Disney+ expands Kodansha partnership with 5 new projects

A big announcement from Disney+ revealed that five new anime projects will be planned for the streamer – some coming very soon.

This week saw some big anime moves from Disney+ announcements and the ongoing partnership with Kondansha. At this year’s Walt Disney Company’s annual content showcase in Singapore, it was revealed that the second season of the hit anime Tokyo Revengers would begin streaming exclusively on Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar in January 2023. Later that day, they also dropped bonus news that five new projects were in the works for next year: three original projects, a reboot, and an adaptation.

The beginning of the partnership between the massive streamer and the amazing anime studio has given birth to the exclusive launch of the second season of Tokyo Revengers. The new season will be called the “Christmas Showdown arc”. This was interesting to hear when Crunchyroll simulcasted its first season. While this was great news to hear on its own, it was even better to find out that many more projects are in the works for Disney+ anime shows coming in 2023 – and they’re from popular animation studios.

The first of the five projects was called Phoenix: Eden17, which will be a brand new adaptation of Osamu Tezuka’s classic manga. The manga was essentially a drama, sci-fi fantasy set during an age of space colonization. Studio 4℃ (Fortune Favors Lady Nikuko) will be producing the anime and has even set its first key visual and trailer.

In the same genre of sci-fi elements, Syndualitisy’s second teaser trailer was dropped. It was revealed that Eight Bit studio would be animating the show, as they have found recent success with both Bluelock and That time I was reincarnated as a slime. Some major voice actors have already been announced, such as Yui Ishikawa (Mikasa Ackerman i Attack on Titan) and Aoi Koga (Kaguya Shinomiya i Kaguya-sama: Love is war).

Speaking of love, Disney+ will be adding some spicy rom-com to the anime slate. An anime adaptation for Murai no Koi (English translation: Murai in Love) will join the anime club on the streamer, teased with an image taken from the manga. So far, no further details have been included, such as staff, cast or release date. It already had a live-action TV series that aired in Japan from April to May 2022, with eight episodes.

Following the news that Sunghoo Park (Jujutsu Kaisen, God of High School) had left Studio MAPPA to open his own studio, E&H Production, it was announced that the studio will work on a project temporarily called Project BULLET/BULLET. The show has been expected to join the anime roster on Disney+, revealing a key visual — but with no details on staff, cast or release date. A fun fact about this project was that Park has reportedly been working on this for ten years.

The last of the five new projects to hit Disney+ was Dragons of Wonderhatch. It will be a fantasy series that is said to be partly live-action and partly animated. Production IG (Fena: Pirate Princess, Aoashi) has been announced as the animation studio to bring this original project to life. The story will be about Nagi, a high school girl living in the real world, and Thyme, a boy living in the world of “Dragon Riders” who form close bonds with mythical creatures. And most likely their paths will intertwine for better or for worse, leading to some wild adventures.

Some of the key hires were announced, which included the director of the live-action adaptation of Tokyo GhoulKentaro Hagiwara; One Piece: Stampede‘s Takashi Ootsuka as animation director; and the mangaka for The Promised Neverland who will serve as the show’s original character designer and illustrator. The series is scheduled to be released sometime in winter 2023. With Disney+’s success in getting the exclusive airing of Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War arc, and many more anime series to join, it seems that the streamer looks to enter the growing genre against Crunchyroll, Netflix and HiDive.