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Halo goes anime with Legends anthology

Brendan Sinclair
By Brendan Sinclair, Senior Editor

Microsoft working with Ghost in the Shell, Dragon Ball studios on collection of short films; 343 Industries revealed to be Halo publishing brand; teaser trailer inside.

Between this year's Halo Wars and Halo: ODST, Microsoft is working to establish a universe for its blockbuster sci-fi series extending significantly beyond the Master Chief character. Today the company revealed another step toward that, with the announcement of Halo Legends, an anime anthology focusing on different times, locations, and characters in the universe.

Like previous anime anthologies, The Animatrix and Batman: Gotham Knights, Halo Legends taps a variety of notable Japanese creators and animation studios to produce short films for a compiled home-video release. Directors Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed) and Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell) will be working on the project, as will familiar studios like Production I.G. (Blood: The Last Vampire), Studio4˚C (Tekkonkinkreet), Toei Animation (Dragon Ball), Casio Entertainment (visual effects work on Big Man Japan), and Bones (Cowboy Bebop: The Movie).

Unlike those other projects, Halo Legends will also help Microsoft usher in Halo Waypoint, "a new destination for Halo fans on Xbox Live."

Launching this fall, Waypoint will host previews of Halo Legends, podcasts, news, and trailers for various projects in the Halo universe. It will also introduce its own leaderboards and achievement-style system for Halo fans to mark their in-game and out-of-game feats.

Both Halo Legends and Halo Waypoint fall under the purview of 343 Industries, which is--as rumored--the name of Microsoft Game Studios' new label covering the franchise. In addition to games, 343 will oversee the creation of Halo books, clothing, collectibles, and other content stemming from the series. The group has drawn some notable names to its ranks, including former Kojima Productions producer Ryan Payton and Bungie alum Frank O'Connor.

Brendan Sinclair
By Brendan Sinclair, Senior Editor

Brendan Sinclair has been a games journalist since 1999. His tastes are eclectic, though he has a definite affinity for games with arcade roots. He's Canadian, but has also been at home in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, and San Francisco.

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-Geo 5 pts

I'm confused, are they making a new Halo game or not?

scrpion_5_7 5 pts

WTF IS HAPPENING!!!!, this is not halo at all......they did the same thing with perfect dark with the comic book crap and look wat happened with that........................... :(

YF94 5 pts

from having seen episodes 1,2 & 3, i can tell the DVD's and Blu-Ray's of this are gonna sell big time

dukre115 6 pts

Listen, I am just as shaken as you guys by this, But if you just give it a chance, it might be good. I don't understand the reason for the anime either though. You would think they might get some all American artists for something like this.

dukre115 6 pts

I love Halo so much. I am never going to miss an episode of this. I've also saw a sneek peak of one of the shows. It was awsome.

SoupDude8 5 pts

Yeah I have watched the two episodes so far and a bit of a let down. The Babysitter was pretty awesome and the animation in that was good but the Duel was terrible. The fight scenes were pretty epic but the animation was annoying. I know it is a form of anime but it looked like moving paintings. AND SAMURAI ELITES WTF!?!?!?!?!? Hopefully the next one will be better.......

janagha_xiii 5 pts

hell, hope each and every anime movie to be of the same quality.

janagha_xiii 5 pts

the animatrix was awesome. It was easily among the very best in the matrix franchise. hope this anime to be of the same level.

jeffv541 5 pts

Halo animated = buttcheese Halo = buttcheese YOU = BUTTCHEESE

mataryan 5 pts

it looks good. They should have used the animation from the halo games. Its a big leap from that to what I think is anime.

KJX 5 pts

I'm really not seeing a problem, here. Halo already drew inspiration from books and games like Starhip Troopers, Aliens, Predators, Starcraft, Ringworld. I'm not saying inspiration is bad, they certainly developed something unique, if not bare-bones original. Why would it matter if an art style from Japan or Korea were used to illustrate the medium, and drew inspiration from themes in those locations? Besides, with Frank O'Conner creating, even outright writing the content for the films, we still won't know if it's bad until it gets released. Judging by the trailer alone, it doesn't seem like they're only going to put a miniscule amount of attention or effort into it- seems more like something they want to make right.

djuhring 5 pts

Lol the top of Master Chief's helmet sticks out so far in the anime, looks kinda silly, he already has a visor so he doesn't need sun protection haha

matapiero 5 pts

master chief looks more gundam than usual

IAmDazzle 5 pts

@IRoxxorUrSoxxor "How do we make uninformed statements?" Do what you did. The only issue I have is where this will fit in with the games and books and such. I mean, MC was riding basically a space motorcycle with a rail gun on it, WTF is that? I think that anime Halo will be cool, but I am scared they are making it more like anime rather than Halo.

kaka1337 5 pts

Nameme99 Posted Sep 6, 2009 8:02 pm GMT Soo... is Microsoft going to be renamed to "Halosoft"? LOL

Nameme99 5 pts

Soo... is Microsoft going to be renamed to "Halosoft"? :P

XxParasite 8 pts

Hm... It doesn't seem to be as bad as I thought that it would be. Anime Master Chief's still not right, but somehow I have no problem with anime Elites.

OniYouji 5 pts

Eh...an anime compilation for Halo? Seems like the complete opposite of each. The typical fans of Halo are probably not that into anime, or even religiously hate it, and the typical fan of anime are probably not that into Halo. It kinda makes sense with Gotham Knight or Animatrix, but Halo...ehhh...I dunno...

IRoxxorUrSoxxor 5 pts

Q: How do we take an excellent franchise and make it ****ty? A: Anime.

masterpg14 5 pts

i think i just j*zzed in my pants. :0

Killer2401 5 pts

Hmmm...lots of different animation styles here with each studio doing their own thing. I can see this working out quite nicely.

NiteShadeX 5 pts

"It's a Trap!" I'm going to assume we can buy all the episodes with our precious Microsoft points then?

nmjk92 5 pts

I really wish they wouldn't do this to Halo...I've got nothing against Animes, but they can't do that to Halo...It's just not possible!!

the_monkey_god 5 pts

They are just makeing it so hard to like halo these days.

_Megamuffin_ 5 pts

NO NO NO!!!!! why can't they just leave it as a game?? I mean the movie idea was a little meh to me unless they did it computer animation but THIS!! This is not my cup of tea and I really am embarrassed about this! I don't hate animes, hek I've watched a few, but the style in which they make them is not halo. Now Master chief is gonna cry because there is some mystical flower and he stepped on it!!! ( I know I know that won't REALLY happen but...) I thought that anything halo would be gold, but now they are just ruining the whole thing for me. Halo is my all time favorite trilogy and the books were wonderful. But why must they be so money hungry after making millions! I was really hoping when i first saw this it was a joke, now that I know it isn't... well I feel ill.. have to go cry and vomit...

spartan117a1 5 pts

Halo= FTW Anime= FAILZORDS It looks gay period halo wasn't made for anime ffs

Dark_Lord777 5 pts

looks halfway decent. i might end up renting it on netflix. CGI would have been cool too

Broly103091 5 pts

being done by the master minds at production I.G., bones, and the people that did Tekkon Kinkreet, I gotta see how this turns out.

payne6705 6 pts

hmm this isn't milking the franchise a bit is it? that trailer was actually a pain to watch idk why but almost every scene made me want to jab sharp objects in my eyes halo wasn't made to be an anime

necronaux 5 pts

If they do it, I hope it's in the (Final Fantasy, RE Degeneration) CGI style. Or even a Deadspace comic-book style (as opposed to the 'traditional' anime style). Just my preference.

necronaux 5 pts

Great news. Halo anime, hopefully done by the game-companies. Screw all the director/studio delays & lawsuits.

Agougwe1 5 pts

@kweeni Sooner or later they'll make a Halo. Anywhozzle looks pretty good, not a big fan of anime, but if it tells a good story I guess I could watch it seeing as how I'm a big Halo fan.

Adzey 5 pts

@EchoEcho I sorta meant the colourfulness of Anime and modernwarfare3 below me has just proven my point

modernwarfare3 5 pts

Can't they make it CGI!!anime colors sucks!

Dash275 5 pts

*Goes back to playing Marathon*

penpusher 15 pts

hmmmmm,,,,interesting shall have to keep an eye on this

aura_enchanted 5 pts

hey looks its the new iron ma.. i mean master chief.. welcome to the animated party umm... it??

USKB 5 pts

God, We're Gonna Have A Halo Version of ABC's "The View" Pretty Soon, I Imagine.

leon_trunks 5 pts

Holy **** Toei is going to work on this?!?! this is surprising. DBZ ftw!

EchoEcho 5 pts

@Adzey If all the Halo fans you know are scared of color, then they must not play very much Halo. Halo has always had a rather bright color palette, except in a handful of missions.

MrHatnClogs 25 pts

[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

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