In less than nine years of existence, Wit Studio has ascended from its founding by an ex-Production I.G. employee and struggling to find work to standing at the forefront of the anime production community. The studio is responsible for creating a decorated line of heralded shows including Seraph of the End, The Ancient Magus’ Bride, Vinland Saga, Great Pretender, and of course, Attack on Titan.
Despite suffering glaring setbacks -- such as relinquishing the rights of completing Attack on Titan's final season to MAPPA -- that hasn’t stopped Wit from continuing to churn out new shows from its reputable workforce. But what series and films will the popular studio churn out for 2021? We've got you covered below.
Osama Ranking
Set to premiere in early October, Osama Ranking is the adaptation of Sōsuke Tōka’s web manga series which was first serialized in May 2017. It follows the story of Bocchi, a child prince whose position in the kingdom is jeered by the populace for his inherent Deaf disability, leading him to doubt his self-worth.
Bocchi, immersed in despondency, coincidentally encounters a mysterious shadow figure named Kage who empathizes with his struggle and subsequently befriends him. From there, the two embark on a coming-of-age adventure that spans incalculable distances and numerous people along the way.
Osama Ranking will be directed by Yousuke Hatta, who's worked for notable titles such as Season 1 of One Punch Man and Boogiepop and Others as Episode and Assistant Director. Arifumi Imai, the Action Animation Director for a share of Attack on Titan episodes across its four seasons, will serve as Hatta's assistant. Art Director Yūji Kaneko is an esteemed veteran of the background art trade that formalized the memorable setting shown in Kill la Kill and the equally imaginative and colorful drawings depicted in the Little Witch Academia movie.
Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song
In conjunction with the light novel writing duo of Re:Zero author Tappei Nagatsuki and Chaos;Child author Eiji Umehara, Wit presents an original sci-fi series called Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song. The series touches on an array of familiar tropes like time travel, the emotional impact music can bring to beleaguered people, the complicated collocation of mankind and androids in a technologically evolving society, and how that aspect could develop into a major disaster if proper amenities aren’t checked and balanced.
The show’s namesake, Vivy, is a one-of-a-kind autonomous humanoid AI who was created as a source of entertainment for a theme park, singing to roaming visitors from a makeshift stage. While on the job, Vivy is visited by Matsumoto, an AI decorated as a teddy bear that time traveled from 100 years into the future and forewarned the collapse of society as the former knew it. With that message, Matsumoto entrusts Vivy with the mission of altering the calamitous present timeline and saving the world. To do so, she must prevent particular events from happening to stop the frantic evolution of AIs turning hostile.
Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song currently airs every Saturday on Funimation and will run for 13 episodes.
Vampire in the Garden
The second of Wit’s original series for the year, Vampire in the Garden portrays a tempestuous world pitting humans and vampires against each other as two individuals move to mend deeply-rooted wounds between the two species. As the synopsis in the show’s Netflix page explains: “In the divided world of the future, two girls want to do the forbidden: the human wants to play the violin, and the vampire wants to see a wider world.”
Diving further into the plot, “there was [once] a world where vampires and humans lived together in ‘Paradise’...This is the story of a young girl, Momo, and the vampire queen, Fine, who traveled in search of "Paradise."
As part of the deal Netflix and Wit Studio made in October 2019, Vampire in the Garden is expected to premiere on the platform some this year, with the start date believed to be October. The project will be directed by Ryoutarou Makihara (previously worked on Hal, a 2013 Wit movie) and Hiroyuki Tanaka (Claymore, Hellsing Ultimate) as his assistant. Character Designer and Chief Animation Director Tetsuya Nishio previously worked on Boruto: Naruto the Movie under the same jobs.
