We learned back in March that the Drifters manga is getting an anime adaptation and then we got a camera view of it during the Comic Market 88 event. Now, NBC Universal Japan has finally brought it out online in a clean high definition form for fans to check out and salivate over. While the animation studio itself is still an unknown, we now know that Kenichi Suzuki is set to direct it based on the script and composition by Hideyuki Kurata and Yousuke Kuroda. Ryouji Nakamori is on board as the character designer and chief animation director.
Fans of Hellsing creator Kouta Hirano are used to the slow pace of his works in terms of getting released, and that means there’s not a lot of material to be made into anime form. Drifters began in 2011 and has four volumes out as of last fall, three of which have seen release in North America through Dark Horse Comics. The anime project is unspecified at the moment in regards to what kind it is, since there’s only so much material to make a series out of, but the potential for another OVA series or a theatrical film is definitely in the realm of possibility.
Check out John’s review of the first volume here
Plot concept: Shimazu Toyohisa, whilst involved at the Battle of Sekigahara, manages to mortally wound Ii Naomasa, but is critically wounded in the process. As he walks from the field broken and bleeding, Toyohisa finds himself transported to a corridor of doors, where a bespectacled man at a desk waits for him. This man, Murasaki, sends Toyohisa into the nearest door where he wakes up in another world. There, Toyohisa meets other great warriors like him who have been transported as well, to be part of a group known as “Drifters.”
