Image: Shogakukan, Gosho Aoyama, "Yaiba" Production Committee
Gosho Aoyama’s 1980s battle action manga is set to get a remake on 5 April.
Based on a manga by Gosho Aoyama, YAIBA: Samurai Legend first aired on television from 1993 to 1994, spanning 52 episodes and breaking out in popularity amongst anime fans.
A remake for YAIBA was announced in Weekly Shonen Sunday in May 2024, and has recently revealed a premiere date and special collaboration video with Aoyama’s long-running mystery series Detective Conan.
YAIBA will begin airing on 5 April 2025, and will air before Detective Conan’s 6pm broadcast with a 5:30pm Saturday Timeslot. The hour-long Saturday block has been dubbed as the ‘Gosho Aoyama Hour’.
The latest episode of Detective Conan treated viewers with a fun and exciting special collaboration video featuring Conan and Yaiba voice actress Minami Takayama, who performed a scene between the characters in the video. Takayama also voiced the original Yaiba in the 1993 anime. Other character collaboration videos from both Aoyama series, which will feature Sayaka, Ran, Onimaru, and Kogo, are set to debut after the Detective Conan episodes on 15 and 22 February.
The YAIBA remake is produced by Wit Studio, with Takahiro Hasui slated as director and Aoyama himself supervising. Doko Machida handles series composition, while Yoshinori Kameda is the chief animation director and character designer. The main animator is Takeshi Maenami, with Yutaka Yamada and Yoshiaki Dewa in charge of the music. Haru Yamada is slated as sound director.
The official cast for Yaiba’s remake are:
- Yaiba Kurogane - Minami Takayama
- Sayaka Mine - Manaka Iwami
- Takeshi Onimaru - Yoshimasa Hosoya
- Katsuyuki Konishi - Kenjr Kurogane
- Musashi Miyamoto - Junichi Suwabe
Yaiba’s manga was first serialised in Shogakukan’s Weekly Shounen Sunday from 1988 to 1993, with 24 tankobon volumes. The series was licensed by Viz Media for an English release.
The official website for Yaiba describes the story as:
Yaiba Kurogane has spent his days training in the jungle in order to attain his goal of becoming a real samurai. By a twist of fate, he returns to Japan and starts living with the Mine family, who are connected to his father, Kenjuro. Yaiba constantly baffles the Mines' daughter Sayaka as she witnesses his wild and reckless ways. One day, Yaiba tags along with Sayaka to school and has a fateful encounter with Takeshi Onimaru, a kendo expert. Yaiba and Onimaru repeatedly clash, and as if in response to their search for strength, two ancient powers are unleashed: the Fujinken, the Wind God's Sword, and the Raijinken, the Thunder God's Sword. Both supernatural blades that have jolted the world since ancient days have reawakened… and the truth behind them is revealed!
