Drifters (anime)

Drifters
Drifters cover released in Japan
ドリフターズ (Dorifutāzu)
Genre	Action, Alternative history, Science Fantasy
Manga
Written by	Kouta Hirano
Published by	Shōnen Gahosha
English publisher	NA / UK Dark Horse Comics
Demographic	Seinen
Magazine	Young King OURs
Original run	April 30, 2009 – present
Volumes	5 (List of volumes)
Original video animation
Studio	Hoods Drifters Studio
Released	June 6, 2016
Runtime	36 minutes
Anime television series
Directed by	Kenichi Suzuki
Produced by	Hisato Usui Masaru Nagai Rikichiro Toda Yasuyuki Ueda Yoshiyuki Fudetani
Written by	Hideyuki Kurata Yōsuke Kuroda
Music by	Yasushi Ishii Hayato Matsuo
Studio	Hoods Drifters Studio
Licensed by	NA Funimation UK Universal Pictures UK (home video)
Original network	Tokyo MX, GYT, KBS, MBC, GBS
Original run	October 7, 2016 – December 23, 2016
Episodes	12 (List of episodes)

Drifters (ドリフターズ, Dorifutazu) is an action science fantasy alternate history Japanese manga written and illustrated by Kouta Hirano. The manga started serialization in Shōnen Gahosha's magazine, Young King Ours, on April 30, 2009. It centers on various historical figures summoned to an unknown world where their skills and techniques are needed by magicians in order to save their world from total destruction. An anime television adaptation aired between October 7, 2016 and December 23, 2016. A second season of the anime series has been announced.

Shimazu Toyohisa, while involved at the Battle of Sekigahara, manages to mortally wound Ii Naomasa, but is critically damaged in the process. As he walks from the field wounded and bleeding, Toyohisa finds himself transported to a corridor of doors, where a bespectacled man at a desk waits for him. This man, Murasaki, sends Toyohisa into the nearest door where he wakes up in another world. There, Toyohisa meets other great warriors like him who have been transported as well, to be part of a group known as "Drifters".

This world contains both native humans and a number of fantastical races, including elves, dwarves, and hobbits. However, the world is at war, with the humans waging a losing war against another group of great warriors, the "Ends", who wish to take over the world and kill all of the Drifters. Under the Ends' command are many terrible creatures, including giants and dragons, which they use to destroy everything in their path. At the start of the series, the Ends' army has control of the northern part of the continent, and are currently trying to invade the south through a pivotal fortress at the northernmost tip of a nation called Carneades. Meanwhile, the "Octobrist Organization", a group of human magicians native to this world, attempts to bring together the many individual Drifters to save their world from the brutal Ends.

The titular Drifters are heroes, leaders, and great warriors from different eras and cultures that have been brought to an unknown world by Murasaki, where they are meant to fight the Ends. A common element to the Drifters is that, although they are driven by violence, victory, and conquest, most of them are not cruel and do not tolerate the hurting of innocents. Unlike the Ends, the Drifters have no magic abilities unless they were born with them, and therefore must largely rely on their technology and tenacity to survive.