Despera Manga Set for 2027 After Anime Project’s Long Delay

Chiaki J. Konaka announced last weekend at Japan Weekend Madrid in Spain that Yoshitoshi ABe’s Despera anime project will receive a manga in 2027. He shared a visual on X/Twitter on Monday.

Konaka said the manga will use a different setting and era from those announced for the original project. He also clarified that Despera has no connection to Serial Experiments Lain.

His previous update came in 2021, when he said the COVID-19 pandemic had suspended the project for a year and a few months. At that point, the production funding scheme was 80% complete.

Konaka said the core staff had completed substantial work through 2020. He confirmed that staff members continued working hard on the project and asked fans to remain patient.

The anime went on hold after director Ryūtarō Nakamura died in 2013. In October 2014, ABe said work was continuing under a new director.

ABe introduced Despera at Seattle’s Sakura-Con in 2009. He led the project and designed its characters, while Konaka wrote the script.

The story follows Ain, a 14-year-old girl who builds devices without the scientific background needed to create them. The science-fiction project originally took place in Japan’s Taishō era in 1922, one year before the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake in the Tokyo area.

Despera takes its name from a poem by Dadaist poet Jun Tsuji (1884–1944) and an abbreviated form of “desperado.”

ABe’s credits include creator and character designer for Serial Experiments Lain and Haibane Renmei. Konaka served as series script supervisor on:

• Serial Experiments Lain
• Texhnolyze
• Hellsing