Gakuen Bungo Stray Dogs Game Launches November 6

Bungo Stray Dogs fans have a new mobile game on the horizon. On Saturday, the team behind Gakuen Bungo Stray Dogs, or Bungo Stray Dogs School, NextNinja’s smartphone title set in the franchise, revealed both its opening movie and a November 6 release date.

GRANRODEO performs the opening theme, “Magatsu Yoru wa Ao Nari.” The game spins a playful “what if” tale rooted in the anime’s world, reimagining the familiar cast in a school life setting.

This is not the franchise’s first trip to mobile. Bungo Stray Dogs: Tales of the Lost, known in Japan as Mayoi Inu Kaikitan, launched in 2017 and reached English players in 2018. That ability fling puzzle game told its own original scenario along with character side stories not seen in the anime.

The series itself began with Kafka Asagiri and Sango Harukawa’s manga, which runs in Kadokawa’s Young Ace magazine, with Yen Press handling the English releases of both the manga and the novels.

On screen, the anime has been remarkably prolific, with its first season airing in 2016 and four more following over the years, plus the film Bungo Stray Dogs: Dead Apple in 2018. The fifth season wrapped in September 2023 with an episode that promised more to come.

My take: A lighthearted school life spin on these characters sounds like a fun change of pace, and pairing it with a GRANRODEO theme is a smart way to win the longtime fans over.