Today, during a panel at Anime Expo Lite, Square Enix officially revealed an anime series based on the popular JRPG The World Ends With You.
The announcement was teased last week, and today it was announced that the anime will be aired worldwide in 2021
It’s directed by Kazuya Ichikawa, who previously worked on Shadow Skill and the Monster Strike series. You can see the official key artwork above, providing a hint of the visual style. The anime is created in 3D CG.
We learn that the team has always oped that the game would be made into an anime.
The main voice cast from the game will return and the developers are also collaborating on the series.
About 90% of the music is completed and it was composed by Takeharu Ishimoto.
Below you can check out the first trailer and a few glimpses at the animation and character design showcased during the panel.
Incidentally, the anime is based in present-day Shibuya and not the district in 2007 like the original game, even if there are key landmarks that still look the same today. Below you can see some environmental artwork alongside character design sketches for the main cast..
The World Ends With You is a well-known game among JRPG fans, originally released in 2007 for Nintendo DS with a mobile game released first on iOS in 2012 and then on Android in 2014.
The World Ends with You: Final Remix for Nintendo Switch finally brought it to home consoles in 2018.
Among many Square Enix veteran, Kingdom Hearts director Tetsuya Nomura worked on the game as producer alongside Shinji Hashimoto and character designer alongside Gen Kobayashi, contributing to its popularity.