The upcoming Drifters anime project is already picked up by Funimation and there’s a good level of excitement over the property ahead of its fall debut. That debut has now recently got a bit clearer as the official social media side in Japan has revealed an October 7th, 2016 premiere on Tokyo MX. With the broadcast coming up soon, NBC Universal Japan has now dropped a new TV spot for it that reveals the ending theme song “Vermillion” that’s being performed by Maon Kurosaki..
Kenichi Suzuki is directing 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. Music is set to be handled by Yasushi Ishii and Hayato Matsuo.
The announced cast includes Yuichi Nakamura as Shimazu Toyohisa, Naoya Uchida as Oda Nobunaga, Mitsuki Saiga as Nasu no Yoichi, Takahiro Sakurai as Abe no Haruakira, Shiho Kokido as Olmine, Masakazu Nishida as Kafeto, Junko Minagawa as Jeanne d’Arc, Kenji Nomura as Gilles de Rais, Junko Kitanishi as Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova, Masahiko Tanaka as Grigori Rasputin, Hiroki Yasumoto as Toshizou Hijikata, Mitsuru Miyamoto as Murasaki, Taiten Kusunoki as The Black King, Yutaka Aoyama as Hannibal Barca, Hiroshi Yanaka as Scipio Africanus, Kanae Itou as Easy, Junji Majima as Shara, Tomoko Tsuzuki as Mark and Sayori Ishizuka as Marsha.
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.
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.”
