News from Anime Expo: A Trigun Stampede trailer and updates on new seasons of FLCL

2023 will have a lot to like for anime fans who grew up on Adult Swim

By Sam Barsanti  |  July 3, 2022 | 7:09pm
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News from Anime Expo: A Trigun Stampede trailer and updates on new seasons of FLCL
Trigun Stampede Screenshot: TOHO Animation/YouTube

Los Angeles’ big Anime Expo is happening this weekend, and while there’s certainly a ton of anime-related fun to be had, at least two bits of news came out that will be of particular interest to anyone who grew up watching anime on Adult Swim: Production I.G shared new details on the two new seasons of FLCL (titled FLCL: Grunge and FLCL: Shoegaze), while TOGO and Orange released a trailer for the recently announced Trigun remake. If we could get some Inuyasha, YuYu Hakusho, or Big O news as well, Adult Swim and Toonami fans would be all set.

But alas, we’ll have to make do with very good FLCL news, with distributor Production I.G. USA confirming that Japanese band The Pillows will once again be returning to do the music for Grunge and Shoegaze. The band did the music for the original series, one of the greatest soundtracks in anime history, and previously returned for the 2018 sequels FLCL: Progressive and FLCL: Alternative. We also have some plot details for the new shows—which, if Progressive and Alternative are anything to go by—will have very little tangible connection to the original series.

Grunge, directed by Hitoshi Takekiyo and produced by MontBlanc Pictures, is about “three teenagers who graduated and have started working” and will be about “the feeling of being an adult.” That comes from Anime News Network, and it sounds like it might actually be a clever aged-up evolution of the FLCL concept, which up until now has always focused on sad pre-teens/teenagers having their lives upended by the arrival of infuriatingly cool alien woman Haruko Haruhara.

Shoegaze, meanwhile, comes from the Alternative’s director Yutaka Uemura and will be made by Production I.G and NUT. It will be a sequel of some sort to Alternative, focusing on a boy and girl in high school and taking place 10 years after that series. Both shows will be produced by Jason DeMarco, the creative director at Toonami.

As for Trigun, the classic action/comedy sci-fi Western is getting a CG-animated remake called Trigun Stampede from Orange, the Beastars studio, and its new trailer shows off a redesign for main protagonist Vash The Stampede. It also seems to tease that the new show will be front-loading some of the character’s backstory from the original series (and the manga it was based on), rather than teasing it out as a mystery.

TVアニメ『TRIGUN STAMPEDE』PV第一弾

All of these shows are expected to premiere at some point in 2023, with FLCL probably airing on Cartoon Network and Trigun Stampede airing on Crunchyroll.

 
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