New DnD Japan Ad is an Anime Epic
Wizards of the Coast releases another amazing animated trailer for the overseas market
While Dungeons & Dragons is a well established pop culture institution in the West, the game isn’t as nearly as well known or as popular in Japan. That’s something D&D publisher Wizards of the Coast has been trying to rectify in recent years with a slate of new products for the Japanese market.
The most recent is a localized version of the popular Dragons of Stormwreck Starter Set that was originally released in North America back in October 2022. The new Japanese Starter Set includes original artwork from popular illustrator Hisashi Momose (who also designed several Magic: The Gathering cards).
To promote the product, Wizards of the Coast’s D&D Japan YouTube channel and social media accounts recently released a new anime-inspired trailer which showcases Hisashi’s artwork and some of the updates they’ve made to the Starter Set. The video includes a breakdown of the pre-made characters that will come with the box set, including the fighter Ray, the elven wizard Alissa, the cleric Morgano, the paladin Dion Garrix and the rogue Marshkarot.
The short but amazing trailer is below, which seems absolutely begging to be made into a full-length anime feature.
Wizards Continues to Promote DnD in Japan
Notably, the Starter Set isn’t the only time Wizards of the Coast has been pushing major new D&D products for Japan. In fact, in April 2023 they announced an anime-inspired Japanese update to their Dungeons & Dragons Essentials Kit, which features the popular campaign The Lost Mines of Phandelver.
That particular product also featured original illustrations from the celebrated manga artist Chomoran, who is perhaps best known for the series Sachi’s Monstrous Appetite.
The pre-made characters included in that box set consist of the halfling rogue Cal Skiprock, the half-elf cleric Lafail, the elven wizard Old Scar, the human fighter Atria Dawnguard and the dragonborn fighter Turalish.
And while Wizards of the Coast hasn’t announced plans for any anime series, based purely on these incredible ads the potential definitely seems to be there. You can check out the DnD Japan Essentials Set trailer below.
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Cameron Nichols is a Senior Editor who lives in Boston, Massachusetts, and has been playing D&D since the early 90s, when he was introduced by his older brother and cut his teeth on AD&D 2nd Edition. Since then he’s played virtually every RPG he could get his nerdy little mitts on (including a weird Goth phase in the early 2000s when he rocked Vampire: The Masquerade pretty hard). His favorite D&D campaign setting is the Forgotten Realms and his favorite character to play was a Half-Orc Barbarian named Grug (who was unfortunately devoured by a gelatinous cube).
