If you enjoyed the wacky 2021 original net anime comedy Vlad Love, we have some excellent news for you as the director Junji Nishimura and writer Mamoru Oshii are teaming up again to take on a tamer, darker tale.
The new series in question is a fantasy novel series titled Hikari no Ō (The Firecatcher Lord) created by Rieko Hinata and Akihiro Yamada. The series debuted in December 2018 and has four volumes out in Japan as of September 2020. In the story, the setting is a post-apocalyptic world where humanity lives in small pockets of protection in the aftermath of a massive war. Due to one weapon used during the war, what’s left of humanity can’t even go near open flames, or else they risk spontaneously combusting themselves. The stars of the story are two young children who don’t yet realize that their fates are intertwined: a young girl named Tōko who was rescued in the forbidden forest by a firecatcher and a young boy named Kōshi, who is looking after his younger sister after they lost their mother to poison in a factory.
Bringing this obviously brimming with happiness series to life will be studio Signal.MD producing the animation. As mentioned above, Junji Nishimura will serve as the director, and the legendary Mamoru Oshii will supervise and write the scripts.
Hearing that this is a darker story being written by Mamoru Oshii makes me stand up and take notice. Had these details been announced earlier, it easily would’ve found a place on my “reasons to be excited about 2022 list“! We’ve written about the immensely talented Oshii before on the J-List Blog and if you’re not already familiar with his body of work, I highly recommend you fix that post haste as his movies and series still stand up as powerful works for years to come.
Source: Anime News Network
