Netflix getting bullish on surging global popularity of anime titles
What's the story
Come 2021, and it will rain original anime titles on Netflix.
The OTT giant recently livestreamed its 2020 Anime Festival in Japan, in which it mentioned that five new original titles would start rolling out the next year.
Anime, otherwise considered to be a niche favorite for discerning animation lovers, has bagged the top 10 spot for Netflix in over 100 countries.
Details
Netflix also shared updates about 11 ongoing titles
The original titles include Rilakkuma's Theme Park Adventure, Thermae Romae Novae, High-Rise Invasion, Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan, and The Way of the Househusband.
Netflix also shared updates about 11 ongoing titles namely Eden, Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, Vampire In The Garden, Yasuke, Godzilla Singular Point, Pacific Rim: The Black, Transformers: War for the Cybertron Trilogy, Trese, B: The Beginning Succession, Baki Hanma and Spriggan.
Brief outlines
The plots of the new series in a few lines
Rilakkuma's Theme Park Adventure is a stop-motion animation project.
Thermae Romae Novae is based on Yamazaki Mari's manga on Roman bath designer Lucius.
High-Rise Invasion is a thriller series set on high buildings that don't touch the ground.
Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan is a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure spinoff, while The Way of the Househusband has a hilarious story of Japanese gangster-turned-househusband Tatsu.
Notes
We are excited to challenge ourselves, says Netflix's executive
"In just four years since launching our creative team in Tokyo, Netflix has expanded the reach and overall audience of anime," said Netflix's anime chief producer Taiki Sakurai during the livestream.
"Given the success of shows such as Seven Deadly Sins and Baki, we are excited to challenge ourselves to expand our aspirational anime programming for fans around the world," he maintained.
Statistics
An increase of over 50% in anime viewership recorded
The Netflix representative added that over a 100mn accounts have turned out to be regular anime content consumers.
This statistic was recorded between October 2019 and September 2020, making it a handsome increase of over 50% in anime viewership as compared to last year's data.
Netflix has been pushing original anime creation since 2017 by partnerships with big studios such as Production I.G.