Netflix unveiled its anime line-up for the year at the AnimeJapan event in Tokyo, including feature film Ultraman: Rising and TV series Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance and Rising Impact.
The streamer’s anime slate launch comes just a few days after announcing that it will release Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning film The Boy and the Heron on its platform globally, alongside a library of other Studio Ghibli films (excluding U.S. and Japan).
Feature film Ultraman: Rising will premiere on June 14 and stars Christopher Sean, Gedde Watanabe and Tamlyn Tomita among others. It follows baseball pro Ken Sato, who reluctantly returns home as Ultraman as Tokyo is under siege from rising monster attacks. However, he is forced to adopt a
35-foot-tall, fire-breathing baby kaiju and is confronted with the challenge of parenthood while protecting the baby from forces bent on exploiting her.
The film is a collaboration between Netflix, Tsuburaya Productions, and Industrial Light & Magic, with Shannon Tindle and Marc Haimes onboard as writers.
Two other feature films were announced, including My Oni Girl, which is produced by Studio Colorido as part of the multi-picture partnership between the Japanese studio and Netflix. The other film is Baki Hanma vs Kengan Ashura, based on a crossover between the Baki martial arts manga series that has sold over 85 million copies and Kengan Ashura, a popular comic following an office worker Kazuo
Yamashita as he encounters a mysterious martial artist Ohma Tokita and gets dragged into “Kengan” matches, where corporations settle business disputes by betting large sums on seasoned fighters.
On the TV side, much-loved Weekly Shonen Jump manga series Rising Impact by Nakaba Suzuki will get its first anime adaptation.
The series follows third-grader Nanaumi Gawain, who lives in the mountains of Fukushima with his grandfather and dreams of becoming a top baseballer. However, after meeting a professional golfer, his plans change and he enrols at Camelot Academy, a world-famous school for junior golfers.
The first season of Rising Impact will premiere on June 22 and the second season on August 6.
The streamer will also add another instalment to the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise, with Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance set to premiere later this year.
Developed and produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc, Sunrise Production and SAFEHOUSE Inc, the series is set in the year 0079 of the Universal Century, where the Principality of Zeon declares independence from the Earth Federation, plunging the two nations into war. Eleven months into the war, the Earth Federation forces manage to seize a Zeon-controlled base located in Eastern Europe, while a mixed battalion sets off to reclaim this base.
T.P BON, a manga by Fujiko F. Fujio, will also be receiving an anime adaptation, with the first season set to premiere on May 2 and the second season on July 17.
The story follows a junior high school student named Bon Namihira, who encounters Time Patrol member Ream Stream, a girl from the future, along with a creature called Buyoyon. The Time Patrol agents save those who died unfortunate deaths that do not significantly alter the course of history.
The famous fairytales by the Grimm brothers will get its own series on Netflix, titled The Grimm Variations, which will premiere on April 17. Other anime series coming to Netflix this year include the third season of From Me to You: Kimi ni Todoke and the final season of BEASTARS.