As we’ve seen a good bit lately, old anime series in Japan continue to be mined for a third or fourth turn at life and the latest one to come is Mashin Eiyuden Wataru. The last one we saw for this project was with the April 10th, 2020 debut under the subheading of Seven-Souled Ryujinmaru. The show had a rough run like a lot of them at that time because of the start of the pandemic and it ended up as a summer 2020 show that finished its run.
Back in January 2024, we learned that one was in the works with Mashin Sozoden Wataru with a winter 2025 premiere. The show saw a January 12th, 2025 premiere date and Bandai Namco Filmworks is handling the Japanese home video release for it. They’ve set an interesting schedule for it where there will be three Blu-ray sets that are limited editions and six standard edition DVD releases.
– v2 (eps 9 – 16): August 27, 2025
– v3 (eps 17 – 24): October 29, 2025
– v2: July 30
– v3: August 27
– v4: September 24
– v5: October 29
– v6: November 26
The series features the opening song “POP UP!” by lol and the ending song “Pocket” by FANTASTICS from EXILE TRIBE.
The series has Yumi Kamakura as the director working from the series composition by Yoichi Kato. Mayuko Nakano and Yoshinori Yumoto are handling the character designs with Bandai Namco Pictures handling the animation production.
The Japanese cast is set with Mutsumi Tamura as Wataru Hoshibe, Atsumi Tanezaki as Kakeru Amabe and Uzume, Katsuyuki Konishi as Ofurain, Megu Umezawa as Maro, Rie Kugimiya as Ryunryun, and Tomokazu Sugita as Ryūjinmaru.
The original series saw a box set release back in 2013 which encompasses the first series from 1988 that ran for 45 episodes and 2 OVAs, retailed at 38,850 yen. The Sunrise series was directed by Shuji Iuchi who handled this and the two additional series, the second of which ran for 46 episodes and the third that ran for 51 episodes in 1990 and 1997 respectively.
Check out the official site and Twitter.
Plot concept: The story is about a 9-year-old boy named Wataru Ikusabe who is magically transported to a magical realm of the gods called Soukaizan, which he is supposed to save from an evil, demonic ruler.
