The Magic The Gathering trading card game has just launched its 100th expansion, Outlaws of Thunder Junction, which uses the potential offered by Magic‘s multiverse setting to tackle a Western theme. To celebrate the expansion’s release, Magic The Gathering Japan has dropped a collaboration trailer that’s basically an Outlaws of Thunder Junction remake of Cowboy Bebop‘s opening animation sequence — it even retains the classic space western anime’s opening theme, “Tank!”
maxilla’s Charles Chung, who was previously one of the 3DCG staff for Magic: The Gathering’s Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty anime trailer, directed the “Cowboy Bebop x Magic: The Gathering Opening Homage Trailer” and was also its compositing director. The character designs are from illustrator and designer Apapico, while Jujutsu Kaisen‘s Eiko Matsushima was the video’s color designer. aeonium is the animaton production studio.
The trailer can’t be embedded, so you’ll have to watch it over on YouTube.
The trailer is part of a wider collaboration campaign in Japan, which will make use of some of the trailer’s Bebop opening-style artwork in other ways. From April 26, 2024 to March 31, 2025, a random postcard decorated with an illustration — there are five designs in total — will be given out to people who spend 3,000 yen (~US$19.43, inclusive of tax) on sealed MTG products that were released after January 2021 at Wizards Play Network stores. It is possible for customers to receive a voucher instead, and this can be used to redeem a random playmat and a sleeve set. These also use the same designs as the postcards.
Attendees of the Players Convention Aichi 2024 MTG festival, which will be held on May 25 and 26, have the chance to get a special playmat with a different design — it’s based on the 1:19 part of the trailer, with four greyscale characters and a red rectangle with the Magic the Gathering name extending across the middle. This playmat has to be fought for, with MTG fans being required to participate in one of three competitions and meet the respective conditions.
There is another component of this Cowboy Bebop x Magic: The Gathering collaboration campaign, but its details are still under guard at the time of writing.
Last year, Magic: The Gathering released an anime trailer to promote the Wilds of Eldraine expansion.
Source: Cowboy Bebop x Magic: The Gathering collaboration website
