This Week in Anime [Week 27, 2021]

Date Published: Thurs, 22nd July, 2021

As July prepares to enter its last week, it would seem that several anime studios are in the process of cooling down from the sheer tsunami of developments which have taken place in the past 2 weeks. The theme of this week seems to be dominated by several one-shot mangas under development from a variety of mangakas. As far as new anime are concerned, there's almost absolute radio silence... That said, let's dig into the Rapid Rundown and get you up to speed with what's made the news this week:

1. One-Shots On The Rise?!

2. Summer Ghost Coming To A Screen Near You!


1. One-Shots On The Rise?!
Might as well call it One Shot Season, folks; several unrelated mangakas have announced- within a very short space of time- that they're working on one-shot mangas for their respective storylines.  While these works are in different phases of production and release, it's worthy to note that this could herald the start of a trend to come as far as mangas are concerned. It may interest you to note that two of the three titles which we'll discuss here are being produced by authors behind the top performing mangas internationally. That said, let's see what's cookin'!

(i) Look Back!

Tatsuki Fujimoto, the mangaka behind the ever-popular Chainsaw Man, recently released a 140 page one-shot manga titled "Look Back". The plot, which is unrelated to his aforementioned work, has been described by Manga Plus as follows:
"Fujino is a fourth grader who draws a manga strip for the school newspaper. Her art makes her the star of the class, but one day she's told that Kyomoto, a student who refuses to come to school, would also like to submit a manga for the paper..."
Shonen Jump Plus has taken over the publishing role for the original Japanese script, but the English version can be found under Manga Plus and Viz, so go take a look at it when you get the chance! It's a rather fun read!

(ii) DC3!

Here's on that'll really catch you off guard: Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu, the brains behind The Promised Neverland, are working on a one-shot scheduled for release on August the 2nd. It'll be 49 pages long and feature a "sci-fi and action" themed story with a centre colour page. While the duo has been clear that the one-shot is not a continuation of the show (we know what you're thinking, don't worry), it will include some features reminiscent of the original show. As long as those features aren't "a blatant disregard for the plot" and "a rushed ending", sign us up for the one-shot folks! Off-handed joke aside, the duo has previously produced a one-shot last year which recieved great reviews, so we're genuinely excited for what's in store this time, regardless of our views on the anime (remember, the anime and manga did not follow the same direction)! In that context, we're eagerly looking forward to what's in store so we can finally see an unadulterated showcase of these mangakas' talents.

(iii) Boku no Hero Academia Tokubetsu Spinoff: Endeavor’s Mission!

Oh, this one's hot, and it's directly related to the storyline too! August the 2nd will be the date to look out for this upcoming 17 page one-shot featuring a training session where Todoroki, Bakugo and Deku will face off against Endeavor himself. Fans of the show will recognize this fitting in perfectly with the theme of the current season of the anime where the trio are in their internship at Endeavor Agency. The one-shot will finally give us some deep insight into the operations of the new top hero and how he works the way that he does. While the one-shot, by definition, isn't guaranteed to be canon material, we can still cross our fingers and hope that we see something of substance in the 17 pages of action-packed training!



2. Summer Ghost Coming To A Screen Near You!

Loundraw, the illustrator behind titles such as Vivy Fluorite Eye's Song and I Want to eat your Pancreas is about to make his directorial debut in "Summer Ghost", the trailer for which was released recently and confirmed its release date as the 12th of November. (Check it out here: https://youtu.be/gvCgklCAe7w) The entire project seems to have been formulated by Loundraw- including the inspiration itself- which stems from a solitary drawing made by Loundraw a while back. This has set the framework for the original character design, and Flat Studio is responsible for animating the movie. Guess who established the studio? That's right, Loundraw!

The synopsis of the movie, which appears to be a mix of slice of life and fantasy, as given by ANN, is as follows:
"Tomoya cannot live the life he envisioned for himself. Aoi cannot find her place in the world. Ryou has his once shining future suddenly pulled away. Each has their own reason for needing to meet the summer ghost. On a summer night when life and death cross paths, where will each of their emotions take them?"
We're definitely gonna keep a close eye on this one, folks. The plot's fresh and the director has experience in some of the biggest names out there; this is setting up to be one of the best anime movies of all time!


That's all we have for you this week, folks! Join in next week- same time, same place for all the latest updates on everything hot in the world of anime!!!