During the Anime Awards, Crunchyroll gave us a sneak peak at many upcoming shows. Joran: The Princess of Blood & Snow is easily the cream of the crop, and looks like a future Anime of The Year winner. The trailer visually evokes the style of last year’s winner, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba; but is more mature in nature.
The year is 1931. Prince Tokugawa Yoshinobu is 94 years old and holds absolute control over Japan. Remnants of the Meiji era’s culture can be seen around the city, but scientific technology and Japanese esoteric cosmology Onmyodo are also developing, exuding a sense of modernity. Yet lurking behind the glitz is Kuchinawa, a dissident group planning the assassination of the prince, and effectively the fall of the regime. Tasked to extinguish these dissidents is Nue, the government’s secret executioner group. Sawa Yukimura, who works for this organization, suffered from an early age at the hands of the Kuchinawa boss. Her entire family was murdered and she dedicated her life to avenging their death.
Everything about that trailer screams hit show and ticks all the boxes for Anime of The Year potential. Right now, there is no set release date, but my best guess would be late 2021. What do you think of Joran: The Princess of Blood and Snow?