Blue Dragon (anime)

Blue Dragon
Some featured characters in the Blue Dragon anime. From left to right: Bouquet, Kluke, and Zola.
ブルードラゴン
(Burū Doragon)
Genre Adventure, fantasy[1]
Anime television series
Directed by Yukihiro Matsushita
Written by Akatsuki Yamatoya
Music by Megumi Oohashi
Nobuo Uematsu
Studio Studio Pierrot
Licensed by
Original network TV Tokyo
English network
Original run April 7, 2007 – March 29, 2008
Episodes 51
Anime television series
Blue Dragon: Trials of the Seven Shadows
Directed by Yukihiro Matsushita
Written by Akatsuki Yamatoya
Music by Megumi Oohashi
Nobuo Uematsu
Studio Studio Pierrot
Licensed by
Viz Media
Manga Entertainment
Original network TV Tokyo
English network
Original run April 5, 2008 – March 28, 2009
Episodes 51

Blue Dragon (ブルードラゴン, Burū Doragon) is an anime adaptation of the Blue Dragon video game series.

Plot

As Shu's village was being attacked by an unknown enemy, he and his friends, Jiro and Kluke decide to defend their home. They soon meet Zola and receive the powers of Shadow, an ability that lets them transform their shadow into a powerful monster. Shu receives one of the most powerful monsters, Blue Dragon, and they all set out to defeat their enemy.

Media

Manga

On November 12, 2006, Shueisha announced that a manga adaptation of Blue Dragon would be produced. Known as Blue Dragon ST (ブルードラゴン シークレットトリック, Burū Doragon Shīkuretto Torikku, "Blue Dragon: Secret Trick"), the manga was done by Ami Shibata and premiered in Monthly Shōnen Jump in January 2007. The production was ended in July 2007 with the magazine's cancellation.

A second manga was later produced under the name Blue Dragon Ral Ω Grad, also known as Ral Grad. This adaptation was done by Tsuneo Takano and Takeshi Obata, the illustrator of Death Note. Ral Grad began serialization in issue 1, 2007 of Weekly Shōnen Jump.[2] Viz Media later began releasing the manga as simply "Ral Grad" in February 2008.[3]

Anime

An anime adaptation directed by Yukihiro Matsushita, written by Akatsuki Yamatoya, animated by Studio Pierrot and co-produced by SKY Perfect Wellthink, TV Tokyo and Pierrot was announced in November 2006.[4] The anime began airing April 7, 2007, featuring a different vocal cast than that used for the game. It also ignored most of the game's plot.[5] It aired on TV Tokyo, and ran for 51 episodes.[6]

A second season of Blue Dragon—Blue Dragon: Trials of the Seven Shadows (BLUE DRAGON 天界の七竜, Burū Doragon: Tenkai no Shichiryū)—premiered on TV Tokyo on April 5, 2008.[7]

On April 16, 2007, Viz Media announced that it had licensed the anime for release in North America and Europe.[8] An edited English language dub of the series premiered in the United States on Cartoon Network, on April 5, 2008. It also aired on Cartoon Network's Toonami Jetstream service until Jetstream was cancelled on January 30, 2009.[9] Since then it has been discovered that Viz Media did make an uncut version of the Blue Dragon anime in English. This uncut version released by Manga Entertainment has had the first 24 episodes released on DVD (so far exclusively in the UK) over three 2 disc DVD sets with the release date of the next DVD set to be announced. These uncut episodes unlike the US DVD releases fully restores the original Japanese opening and closing, all edited scenes from the Cartoon Network version are restored including the original music, as well as having the option to view the series in Japanese with English subtitles. On July 22, 2011, Viz Media started streaming Blue Dragon episodes on VizAnime and Hulu.[10] At Otakon, Viz Media representative Amy Mar said that if the streaming numbers are good, they might release the uncut episodes on physical media.[11] The fully uncut Season 1 is findable as a dub on the Italian copies of the DVD.

References

  1. ↑ "The Official Website for Blue Dragon". Viz Media. Retrieved May 31, 2018.
  2. ↑ Simmons, Alex (November 20, 2006), Blue Dragon Manga Announced, IGN, retrieved November 28, 2006
  3. ↑ Ral & Grad Volume 1, Simon & Schuster, retrieved June 15, 2008
  4. ↑ Blue Dragon Anime Series Coming?, AnimeNation, November 30, 2006, archived from the original on August 30, 2008, retrieved April 13, 2009
  5. ↑ VIZ Media Acquires Blue Dragon Anime, Anime News Network, April 16, 2007, retrieved April 13, 2009
  6. ↑ あにてれ：BLUE DRAGON 天界の七竜 (in Japanese), TV Tokyo, retrieved April 27, 2009
  7. ↑ Viz Media Licenses Blue Dragon TCG to Konami Digital Entertainment, Anime News Network, June 18, 2008, retrieved April 13, 2009
  8. ↑ VIZ Media Named Master Licensor for Blue Dragon Anime Series, Anime News Network, April 16, 2007, retrieved July 12, 2007
  9. ↑ And Now We're Done..., Toonami Infolink, January 31, 2009, retrieved May 17, 2009
  10. ↑ Santos, Carlo (July 22, 2011). "Viz Media Industry Panel – San Diego Comic-Con 2011 – Anime News Network". Anime News Network. Retrieved 4 May 2015.
  11. ↑ Manry, Gia (July 31, 2011). "Viz Media Industry Panel". Anime News Network.
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