Blue Dragon (TV series)

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.

Akira Toriyama, character designer for the Blue Dragon video game, said that Studio Pierrot approached him about an anime adaptation in February 2006. In his own words, he said:

I knew that [Hironobu] Sakaguchi had been working on assembling staff to produce a game, although at the time Blue Dragon hadn't yet been formally announced. According to the materials, it was to be a fantasy world like Lord of the Rings, with a detailed world view and story. This may be my final anime, I'm a little worried (about it). There's incredible pressure, but at the same time, there's a sense of accomplishment – that it's worth doing. Blue Dragon will be a masterpiece, not simply because I'm working hard on it, but because the staff is expecting nothing less.[2]

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.[3] 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.[4] It aired on TV Tokyo, and ran for 51 episodes.[5]

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.[6]

On April 16, 2007, Viz Media announced that it had licensed the anime for release in North America and Europe.[7] 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.[8] 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 had the first 24 episodes released on DVD (exclusively in the UK) over three 2 disc DVD sets with the release date of further DVD sets cancelled due to lack of sales. 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.[9] At Otakon, Viz Media representative Amy Mar said that if the streaming numbers are good, they might release the uncut episodes on physical media.[10] The fully uncut Season 1 is findable as a dub on the Italian copies of the DVD.

• Blue Dragon (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia