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Great Pretender razbliuto Sequel Anime Gets Theatrical Release in N. America
posted on by Alex Mateo
ANN's coverage of Anime NYC 2023 sponsored by Yen Press and Ize Press!
Production I.G announced at it and Wit Studio's panel during Anime NYC on Saturday that Great Pretender razbliuto, the new sequel to the original television anime series Great Pretender, will screen in theaters in North America in 2024. The anime's staff stated that it cannot yet reveal how much of the anime will screen in theaters, but it will reveal that information at a later date.
The visual above highlights the character Dorothy, a gifted swindler, who was featured near the end of the first series. She will become a main character. New characters include Yang K'un I (pictured above on bottom right) and Chiang (Jay, pictured above on top left). The first series' protagonist Makoto Edamura also appears in the anime.
The anime's staff streamed the sequel's world premiere at the panel.
The anime is slated for a 2024 release worldwide.
The anime will debut in Japan on DMM TV. Crunchyroll will stream the anime in over 200 countries outside of China, and Manga Productions holds the master license for the anime in 16 countries in the Middle East.
The anime features much of the staff from the first anime returning. Hiro Kaburagi returns as director, but is now also in charge of series composition alongside Taku Kishimoto, with previous head writer Ryota Kosawa now credited for script supervision. Mai Teshima is now the assistant director. Shōsuke Ishibashi replaces Kyoji Asano as chief animation director, joining returning Hirotaka Katō in the chief animation director credits. Keita Shimizu is now no longer credited for design, while Akiyo Okuda and Shōsuke Ishibashi remain credited. Yumiko Sudou is now credited as art director alongside returning art director Yūsuke Takeda.
Netflix began streaming the anime outside of Japan in August 2020. Netflix streamed the anime exclusively worldwide, but released it in Japan ahead of the rest of the world.
Anime Limited is releasing the anime on home video in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland. The company describes the story:
Self-styled “Japan's greatest swindler” Makoto Edamura is mainly targeting elder people and occasional foreign travellers. But when he tries to scam an apparently clueless French tourist in Tokyo, he can't possibly imagine that what looked like just another ordinary job is going to take him all the way to Los Angeles, tied upside-down on the famous Hollywood sign... And he is yet to find out what fate awaits him!
Hiro Kaburagi x Yoshiyuki Sadamoto x Ryota Kosawa x Wit Studio - A high-end animated entertainment created by the best team of the century -!
Hiro Kaburagi (Hozuki's Coolheadedness, My Little Monster, 91 Days) directed the series at Wit Studio. Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (Evangelion, FLCL) designed the characters. Ryota Kosawa (Parasyte live-action film, Always: Sunset on Third Street live-action film series) wrote the scripts, and Yutaka Yamada (Tokyo Ghoul anime franchise, Vinland Saga) composed the music. Maiko Okada was the producer.
Yamada composed the first opening theme song "G.P." The late Queen singer Freddie Mercury's cover of The Platters song "The Great Pretender" was the anime's first ending theme song. This was Japan's first television anime to feature a song by Mercury as its theme.
Artist Daichi Marui launched a manga adaptation of the anime on Mag Garden's Mag Comi website and LINE Manga service in June 2020, but the manga went on hiatus in September 2020 due to Marui's poor health.
Source: Production I.G and Wit Studio's Great Pretendet panel (Alex Mateo)
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