Disney's Twisted Wonderland Is Getting An Anime Series
It seems like everyone is jumping on the anime bandwagon these days. Indeed, the growing accessibility of the animated art form, combined with Hollywood's desire to expand more into the Asian Pacific market, has led to companies like Netflix greenlighting more anime titles. Recently, Disney became one of these companies, with "Star Wars: Visions" exploring George Lucas' fictional world in beautiful, stylized 2D detail. Now, the media behemoth has announced that it will create another anime series based on the world of "Twisted Wonderland," a mobile video game from 2020 (via Deadline).
The original "Twisted Wonderland" was created by Aniplex in conjunction with Walt Disney Japan (via Anime News Network). Disney later started releasing a "Twisted Wonderland" manga in February 2021, which features a story that can be adapted for television.
Disney+ Japan hasn't released very much information about the title yet but promised on Twitter that more details will come at a later date.
Twisted Wonderland is based on a popular game that hasn't come out in the U.S.
Like the "Descendants" series and "Kingdom Hearts" video games, "Twisted Wonderland" brings back some of Disney's classic movie villains. This time, though, Disney has imbued its anti-heroes with a Japanese-inspired style. Characters like Scar from "The Lion King," the Red Queen from "Alice in Wonderland," and Maleficent from "Sleeping Beauty" appear as ikemen (cute anime boys) at a Hogwarts-style school called Night Ravens College. The school features seven dormitories with designs based on different Disney movies, including "Hercules," "Aladdin," and those previously mentioned.
"Twisted Wonderland" is classified as a mobile rhythm adventure game and it's not available in the U.S. at the moment (via Comicbook.com), despite the fact that, in 2020, it was the third-most tweeted-about game online (via Games Industry). The game allows players to take on the role of a mysterious newcomer tasked with finding out why they're at the school as well as uncovering the details of their mysterious past and determining why they're the only one who doesn't have magical powers — all while being helped by villains with their own agendas. The title has a chapter-based structure and its battles are rhythm-based.
Given the game's popularity, it may only be a matter of time before it is finally released in English, which fans of the property definitely want to see (they've even started a Change.org petition to try and speed the process along). Hopefully, both the game and anime series make their way to U.S. audiences soon.