Tesla Note - What We Know So Far
"Tesla Note" – like so many other successful Japanese manga — is being brought to life on the small screen this fall. The manga is about International intelligence agents who are trying to protect the sacred crystal created by Nikola Tesla from falling into the hands of evil. It's currently in serialization in "Magazine Pocket." Masafumi Nishida and Tadayoshi Kubo are the main writers for the manga, while Kōta Sannomiya is the lead illustrator. Nishida is also famous for screenwriting the popular "Tiger & Bunny" anime franchise.
The YouTube trailer for Season 1 briefly introduces the main cast members to viewers. It also features some captions which aren't exactly the best Japanese-to-English translations we've ever seen. Regardless, it looks like an interesting watch. And if you're a fan of anime, you should keep reading if you want to learn more info about the release date, characters, and plot of the show.
When is the release date of Tesla Note?
The good news is that we now know for sure "Tesla Note" will premiere in October 2021, per Anime News Network. The less satisfying news is that we don't yet know the specific day. It will likely start airing on local Japanese networks first and eventually make its way across the Pacific for American audiences. The delay for popular anime shows could be as little as a few days or as long as a couple of weeks, depending on whether fans outside of Japan need to wait for subtitles or dubbing in their native language.
If you don't live in Japan, keep a close eye on websites like Crunchyroll or Funimation. They usually have a fairly quick turnaround when it comes to making popular Japanese anime into something that non-native speakers can understand and consume. They air episodes of several different anime shows for free — but with ads. However, you can purchase a premium subscription and not only avoid ads, but usually get to watch the episodes the second they are available.
Who is in the voice cast of Tesla Note?
The show centers around ninja-spy Botan Negoro (voiced by Konomi Kohara) and her partner, the mononymous and colorfully dressed Kuruma (Tatsuhisa Suzuki). Speaking of interesting outfits, Botan's cutesy little schoolgirl outfit seems wildly out of place — and even borderline inappropriate — for someone who has years of ninja training and works as an intelligence agent. Then again, this is Japan. We've seen weirder.
The other three members of the main cast are the sharply dressed, handsomely drawn Ryūnosuke Takamatsu (Tomoaki Maeno), Mickey Miller (Junichi Suwabe), and Oliver Thornton (Hiroshi Kamiya), according to Anime News Network. It's unclear whether these male models cleverly disguised as CIA agents are the cohorts or the foils of the leading characters. The most recent additions to the cast include JIB chief Kyohei Himi (Kazuya Nakai), Botan's grandfather (Mugihito), Section head Kensuke Toriumi (Hidenobu Kiuchi), and Lily Steiner (Shizuka Itou), Miller's boss at the CIA.
What is the plot of Tesla Note?
The plot of "Tesla Note" centers around Botan and friends trying to successfully complete "Mission T," a secret espionage war for possession of the mysterious Tesla Crystal. Whoever gets to the crystal first will win this war — and, depending on their intentions, either save or destroy the world. And for anyone who was wondering, yes, that's a reference to renowned inventor Nikola Tesla, a brilliant Serbian American inventor whose ideas were stolen; he later died impoverished and disgraced. It's unclear how much Tesla's backstory will factor in the overarching plot.
So far, the internet is pretty hush-hush about the finer details of what fans can expect from Season 1. Are the American CIA agents working with Botan and Kuruma to save the world, or are they against them? If they are working together, then who are the bad guys? Fans of the manga probably have answers to these questions, but the show's creators aren't exactly forthcoming with the info. This may give the anime showrunners plenty of room to deviate from the manga's plot and create something unique. However, this can often backfire and trigger backlash from fans of the source material.