and one hell of a cool character introduction.”
Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh.
John Cena has announced his retirement from the WWE and confirmed that his final match will take place at Wrestlemania 41 in Las Vegas in 2025.
During WWE's Money in the Bank premium live event on July 6 in Toronto, John Cena made a surprise appearance to thunderous applause. While donning a t-shirt that read "The Last Time is Now," the 16-time World Heavy Weight Champion announced his retirement tour.
"Tonight, I officially announce my retirement from the WWE," Cena said before the crowd went wild. "I hear a mixed opinion out there. Lots of questions, maybe, right?! Like, 'Hey! Why here?' And I want to talk about that here for a second. I want to talk about Toronto. Matter of fact, I want to talk about Canada. Matter of fact, I want to talk about Canadians."
He then went to thank his fans in Canada for always being there for him, for the good and the bad, and sharing that their support was the reason he chose to announce the news tonight.
Coupled with Cena announcing his retirement from in-ring competition was a confirmation that he would be wrestling at other upcoming premium live events on the road toward WrestleMania 41.
Key among them are the Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber, and Monday Night Raw once it makes its move from the USA Network to Netflix in 2025. Cena concluded his retirement announcement by promising to share more information regarding his status in the company during Money in the Bank's post-show press conference.
Warner Bros. Japan stopped by Anime Expo to premiere a teaser trailer and new poster for its upcoming Batman Ninja sequel film, Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League.
Much like how the original 3D CG film followed Batman as he and his allies (and villains) were whisked away from Gotham to feudal-era Japan, its sequel sees the cape crusader return to the samurai-laden era once again.
Although the movie clip—which was shared on Warner Bros. Japan's official X/Twitter account—was quicker than a hiccup, it did reveal the aforementioned Yakuza League is none other than the Justice League's own Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, and Green Lantern. Seeing as the film has the word "versus" in its title, it wouldn't be wild to assume Batman will have to contend with his former allies for reasons yet to be revealed.
— Warner Bros. Japan Anime (@wb_anime) July 5, 2024
Here's a closer look at Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League's poster, which features Wonder Woman sporting an eagle tattoo, The Flash wearing a traditional Japanese straw hat, Aquaman in a fisherman's headband, and Green Lantern (likely Jessica Cruz) donned in a kimono garment whilst brandishing a Japanese-style lantern.
— 「ニンジャバットマン対ヤクザリーグ」Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League公式 (@batmanninja2018) July 5, 2024
Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League was first announced in May and, much like its predecessor, it will see actor Koichi Yamadera reprise his role as Batman. The movie will also see the return of production members like Kamikaze Douga, the animator behind the CG anime opening themes for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. The casting for the rest of the "Yakuza League," as well as the film's official release date, have yet to be announced.
In our 9.7 review of Batman Ninja, we said, "Batman Ninja sets a new standard for DC animated films."
Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh.
During Anime Expo, Arc System Works unveiled a world premiere teaser trailer for its upcoming Guilty Gear anime, Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers, which is set to be released sometime next year.
Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Riders is a 3D CG anime adaptation of the eponymous fighting game that is being animated by SANZIGEN. While the teaser gave little away story-wise, the trailer did showcase the long-running fighting game's central characters, Sol Badguy and Sin Kiske. The trailer, which is stylized in a similar fashion to the game's cutscenes, pits the pair against a mysterious new foe named Unika, who has a grudge against Gears.
— Arc System Works America (@ArcSystemWorksU) July 4, 2024
Guilty Gear stands head and shoulders above other fighting games series thanks in part to it being one of the flashiest anime fighters of all time. Consequently, Guilty Gear also has a reputation for being one of the hardest story timelines to follow. A case in point is the fact that the story mode for Strive's predecessor, Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2, is essentially an uninterrupted hour-long anime unto itself. For folks wondering where Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Riders will sit in the series storied lore, here's a plot synopsis for the show:
"After the decline of the once robust fields of science and technology, a new energy source known as magic fuels the modern era," the official description reads. "Humanity creates forbidden biological weapons: Gears. Those Gears eventually stand against humanity in a rebellion. Although they manage to overcome in the struggle for survival known as the Crusades, humanity’s losses are so great that even after several decades pass, their emotional wounds remain unable to fully heal.
"Sin Kiske, the child of a human and a Gear, heads to his father Ky and mother Dizzy’s wedding ceremony. Their wedding breaks the ultimate taboo: a union between a human and a Gear. Even with the world at peace, it took many years for such a ceremony to come to fruition. Despite the complex array of emotions surrounding it, the wedding ceremony is met with blessings. When suddenly, a mysterious girl appears… The fated child inheriting Gear blood–and the mysterious girl who despises Gears. Their meeting would shake the world."
In our review of Guilty Gear Strive, we gave the game a 9/10, saying, "Guilty Gear Strive sets a new standard for anime-like fighting games with its visuals, stellar netcode, and flexible fighting system that encourages and rewards creativity."
Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh.
The third and final season of anime Beastars will be split into two parts, the first of which hits Netflix in December 2024.
Announced at Anime Expo, the largest anime convention in the U.S., Netflix teased Season 3 by saying "a world of impending danger awaits Legoshi as the final chapter begins." A poster for the finale, below, was also shown.
Beastars, created by Paru Itagaki, takes place in a world where carnivores and herbivores struggle to coexist. The story follows a mild-mannered wolf named Legoshi who is coming to grips with overcoming his carnivorous instincts in the midst of his budding romance with a bunny named Haru.
A world of impending danger awaits Legoshi as the final chapter begins.
Interspersed with Legoshi's coming-of-age tale is a pulpy crime drama that showcases the desperate power struggles and deep-rooted classism rooted in its melting pot-esque society. Think Disney's Zootopia if it were a mature anime.
Beastars' first season premiered on Netflix in 2020. The show, animated by Studio Orange of Trigun Stampede and Land of the Lustrous fame, stood out among its contemporaries for its expressive and fluid use of 3D CG animation — an animation style often criticized by the anime community as stiff and lifeless.
In our 9/10 review of Season 2, IGN said: "The unique mix of action and drama in Beastars Season 2 is entertaining to watch, balanced perfectly by the main and supporting cast of the anime. Orange: Animation Studio vividly brings the black and white pages of Paru Itagaki’s famed manga to life through their use of CGI and traditional animation in a way that makes Beastars Season 2 something truly special."
Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh.
Fans have long wondered whether the anime adaptation of horror auteur Junji Ito's magnum opus, Uzumaki, would finally get an official release date or spiral into another delay. Some good news just dropped in that regard: the long-awaited anime will apparently premiere on Adult Swim later this year.
In a recent interview with the Japan Times, Ito not only revealed that the anime would finally be released within the calendar year, but he also said that the first episode of the four-episode miniseries has been completed and lives up to his expectations.
It's been a whirlwind of a year and we're excited to finally be able to show you this! Enjoy! https://t.co/3uq8l4R7MZ
Uzumaki's anime adaptation, which is being co-produced by Adult Swim and Ghost in the Shell studio Production I.G, was originally slated to be released on Toonami in 2020 before it was delayed in 2021, pushed back to October 2022 due to COVID, and delayed a third time without a new release date in June of 2022.
At the time, the official X/Twitter account for the anime released a statement about Production I.G needing more time to work on the adaptation to ensure it recreated "the quality of the intricate designs and detailed line work" of Uzumaki.
“As much as we’d like to deliver this show to the public as soon as possible, we don’t want to compromise its quality by delivering a mediocre final product," Uzumaki's production team wrote in the statement. "We remain fully committed to pursuing the completion of this work at the highest caliber. We’ll be back with a firm premiere date once we are confident this adaptation is as good as we know it can be.”
Uzumaki follows a high school girl named Kirie Goshima as she encounters a mysterious spiral pattern that suddenly crops up all over her hometown. Over time, the spiral becomes a source of obsession for the townsfolk, beckoning them to not only find the pattern throughout their daily lives but to become obsessed with it in increasingly gruesome ways.
Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh.
Tekken 8 director Katsuhiro Harada's official X/Twitter account has quickly become the fighting game community town square thanks in part to his extra long behind-the-scenes trivia posts and occasional Waffle House asides. Harada's latest bit of Tekken lore dump put to bed a long-running fandom perception that Tekken devs have always hated Anna Williams.
In an impromptu Q&A X/Twitter post, Harada responded to a fan's question about the relationship dynamic between Nina and Anna. In his 1,317-word response — which was written during his lunch break — Harada also addressed the community rumor about Tekken devs hating Anna by stating the exact opposite.
"By the way, there is a small group of people who believe that Anna is not loved by the development team and they even say that Anna is hated [by the] dev team," Harada wrote. "Well, it doesn't matter, Because it's NOT true at all, but the Anna portrayed in the story of TEKKEN is filled with a lot of thoughts and feelings from me and the animation staff."
For those unversed in the melodramatic soap opera that is fighting game story modes, Tekken's long-running narrative can be boiled down as a family drama playing out in a series of high-stakes martial arts tournaments. While the epicenter of the series' familial beef involves the Mishima family's ever-increasing family tree, Anna and Nina Williams serve as Tekken's tertiary rivalry. Some FGC players have felt Tekken developers heavily favor Nina as the series' golden child in that rivalry and view Anna as its black sheep.
Much of the Tekken fandom's perception of Anna being disliked by its developers was instilled by the number of times Nina would trounce Anna in a myriad of cutscenes and win quotes throughout the series. This perception also wasn't helped by the fact that Nina Williams is more often than not guaranteed as a launch character in Tekken game rosters, including Tekken 8. In contrast, Anna was allocated as a DLC character in Tekken 7 and has yet to be announced in Tekken 8.
In the post, Harada revealed that he mainly worked on the development of Anna in Tekken 3 and that he personally created the names of her moves.
"Originally, Nina was very popular with players since the beginning of Tekken. There is a yin and yang to things, and Anna's popularity was often contrasted with Nina's," Harada said. "Back in Tekken 1 and 2, many mid-boss characters were 'convertible character' to other characters, but we wanted to make Anna from Tekken 3 as unique as possible to gain popularity."
Harada also acknowledged the gap in the sister's popularity throughout the years and took the position that even when Nina outshines Anna like a one-sided episode of Tom and Jerry, the team made sure Anna's charms shone through for players.
"For this reason, Anna's settings in the game reflect the feelings of the people in charge of Anna on our development team. For example, Anna's settings include the following: "Anna is tired of losing not only the battle with Nina, but also the popularity ranking in the Iron Fist Tournament. I believe that was the very sentiment of those of us in charge of Anna (myself, the animation team, and the modeling team)," Harada added.
Harada concluded his huge Anna and Nina Williams lore dump with a list of triva about their relationship that basically doubled down agaisnt the miconception that Anna is completely washed in comparison to her sister. Here are some of the notable bits of pro-Anna trivia:
Anna is a better cook than Nina
Anna is better at darts
Anna is better with heavy weaponry like an anti-tank rocket launcher
Nina only assassinated Anna's fiance in Tekken 7 (and stole her wedding dress) because her would-be hubby had a "very dark side" that Anna wasn't aware of. Nina is also awaiting a thank you from Nina for the trouble.
In our review of Tekken 8, we gave the game a 9/10, saying, "Tekken 8 is an incredible evolution for the series, with tons of single player content, an excellent suite of training tools, a great online experience, and exciting new mechanics that make Tekken more dynamic than ever."
Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh.
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