Ask John: What Dark and Violent Anime will be Coming this Year?

Question:
I was wondering if there were any more darker action oriented anime on the horizon for this year such as Hellsing or Berserk.

Answer:
The dark, mature and violent anime along the lines of Hellsing and Berserk are always popular among especially American anime fans, but these types of shows are usually not in high demand in Japan and therefore usually only appear once or twice a year. At this point, I’m not aware of any announced or scheduled upcoming anime that quite fit the bill you’re looking for. However, the Japanese TV broadcast year has four seasons, beginning in January, April, July and October. Considering that it’s still early in January, there’s still plenty of time for new anime to be announced for broadcast later this year.

There are a few titles on the horizon that don’t quite match the style of shows like Hellsing & Berserk but may nevertheless still pique your interest. I can’t exactly predict quite how gothic or bleak any of these shows will be, but based on reputation and early promotional images, all of these titles may have some potential.

Yasuomi Umetsu’s Mezzo TV series, a follow-up to the two episode Mezzo Forte adult anime OAV series, is currently airing on Japanese television. The action in the first episode alone is enough to make any action anime lover weep for joy. And there should be plenty more to love from the show as it continues.

Gonzo Digimation, the same studio that produced Hellsing, will debut Bakuretsu Tenshi later this year. The show’s dark color scheme, Final Fantasy X-2 inspired costume design, and the involvement of animator Koichi Ohata (Gunbuster, M.D, Geist, Genocyber) all seem to suggest that this will be 2004’s second brilliant girls with guns show.

Trading guns for melee martial arts is the upcoming Tenjoh Tenge anime TV series adaptation of the popular manga by Oh! Great. Based on its source material, “TenTen” has tremendous potential, but since no production art or promotional illustrations have been revealed yet, there’s nothing for fans to make predictions about yet besides the original manga source.

Tatsunoko Studios’ 40th anniversary commemorative project will be an OAV series titled Karas (The Crow). At least its coming soon logo gives an impression of dark and brooding violent action.

The upcoming Teizokurei Daydream OAV series tells the story of a young woman who works as a professional dominatrix and doubles as a freelance necromancer. Her prediliction for public nudity and her supernatural inclination suggest that this will be a literally dark and mature series.

The official Japanese website for Gantz seems to suggest a potential anime adaptation for this dark and violent sci-fi drama. But at this point nothing has been announced nor confirmed, so an anime adaptation is only speculation and rumor.

Likewise, presently little more than a rumor is the Gonzo produced “first samurai blaxploitation” anime film Afro Samurai. Details are very hush-hush, and in fact the official Japanese site doesn’t even contain any reference to Gonzo Studios. But based on the images available from the site, if this film concept ever makes it past the early pre-production stage it’s presently in, it should definitely be something revolutionary.