Netflix and Warner Bros Japan released a new trailer this morning detailing the cast and crew of their upcoming anime Bastard!!: Heavy Metal, Dark Fantasy. An adaptation of mangaka Kazushi Hagiwara’s post-apocalyptic, dark fantasy series, the show is set 400 years in the future, in a world where swords and sorcery face off in the ruins of civilization.
Hagiwara’s manga entered serialization in 1988 in Weekly Shōnen Jump, and would become one of its publisher’s best-selling series. The mangaka wrote and illustrated 27 volumes over the next 22 years, as the title moved imprints. Though its last chapter was released in 2010, the hit series is technically just on hiatus. VIZ Media released just the first 19 volumes in English from 2003 to 2009.
Now, Liden Films (Berserk, Otherside Picnic) will adapt the series into a 24-episode anime directed by Takaharu Ozaki (Goblin Slayer). Yōsuke Kurod (Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online) is the scriptwriter for the series, and Sayaka Ono (Cross Ange: Rondo of Angel and Dragon) is the character designer.
Zombie Land Saga composer Yasuharu Takanashi will pen the score, which features an opening theme by Japanese rock band Coldrain and an ending theme by vocalist Tielle.
The new castmembers announced include Kanae Itō (Yui in Sword Art Online) as Rushe Renren, Tomokazu Sugita (Gintoki Sakata in Gintama) as Abigail, Kensho Ono (Floch Forster in Attack on Titan) as Kall-Su, and Nao Touyama (Suma in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Entertainment District Arc) as Sheila Metallicana. They’ll join previously- announced cast members Kishō Taniyama as Dark Schneider, Tomori Kusunoki as Tia Noto Yoko, Hiroki Yasumoto as Gara, and Yōko Hikasa as Arshes Nei.
Bastard!! is scheduled to release on Netflix sometime in 2022.