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2017 Duel Masters Anime, Manga Series With New Protagonist Detailed
posted on by Karen Ressler
The Duel Masters staff revealed information on the next installments in the manga and anime franchise at an event on Friday. The new manga (pictured right) will begin in the next issue of Shogakukan's Coro Coro Comics on February 15, and the new anime will premiere in April. Both will simply be titled Duel Masters.
The website began streaming a trailer for the new series last month. The video introduces the new protagonist, Joe Kirifuda, [Highlight white text to read spoilers] the son of the previous protagonist Katta Kirifuda. It also features an advertisement for the currently airing Duel Masters VSRF anime, where Joe appears at a younger age.
Yumiko Kobayashi, who played both of the previous Duel Masters protagonists, is voicing Joe. Setsuji Satoh (Duel Masters VS R's Naretarō Mina) will play Decky, Joe's companion who holds a secret power, and Toshiyuki Toyonaga (Digimon Universe: Appli Monsters' Rei Katsura) will play Kira, Joe's rival and best friend.
In the new series' story, the balance of the Creature World is starting to crumble. A talking deck case named Decky comes to the human world to search for a Duel Master to preserve equilibrium. There he sees Joe's power to create creatures.
Duel Masters VSRF (Duel Masters Versus Revolution Final) premiered in Japan in April 2016. The protagonist Katta Kirifuda, the younger brother of the previous franchise lead Shōbu Kirifuda, has been starring in the various television anime since 2011's Duel Masters Victory. His name is pronounced the same way as the Japanese phrase for "the trump card won the game."
In Japan, Duel Masters has already spawned 13 television anime series since 1999: the first Duel Masters anime, Duel Masters Charge, Shinseiki Duel Masters Flash, Zero Duel Masters, Duel Masters Zero, Duel Masters Cross, Duel Masters Cross Shock, Duel Masters Victory, Duel Masters Victory V, Duel Masters Victory V3, Duel Masters VS (Duel Masters Versus), Duel Masters VS R (Duel Masters Versus Revolution), and Duel Masters VSRF.
The Cartoon Network ran the first anime series in the United States, but none of the later anime came to North America. Hasbro confirmed in 2012 that it has no future plans to release the Japanese Duel Masters manga and anime in the United States.
