Tsuyokute New Saga - What We Know So Far

Writer Masayuki Abe's "Tsuyokute New Saga" has seen many forms over the years. It's evolved from Abe's novels to Ryūta Fuse-illustrated isekai fantasy light novels, and finally, an ongoing shōnen manga series. 

The next step in the series' evolution is, of course, an anime adaptation. Fans of "Tsuyokute New Saga" have actually had to wait for this next step quite some time now, seeing as the series took its first three adaptation leaps at a fairly rapid pace. The novels started in 2012, the light novels in 2013, and the manga first hit the shelves in 2014 ... yet, an anime version is yet to materialize. 

Frustrating as this might be for the "Tsuyokute New Saga" faithful, things are about to change. Per Crunchyroll, an anime adaptation of the series has finally been announced, and should be available for viewing as soon as 2023. Let's take a look at what we know about the project so far. 

The announcement of the project dropped on October 19 (via Crunchyroll), which might potentially mean that "Tsuyokute New Saga" fans still have a fair amount of waiting to do before the anime starts airing. While it's true that the first episode won't arrive for quite a while, it's worth noting that the project seems to be well into the pipeline already. 

There seems to be no hard and fast rule about when anime adaptation projects are announced. Looking at recent anime adaptation announcements, "Nier: Automata Ver 1.1a" lingered in development for years, and when it was ultimately officially announced, the news came just a few short months before the first episode's premiere. Meanwhile, Bukami Miki's "SHY" anime was announced without even a hint of its eventual release date.

"Tsuyokute New Saga" seems to have embraced an announcement strategy that's somewhere between those two. As it stands, the series will premiere in July 2023, which is still some time away — but at least the fans have a rough timeframe to lock on to before the exact premiere date arrives. 

Assuming a relatively faithful adaptation, it's probably fairly safe to say that the anime will follow the same beats fans of the series already know and love. As such, expect the story to focus heavily on Kyle Lanard, a magical warrior who starts the series when he's just about to deliver the killing blow to the Demon King who has brought humanity to the very edge of extinction. 

Unfortunately, Kyle's victorious moment is rudely interrupted by an artifact known as the Divine Dragon's Heart, which throws him four years into the past — just before things started going really badly for humanity. On the plus side, however, Kyle retains his skills and memories, and embarks on a mission to painstakingly change the future for the better. 

Kyle's mission, as you'd assume, is a grueling one, and the changes he attempts to make mean that the life he's already experienced unfolds in a drastically different manner this time around. Will he succeed in his mission, or will the Demon King reign supreme once more?

Along with other details about the project, the Japanese voice actors for several key characters have already been announced (via Crunchyroll). Protagonist Kyle Lenard will be voiced by Yuma Uchida, whom you might know as Kawaki in "Boruto: Naruto Next Generations," Megumi Fushiguro in "Jujutsu Kaisen," and Musashi in "ORIENT." Hiro Shimono (Dabi in "My Hero Academia and Zenitsu Agatsuma in "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba") will be the voice of Kyle's brother-in-arms, Seran.

The other three major characters with announced voice actors are Liese (voiced by Fairouz Ai of "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean" and "Chainsaw Man" fame), Urza (Asami Seto from "Macross Delta" and "The Rising of the Shield Hero"), and Sildonia (Minami Takahashi, "Arifueta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest"). 

This, of course, leaves plenty of crucial characters' Japanese voice actors still up in the air — not to mention the possible English voice actors, of whom none has been announced as yet. Count on Looper to keep you informed as new announcements arrive. 

The teaser trailer for "Tsuyokute New Saga" has arrived on the ABC Animation Network YouTube channel. It opens with a fairly graphic depiction of the demon invasion's aftermath, with gruesome corpses piled high in front of a cathedral-like building where the final showdown between the Demon King and Kyle Lenard is taking place. We see that Kyle is winning, but the victory brings him no pleasure, as he falls on his knees and images of his fallen comrades flash across the screen. 

As Kyle drops his broken sword and reaches for the mysterious gem that appears to be the Divine Dragon Heart, things get strange in a hurry. After a title drop and some announcement graphics, the camera switches to Kyle's point of view, as he wakes up and is greeted by Liese. 

Though fairly short on plot details, this teaser trailer nevertheless seems to confirm that the central time travel premise of "Tsuyokute New Saga" will remain intact.