Monster TV-Anime starts in April!!

Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2004 5:54 am

Obviously from the latest Big Comic Original issue: the long rumored anime adaptation of Naoki Urasawa's masterpiece "Monster" will debut in April on NTV (as a follow-up to Gokusen?). I've yet to see the announcement with my own eyes (hint: Pluto Act 6 Wink

) but my source uses to be very reliable. I'll update this posting with staff details later. Damn, I can't wait to see Tenma kicking asses around in my homeland. ^^

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The staff data. No big surprises here, as all key members worked on "Master Keaton".

Director: Masayuki Kojima
(he directed "Master Keaton"; his recent works include "Hanada
Shounen-shi"/director; "Abenobashi Mahou Shotengai"/series composition; "DNA Sights 999.9 OVA"/director)

Series composition: Tatsuhiko Urahata
(the guy responsible for adapting the manga storyline into a master plot for the tv-series. I hope he goes ahead and eliminates a fair amount of those "side stories" Urasawa incorporated in the manga series, that way the main story might appear more tight and suspenseful. Previous works: "Petshop of Horrors"/screenplay; "Master Keaton"/series composition, screenplay; "DNA Sights 999.9 OVA"/screenplay; "Phantom Quest Corp."/screenplay; "Rail of the Stars"/screenplay)

Character design: Kitarou Kousaka
(became famous with "Nasu - The Summer of Andalusia". Kousaka also delivered the CD for "Master Keaton". Other than that he's known for being the animation director of some Ghiblis, "Sen to Chihiro", "Mononoke Hime" and "Whisper of the Heart")

Music: Kuniaki Haishima
("Master Keaton"'s componist. No shit! You might have heard his score in "Alien Nine", "RUN=DIM", "Gasaraki", "Spriggan" and "Neo Ranga")

Animation production: Madhouse
(never heard of)

Production: NTV, VAP, Shougakukan

More details are scheduled to be released in the next but one BCO issue (on sale March 5th). Make sure to check out this month's anime mags (Newtype, Animage etc.) as well, as I think that we might get some sneak-peaks on the series's visuals.

Street Musician Joined: 16 Feb 2003 Posts: 530

Mad House is a veteran production company that's worked on a large number of titles in the past, and they have a reputation for doing good work.
They worked on previous Urawasa titles (Yawara and Master Keaton), as well as titles like Hajime no Ippo, Boogiepop Phantom, Trigun and Perfect Blue.

In more recent years they've had their hands in creating titles like Texhnolyze, Hitsuji no Uta (Lament of the Lamb), X, ad the theatrical releases Tokyo Godfathers, Millenium Actress and Nasu (for all you Kuroda Iou fans).
Right now they're working on "currently-airing" titles like Gunslinger Girl, Gokusen and Paranoia Agent (ep1 of which I have, but have not yet watched all of. The opening sequence scared me considerably though).

In the spirit of fairness, I guess I'll also note that they were involved in notable stinkers such as Patlabor WXIII, the Ninja Scroll tv series and Mammoth Mammaries on the Moon, aka Divergence Eve.

Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2004 9:26 am

Nanashi, that remark of mine was actually a lame joke. I think pretty every anime watcher in this forum knows about Mad House. But thanks for the nice description. ^^

nanashi wrote:

Paranoia Agent (ep1 of which I have, but have not yet watched all of. The opening sequence scared me considerably though).

Hehe, I thought it was great (with all those laughing characters in front of the catastrophic scenes). I had to re-watch it several times because it was so, err, captive. Now if they'd do something similar for Monster... Wink

Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2004 10:04 am

So... what're the chances of a Mangascreener/Hawks collaborative fansub? =P

Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2004 11:34 am

sounds like the anime will be pretty awesome, we might have to get into fansubbing for this one... actually that would drain too many resources away from doing manga... so no... i'm sure it will have like 10 different fansubbers lined up for it, and probably get licensed before the first season ends (especially with those people working on it... and the fact that almost all studio madhouse stuff gets licensed in the US.)

Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2004 11:35 am

Don wrote:

So... what're the chances of a Mangascreener/Hawks collaborative fansub? =P

I've been wondering about that myself. NTV is free-tv, so raws won't be a problem. However, I don't think Stephen (or any other MS translator) wants to commit himself to translate oral dialogues. That said, I think it'll be fansubbed by at least one of the established fansubbing groups. The chance for this one to be pre-licensed by a US-company is not quite bad, but I doubt they'll announce it be4 the series begins to air. Either way, Monster fans will get their anime fix.

Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2004 3:03 pm

Actually, my only plans for the Monster anime were to create a thread in our forum picking apart each fansubbing group's work on it so that Monster fans who visit here know which one to get. I'm sure there will be multiple groups doing it. There's no need to get involved in fansubbing.

Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2004 4:10 pm

Kotonoha wrote:

I've yet to see the announcement with my own eyes (hint: Pluto Act 6 Wink

) but my source uses to be very reliable.

No need to wait for the scan. We now have an official announcement:
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20040205-00000019-spn-ent (in japanese of course)

According to the article "MONSTER" has sold 20 million copies in Japan. That'd put the series in the area of such best selling titles like "Berserk" and "Saint Seiya". Selling figures for "Yawara" (29 volumes) roughly add up to 32 million copies.

Oh, and it looks like Kousaka will only provide the rough character design, the end design will be done by Shigeru Fujita, one of the animation directors of "Metropolis". He also worked as a key animator on various movie projects (Patlabor 2, Card Captor Sakura: The Sealed Card, Memories: Stink Bomb). Just in case you're wondering, yes, he was in the "Master Keaton"-team as well, as animation director for the 2nd and 21st episode. ^^

Roadie Joined: 06 Aug 2003 Posts: 65 Location: CA

HOLY SIT!! AWESOME Shocked

we should be done w/ monster before april

Street Musician Joined: 23 Jul 2003 Posts: 302

stephen wrote:

Actually, my only plans for the Monster anime were to create a thread in our forum picking apart each fansubbing group's work on it so that Monster fans who visit here know which one to get. I'm sure there will be multiple groups doing it. There's no need to get involved in fansubbing.

That sounds like a thread nanashi would LOVE. Haha, can't wait.

Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2004 5:22 pm

Quote:

(for all you Kuroda Iou fans).

*raises hand*

Any guesses as to the time slot that Monster will be aired in (the link says that it hasn't been set yet)? If it's primetime, the chances of me being able to see it is close to nil, as I'll probably still be at work or on the train. And no, I've never heard of the VCR.

I don't expect to follow the anime, but I do have a passing interest in it.

Posted: Wed Feb 04, 2004 6:51 pm

Summer Soldier wrote:

Any guesses as to the time slot that Monster will be aired in (the link says that it hasn't been set yet)?

I've to take a guess here, but I'd bet on a midnight slot. "Master Keaton", the last anime series based on a manga by Urasawa was aired between 00:50 and 1:20 am (or 24:50~25:20 in case you prefer the japanese system) on NTV. In case I'm right and "Monster" will be a follow-up to Madhouse's current series "Gokusen" it'd be broadcasted in the same slot of MK.

Street Musician Joined: 23 Jul 2003 Posts: 302

Summer Soldier wrote:

And no, I've never heard of the VCR.

I guess "set top box" means nothing to you, then.

Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2004 5:34 pm

Tentative air date (subject to change): April 06th (00:50~)

Posted: Sat Feb 07, 2004 6:02 am

And here's the annoucenment's scan from Big Comic Original:
http://www.geocities.com/half_pain/index.htm

Note: I ain't done anything with the text. It was originally written in English. ^^;