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Gintama Creator Hideaki Sorachi's Dandelion Debut 1-Shot Manga Gets Netflix Anime Series in April

Netflix announced on Friday that Gintama manga creator Hideaki Sorachi's debut one-shot manga Dandelion is getting an anime series adaptation that will stream exclusively on Netflix starting in April. Update: The anime will have seven episodes.

The anime will star Chikahiro Kobayashi as Tetsuo Tanba, and Megumi Han as Misaki Kurogane.

Daisuke Mataga (chief animation director for Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos, Grimoire of Zero) is directing the anime at NAZ. Yōsuke Suzuki (A Gentle Noble's Vacation Recommendation) is overseeing the series scripts, Ai Asari (Sabikui Bisco) is designing the characters, and Yūki Hayashi (Haikyu!!, My Hero Academia) is composing the music.

Additional staff members include:

• Assistant Director: Atsushi Ikariya
• Prop Design: Yoshihiro Sono
• Main Animators: Norie Igawa, Momoko Kawai, Yutaka Matsuhara, Hitomi Takechi
• Art Director: Ryūsuke Shiino
• Color Design: Emiko Okada
• 3DCG Director: Kunihiko Mita
• Director of Photography: Tsubasa Takagi
• Editing: Yoshiaki Kimura
• Sound Director: Kisuke Koizumi
• Sound Production: FUTOKOROGATANA
• Sound Effects: Shota Yaso
• Animation Producer: Yasuo Suda

A "Dandelion_0914" X/Twitter account had teased the upcoming announcement on Thursday. The announcement on Friday apologized that it was not for a new serialization.

The manga first debuted in Shueisha's Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 2002, and then Shueisha published the one-shot as part of the first volume of the Gintama manga.

The one-shot centers on Tetsuo Tanba and Misaki Kurogane, two members of the "Japan Angel Federation Sendoff Department" who search for souls who cannot pass on to the afterlife due to lingering regrets, and send them to the afterlife.

Sorachi's original "science-fiction period-drama comedy" manga Gintama began in 2003 and ended in June 2019 with over 55 million copies in circulation. The manga has inspired several television anime series with 367 total episodes, as well as three previous anime films. The latest anime series premiered in July 2018. The manga has also inspired various original video anime (OVA), event anime, two live-action films, and two live-action net spinoffs. Viz Media published the manga's first 23 volumes in English.

The most recent work is Shin-Gekijōban Gintama: Yoshiwara Daienjō (Gintama New Film Version: Yoshiwara in Flames), a compilation film for the anime, which opened on February 13. The film covers episodes 139-146 of the anime and features newly animated scenes, as well as characters who did not originally appear in the arc.

Sources: Dandelion anime's X/Twitter account, Comic Natalie