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Baku Yumemakura's Garoden Novels Get Netflix Anime on May 23

Netflix Japan revealed on Monday a trailer to announce the anime adaptation of Baku Yumemakura's Garōden novels titled Garouden: The Way of the Lone Wolf, which will premiere worldwide on the streaming service on May 23. Netflix Anime's YouTube channel is also streaming the anime's trailer with English subtitles.

The anime stars:

• Ryōta Takeuchi as Jūzō Fujimaki
• Tetsu Inada as Bunshichi Tanba
• Shunsuke Takeuchi as Tsutomu Himekawa
• Rintarō Nishi as Shōzan Matsuo
• Tesshō Genda as Sōichirō Izumi
• Aya Endō as Saeko Izumi
• Ryōta Suzuki as Ryōji Kubo
• Hidenobu Kiuchi as Fumihito Tamon
• Junya Enoki as Tomoyuki Hikita
• Yoshimasa Hosoya as Nyoze Carlos Nagato
• Junichi Suwabe as Ichirō Shino
• Kenjiro Tsuda as Oleg Zaytsev
• Shirō Saitō as Ranbō
• Maki Izawa as Gunsō (Sergeant)
• Yume Miyamoto as Chisaki Shino
• Yūko Kaida as Miyuki Koiso

Atsushi Ikariya (Sabikui Bisco, Special Kid Factory) is directing the anime at NAZ. Daisuke Mataga (Sabikui Bisco, Special Kid Factory) is the assistant director, and Sadayuki Murai (Sabikui Bisco, Natsume's Book of Friends) is in charge of series scripts. Ikariya is also designing the characters with Momoko Kawai (Rhapsody).

Other staff are:

• Chief Animation Directors: Atsushi Ikariya, Ai Asari, Momoko Kawai
• Compositing Director of Photography: Tsubasa Takagi
• Art Setting: Yoshihiro Sono
• 3DCG Director: Kunihiko Mita
• Sound Director: Kisuke Koizumi
• Sound Editor: Masatoshi Katsumata
• Color Design: Emiko Okada
• Editing: Yoshiaki Kimura
• Main Animators: Yutaka Matsubara, Hitomi Takechi
• Video Director: Yi Hui Zhang
• Animation Producer: Yasuo Suda
• Music: Takeshi Ueda

Takeshi Ueda, as his music project AA=, performs the opening theme song "FIGHT & PRIDE," and the ending theme song "CRY BOY."

Netflix describes the anime's story:

On the run from a past crime, Juzo Fujimaki is blackmailed into joining an illicit tournament and has to face top martial artists in deadly match-ups.

Yumemakura's Garōden novels' first volume published in 1985, and the 13th volume published in 2003. The novels then changed its title to Shin Garouden with its first volume in 2006. The fifth and latest volume of the Shin Garouden novels published in 2020.

Yumemakura and Keisuke Itagaki's (Baki) manga adaptation of the novels first serialized in Gentosha's Comic Birz magazine from 1996 to 1999. It was also serialized in Kodansha's Young Magazine Uppers magazine from 1999-2004, in Kodansha's Evening magazine from 2005-2010, and it briefly serialized in Akita Shoten's Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine from March to April 2011.

Yumemakura and Itagaki published the Garōden prequel manga titled Garouden Boy in Kodansha's Weekly Shōnen Magazine in 2004. Akita Shoten published two compiled book volumes of the manga in 2012.

Yumemakura and Masami Nobe also launched another prequel manga titled Shin Garouden in Akita Publishing's Weekly Shōnen Champion magazine in 2013. The series ended in 2014.

Yumemakura is a prolific writer, whose works have been adapted into manga, anime, and live-action. These works include Kurozuka, Onmyoji, Amon Saga, Psycho Diver: Soul Siren, and Majyugari, among others. Aside from Garōden, Yumemakura also wrote the The Summit of the Gods manga.

The anime adaptation of Yumemakura's Onmyoji novels premiered on Netflix on November 28. Yumemakura first wrote the franchise as a series of short stories starting in 1986. He then wrote three full-length novels for the franchise, in 2000-2008. The book series also includes several picture books.

The novels inspired the Onmyoji and Onmyoji II live-action films in 2001 and 2003. Reiko Okano drew a 13-volume manga adaptation of the series starting in 1994. The books have also inspired several live-action series in Japan. The Onmyoji 0 live-action film opened in Japan on Friday.

Source: Netflix Anime's YouTube channel and Netflix Japan's X/Twitter account