Back in 2003, the anime company Broccoli (best known for their Akihabara-based megastore “Gamers” and its mascots, the characters from Di Gi Charat) announced a mecha/fighting action anime called Neppu Kairiku Bushilord. At the time, Bushilord was poised to come out at around the same time as a number of other giant robot series such as Shinkon Gattai Godannar and New Getter Robo, and it was to be animated in part by Studio Gainax, the studio which created such all-time giant robot favorites as Neon Genesis Evangelion andAim for the Top!! Gunbuster.

Bushilord ended up becoming a light novel, a drama cd, even a manga, but oddly enough the anime was nowhere to be seen. Fans waited, and continue to wait, as to date no anime has been made. Gainax even went on to release its Rebuild of Evangelion movies, as well as Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann.

Then in the past year or so, an unusual sponsor began to show up for on-air anime: Bushiroad. Now if you were to write “Bushilord” and “Bushiroad” in Japanese, they would end up being the same word, “ブシロード.” Bushiroad turns out to be a far different property fromBushilord, the “road” part of the name appearing to emphasize the crossover nature of the franchise. Bushiroad is essentially a series of trading card games under a single banner, with titles such as Weiβ Schwarz (a game crossing over series such as Lucky Star, Fate/Stay Night, Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, Persona 4, Sengoku Basara, and The Familiar of Zero), Shounen Sunday vs Shounen Magazine (a crossover of the two famous 50+ year-old manga magazines), and Alice Cross (advertised as the “TRADING CARD GAME for women”), as opposed to the mecha/fighting action theme Bushilord was supposed to be. One thing Bushilord and Bushiroad do have in common though is their primary backer: Broccoli.

 So what became of Bushilord? My suspicion is that Broccoli took the Bushilord name and used the ambiguous power of katakana to adapt it into a new property, one designed to appeal to anime and manga fans from all walks of life. And if everBushilord is actually brought to completion, it would fit comfortably alongside the other anime and games in Weiβ Schwarz. Bushiroadmeanwhile has made strides in the English-speaking Asian community, holding tournaments in countries such as Hong Kong and Singapore.

On a side note, it’s interesting to point out that while Lucky Star is one of the series participating in Bushiroad, its anime adaptation featured a cameo from Anizawa Meito, the character mascot of the anime store and Gamers rival “Animate.” Adversity makes strange bed fellows indeed.