Halo Legends anime series announced @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on July 23, 2009

News: The Master Chief will get the chance to conquer an entirely new medium now.

Microsoft has announced that the Halo universe will be expanding to the medium of anime in the form of a short film compilation dubbed Halo Legends. The series will be produced by 343 Industries, Microsoft's new production company that will handle all things Halo.

Similar to The Animatrix and Batman: Gotham Knight, Halo Legends will be a series of short films created by some of Japan's leading anime studios. Shinji Aramaki, director of Appleseed and Appleseed EX Machina, and Mamoru Oshii, director of the Ghost in the Shell movies, will provide creative direction over the project. They will be assisted by Joseph Chou of J-Spec Pictures. Warner Home Video will release the compilation on DVD, but no release date was given.

Microsoft has tapped five studios to create the animation for Halo Legends. They include some of the largest and most respected studios in the business: Bones (Cowboy Bebop: The Movie), Casio Entertainment (Big Man of Japan), Production I.G. (Ghost in the Shell, Blood: The Last Vampire), Studio4 Degrees C (The Animatrix, Batman: Gotham Knight) and Toei Animation (Dragon Ball, Digimon, Sailor Moon).

Microsoft has also used this opportunity to announce the Halo Waypoint, a new section of Xbox Live that will include Halo-related news, podcasts, trailers, screenshots and exclusive video footage. Halo Waypoint will launch in the Fall with a preview of select Halo Legends episodes and several behind-the-scenes "making of" featurettes.

More information about Halo Legends will be revealed at the Halo Legends panel at Comic-Con today. The panel will start at 7:30 PDT and include contributions from Frank O'Connor, head of 343 Industries, Joseph Chou, Shinji Aramaki, Mitsuhisa Ishikawa, president of Production I.G; and Tanaka, president of Studio4 Degrees C.

We'll have more soon.