We haven’t talked much about anime here in the past, but the anime world is moving and shaking. Sony just bought anime distributor Funimation, and now Netflix is going bigger than ever into anime. The streaming service announced this week 12 new anime and anime-style series and a Godzilla animated movie headed for the service.
The list includes:
- Cannon Busters
- Devilman Crybaby
- B: The Beginning
- Sword Gai: The Animation
- A.I.C.O. Incarnation
- Lost Song
- Rilakkuma Series
- Knights of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya
- Baki
- Kakegurui
- Fake/Apocrypha
- Children of the Whales
- Gozdilla
Yeah, that’s a lot of anime
To date, Netflix has less than 10 original anime shows and just one movie that I can think of, making this a pretty deep dive into Japanese animation for the company. The shows run the host of genres and looks. Cannon Busters is a western production, but the other productions are all Japanese.
Devilman Crybaby is particularly noteworthy, as visionary anime director Masaaki Yuasa (Mind Game, Genius Party, Kaiba) is at the helm. B: The Beginning and A.I.C.O. Incarnation have futuristic themes, while Lost Song and Knights of the Zodiac: Saint Seiya have more fantasy/magical elements. Baki is a fighting anime, while Kakegurui is about gambling. Children of the Whales is a post-apocalyptic show, and Rilakkuma is about a bear. That relaxes. Godzilla, meanwhile, is a full-blown film.
Godzilla takes place in “a harsh world of the future in which Godzilla has dominated the earth for 20,000 years, and a fateful final confrontation with mankind looms.” In other words, this isn’t a rehash of the American Godzilla films or the recent Japanese Shin Godzilla movie.
The shows are mostly set to debut throughout late 2017 and 2018. It sounds like some of them will air on networks over in Japan, but will hit Netflix elsewhere.
