Square Enix is teaming up with Warner Bros. Japan to release Legend of Mana: The Teardrop Crystal - a new television anime based on Square Enix's Legend of Mana action RPG video game.
The show will air at some point in 2022. As part of this announcement, Square Enix and WB have released the key visual for the show and a teaser trailer. Here's the story outline, via Gematsu:
"Shiloh, a young boy who lives near the town of Domina, begins to hear a mysterious voice in his dreams. The voice told him he had a mission… One day, Shiloh meets two people known as “Jumi.” The Shumi are a race of people targeted—and many killed—for the jewel buried in their chests. Recently, mysterious jewel thieves have been attacking Jumi all over the world. And so Shiloh sets out on an adventure concerning the jewels of the Jumi!"
This special "anime project" is part of the Mana (Seiken Densetsu) series' continued 30th anniversary celebrations. Legend of Mana was originally released on the PlayStation in 1999 and recently got a remaster in 2021 for Nintendo Switch and multiple other platforms.
If we hear about a release of this anime project outside of the US, we'll let you know.
What are your first impressions of the above teaser trailer? Would you be interested in watching something like this? Leave a comment down below.
[source gematsu.com]
Comments (16)
I'll check it out. Hopefully it's up there in quality with Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai.
The question is how will this air internationally?
Warner Bros. also produced JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (and its spinoff Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan) and Netflix streams them.
Is it possible for this show to air on Adult Swim? Will it also be on HBO Max? Or will it be like JoJo and go to Netflix?
I love the mana series so the more mana the better. Wondering how that ffix anime turns out too.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaabs!
@Hydra_Spectre Netflix or Crunchyroll
Will there be a dub? I would love to watch this but I have a bit of problems with reading anything with subtitles.
Can I just say this is such an odd adaptation pick. The game is so non-linear and side-quest reliant to the point that each player's playthrough is almost never the same unless they follow a guide to do everything (even then there are multiple endings to side-quests). Unless this adaptation will be 100 episodes long it will either be really oddly paced or just missing a lot of the charm of the games.
Not sure what Square Enix was thinking with this one, but we'll see if I'm wrong.
Why does the soundtrack sound like Balan Wonderworld
Might check it out but honestly more interested in the Nier adaptation.
I really love the mainline Mana series so I wish this was based off of one of those. But, based off one of the spin-off games is cool too. The art designs look good.
Woot the song is in swedish, thats weird!
@Xenjamin The anime trailer used the same song in the original game, too. I wouldn't have it any other way, even if I don't understand Swedish lol
@BOOEY cool! I havent played this one so never knew.
If WB is handling this, my ideal scenario would be that the series airs on both Cartoon Network and Adult Swim.
Cartoon Network would get a slightly censored TV-PG version (Cartoon Network is the only kids' network willing to make TV-PG shows like Adventure Time, Regular Show, and Teen Titans Go) while it would air later on Adult Swim with a completely uncensored TV-14 version.
Depending on how the series turns out, maybe censorship is not necessary to get a TV-PG rating and it could air uncut on both Cartoon Network and Adult Swim timeslots.
@Wexter It's an adaptation specifically of the Jumi Arc. Hence the title "Teardrop Crystal" Which itself is the same name as the penultimate quest of said arc.
The Jumi Arc in particular is considered one of the best of the three major questlines (I prefer dragon but even I can admit it has more developed emotional impact) and as with the other two arcs, the plot relevant quests are extremely linear and nearly exclusively self contained.
I.e; Rubens, Esmeralda, Pearl, Elazul, Sandra, Pearl and Diana are all limited to this arc.
Covering any individual arc was a good call instead of trying to cobble together all three arcs + Tree of mana into one, likely short, anime.
@Ricrail That makes a lot more sense! I was just cut off guard by the title! Video game anime adaptations have been a bit questionable so I still have my fingers crossed!
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