Society

Netflix ramps up Japanese content expansion with large anime & live-action slate

Nov 11 (tbivision.com) - Netflix is continuing to ramp up its investment in Japan, unveiling a large slate of new series and films across both live action and anime at the Netflix Japan Festival 2021 this week.

The streamer highlighted that Japan “continues to be one of the most important countries for the growth of Netflix” and said it was “committed to bringing best in class stories and creators from Japan to audiences everywhere.” It is expected to announce up to 50 new shows over the course of the two-day event.

Among the anime titles announced at the festival include The Seven Deadly Sins: Grudge Of Edinburgh, which is a two-part movie spin-off to the anime of the same name, from the original manga author Nakaba Suzuki, and due to debut next year.

Kakegurui Twin is a prequel series to Kakegurui, telling the story of Mary Saotome’s gambling feats one year before Yumeko Jabami transferred to her school, due to land in August 2022.

Other titles include JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Stone Ocean, Vampire In The Garden, second seasons for both Ultraman and Tiger & Bunny, six-part sci-fi series The Orbital Children and two spin-offs from Detective Conan – Zero’s Tea Time, and The Culprit Hanagawa.

On the live-action side is a feature adaptation of the popular Gundam manga, a second season of Alice In Borderland, cross-generational love story First Love, manga adaptation Yu Yu Hakusho, dating series Love Is Blind: Japan and feature films Once Upon A Crime and Love Like The Falling Petals.

The streamer has also struck a partnership with Shoplifters filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda to develop two projects – a “big-budget” film and a drama series.

These new commissions expand upon the slate of 90 Japanese Netflix titles that are already available and come just over a week since the streamer partnered with Nippon TV to bring 30 of the Tokyo-based network’s drama and entertainment shows to its Asian subscribers.

This in turn follows Netflix’s partnership with Japan’s Tokyo Broadcasting System to bring two of its drama series – Japan Sinks: People Of Hope and Let’s Get Divorced – and a reboot of romance-themed reality show The Future Diary, to global audiences.

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