Announced as getting the green light earlier this week, the official site for the new Ushio & Tora series has launched and that means we’ve got our first key visual for the property as it highlights our two lead characters. The anime adaptation is planned for a summer debut. The series is going to be directed by Satoshi Nishimura with animation done by MAPPA and studio Voln. They’ll be working off of scripts by Toshiki Inoue and character designs by Tomoko Mori.
Ushio & Tora comes from the manga by Kazuhiro Fujita, which had an anime OVA adaptation was done back in the early 90′s that ADV Films licensed and released years ago on VHS and DVD. The manga originally ran for 33 volumes between 1990 and 1996 and Fujita has done a couple of little things with it since there, largely for charity.
Plot concept: Ushio thinks that his father’s talk of an ancient ancestor impaling a demon on a temple altar stone with the legendary Beast Spear is nuts, but when he finds the monster in his own basement, Ushio has to take another look at the family legend! To save his friends and family from the invading spirits, Ushio is forced to release Tora from his captivity. But will the creature prove to be worse than the curse?