Supernatural The Animation Announced

Another odd choice of Western brand to receive an anime adaptation announcement this week is Supernatural, the American drama / horror live-action TV series that began in 2005. Through a newly opened official website and various other reports from Japan, it has been revealed that studio Madhouse will create a 22-episode OVA series called Supernatural The Animation for a January 2011 debut on Blu-ray and DVD.



Warner Bros. will release the anime's first two episodes on January 12, 2011 through its Warner Home Video label, followed by two season-length "boxes" packing the remaining episodes. "Box 1" (episodes 3-12) will be out on February 2, and "Box 2" (episodes 13-22) on April 6, 2011. Mind you, these are the Japanese release dates, but I wouldn't be surprised if the English version will be out around the same time - like it happened with Halo Legends, which was also distributed by Warner in a similar format.

Although the original American TV show is about to enter its sixth season this autumn, the anime will only cover the first two seasons' story, spicing it up with some original episodes. These will include "prologues of the Winchester brothers' childhood, anime-only enemies, and episodes featuring secondary characters from the live-action version".

The Supernatural anime will be co-directed by Shigeyuki Miya and Atsuko Ishizuka (each of them recently directed a couple of Aoi Bungaku Series episodes), with Eric Kripke - who created the original TV show - also credited as the anime project's creator. ANN lists a few more staff members, along with an amusing typo of Kripke's name, as "Kriple".