March 25, 2022 – Austin, TX – The world’s most popular anime-inspired series has now inspired a Japanese anime. BANDAI NAMCO Arts, Good Smile Company and Rooster Teeth announced today ‘RWBY: Ice Queendom,’ a Japanese anime inspired by Rooster Teeth’s global hit animated series, ‘RWBY.’ ‘RWBY: Ice Queendom’ will premiere on Japanese television, with subtitled and dubbed versions available the same day to U.S. audiences on Crunchyroll and Rooster Teeth FIRST. New episodes will premiere weekly. The official trailer is available to watch now at this link.
‘RWBY: Ice Queendom’ presents a new RWBY story in beautiful 2D anime visuals. RWBY imagines a world filled with horrific monsters bent on death and destruction, and humanity’s only hope is dependent upon powerful Huntsmen and Huntresses. Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long are four such Huntresses in training whose journeys will take them far past the grounds of their school, Beacon Academy. Though each may be powerful on their own, these four girls must overcome dark forces and work as a team if they truly hope to become the next generation of Remnant’s protectors. ‘RWBY: Ice Queendom’ will establish the world of RWBY before taking viewers on a brand new adventure that RWBY fans have never seen.
Created by the late Monty Oum (Red vs. Blue), RWBY is one of Rooster Teeth’s most beloved, viewed, and shared series. As the first western-produced anime series to be distributed in Japan, RWBY episodes have accumulated more than 300 million views since the series premiered in 2013. RWBY has a global audience, and has been licensed to create video games, comic books, manga, young adult novels, collectible figures, and more.
“It’s difficult to put into words just how honored and thrilled we are to see the show that we imagined into the world inspire a Japanese anime,” said RWBY’s showrunner, Kerry Shawcross. “I’ve been a fan of anime all my life, so to see RWBY in this new medium is surreal. I can’t wait for fans to see this show, I think it’s going to blow them away.”
‘RWBY: Ice Queendom’ stars Saori Hayami as Ruby Rose, Yoko Hikasa as Weiss Schnee, Yu Shimamura as Blake Belladonna, and Ami Koshimizu as Yang Xiao Long. The English dubbed version will star the original cast of RWBY, Lindsay Jones as Ruby Rose, Kara Eberle as Weiss Schnee, Arryn Zech as Blake Belladonna, and Barbara Dunkelman as Yang Xiao Long. The core creative team is led by Gen Urobuchi (NITRO PLUS, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Fate/Zero), Tow Ubukata (Mardock Scramble, Tenchi: The Samurai Astronomer, Fafner in the Azure), huke (Black Rock Shooter, chitocerium, Steins;Gate), and Toshimasa Suzuki (Lagrange: The Flower of Rin-ne, Fafner in the Azure: Heaven and Earth), with additional collaboration from Rooster Teeth’s Kerry Shawcross, Eddy Rivas, and Erin Winn. The series is produced by BANDAI NAMCO Arts Inc., Good Smile Company, SHAFT, Warner Bros. Japan, KLab Inc., and Rooster Teeth. The series is being animated by Studio SHAFT (Monogatari Series, Puella Magi Madoka Magica).
###
About BANDAI NAMCO Arts Inc.
BANDAI NAMCO Arts Inc., founded in August 1983, is a Japanese company that develops, produces, and distributes film, TV and home entertainment media. As a pioneer of the Japanese animation scene, BANDAI NAMCO Arts has consistently held the top-class market share in the genre and continues to lead the market. BANDAI NAMCO Arts has also proven its expertise in creating and delivering quality home entertainment media packaging in Japan. Using such key strategies, BANDAI NAMCO Arts targets to expand and emulate its success in international markets. BANDAI NAMCO Arts Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BANDAI NAMCO Holdings Inc.
About Good Smile Company
Good Smile Company (GSC) was founded by Takanori Aki in May 2001 and is a Japanese manufacturer of high quality collectible figures, such as scale figures and the Nendoroid and Pop Up Parade lines as well as the figma brand by Max Factory. In addition to production and manufacturing, Good Smile Company is involved in the designing, marketing and distributing of their products. Not only are they involved in figure-making, GSC also produces animation and films under its associated holding company, Ultra Super Pictures. In the world of race cars, GSC owns its own professional team, Good Smile Racing, which competes in the Super GT GT300 race class. Aside from the main headquarters in Akihabara, Tokyo numerous GSC offices operate all over the world including the US and China.
About Rooster Teeth
Rooster Teeth is a fan-driven, community-built entertainment company. From humble origins in a spare bedroom, Rooster Teeth created the web series Red vs. Blue, an innovative form of entertainment for a changing media landscape that sparked the growth of a passionate global fandom. From that foundation, Rooster Teeth pioneered a direct-to-consumer lifestyle brand for its growing online following with subscriptions, advertising, e-commerce, and live events. Rooster Teeth produces several original content series, including RWBY, the most popular western-style anime series today, The Rooster Teeth Podcast, and daily video series featuring an in-house cast of influential talent. With broadcast and live-action production capabilities and a world-class animation studio, Rooster Teeth engages industry-leading networks, streaming entertainment services, and creative talent to develop projects that reach global audiences through its Studios division. Rooster Teeth cultivates the gaming lifestyle it helped define with partnerships through its industry-leading video-first podcast network, The Roost. Rooster Teeth has a massive global footprint of more than 45 million subscribers to its YouTube Network, 1.2 million unique monthly visitors across its apps, and more than 4 million registered community members. The company was founded in 2003 and is a subsidiary of Otter Media, a WarnerMedia company. Discover more at RoosterTeeth.com.
About Crunchyroll
Crunchyroll connects anime and manga fans across 200+ countries and territories with the content and experiences they love. In addition to free ad-supported and subscription premium content, Crunchyroll serves the anime community across events, theatrical, games, consumer products, collectibles and manga publishing.
Anime fans have access to one of the largest collections of licensed anime through Crunchyroll and translated in multiple languages for viewers worldwide. Viewers can also access simulcasts — top series available immediately after Japanese broadcast.
The Crunchyroll app is available on over 15 platforms, including all gaming consoles.
Crunchyroll, LLC is an independently operated joint venture between US-based Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Japan’s Aniplex, a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc., both subsidiaries of Tokyo-based Sony Group.
