Japanese production company Sunrise is to revive the iconic “Inuyasha” anime franchise and deliver a series “Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon.” Viz Media has come on board to handle digital streaming rights, electronic sell-through, and home video in North America and Latin American territories.
Most of the Japanese film industry is currently shut down as a result of the nationwide anti-coronavirus lockdown and social distancing rules. And no details of the production schedule or delivery date were available.
The “Inuyasha” franchise first started as a critically acclaimed manga series, for which the English version was featured regularly on The New York Times Bestsellers list throughout the 2000s. The anime adaptation aired on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block for over 11 years nearing 200 episodes. It has also spawned four successful feature film adaptations, but the franchise ended in 2010.
The original creator Rumiko Takahashi returns to handle character design. The series is to be directed by Teruo Sato. Katsuyuki Sumisawa is responsible for the screenplay. Yoshihito Hishinuma is responsible for animation character design, and music is from Kaoru Wada. The animation production is by Sunrise, which has worked on many of the “Mobile Suit Gundam” series movies, “Gintama” and “Gintama: The Movie,” and “Tiger and Bunny.”
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The new series focuses on half-demon twins Towa and Setsuna who are are separated from each other during a forest fire. The elder wanders into a mysterious tunnel that sends her into present-day Japan, where she is found and raised.
Ten years later, the tunnel that connects the two eras reopens, allowing the two women to be reunited. But the younger one who had been left in the Feudal Era has now become a demon slayer and has lost all memory of her older sister. They are joined by the daughter of Inuyasha and Kagome, and travel between the two eras on an adventure to regain their missing past.
“The ‘Inuyasha’ universe has been a true pinnacle when it comes to delighting fans of all generations and we’re seeing that now, two decades later, with original ‘Inuyasha’ episodes streaming on Netflix and Hulu. We’re excited for fans to revisit this magical world created by the iconic Rumiko Takahashi,” said Brad Woods, CMO of Viz Media in a prepared statement.
