News

Sōten Kōro Manga about Chinese History Gets TV Anime (Update 2)

Violinist, composer, and producer Masatsugu Shinozaki (Haibane Renmei, Wolf's Rain) revealed in a Monday blog entry that King Gonta and Yi Hagin's Sōten Kōro historical manga will get a late-night television anime series on NTV's network of affiliates starting this April. The manga centers around Cao Cao, a warlord and second-to-last Han Dynasty chancellor who is best known through the Romance of the Three Kingdoms literary classic. The manga ran in Kodansha's Morning magazine from 1994 to 2005, and the 10 millions copies of the 36 compiled volumes were published. It won the 22nd Kodansha Manga Prize in 1998.

Update: The Moon Phase Comments blog reports that a recruitment notice for key animators from the Japan Animation Creators Association (JAniCA) lists the following staffers:

Executive Director: Toyoo Ashida (Fist of the North Star, Ultimate Teacher, Vampire Hunter D video)
Director: Tsuneo Tominaga (They Were 11, Initial D: Fourth Stage, Genma Wars)
Character Designers: Takahiro Umehara (Claymore), Akira Kano (Initial D: Fourth Stage), Cindy H. Yamauchi, Daisuke Yoshida (Super Kuma-san), Yuichiro Hayashi
Costume Research/Secondary Characters: Akiko Matsushita
Animation Production: Madhouse

Update 2: According to Shinozaki, Shusei Murai (Allison & Lillia, Mōryō no Hako, Ultraviolet: Code 044) is writing the music. Jian Xiao-Qing, a player of the Chinese ehru string instrument, contributed to the soundtrack.