If you thought a bestselling manga, a hugely popular anime, a theme park exhibit, an augmented reality app, a Spider-Man crossover, a Nintendo game, six manga spinoffs, two light novels, an original animated program, and two live-action movies were enough, you underestimated just how much Japan’s public is clamoring for more Attack on Titan.
The, ahem, colossal franchise will be releasing not one, but two new spinoff series—one a short live-action series based on the films, and one new anime.
Attack on Titan: Junior High—yes, you read that correctly—will begin airing on Japanese network MBS in October. The anime is based on a spinoff parody manga by Saki Nakagawa (not Attack on Titan‘s creator Hajime Isayama). And there’s already a teaser, featuring what looks like an adorable tween-level Eren and chibi versions of the Survey Corps.
The series is essentially what we fanfic writers would call a junior high school AU (Alternate Universe)—a faithful retelling of the original series using the original characters, taking place in a completely new setting.
The two live-action films, the first of which opens tomorrow in Japan, have also spawned their own TV spinoff. Attack on Titan: Counterattack’s Beacon follows the storyline of popular side character Hanji—one of the few characters to be retained from the original story. The series will air in three 30-minute installments on streaming channel dTV. The episodes will retain five members of the film cast including Satomi Ishihara as Hanji and will focus on side plot that got left out of the two films, namely involving Hanji’s research into the mystery of the titans and the backstory behind the development of the survey corp’s famous rope-maneuvering fighting gear.
Oh, yeah, and there’s a trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7NqmcHUt1w
You can watch for Counterattack’s Beacon to begin streaming Aug. 15, as a supplement to both live-action films. The first of the films opens tomorrow in Japan, followed by the second on Sept. 19.
All this and we’re still waiting on season 2 of the anime to air.
Screengrab via Kyojinchu.tv
