News

Great Pretender Manga Goes on Hiatus

The official Twitter account for Mag Garden's Mag Comi website announced on Thursday that Daichi Marui's manga adaptation of Wit Studio's original television anime series Great Pretender will go on hiatus due Marui's poor health. The announcement noted that a return date for the manga remains undecided.

Marui launched the manga on Mag Comi and on the Line Manga service on June 10. The first compiled book volume of the manga shipped on July 10.

The anime's "Case 1" (episodes 1-5) premiered on Netflix in Japan with English subtitles on June 2, followed by "Case 2" (episodes 6-10) on June 9 and "Case 3" (episodes 11-14) on June 16. "Case 4" (episodes 15-23) of the anime will premiere on Netflix in Japan on September 21. Netflix is streaming the anime exclusively worldwide, but it is streaming in Japan ahead of the rest of the world.

Netflix began streaming the anime outside of Japan on August 20. The anime premiered on July 8 on Fuji TV's +UItra programming block. The anime will run for two cours (quarters of a year) for a total of 23 episodes.

The show's themes are "credit fraud" and "happy and comedic drama between worldly famous swindlers." The anime's official website describes the anime:

Makoto Edamura is supposedly Japan's greatest swindler. Together with his partner Kudo, they try to trick a Frenchman in Asakusa but unexpectedly get tricked instead. The Frenchman, whom they tried to swindle, turns out to be Laurent Thierry- a much higher-level 'confidence man,' in control of the mafias. Edamura is yet to find out what fate awaits him, after having engaged in the Frenchman's dirty jobs...!

Hiro Kaburagi (Hozuki's Coolheadedness, My Little Monster, 91 Days) is directing the series at Wit Studio. Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (Evangelion, FLCL) is designing the characters. Ryota Kosawa (Parasyte live-action film, Always: Sunset on Third Street live-action film series) is writing the scripts, and Yutaka Yamada (Tokyo Ghoul anime franchise, Vinland Saga) is composing the music. Maiko Okada is the producer.

Yamada composed the opening theme song "G.P." The late Queen singer Freddie Mercury's cover of The Platters song "The Great Pretender" is the anime's ending theme song. This is Japan's first television anime to feature a song by Mercury as its theme.

Source: MagComie Twitter account