Back in 2007, The World Ends With You was a novel take on a computer RPG from Square Enix for the Nintendo DS.
The game had an art style that paid tribute to the Shibuya shopping district in Tokyo as the associated youth culture, as did the missions. In the game, Neku Sakuraba and friends are forced to take part in a match and success or failure in it will determine their fate.
Square Enix announced the return of the title in July, but not as a game, and as an anime instead. It featured in the Anime Expo LIte mega thread.
This clip shows Neku arriving in the Underground. In the game, it was an alternative plane of reality.
The anime is due out next year through Funimation and will feature the same cast in the game. Kazuya Ichikawa is directing and the game’s director Tatsuya Kando is involved as a supervisor. According to Kando, the plan had already been to do an anime, but there had been neither time nor money left after the game.
Thank you to Geek Native's Patreon supporters who made this article possible.
