The Cartoon Network has announced, in its own inimitable way, the new series, which will premier on the popular late night animation block in 2004.  Three of the series announced are recent anime productions: Witch Hunter Robin, which debuts in February, Wolf's Rain, currently scheduled for April, and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, now slated for July. 

Witch Hunter Robin

Witch Hunter Robin's appearance on the Cartoon Network has been predicted for sometime (see 'Witch Hunter Robin Coming to the Cartoon Network'), and certainly Adult Swim is the right fit for this most 'gothic' of all anime series.  Superbly produced by Sunrise Animation, Witch Hunter Robin has already been a hit for Bandai, and exposure on the Cartoon Network could create a large audience for this series among the black trench coat crowd.

Wolf's Rain

Produced by Bandai Visual and Studio Bones, Wolf's Rain is a dark fantasy set in a post apocalyptic future where cities are run by decadent nobles and wolves have been extinct for over 200 years -- except they haven't really died off, they have just assumed human form and dispersed among the human population.  In Wolf's Rain, which aired for the first time in Japan in 2003, four 'wolves' band together in a search for the scent of the Flower Daughter, which will lead them to the paradise at the end of the world.  Often bloody and melodramatic Wolf's Rain is a very different sort of anime in part because the principal characters are wolves and display canine rather than human emotions.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

The Ghost in the Shell property will undergo a major revival in 2004 thanks in part to a new Ghost in the Shell feature film (see 'Major Anime Movie Release Dates Revealed'), and the debut of the Stand Alone Complex TV anime series on Adult Swim in July.  With characters from the GIS movies and set in the same near future society in which the line between the digital world and the physical world has become blurred, GIS: Stand Alone Complex, which was recently renewed for a second season in Japan (see 'Another Season For Stand Alone Complex'), mixes self-contained, 'stand-alone' episodes, with episodes, which advance a central storyline.