Abe no Seimei is a historical figure who became a hero in legends.
The light novels about his adventures are very popular.
The anime is still a mystery because of the lack of translations of novels and the team working on it.
Japan has a very diverse mythology, and a lot of media uses it as an inspiration. The amount of supernatural stories dealing with local demons and manifestations of magical power is staggering. Onmyoji is a series of light novels focused on magic and its wielders — or, particularly, on one of the greatest magicians of the Heian era, Abe no Seimei. And this November it will be adapted into anime.
Abe no Seimei is an actual historical figure who had his life thoroughly documented, but after his death his name got surrounded by legends, one more bizarre than the other. He was a spiritual advisor to the emperor, but legends made him a full-blown magician — and a suitable hero for entertaining stories.
The first light novel, simply called Onmyoji, was released in 1986, the most recent one was published in 2021. The author, Baku Yumemakura, released 15 volumes containing short stories about onmyoji's adventures.
The anime was first announced at Netflix's TUDUM event in 2022, and a week ago the company dropped the trailer, showing an epic action centered around Abe no Seimei and court musician Minamoto no Hiromasa, who together deal with the spirits of the underworld that roam the streets of Japan.
This is a Netflix adaptation, so you shouldn't expect a "villain of the week" approach as you could with a TV serialization, so possibly the show would focus on an overarching plot. And judging by the trailer, it would follow the story depicted in the first compilation of short stories. The shikigami and an ox cart that were in the light novel have been prominently shown in the trailer.
The translations of light novels, however, are only partial, so it's hard to tell exactly what is gonna happen in the series. We can say for sure that one of the key points of the story would be the rivalry between Abe no Seimei and another onmyoji, Ashiya Doman, who plans to dethrone the emperor.
The team working on the show is pretty young, the only creator listed that has a lot of experience is the series' director, Yamamoto Soubi, who's been in the industry since 2010, but didn't have any huge projects in the past five years. It's animated by Marvy Jack studio, one that mostly works as an assistant studio to a plethora of projects but was credited as one of the main contributors to the production of Spice and Wolf II (Ookami to Koushinryou II). And the trailer looks quite promising.
The show drops on November 28th. And while we wait, we can watch another release from Netflix —Pluto. We’ve collected the first reviews for you to decide whether it's worth it or not.
A deep dive into Japanese folklore.
Summary:
Abe no Seimei is a historical figure who became a hero in legends.
The light novels about his adventures are very popular.
The anime is still a mystery because of the lack of translations of novels and the team working on it.
Japan has a very diverse mythology, and a lot of media uses it as an inspiration. The amount of supernatural stories dealing with local demons and manifestations of magical power is staggering. Onmyoji is a series of light novels focused on magic and its wielders — or, particularly, on one of the greatest magicians of the Heian era, Abe no Seimei. And this November it will be adapted into anime.
Abe no Seimei is an actual historical figure who had his life thoroughly documented, but after his death his name got surrounded by legends, one more bizarre than the other. He was a spiritual advisor to the emperor, but legends made him a full-blown magician — and a suitable hero for entertaining stories.
The first light novel, simply called Onmyoji, was released in 1986, the most recent one was published in 2021. The author, Baku Yumemakura, released 15 volumes containing short stories about onmyoji's adventures.
The anime was first announced at Netflix's TUDUM event in 2022, and a week ago the company dropped the trailer, showing an epic action centered around Abe no Seimei and court musician Minamoto no Hiromasa, who together deal with the spirits of the underworld that roam the streets of Japan.
This is a Netflix adaptation, so you shouldn't expect a "villain of the week" approach as you could with a TV serialization, so possibly the show would focus on an overarching plot. And judging by the trailer, it would follow the story depicted in the first compilation of short stories. The shikigami and an ox cart that were in the light novel have been prominently shown in the trailer.
The translations of light novels, however, are only partial, so it's hard to tell exactly what is gonna happen in the series. We can say for sure that one of the key points of the story would be the rivalry between Abe no Seimei and another onmyoji, Ashiya Doman, who plans to dethrone the emperor.
The team working on the show is pretty young, the only creator listed that has a lot of experience is the series' director, Yamamoto Soubi, who's been in the industry since 2010, but didn't have any huge projects in the past five years. It's animated by Marvy Jack studio, one that mostly works as an assistant studio to a plethora of projects but was credited as one of the main contributors to the production of Spice and Wolf II (Ookami to Koushinryou II). And the trailer looks quite promising.
The show drops on November 28th. And while we wait, we can watch another release from Netflix —Pluto. We’ve collected the first reviews for you to decide whether it's worth it or not.
