The game released this year, with closed beta testing planned for mid-September
Toei Animation, GameOn and NEOWIZ announced on Thursday that they are developing a smartphone game based on Makoto Raiku Gash’s Zatch Bell (Konjiki no) manga series. The game is titled Konjiki no Gash Bell!! Towa no Kizuna no Nakama-tachi (Zatch Bell: Friends are an Eternal Bond) and will release this year.
©雷句 誠/東映アニメーション ©GameOn Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.Developed by NEOWIZ
NEOWIZ is developing the game. The game is accepting applications for closed beta testing from Thursday to September 6, with closed testing taking place in mid-September.
© Makoto Raiku, Shogakukan
The manga launched in Shogakukan’s Weekly Shonen Sunday magazine in 2001 and ended in 2007. Shogakukan published 33 compiled book volumes for the series. Viz Media released the manga’s first 25 volumes in North America before discontinuing the title. Viz describes the story:
Kiyomaro Takamine is an outstanding high school student whose ego (and tendency to break the grading curve) has made him a prime target for teasing at school. So his father sends him a strange birthday present — a strange boy named Gash — to help him make friends and change his bad attitude. Gash carries a mysterious red spellbook, and Kiyomaro discovers that Gash has magical powers that are released when reading! But there are more surprises to come, and Kiyomaro’s fate is about to change forever!
The manga inspired a 150-episode television anime that ran from 2003 to 2006, as well as Zatch Bell: 101st Devil and the Zatch Bell: Attack of Mechavulcan anime in 2004 and 2005. It aired 77 episodes of the anime from 2005 to 2007. Viz Media released the first 100 episodes of the anime through DVD compilation from 2005 to 2007.
Raiku stopped collaborating with Shogakukan after settling a lawsuit with the publisher over five of Raiku’s color artworks that the publisher lost. Raiku releases Konjiki no Gash!! 2 manga on various digital book services in March 2022.
Raiku launched his Animal Land (Dōbutsu no Kuni) manga in Kodansha’s Bessatsu Shōnen Magazine in 2009 and ended it in 2013. Kodansha has published 14 compiled book volumes for the series. Kodansha Comics published the manga in North America.
Raiku launched the school fantasy manga Vector Ball in April 2016, but ended it abruptly in March 2017.
Source: Natalie Comics