Anime News: Halo Legends Anime

^{Halo Legends Anime:} certainly one of the biggest San Diego's Comic Con announcements, was Microsoft statement of the development of the Halo Legends Anime mini-series, due to be released in 2010. The directors will be Shinji Aramaki, known for his excellent work in the Appleseed series, as well as Mamoru Oshii, that was involved in the production of the famous Ghost in the Shell trademark. Names of famous anime industries like Production I.G., Toei Animation, Studio 4ºC and Bones are mentioned. Distribution will be handled by Warner Bros.

From the oficial press release you can read:

"The opportunity to work with talents such as Shinji Aramaki, Mamoru Oshii and others from some of the greatest anime studios is a very rare opportunity for Microsoft," said Frank O'Connor, "Halo" franchise development director and provider of story and creative direction for 343 Industries. "We've seen the world through Master Chief's eyes, and we've experienced facets of the universe through a variety of literary prisms, but now we get to watch new tales unfold in really rich, visually dynamic ways. I think anime fans and 'Halo' fans alike are in for a real treat."

So we see Microsoft hiring some heavy hitters of the anime community. With both these authors, that are quite experienced in these sci-fi realms, the great story background that Halo has and all the budget and marketing machine that's behind the giant Microsoft, let's hope we can watch a great anime,with lots of action scenes (ala Appleseed) but grounded in a nice plot (GITS).

In my experience, if Microsoft gives the directors a white card to release their imagination and artistry, I think we can have here a great anime show. Sadly, what we often see in cases of games turning to animes (and vice-versa) is products of medium or even mediocre quality, because of all the restraints that the original authors and companies itself put on the people that really understand what works in an anime, and what does not.

Hope this is not the case and Halo Legends anime can please both anime public in general and fans of the Halo franchise!

The "Halo" series of novels and games is set hundreds of years into the future and entails mankind's fight against an alien race known as the Covenant.

Although many hero's arise through out the series, the "star" of Halo is without a doubt Master Chief, a Spartan super soldier that, in the Xbox 360 games, becomes the champion of humanity as he tries to stop the Covenant's plot to activate ancient relics known as Halo rings, that are bound to erase all known life on the Universe.