Is it my birthday, and no one reminded me?! Because one of my greatest anime wishes just came true!
On Friday, June 26th, the prologue for the new manga series Pale Blue Dot Battle Athletes Daiundōkai ReSTART! went live on the Japanese manga site Comic Ruelle & Comic Jardin. Created by a new author, Rui Takato, the final page of the prologue revealed that the adorable yet almost entirely forgotten anime series Battle Athletes Victory is returning to the world of anime, over twenty years after the original television run ended! No details were revealed regarding cast or crew, but you can be certain that we will keep you updated on developments as they are announced.
Taking place in the distant future, the story of this new adaptation will feature an entirely new cast of characters who are not descended from any of the original franchise characters. In the original series, the story followed athletes from all around the solar system who meet at the University Satellite in order to compete to become the next “Cosmic Beauty.”
If you’ve never heard of the Battle Athletes franchise (and I wouldn’t blame you if you hadn’t), let’s take a trip down memory lane together…
First appearing as a video game in Japan towards the end of 1996, the game first received a four-volume manga adaptation written by Yuki Nakano from March 1997 to November 1998, before also receiving two anime adaptations a few months later. The first to be released was a six-episode OVA series simply titled Battle Athletes, which was released from May 1997 to June 1998. What makes this franchise extra interesting is the fact that, while the OVA series was being released, a brand new television adaptation which completely revamped the story was broadcast starting in October 1997. Both the OVA and television series were released in North America by Geneon, starting in 1998.
I was a huge fan of the Battle Athletes Victory series way back in the day and my copies of both the OVA and television adaptations are personal treasures in my home video library, so this news excites me in a way that I haven’t felt in a very long time.
Source: Anime News Network
