New Halo anime films on the way

By Ellie Gibson Published 23 July, 2009

They'll be released early next year.

Microsoft is working on a series of seven short anime films titled Halo Legends.

According to the LA Times, the films are being produced by Japanese studios Bones, Casio Entertainment, Production I.G., Studio4 C and Toei Animation. Shinji Aramaki, director of Appleseed and Appleseed Ex Machina, has been appointed as creative director on the project.

Aramaki will direct one of the shorts himself. It will focus on the history of the Spartans. "I liked that this would be an anthology of human stories told from different characters' perspectives," he said.

Studio4 C's film, which has the working title Origins, will be presented in two parts of 15 minutes each and will tell the whole story of the Halo universe. Toei's short will take a humorous look at some of the series' characters.

Microsoft has allowed the studios creative freedom when it comes to the visual style of the films but 343 Industries, the company's Halo division, is approving storylines and helping out with the details.

"Depending on the studio we did everything from writing the stories to feeding them with characters and scenarios they could explore," said Frank O'Connor, creative director at 343.

"I think the core Halo fans will recognise key moments from the universe never shown in the game. They're moments where people wanted more depth. That's where this fits."

The Halo Legends films will launch on Xbox Live this autumn. Microsoft will then team up with Warner Bros. for a release on DVD, Blu-ray and "other digital platforms" in early 2010.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (30) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Ignatius_Cheese #1 3 years ago

    Anime seems to be a decent medium for moving some game series forward (see Dead Space) so these could be a good alternative to the lamented live action film.

  • Negotiator #2 3 years ago

    More Halo, yes please.

  • AphoticCosmos #3 3 years ago

    Dead Space: Downfall was bloody fantastic and proved that game anime could have a very real future. Looked beautiful in HD, too.

    As a Halo fan, do want. Gief.

  • FHUTA #4 3 years ago

    sounds like it's going the way of the anime tie-ins that films have been going lately with Batman: Gotham Night, The Animatrix, The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury and the like.

    Should be interesting if it's anything like the first two - they both had a couple of gems, some decent workaday shorts and only the odd duff / too esoteric one as well.

  • Ignatius_Cheese #5 3 years ago

    Definitely sounds more Animatrix from the people/companies involved. Would love to see some really constrasting styles.

  • Spanky #6 3 years ago

    The Dead Space stuff was not anime.

    I really don't want them doing this, not a fan of anime, it's the nonces choice in cartoon style.

  • Ignatius_Cheese #7 3 years ago

    @ Spanky - Agreed. It is Americanized anime but works nonetheless. From the studios involved, this is definitely anime.

  • YobRenoops #8 3 years ago

    Microsoft/Halo attempt to break the Japanese Market? Its the last big holdout.

  • KujiGhost #9 3 years ago

    The only way Halo would break the Japanese market would be if:

    1. SquareEnix got involved and made a JRPG
    2. Hideo Kojima breathed on it
    3. It involved a complicated grinding process to collect the more advanced weaponry
    4. It utilised a subtle system of exploits that the hard-core users would spend a lifetime mastering
    5. It was set in a UNSC High School
    6. With hot UNSC students
    7. And impossible hairstyles
    8. The soundtrack was done by the latest cookie-cutter boy band
    9. Spartan 117 was a troubled youth
    10. There was a cute comedy sidekick

    Did I miss anything?

    P.S. I am excited for this!

  • schnide #10 3 years ago

    11. Being able to buy Spartan's panties in a vending machine

  • RexRunti #11 3 years ago

    12. On each level there were a hundred and seventeen cute looking aliens to collect and a mini game where you get to feed them and play with them. This would have absoloutly no effect on the main game what so ever.

  • Xerx3s #12 3 years ago

    "Microsoft/Halo attempt to break the Japanese Market? Its the last big holdout. "

    Halo has always sold relatively well in japan.

  • VicViper #13 3 years ago

    more back story on the halo universe would be great, from what the terminals tell you in Halo 3 the forerunner/flood war was pretty spectacular towards the end. Also I wonder if they will show what a forerunner looked like?

  • Xerx3s #14 3 years ago

    VicViper:There is a shitload more backstory than the games show. Not only in books and comics but also through the various viral marketing such as the cortana letters (dating way before the first game was released). Especially the viral marketing campaings hint at a lot of forerunner stuff.
    Edited by 1 at 23/07/09 @ 11:25

  • XdarXideX #15 3 years ago

    I'll be looking forward to what Production I.G. and Studio 4'C do for this. They did my favorite episodes in the Animatrix.

    Dead Space: Downfall was not "Anime" and to the person who said Anime is for "nonces"... well that's just a stupid statement. Because you're not a fan of it, it must be for "nonces"? You probably don't have a clue what Anime is, the base of your opinion being on kids shows such as YuGiOh, Pokemon and Naruto... i expect.

  • Xerx3s #16 3 years ago

    farticusmaximus: We look like them but we aren't them. They specifically mentioned finding us.

  • WinterSnowblind #17 3 years ago

    "I offer no forgiveness for a Fathers sins passed down to his children"

    Yes, it was quite clear that the humans are what was left of the Forerunner, which is why the Prophets started the war with the humans to begin with. If they joined the Covenant, they would outrank them.

  • Xerx3s #18 3 years ago

    That's a rather speculative statement. It says nothing. It could very well mean that with 'children', he means the races that the forerunner protected.

  • GamesConnoisseur #19 3 years ago

    Hey only human hand can activates that switch right?

    So Forerunners and Humankind are related in some way not yet revealed.

    Great re anime!! looking forward to it

  • Spanky #20 3 years ago

    XdarXideX you think wrong, i know perfectly well what anime is and its latent nonceness. It's not a stupid comment either, it's the truth. Anime is loved by children and greasy adult men who love children ;)

  • Yossarian #21 3 years ago

    Here, let me make it easier for you guys:

    http://halo.wiki a.com/wiki/Reclaimer

    Oh, and:

    http://halo .wikia.com/wiki/The_Forerunner
    Edited by 1 at 23/07/09 @ 11:57

  • SpaceMonkey77 #22 3 years ago

    Halo anime? Yeah, I could see myself buying that. Halo has been a cool enough game, but the story always needed more.

    I respect Spanky's opinion, while I don't agree with it and know better. Anime and manga can be anything you can imagine and cover various topics for various ages. The majority of the good stuff doesn't get covered as much, so I see why it could be easy to look and see Naruto etc, and think its all crap. On top of that, like anything in life, some anime is crap and some paint it in a bad light. Tell me what kind of stuff you like Spanky, and I'll suggest something good for you to watch.

    Anyway, Production IG And Bones are seasoned in anime, give them a chance and I hope we get something cool like Gotham Knight. I hope MS decide to put some trailers for this onto Live.

    Nice Halo move, MS.

  • Xerx3s #23 3 years ago

    Still, nowhere does it say that the forerunners claim to be humans. The light bulbs have been known to be wrong or even lying when it suits them. The H3 messages say how one of the forerunner finds earth and talks about the species or something here.

  • XdarXideX #24 3 years ago

    ...and apparently Eurogamer is becoming a haven for ill-informed, ignorant twats.

  • VicViper #25 3 years ago

    @Xerx3s
    Oops forgot about all that stuff, Didn't one of the comics show the forerunners building stuff on earth with young humantiy looking on?

    I guess I would like to see the forerunner Civilization up and running maybe have a viewpoint from one in them (unlikely probaly).

  • Spanky #26 3 years ago

    Calm down XdarXideX i jest with the anime fanboys. My true opinion is that it's a cynical move by microsoft to court a specific demographic who are obnoxiously loyal to their chosen genre and will pay hand over fist for anything remotely related to it.

    Also anime production is cheap as fuck(compared to western equivalents).

  • SpaceMonkey77 #27 3 years ago


    Spanky, I really don't give monkeys about such things. And even if something is as cheap as you seem to think, doesn't make it less entertaining to watch. At the end of the day, I'm just looking to be entertained. While I watch and deal with a lot of anime, while doing some freelancing for an anime/manga website, there's a lot of western animation I grew up on, that I also like. The best example currently is Avatar, which is fun and western made, and if you like western animation as much as you say, you should check it out. More western animation should be made this way.

    I think your assumption that this is crap and so forth is true, but I ask you what have you seen to come to that conclusion.

    Akira is an awesome film (like it or not). Berserk is an awesome series, the likes of which you'd never see produced in the west, with all it blood letting. If more western animation would do the same kinds and range of stories anime covers, it would be more popular. Unfortunately, most of those who handle western animation, push it as a vehicle to sell merchandise than tell a decent, intelligent story or as one to just be funny (because that's all animation is good for, isn't it?...not). And there lies the problem.

    Sweet, both Halo and Ironman anime are out in 2010 .

  • miiiguel #28 3 years ago

    Spce and Spanky ilustrated something really interesting regarding western culture, in the West (well, mainly anlgo-saxon) somthing needs to be expensive to be "good". The price became more important than the value.

  • Spanky #29 3 years ago

    My assumption is coming from the OVA stuff mostly, not the anime films as such, i'm talking sailor moon, love hina etc not ghibli or otomo works. Behind most of these ova productions you will find the likes of hitachi and bandai(and in this case microsoft), it's about specifically targeted and engineered products that will rake in as much cash as possible and add nothing other than fluff to the universe in question(yeah yeah i know that artistic merit isn't on the agenda of most but at least there's a fraction).

    My inner cynic says that because the western Halo comics failed mostly(they didn't bring in many more players of the game as they were targeted directly at those already playing) they went for a different approach, one that will probably be more lucrative in the long run for them as there is currently little cultural crossover with halo.

  • Zomoniac #30 3 years ago

    Trailer.