2017 Godzilla Anime Film Penned by Gen Urobuchi, Animated by Polygon Pictures

An anime film of TOHO's iconic Godzilla franchise has been green-lit under the simple title in Roman characters,Godzilla. The staff presented a teaser visual:

Kobun Shizuno (Detective Conan: The Darkest Nightmare and other Detective Conan movies, Fist of the North Star: The Legend of Kenshirô, Fist of the North Star: The Legend of Toki) and Hiroyuki Seshita (Ajin, Knights of Sidonia) are directing the film at POLYGON PICTURES. Gen Urobuchi (Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Fate/Zero,Psycho-Pass) of Nitroplus is credted with the story concept and screenplay.

The film will open next year. TOHO Ad Co., Ltd registered the godzilla-anime.com domain earlier this month.

TOHO's newest Godzilla film, Shin Godzilla (known as Godzilla: Resurgence in Southeast Asia and other distribution territories), opened in Japan on July 29, and Funimation plans to release the film in theaters in late 2016. TOHO released the first film in the franchise in 1954, and since the opening of Shin Godzilla, TOHO's live-action Godzilla franchise of 29 films has collectively sold over 100 million tickets in Japan. American films about Godzilla opened in 1998 and 2014, and Legendary plans to release a Godzilla sequel in 2019, followed by Godzilla vs. Kong in 2020.

The franchise already inspired two western animated series: one from Hanna-Barbera in 1978 and one that served as a follow-up to the 1998 film. The Godzilla character first appeared in a Japanese television anime on July 22 in a crossover with Crayon Shin-chan. However, the upcoming anime project will be the franchise's first animated film.​