Crunchyroll announced a new slate of original programming today. While we've known a little bit about some of these Crunchyroll Originals before now (and one is already halfway finished airing), the first eight series in the streaming site's major original programming initiative have now been confirmed. A newly released trailer showcases bits of animation from the eight shows.
Crunchyroll isn't new to anime production. It's been part of the production committee for more than 60 anime over the past six years, in titles ranging from The Rising of a Shield Hero and Kemono Friends to A Place Further Than The Universe and the music video Shelter. Some of the new Crunchyroll Originals look to be continuations of this sort of involvement, in which the site offers financial support to traditional Japanese anime productions. Other Originals are being made by Crunchyroll's own animation studio, which has branches in Burbank as well as Tokyo. As the trailer promises, these eight shows are only the start for Crunchyroll Originals!
IN/SPECTRE
The first series branded as a "Crunchyroll Original" has actually been airing for two months now, though only now that the other shows are ready to announce is it being labeled as such. Based on a light novel by Kyo Shirodaira, directed by Keiji Gotoh and animated at Brain's Base, it is a supernatural romance about two college students who each have their own special connection to the mystical world of yokai. Over its first seven episodes, it's become one of the more popular new anime of the Winter 2020 season, which seems like a good sign for future Crunchyroll Originals.
TOWER OF GOD
Tower of God is likely the next of the Crunchyroll Originals to premiere, it was already announced it will air in Spring. This is the first of Crunchyroll's many promised collaborations with the Korean comics site Webtoon. The comic written and drawn by SIU, which also spawned a hit mobile game, tells the story of a boy fighting his way through a tower ruled under a strict caste system. Telecom Animation Film, a subsidiary of the famous TMS Entertainment studio, is handling animation duties, and the clips shown in the trailer make this look like one of the more visually striking Originals.
ONYX EQUINOX
Onyx Equinox, premiering this Summer, is one of the Crunchyroll Originals being produced in the United States. Glimpses of it were described in the 2018 Crunchyroll Expo sizzle reel, but only now is its existence known to the general public. Creator Sofia Alexander previously storyboarded for Infinity Train and Invader ZIM: Enter the Florpus. The premise of this series involves a young Aztec boy saved from death by the gods and chosen to be "humanity's champion." With anime-esque visuals and the promise of fantastic but authentically researched portrayals of Mesoamerican culture, we're getting Avatar: The Last Airbender vibes from this show.
THE GOD OF HIGH SCHOOL
Park Yong Jae's Webtoon The God of High School has been adapted into mobile-game form and received an official animated music video in 2016. Now, thanks to Crunchyroll and the animation studio MAPPA, it's receiving a full-blown anime adaptation. For those unfamiliar with the long-running comic, the basic story is that a high school martial artist and his friends enter a fighting tournament that leads them to discover magical powers and mythological legacies while uncovering a mysterious organization. Fans of Dragon Ball and other similar shonen action shows will likely want to give this series a try.
NOBLESSE
The third announced Webtoon adaptation among the Crunchyroll Originals, Noblesse is about an ancient vampire noble awakening from a 820 year slumber and having to adjust to life in modern day South Korea. Two original video animation adaptations have already been made, one from Korean animation studio Animal and one from Japan's Production I.G. The latter is streaming on Crunchyroll. I.G. is also doing the animation for the TV series, which could potentially cover the entire story of Son Jeho and Lee Kwangsu's recently concluded comic.
MEIJI GEKKEN: SWORD & GUN
Meiji Gekken: Sword & Gun is, at the moment, the Crunchyroll Original we know the least about. Even the title is still just a working title. It has the briefest clip of all the shows in the trailer. It's being produced by Crunchyroll Animation Studios, but it's not clear if it's being made primarily by the company's Japanese or American branches, or if it's a collaboration. There's no known source material for the show outside of "historical events," and the press release makes no mention of a creator or director. However, even now, this Meiji-era drama about four morally complicated characters adjusting to cultural shifts looks intriguing.
FREAKANGELS
Alongside all of the adaptations of Korean Webtoons, Crunchyroll is also producing an adaptation of a British webcomic from creators Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield. Expect the post-apocalyptic steampunk adventure of FreakAngels to live up to the freakiness implied in the title; Ellis announced the comic by saying, "I've written two hundred pages and I still have no idea what it's about." The clips shown in the trailer showcase an animation style with greater emphasis on CGI. Because Ellis has already dipped his toes into anime-esque animation in writing the scripts for Castlevania, we're curious about the extent of his involvement in this adaptation.
HIGH GUARDIAN SPICE
Yes, after extensive delays and ridiculous "controversies" from "anti-SJWs," High Guardian Spice is actually being released! This American magical-girl series created by Raye Rodriguez was the first Crunchyroll Original announced back in 2018, but even though the show wrapped production in November 2019, promotional material has been non-existent since the original announcement trailer -- until now. The series follows four students at High Guardian Academy, training in the magical arts while preparing to save the world from a mysterious threat.