In December 2005, Emily Rodda and her husband, Bob Ryan, went to Tokyo to attend the preview of the Deltora Quest anime TV series. The preview was at the Australian Embassy, and was hosted by the Australian Ambassador, Mr Murray McLean and introduced by Mr Kazutaka Kumagai. executive director of TV Aichi. Fifty press and TV journalists attended, with fifty especially invited Deltora Quest fans and their parents, and many other guests, including the DQ anime producers and backers, representatives of the Australia-Japan Foundation and Austrade, Emily Rodda’s Japanese translators, and the publishers of the Deltora Quest books in Japan.

After a heavy publicity campaign, including TV ads, posters on trains and a four-story picture of Lief on a six-storey building, the first episode of the DQ anime was screened in Japan on Saturday 6th January 2006 on the TV Aichi network. Ratings have continued to climb each week since then, and it seems that the exciting, beautifully produced anime, which so successfully brings to life Lief, Barda and Jasmine’s perilous quest in the magic world of Deltora, will be as big a hit as the DQ book series has been in Japan.

Spin-offs from the anime include a whole range of Manga comics and graphic novels. Coming up are a Nintendo DS game, a card game, swing toys, CDs and even a shampoo!

Promotional image for the Deltora Nintendo DS game.	The monthly Manga, Comic Bon Bon! featuring Lief on the front cover.

All this is happening now in Japan. Soon, we hope, the DQ Anime TV series will be translated and shown in many of the other 30 countries where Deltora Quest is known and loved. We know that DQ fans outside Japan are waiting eagerly for their turn to see their favourite book series brought to life, and will be as rivetted by the DQ anime as we are.