Since there's plenty of crossover between fans of Marvel and DC Comics and fans of anime and manga, for the benefit of our fans, the Bam Smack Pow team is going to be bringing you the most important anime and manga related news each and every week to make sure you don't miss a thing.
Here are the major stories in anime and manga for the past week:
Live-action Gundam movie enters full production
IGN reports that the long-awaited Mobile Suit Gundam live-action movie adaptation has begun full production following the announcement of a co-funding deal between Bandai Namco Filmworks — the iconic anime franchise's longtime studio — and Legendary Pictures (the Nolanverse Batman movies, the MonsterVerse, Denis Villeneuve's Dune movies). The live-action adaptation was first announced in 2018, but news has been sparse until now.
The official press release from Bandai Namco Filmworks (also known by its former name Sunrise) reads as follows:
"Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc. (Headquarters: Suginami-ku, Tokyo, President & CEO: Makoto Asanuma), a member of the Bandai Namco Group, and LEGENDARY (Headquarters: California, U.S.A.) have signed an agreement in January 2025 to co-finance “GUNDAM (tentative name)” (referred to as “GUNDAM”), a Hollywood live-action film adaptation of the Mobile Suit Gundam series."
The press release has also announced that an American subsidiary, Bandai Namco Filmworks America, will be established later in the year to facilitate the film's production, as well as revealing that it will be directed by Jim Mickle (Sweet Tooth). The new Gundam movie will be released theatrically around the world, but a release date has not yet been announced.
The majority of the Gundam franchise, including anime series and movies, is currently streaming on Crunchyroll. The latest anime in the franchise, the Unreal Engine 5-animated Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance is streaming on Netflix as a Netflix Original series.
DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO game annonuces major sales milestone
As reported by Crunchyroll and shared by the video game's official X (formerly Twitter) account, DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO has surpassed 5 million copies sold.
Sparking! ZERO hit 5 million❗️ pic.twitter.com/pImVQLfOHX
— Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO (@DBSparkingZER0) February 4, 2025
Notably, this also makes Sparking! ZERO the fastest-ever selling Dragon Ball game, hitting that milestone after releasing on October 11, 2024 — the same day as the latest anime series in the franchise, Dragon Ball DAIMA premiered as part of the celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the debut of the original Dragon Ball manga in the pages of the iconic Shōnen Jump magazine.
DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO is out now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S and Steam. Dragon Ball DAIMA is currently streaming on Netflix, Hulu and Crunchyroll.
My Hero Academia reveals collaboration with Captain America: Brave New World
Crunchyroll has shared the video (above) posted by Toho Animation, the studio behind the anime adaptation of the hit superhero series My Hero Academia, to promote the upcoming release of Marvel's Captain America: Brave New World.
Fittingly, the video is narrated (in Japanese) by voice actor Yuichi Nakamura, the actor who voices both My Hero Academia's Hawks and provides the voice of Steve Rogers in the Japanese-language dubs of the MCU movies. My Hero Academia and the MCU previously collaborated to promote the release of Avengers: Infinity War back in 2018.
Captain America: Brave New World is currently scheduled to release in theaters on February 14, 2025. My Hero Academia is streaming on Netflix, Hulu and Crunchyroll.
Netflix's One Piece wraps filming for Season 2
Although the gap between seasons of Netflix's live-action One Piece adaptation has been long, the streaming service has been providing regular updates about the status of Season 2 — including the forthcoming release of One Piece-themed Lego sets.
Via the Tudum companion site, Netflix has broken the major announcement that Season 2 has wrapped filming as of February 4, 2025. Netflix had previously announced the creator of the original One Piece manga, Eiichiro Oda visited the set during filming, who has been serving as an executive producer for the Netflix series.
However, a release date for Season 2 has not yet been revealed.
New episodes of the One Piece anime are currently on a hiatus expected to last until April. The original manga series has gone through several extended hiatuses in recent months as Oda deals with ongoing health problems.
In addition to the live-action series, the anime series is also streaming on Netflix — as well as Hulu and Crunchyroll.
Weekly anime recommendation: Dragon Ball DAIMA
In addition to bringing you all the can't miss anime news for the week, the Bam Smack Pow team also has plenty of recommendations for can't miss anime that both longtime anime fans and newcomers just need to watch. Inspired by the news of DRAGON BALL: Sparking! ZERO's 5 million sales milestone, this week's recommendation is the latest anime in the iconic franchise: Dragon Ball DAIMA.
Set in the approximately 10-year time gap between the events of Dragon Ball Z and the 2015 sequel series Dragon Ball Super, DAIMA is a major throwback to the original Dragon Ball — which makes sense, since the new anime was released to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the original Dragon Ball, not least of all because the premise of the series is based on Goku (along with the rest of the cast) being aged down to his age during the original series thanks to primary villain Gomah's wish on the Dragon Balls. So far, DAIMA has been significantly more lighthearted and comedy-focused than Dragon Ball Z, evoking the spirit of the early story arcs of the original series and following the example set by Super.
Notably, this throwback extends to the casting decisions. The English dub of DAIMA features the return of voice actor Stephanie Nadolny as Mini Goku for the first time in 14 years. Nadolny will be recognizable to longtime fans as the original voice of original Dragon Ball-era Goku after Funimation (which has since been merged into Crunchyroll) took over the license to the series in English from Vancouver, Canada-based studio Ocean.
Crunchyroll provides the following brief summary for Dragon Ball DAIMA:
"Goku and company were living peaceful lives when they suddenly turned small due to a conspiracy! When they discover that the reason for this may lie in a world known as the Demon Realm; a mysterious young Majin named Glorio appears before them."
As previously stated, Dragon Ball DAIMA is currently streaming on Netflix, Hulu and Crunchyroll. As of this writing, the English dub of Dragon Ball DAIMA is exclusive to Crunchyroll. New episodes go live every Saturday.
Keep coming back each and every week for another recap of all the most important anime news and a new anime recommendation!