Yusuke Murata, the artist behind the successful One-Punch Man manga, released a first look at an original anime he is working on, Zaiyuki. Inspired by the classic Journey to the West tale, the short clips are enough to showcase the incredible talent that makes Murata one of the most appreciated artists in the industry.
On March 6, Yusuke Murata shared on his Twitter account the first look at Zaiyuki, a new anime that he has been working on as a project of his in-house anime production studio, Village Studio. Divided into two clips, the teaser presents the main characters of the story, already seen in sketches previously published by Murata. The story follows a Kappa (mythical turtle-like creatures of Japanese folklore) boy, Gojyo, after his chance meeting with a treasure hunter called Xuanzang.
Zaiyuki Already Impresses Fans With The First Look At Its Animation
In the clips shared on Twitter, Gojyo seems quite unhappy with his life in the Kappa village, being really bad at the activities usually associated with these creatures, such as swimming and sumo wrestling. After winning a lottery prize, Gojyo goes on a trip overseas, and a mysterious old man gives him a stone that hatches into a golden fur monkey, clearly inspired by Son Goku/Sun Wukong of Journey to the West. Gojyo and the monkey, Seiten Daisho, are attacked by armed police in the airport and rescued by Xuanzang and his voluptuous partner, Ros.
In the previous months, Murata has teased on Twitter that he was working on an animation project, leaving fans shocked, considering that he is also surpassing artistic expectations with every bi-weekly chapter of One-Punch Man, sometimes even taking advantage of the digital format of the manga to add small animations to the pages. Zaiyuki's animation has also received overwhelmingly positive comments, despite being still in its very early stages and lacking sound. The character design, with Murata's instantly-recognizable style, has especially impressed fans. The series seems to be a mix of Chinese and Japanese folklore in a modern setting, which is very different from Murata's previous works, the American football high school drama Eyeshield 21 and the superhero comedy action One-Punch Man.
While being one of the most appreciated active manga artists, Murata has never hidden his interest in animation. He directed and animated a One-Punch Man anime short in September 2021, which many fans described as being way better than the much-maligned Season 2 of the series. The release date for Zayuki still has to be announced, but fans of Yusuke Murata already think that the artist will surpass himself once again.
Source: Yusuke Murata on Twitter.