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Beyblade Burst Gets TV Anime by Pokémon's OLM Next Spring
posted on by Egan Loo
The company d-rights and the toy maker Takara Tomy announced on Thursday that Beyblade Burst, the third generation of the Beyblade spinning top game franchise, is beginning production on a television anime. According to the announcement at the Tokyo Toy Show, OLM or Oriental Light and Magic (Yo-kai Watch, Pokémon) is producing the anime for a Spring 2016 premiere.
Text: Teaser
Boy: Let's go, partner!
Text: The fierce Beyblade Battle…!
Text: …Unfolds across the entire nation!
Text: Beyblade Burst goes on sale on July 18!
Text: Manga series in Monthly Coro Coro Comics!!
Text: Manga by Hiro Morita
Text: Spring 2016 TV anime green-lit!
Text: Animation Production: OLM
Text: Comics & Original Story: Shogakukan
Text: Toys: Takara Tomy
Text: Presented by d-rights
Text: It's gonna burst the world with the most powerful tag team!
Text: Look forward to it!
Text: Beyblade Burst
Katsuhito Akiyama (Inazuma Eleven, Bubblegum Crisis, El-Hazard: The Wanderers) is directing the new anime with character designs by Toshiaki Ōhashi (chief animation director of Danbōru Senki W, Danbōru Senki Wars). Hideki Sonoda (Pokémon franchise, Machine Robo: Revenge of Chronos, Sonic Soldier Borgman) is in charge of the series scripts.
Beyblade Burst is the name of the third generation of Beyblade toys that Takara Tomy will launch in Japan in July. It features a Burst gimmick that lets players "destroy" their opponents' tops, the ability to view Beyblade records on the Bey Cloud System, and the evolution of Beyblade with miniature NFC chips.
Hiro Morita will launch the Beyblade Burst manga in Shogakukan's Monthly Coro Coro Comics magazine's August issue, which ships on July 15.
The original franchise expanded into over 880 countries and regions worldwide and shipped over 350 million toys, garnering over 365 billion yen (about US$2.97 billion) in sales since 1999. The second generation of the franchise debuted in 2008 and shipped 190 million toys worldwide for over 200 billion yen (US$1.6 billion) in sales.
Takara Tomy's Beyblade line of toys inspired a manga series in 2000-2003, and Viz Media released the 14-volume series in North America in 2004-2006. The manga inspired three television anime series (Beyblade, Beyblade: V-Force, and Beyblade G Revolution) between 2001-2003, and the Beyblade the Movie: Fierce Battle film in 2002. A spinoff manga, Metal Fight Beyblade, has inspired the Beyblade: Metal Fusion, Beyblade: Metal Masters, Beyblade: Metal Fury, and Beyblade: Shogun Steel television anime series, as well as the Metal Fight Beyblade VS Taiyō Shakunetsu no Shinryakusha film.
Nelvana has localized the seven television anime series for North America, and the company has also produced the BeyWheelz and BeyWarriors: BeyRaiderz Western-exclusive animated spinoff series.
Paramount Pictures has acquired rights to create a live-action film based on the franchise.
Sources: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web, animate.tv
Update: According to Kidscreen, New York-based Asatsu DK company Sunrights is handling the distribution on a new Beyblade animation project in Western markets. Thanks, ChibiGoku
