Enterbrain announced the production today of upcoming TV anime Night Wizard, based on the “table talk” (Japanese jargon equivalent of tabletop or PnP) RPG by the same name. Direction will be handled by Yamamoto Yuusuke, most recently the director of Welcome to the NHK; given the spotty history of Japan-animated tabletop RPG spinoffs I’m not quite sure what to make of this, and while I have a hunch that it’s headed straight for the mediocrity barrel it won’t be for lack of interesting subject matter. (no more)
I immediately think of Lodoss, instead of D&D, but I agree it would be foolish to get your hopes up. One could also argue that associating Yuusuke with NHK is slightly unfair. If I had a career like his, I think I would prefer not to associated with Gonzo right off the bat like that.
How could I forget about Lodoss… doh. Definitely a more favorable comparison, at least the original OVA. While Yamamoto has done storyboard work for some really great shows, I mentioned NHK in particular as it’s the only show he’s given sole directorial credit for, a role he’ll be reprising here. I don’t think it’s necessarily a strike against him; it’s not his fault that Gonzo didn’t give him a budget to stand on.
It wouldn’t affect to this anime adaptation but Night Wizard rulebook contains many parody of anime and eroge. It even has a sample character who terribly who looks like Ayu Tsukimiya and has an ability able to perform a little miracle.
correction “who terribly looks like”