

Anime News Network's coverage of Anime Expo 2018 is sponsored by Yen Press. Anime News Network's coverage of Anime Expo 2018 is sponsored by Yen Press.

Netflix announced the premiere dates for four anime titles during its Anime Expo panel on Thursday. The premiere dates include:

Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle : July 18

: July 18 Kengan Ashura : 2019

: 2019 Dragon Pilot : September 21

: September 21 Cannon Busters : March 1, 2019

: March 1, 2019 Castlevania season 2: October 26

Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle ( Godzilla: Kessen Kidō Zōshoku Toshi ), the second film in the trilogy, opened in Japan on May 18, and ranked at #8 in its opening weekend at the box office.

The third and final film in the trilogy is titled Godzilla: Hoshi wo Kū Mono (Stareater), and it will open in Japan in November.

Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters (Godzilla: Kaijū Wakusei), the first film, opened in Japan last November. Netflix began streaming the film worldwide on January 17.



Anime Expo is hosting the world premiere of the anime of Yabako Sandrovich's Kengan Ashura manga on Saturday. The event will also host director Seiji Kishi, producer Yuji Higa, story editor Makoto Uezu, and composer Yasuharu Takanashi. The creators will also host autograph sessions. The staff's appearance is in collaboration with Pony Canyon.

The anime is slated to air on television in 2019, although the staff haven't yet revealed the format of the anime.

In the manga's story, businesses and merchants wager large sums of money to hire combatants for unarmed hand-to-hand fighting matches. The winner takes all in these Kengan competitions that originated during the Edo period. Merchants use the fights as a means to resolve disputes with each other.

Seiji Kishi (Danganronpa The Animation, Yuki Yuna Is a Hero) is directing the anime at Larx Entertainment. Makoto Uezu (Akame ga KILL!, The Heroic Legend of Arslan) is in charge of series composition, and Kazuaki Morita (Tsukigakirei, Assassination Classroom) is designing the characters. Team-MAX's Yasuharu Takanashi (Fairy Tail, Naruto Shippūden) is composing the music.

Dragon Pilot ( Hisone to Masotan ) premiered on April 12 on Tokyo MX, BS Fuji, and Gifu Broadcasting. The show is already streaming on Netflix in Japan.

In the show's story, straightforward and innocent Hisone Amakasu is a Self-Defense Force rookie stationed at the Air Self-Defense Force's Gifu Base. She struggles with the fact that she sometimes hurts people unintentionally by her innocent words and decides to join the Air Self-Defence Force, hoping to maintain a certain distance from people. This decision leads her to a fateful encounter that profoundly changes her life. Hisone meets the "OTF" (Organic Transformed Flyer) dragon hidden in the base, and it chooses Hisone as its pilot. When it soars into the sky with Hisone, her fate as a dragon pilot is decided. It is said that dragons have a key to the future of the world...

Gainax co-founder and Shin Godzilla co-director Shinji Higuchi is supervising the anime for Warner Brothers. Hiroshi Kobayashi (Kiznaiver) is directing the anime at BONES, and Mari Okada (The Anthem of the Heart, anohana) is writing the anime. Higuchi noted that he, BONES, and Okada created the original story concept together.

Manga Entertainment, Nada Holdings, and anime studio Satelight is producing LeSean Thomas' Cannon Busters animated series. The series is slated for 12 episodes.

Thomas is directing and serving as executive producer for the series. He is also writing the scripts along with Natasha Allegri ( Bee & Puppycat ), Anne Toole ( The Witcher ), and Nilah Magruder ( M.F.K. ). Matt Wayne is serving as story editor.

Thomas previously funded a short pilot film for the project using Kickstarter. Thomas Romain (Space Dandy, co-director on Oban Star-Racers) served as the mechanical designer, Joe Madureira (Uncanny X-Men) contributed to the character designs, and Bahi JD (Kids on the Slope, Space Dandy, Ping Pong) was on board as an animator.

Thomas ( Children of Ether, The Boondocks ) published the first issue of his original Cannon Busters comic in 2005 with Udon Entertainment and Devil's Due Publishing.

Warren Ellis, the writer and producer of the Castlevania animated series, previously said in January that the eight-episode second season of the series was slated for summer.

The first four-episode season premiered worldwide on Netflix in July 2017. Voice actor Richard Armitage (Trevor Belmont) told media news website Digital Spy that a third season is in the works.

Producer Adi Shankar announced in 2015 that he was working with Fred Seibert and Kevin Kolde of Frederator Studios on an animated mini-series based on Konami's Castlevania game series. In particular, the story is based on the 1989 NES/Famicom game Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse . The game is set in 1476, and Dracula has Europe under his grip. Trevor Belmont journeys in an attempt to defeat Dracula, and enlists the sorceress Sypha Belnades, the pirate Grant Danasty, and Dracula's own half-vampire son, Alucard.

Update: Kengan Ashura will premiere on Netflix in 2019, not later this year as previously reported.

Sources: Netflix's Anime Expo panel (Zac Bertschy), Netflix Press release