The anime series Guin Saga

Guin Saga

is the title of a best-selling heroic fantasy novel series by the Japanese author Kaoru Kurimoto, in continuous publication since 1979. A record 100 volumes were originally planned, but the final total stands at 130 volumes, the last four published posthumously, with 21 side-story novels...

is based on the novel series of the same name by Kaoru Kurimoto

Kaoru Kurimoto

was the pen name of , an award-winning Japanese novelist. Imaoka also used the pen name to write criticism. She was known for her record-breaking 126-volume Guin Saga series, which has been translated into English, German, French, Italian and Russian...

. The series is directed by Atsushi Wakabayashi, his first directing role, and produced by Satelight

Satelight

is a Japanese animation studio.-History:The studio was founded on December 1995, in Sapporo, Hokkaidō, their first project being Bit the Cupid, the world's first fully digitally-animated television series. The name Satelight consists of S for Sapporo, A for Animate, T for Technology and E for...

. The episodes follow a mysterious warrior, Guin, who has the head of a leopard. He meets an ousted young prince and princess and helps them, while trying to recover his memories.

Kurimoto had been approached several times to permit an adaptation of Guin Saga but refused, as she felt that the story needed to be live-action and produced with Caucasian actors. On April 12, 2005, Micott & Basara (Japanese investors) announced plans to create an anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 based on Guin Saga. On April 3, 2009 an English-dubbed trailer was posted on the anime's official website. The 26 episodes of the Guin Saga anime aired from April 5, 2009 - September 27, 2009 on NHK BS-2. The episodes were later released as 9 DVDs from between July 22, 2009 and March 24, 2010. On May 7, 2010, North American anime licensor Sentai Filmworks announced that they acquired the series. It released the first DVD, comprising the first thirteen episodes, on March 29, 2011, and the second on May 31, 2011.

The anime is scored by Nobuo Uematsu

Nobuo Uematsu

is a Japanese video game composer, best known for scoring the majority of titles in the Final Fantasy series. He is considered as one of the most famous and respected composers in the video game community...

, his first full soundtrack for an anime series. It uses two pieces of theme music

Theme music

Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits...

. by Nobuo Uematsu

Nobuo Uematsu

is a Japanese video game composer, best known for scoring the majority of titles in the Final Fantasy series. He is considered as one of the most famous and respected composers in the video game community...

 is the series' opening theme, while "Saga~This is my road" by Kanon

Kanon (singer)

Kanon is a Japanese singer and song-writer born in Tokyo, Japan on March 9, 1980. She is signed to Sony Music Japan International.Her latest mini album, My Road ~ Songs for Guin Saga was released on August 26, 2009. Her fifth album planned to be released on March 31, 2011 as she stated on her blog....

 is the series' ending theme.

Production team

The screenplay

Screenplay

A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...

 for all the episodes was written by Shōji Yonemura

Shoji Yonemura

is a Japanese writer who has done work for various anime and tokusatsu television shows and films. He is originally from Fukuoka Prefecture, Kyushu Island, Japan.-Biography:...

, and the entire series was storyboard

Storyboard

Storyboards are graphic organizers in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence....

ed by Atsushi Wakabayashi.

Episode list

Ep No.	Title	Production	Animation director	Airdate

Volume DVDs

The episodes were released as a 9 DVD limited edition set from between July 22, 2009 and March 24, 2010.

Japanese releases

(Japan, Region 2 DVD)

Volume		Episodes	Release date	Ref.
	Volume 1	1–2	July 22, 2009
	Volume 2	3–5	August 26, 2009
	Volume 3	6–8	September 30, 2009
	Volume 4	9–11	October 28, 2009
	Volume 5	12–14	November 25, 2009
	Volume 6	15–17	December 23, 2009
	Volume 7	18–20	January 27, 2010
	Volume 8	21–23	February 24, 2010
	Volume 9	24–26	March 24, 2010

North American release

Sentai Filmworks released the English subtitled version of the series in two hybrid DVD

Hybrid DVD

Hybrid DVD was the name for discs such as HD DVD and Blu-Ray before they were released. This was started when the CEO of Sony called for a "Hybrid DVD that all DVD players can use and extend to all the beauty and surreal images of a High Definition display."...

compilations which contain thirteen episodes each.

(North America, Region 1 DVD)

Volume		Episodes	Release date	Ref.
	Volume 1	1–13	March 29, 2011
	Volume 2	14–26	May 31, 2011