Netflix Plans To Heavily Invest In Original Anime

Anime is making one hell of a comeback stateside. According to The Verge, Netflix has big plans for anime. Huge. Kaiju sized. While it’s been previously announced Netflix plans to spend upwards of eight billion dollars on original content, Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos stated that a big chunk of those funds will go toward toward producing thirty new anime series in 2018. 

This is a huge change for Netflix, who had mostly been bringing Japanese produced series stateside such as Knights of Sidonia and Ajin: Demi-Human to America. Recently Netflix debuted its first original anime series New Yokio, with Jaden Smith lending his voice to Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig’s bizarre blend of Eastern, Western, and online culture.

While some hardcore anime fans will undoubtedly question whether American produced animation can be considered anime, it’s still a huge victory for anime fans in general. Netflix would just contract Japanese studios to create content specifically for Netflix instead of just bringing already produced series over. With upwards of thirty series who knows what could be made for the stateside audience.

With so many series planned to launch in the span of one year Netflix is not joking around. It knows anime fans are loyal and are willing to sample all kinds of different content. The big question will be whether they can pull fans away from the content that’s already coming out of Japan. We’ll have to see on that front.

Stay tuned to Den of Geek for more anime and news on these thirty series coming our way.

Shamus Kelley is ready for all the anime. Especially if they’re given 90’s style dubs. Follow him on Twitter!  

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