First Look at Virgin Punk, Studio SHAFT’s Latest Anime

Summary

Virgin Punk is an original anime by SHAFT, directed by Yasuomi Umetsu, premiering in 2025.
The story, titled "Clockwork Girl," hints at a steampunk theme, featuring a bounty hunter named Ubu.
Virgin Punk's release format remains unclear, possibly as a series or films premiering in theaters.

It is not often that anime are released that are totally original, not based on any manga or light novel. Very few begin just as an anime. But that is exactly what Virgin Punk, the latest anime announced by famous studio SHAFT, is. Virgin Punk is a totally new story, made just for this upcoming anime. The story will be told in smaller parts, the first of which was just announced this week.

The announcement for Virgin Punk came during the Aniplex Online Fest stream this past Monday. Aniplex announced the project from SHAFT, under director Yasuomi Umetsu, and released a first-look trailer and some visuals. The first part of the Virgin Punk project is titled "Clockwork Girl," hinting at a steampunk theme for the series, and it will be released in early summer 2025 - though only at two select cinemas in Tokyo (Cine Libre Ikebukuro) and Osaka (Theater Umeda) for now.

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By Rie Takumi

Yasuomi Umetsu Returns to Anime Directing

A Collaboration Between Umetsu and SHAFT

Yasuomi Umetsu is going to be directing Virgin Punk, along with designing the characters. He is also the mind behind the anime Kite (1998) and Mezzo Forte (2000), along with the anime movie Kiss and Cry. According to the Virgin Punk official website, he has been gaining popularity for his work both domestically and internationally for his work as both an animator and a director for opening and ending anime videos. That is why he is returning to direct a full project for the first time in over ten years.

Meanwhile, SHAFT is a big name studio in the anime world. Works by the studio include Puella Magi Madoka Magica, the Monogatari series, and Mekakucity Actors to name a few of the most well-known titles. Series like Madoka Magica and Monogatari are becoming classic anime that fans have watched over and over again, and continue to be popular even years after they first aired, giving SHAFT a strong legacy in the anime world.

Virgin Punk is being made by Yasuomi Umetsu working alongside SHAFT. Umetsu is planning and writing this new original story idea, but the script has been written by Yuya Takahashi, who also wrote the Kamen Rider series and Lupin III: Part IV. The main animators are Gen'ichirou Abe (Kizumonogatari Part 1: Tekketsu film), Shinya Takahashi (Battle Angel key animation), and Maho Kando (Josee).

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By Oluwatokiloba Folami

What is Virgin Punk About?

An Original Story

As Virgin Punk was just announced this week, there is not a lot of information for what the anime will be about yet. The main character who is featured on the promotional poster is named Ubu, and she is a bounty hunter. AnimeNewsNetwork reports that Virgin Punk will focus on the "suffering" of Ubu, and "the desire and chaos the strong characters who surround her have woven," which is also all the official website says right now. The trailer shows Ubu escaping from some kind of facility at the beginning, seemingly confused and lost, and later showcases her skill with guns. The setting is 2099 in a semi-futuristic, European-style town, crossing fantasy elements with sci-fi ones. It seems to be heavily focused on gun battles.

So far, that is the only real information that has been released. Even the nature of how Virgin Punk will be released remains shrouded in mystery at the moment. The first movie in the project, titled "Clockwork Girl," will release next summer, though the official website reports it will only be at two theaters for now. Whether Virgin Punk will be a series of movies, or an anime series that just begins with a movie acting as an extra long introductory episode, remains to be seen. Given that SHAFT is making the anime, it is unlikely that it will only have a limited release for very long.

While Virgin Punk may premier only at two theaters in Japan next summer, it will likely either spread to more theaters over the course of the summer or start to air as a normal series on TV. Many big anime premier their first episode (or a few) at theaters in Japan these days, giving fans a chance to see it on the big screen and have early access that others do not have. The trailer, though, does call it a "Yasuomi Umetsu Film," which means it may be a series of movies instead. Virgin Punk could well be either, so keep your eyes on the news in the coming months as more information is released.