The upcoming Tokyo Revengers: Christmas Showdown Arc has been revealed to be a Disney+ streaming exclusive. It will debut on the platform in January 2023.

As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, the move stems from Disney’s expansion of its partnership with publisher Kodansha. Aside from licensing anime adaptations of Kodansha-published manga, Disney also plans to co-produce original anime for Disney+.

Carol Choi, Disney’s executive VP of original content strategy in APAC, was quoted as saying, “Japanese anime fills the white space in our content development plans and we believe this expanded collaboration will be a game changer in Disney’s future animation strategy in Japan. We look forward to bringing the anime titles and prized IP by Kodansha to the world stage.”

Disney+’s current slate of exclusive anime titles includes Summer Time Rendering, The Tatami Time Machine Blues, and Black Rock Shooter Dawn Fall.

Tokyo Revengers: Christmas Showdown Arc is based on the manga by Ken Wakui, which began in March 2017 and has 29 tankoubon volumes as of August 2022. The first season of the anime ran from April to September 2021. 

Kodansha USA describes the manga, which is serialized in Weekly Shounen Magazine and published under the Kodansha Comics label, as:

Watching the news, Takemichi Hanagaki learns that his girlfriend from way back in middle school, Hinata Tachibana, has died. The only girlfriend he ever had was just killed by a villainous group known as the Tokyo Manji Gang. He lives in a crappy apartment with thin walls, and his six-years-younger boss treats him like an idiot. Plus, he’s a complete and total virgin … At the height of his rock-bottom life, he suddenly time-leaps twelve years back to his middle school days!! To save Hinata, and change the life he spent running away, hopeless part-timer Takemichi must aim for the top of Kanto’s most sinister delinquent gang!!

The returning staff includes Kouichi Hatsumi as director, Yasuyuki Mutou as series composer, and Kenichi Ohnuki and Keiko Oota as character designers, Kunio Tsujita as color designer, Mitsuyoshi Yamamoto as photography director, and Hiroaki Tsutsumi as music composer. Rumi Matsumoto (Tokyo Mew Mew New background artist) is taking over as art director from Manabu Otsuzuki. LIDENFILMS remains the animation production company. 

Meanwhile, the returning cast includes Masaaki Mizunaka as Keisuke Baji, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Takashi Mitsuya, Subaru Kimura as Haruki Hayashida, Yukihiro Nozuyama as Ryohei Hayashi, Kengo Kawanishi as Nahoya Kawata, Daisuke Ono as Yasuhiro Muto, Eiji Takeuchi as Nobutaka Osanai, Yuuki Shin as Takemichi Hanagaki, Azumi Waki as Hinata Tachibana, Ryouta Oosaka as Naoto Tachibana, and Yuu Hayashi as Manjiro “Mikey” Sano. Masaya Fukunishi is replacing Tatsuhisa Suzuki as the voice of Ken “Draken” Ryuuguuji. 

Making their debut in Tokyo Revengers: Christmas Showdown Arc are Tomokazu Sugita as the Black Dragon gang’s leader Taiju Shiba and Mikako Komatsu as Taiju’s younger sister Yuzuha Shiba.