This martial arts story is finally getting an anime adaptation 39 years after its release – and it’s coming to Netflix very soon

Garouden: The Way of the Lone Wolf is coming to Netflix very soon

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Martial arts series Garōden is finally getting an anime adaptation at Netflix – 39 years after the novels debuted.

Netflix’s synopsisfor the series, titled Garouden: The Way of the Lone Wolf, reads: “On the run from his troubled past, Juzo is forced into competing in a deadly underground fighting tournament. Skilled in the respected martial art Takemiya-ryu, Juzo must navigate a path filled with formidable foes and his personal demons – all while dealing with a bounty of three million yen on his head and a detective on his trail.” Sign us up.

In the trailer, which you can watch above, we see plenty of martial arts; as the streamer notes, the show has captured movement from a range of martial artists across boxing, karate, sumo, wrestling, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu for extra realism. It certainly shows so far.

Garōden started out as a series of novels penned by Baku Yumemakura, with the first 13 installments released from 1985 to 2003. A manga adaptation by Jirō Taniguchi followed in 1989 and ran until 1990, with a second adaptation by Keisuke Itagak following in 1996 and running until a hiatus in 2010. Alongside those, there have been prequel and sequel stories, a feature film, and two video games. Netflix’s show is the first anime adaptation, however.

Netflix has had great success with its anime adaptations before – its live-action version of One Piece, for example, was a triumph, withOne Piece season 2confirmed.

Garōden: The Way of the Lone Wolf arrives on Netflix this May 23. For even more, fill out your watchlist with our guide to thebest anime shows on Netflixto stream now.

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I’m a Senior Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site’s Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.

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