Produced by
Sunrise, the series was adapted into four animated series which were all aired on YTV, NTV and their affiliates. The first one,
City Hunter was directed by
Kenji Kodama was broadcast for 51 episodes between April 6, 1987, and March 28, 1988, and released on ten VHS cassettes between December 1987 and July 1988. The second one,
City Hunter 2 was also directed by Kodama and was broadcast for 63 episodes between April 8, 1988, and July 14, 1989, and released on ten VHS cassettes between August 1988 and March 1990. 26 of the discs comprising the four series were then released individually between December 19, 2007, and August 27, 2008. 30,000 box sets were sold, grossing (), in Japan. For the 30th anniversary of the original manga, buyers of all 12 volumes of
City Hunter XYZ edition were entitled receive a "motion graphic anime" DVD. The DVDe adapted a special
Angel Heart chapter entitled "Ryo's Proposal" and was voiced by the original
City Hunter cast. The series was licensed by
ADV Films for release in North America; they announced their acquisition in May 1998 at
Project A-Kon 9. The first
City Hunter series was released on the ADV Fansubs label in March 2000. The aim of this label was to provide cheaper subtitled-only VHS releases at a faster pace than usual. The series was scheduled for 13 tapes, consisting of four episodes each. The tapes could be ordered individually or as a subscription service. ADV later released the series on DVD. The first series was released as two boxsets of five discs on July 29, 2003.
City Hunter 2 was released as another two boxsets of five discs on October 28, and November 18, 2003.
City Hunter 3 was released as a single boxset on December 2, 2003, and ''City Hunter '91'' was released on December 16, 2003. On April 20, 2019,
Discotek Media announced that they had licensed the entire
City Hunter animated franchise, including the 2019 movie,
Shinjuku Private Eyes. The first 26 episodes of the first series were released on
Blu-ray on February 25, 2020, followed by set 2 on April 28, 2021,
City Hunter 2 in two sets on July 27 and September 28th respectively and the entirety of
City Hunter 3 and ''City Hunter '91'' was released on March 29 and April 26, 2022 respectively.
Theatrical movies Three theatrical movies were released in 1989 and 1990. The first being which was directed by Kodama from a screenplay by Akinori Endo and was released by
JVC on June 17, 1989. and were both released as a double feature by on August 25, 1990, both films were directed by Kodama with
Bay City Wars being written for the screen by Yasushi Hirano and the other one being written by Shoji Tonoike. During their panel at
Otakon 2022, Discotek Media announced that they licensed all of the theatrical and television film releases, and released them in a Blu-ray collection on January 31, 2023.
Television movies Three television movies were produced:
The Secret Service was broadcast on January 5, 1996, which was followed by
Goodbye My Sweetheart on April 25, 1997, and
Death of Vicious Criminal Ryo Saeba on April 23, 1999. ==Music==