The long-awaited Despera project will now move forward as a manga, beginning serialization as early as next year.

Writer Chiaki J. Konaka and character designer Yoshitoshi Abe confirmed the change at the Japan Weekend event in Madrid on September 26. Even though they have not yet given up on an anime adaptation, Konaka explained that the current state of the industry makes series without an original work incredibly difficult to get off the ground. A manga could therefore help to inspire confidence in the project from potential investors and production partners, even though a light novel was already published in 2010.

In terms of story, Konaka described the manga adaptation of Despera as a kind of "episode zero," featuring many different elements from the original version announced in 2007. This is no surprise given that Konaka already confirmed in 2021 that many aspects of the series had now changed, including the setting. Some early character designs and storyboards by Abe were also shown off for attendees.

Despera has been in development since at least 2013, when director Ryutarou Nakamura passed away due to pancreatic cancer. Since then, the project has been a white whale for many anime fans in the same way as The Dream Machine by Satoshi Kon, but could there now be light at the end of the tunnel?