Blue Dragon - Anime

Anime

An anime adaptation directed by Yukihiro Matsushita, animated by Studio Pierrot and co-produced by SKY Perfect Wellthink, TV Tokyo and Pierrot was announced in November 2006. 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. It aired on TV Tokyo, and ran for 51 episodes. 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. On April 16, 2007, Viz Media announced that it had licensed the anime for release in North America and Europe. An edited English language dub of the series premiered in the United States on Cartoon Network, on April 5, 2008, where it aired on Toonami Jetstream until Jetstream was cancelled on January 30, 2009. 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 has had the first 24 episodes released on DVD (so far exclusively in the UK) over three 2 disc DVD sets with the release date of the next DVD set to be announced. 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 uncut subbed episodes on VizAnime/Hulu. Viz Media stated at Otakon that if the streaming numbers are good, they might release the uncut DVDs to the US.