News

Gonzo, Kitakubo Animate Satria Series for Malaysia (Update 2)

The Japanese anime studio Gonzo has signed a deal with the Malaysian animation studio Funcel and Malaysia's National Film Development Corporation to produce an adventure animation series called Satria - The Warriors of the 7 Elements for Fall 2012. The 26 24-minute episodes will combine Southeast Asian history with fiction. The animated series is aimed at children nine to 14 years old. Hiroyuki Kitakubo (Blood: The Last Vampire) is directing.

Kitakubo posted a rough sketch of the main character from his current project on his Twitter account on Saturday. According to Kitakubo's deprecating description, this character is "Han Towa," a hero in Malaysian legends.

Thanks to Liam for the news tip.

Sources: C21Media, Hiroyuki Kitakubo via raito-kun

Update: While the Japanese pronunciation of the hero is "Han Towa," the name is Hang Tuah in the original Malay. Thanks, MrTerrorist.

Update 2: Kitakubo posted a September 1 Twitter post that said that 22 of the 26 episodes for the Malaysian government were subcontracted to China for 2 million yen (about US$24,000) each.

After animeanime.biz posted an article about the project on Monday, Kitakubo asked for the removal of C21Media's listing of him as a director. Kitakubo insisted that he was only an advisor, and he later added that he will go to Gonzo on Tuesday to object to this characterization of his work on the project. Thanks, Ko Ransom.