News: Manga Konjiki no Gash/Zatch Bell! to be Adapted into Smartphone RPG

Game releases this year, with closed beta test planned for mid-September

Toei Animation, GameOn, and NEOWIZ announced on Thursday that they are developing a smartphone game based on Makoto Raiku‘s Zatch Bell (Konjiki no Gash!!) 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.

NEOWIZ is developing the game. The game is accepting applications for a closed beta test from Thursday until September 6, with the closed beta test taking place in mid-September.

91gpi8jr5tl — © Makoto Raiku, Shogakukan

The manga series 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 first 25 volumes of the manga in North America before discontinuing the title. Viz describes the story:

Kiyomaro Takamine is a brilliant junior high student whose inflated ego (and tendency to blow the grading curve) has made him a major target for teasing at school. So his father sends him a bizarre birthday present — a strange little boy named Gash — to help him make friends and reform his bad attitude. Gash brings with him a mysterious red volume of spells, and Kiyomaro discovers that Gash has magic powers that are unleashed by reading from the book! But there are more surprises to come, and Kiyomaro’s destiny is about to change forever!

The manga inspired a 150-episode television anime that ran from 2003 to 2006, as well as the Zatch Bell: 101st Devil and the Zatch Bell: Attack of Mechavulcan anime films in 2004 and 2005, respectively. Toonami aired 77 episodes of the anime from 2005 to 2007. Viz Media released the first 100 episodes of the series through DVD compilations from 2005 to 2007.

Raiku stopped working with Shogakukan after settling a lawsuit with the publisher regarding five color art pieces by Raiku that the publisher had lost. Raiku launched the 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 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 abruptly ended it in March 2017.

Source: Comic Natalie