TAGGED AS: Animation, Netflix, streaming, television, TV
Netflix’s week-long virtual convention, Geeked Week, took an unusual detour Wednesday by starting its program later in the day (for U.S. audiences) to coincide with Thursday morning in Japan. The choice makes sense, of course, as the day’s panel was devoted to all things anime and animation — from new anime based on video games to parodies of the cartoons that supported 1980s action figure brands. And although shorter than the previous two days, it was still full of announcements, trailers, and preview art for upcoming shows. It’s a lot of information to parse, so we’ve compiled it into a handy list of the day’s events.
And be sure to check in each day as we’ll be adding to our knowledge base as Geeked Week continues.
(Photo by Netflix)
Masters of the Universe: Revelation executive producers Kevin Smith, Ted Biaselli, Rob David, Christopher Keenan, Frederic Soulie and Powerhouse Animation return for Masters of the Universe: Revolution. According to Netflix, the miniseries, a follow-up to Revelation, sees technology and magic collide as “He-Man and the heroic warriors face the forces of Skeletor and a deadly threat [to Eternia].” At the same time, a poster image featuring the crown of King Randor suggests more than one revolution may be occurring on the planet. Presumably, the entire Revelation voice cast will return as Tiffany Smith confirmed during the presentation that she is back as Andra.
The announcement opened the animation-focused day, which included a look at the new credit sequence from season 4 of The Dragon Prince, teasing its “Mystery of Aarvaros” story, images from the upcoming anime series Exception, and art from Seven Deadly Sins: The Grudge of Edinburgh, sci-fi anime series Moonrise, Uncle From Another World, and Skull Island.
(Photo by Netflix)
The latter, from Brian Duffield and Jacob Robinson, centers on a group of people shipwrecked on Kong’s island and the efforts they undertake to not only escape, but evade its menagerie of monsters and Kong himself. MOTU and Castlevania’s Powerhouse Animation gives their unique perspective on King Kong, which — judging by the preview art — is to make him huge. Duffield serves as writer and executive producer.
Uncle From Another World centers on “a young man’s uncle who wakes from a 17-year coma, now with magical powers and a love for video games.” It debuts in July.
Exception, announced at the 2021 Geeked Week, centers on a group of terraformers who use 3D bio-printed ships to prepare a planet for mankind’s arrival. But as the Earth they left behind is a dystopia, it is anyone’s guess if the rest of the universe will want humanity to venture forth. The program is set to debut later this year.
Seven Deadly Sins: The Grudge of Edinburgh is a two-part film following Tristan, the son of Seven Deadly Sins‘ protagonists Meliodas and Elizabeth. Inheriting their separate clans’ powers, he finds he can both harm and heal those around him with little control and sets out on a journey to Edinburgh castle in the hopes of solving his problem. Both parts will premiere later in 2022.
Junji Ito also appeared to announce Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre, an animated anthology based on his work, will come to Netflix in 2023. Revealing some of the character designs, he mentioned his stories “Tomie,” and “Hanging Ballons” will be adapted into the series, as will at least one story featuring his recurring Soichi character. Of the three, the most unsettling appears to be “The Hanging Ballons” with its startling imagery of a balloon in the image of a recently deceased celebrity crossing the skies over a Japanese city.
Also announced during the presentation: Inside Job will continue for a second season. But before that, the second half of Season One is on its way. As seen in a clip from Part 2’s first episode, Regan Ridley (Lizzy Caplan) returns to her job sometime after her father, Rand (Christian Slater), has gone public with his plans to rule the world. Now convinced that life is just “dreams turning into entropy,” she must somehow navigate the new status quo at Cognito Inc. Rand, meanwhile, plans to take things back “the glory days.” Part 2 drops later this year.
And although not mentioned during the presentation, news broke earlier in the day of an upcoming Ghostbusters animated series. No other details are available, so it is unclear if it will continue on from Jason Reitman’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, or tell some earlier tales in the timeline. Reitman and Ghost Corps boss Gil Kenan will serve as executive producers.
Netflix also revealed the cast for Kid Cudi‘s upcoming series Entergalatic. With the voices of Scott Mescudi (aka Kid Cudi), Jessica Williams, Timothée Chalamet , Ty Dolla $ign, Laura Harrier, Vanessa Hudgens, Christopher Abbott, 070 Shake, Jaden Smith, Keith David, Teyana Taylor, Arturo Castro, and Macaulay Culkin — to say nothing of a vibe and style reminiscent of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse — it sets out to tell an “adult story following a young man trying to discover love.” Kid Cudi and Kenya Barris serve as executive producers. It is expected to debut this fall.
Other previews include a trailer for Farzar and a teaser for Cyberpunk: Edgerunners — an animated series based in the world of CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 video game. The ten-episode series focuses on a street kid, David, trying to survive in a city where advanced technology and body-modification are de rigueur. But running out of options, he becomes an edgerunner — a mercenary outlaw also known as a cyberpunk. Outfitted with the awesome Sandevistan, a modification allows him to move very fast, he sets out to conquer his own part of Night City.
Studio Trigger provides the animation with Hiroyuki Imaishi (Kill la Kill) serving as director. Other creative staff include chief character designer and executive animation director Yoh Yoshinari (Little Witch Academia), scriptwriters Masahiko Otsuka (Star Wars: Visions episode “The Elder”) and Yoshiki Usa (Gridman Universe series), and composer Akira Yamaoka.
In a behind-the-scenes segment, story writer and producer Bartosz Sztybor discussed bringing “bombastic visuals” to the world. While the game is about immersiveness, the series will focus on more thematic and narrative ideas not easily built into an open world game environment — for one thing, the true cost of undergoing body mods like the Sandevistan. Other members of the CD Project Red crew noted the series may be more colorful than the game, but there will also be some crossover as a clip discussed during the presentation sees David and his crew laying waste to the Maelstrom gang.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners comes to Netflix in September and judging by the teaser and clip released during the presentation, it is absolutely has that Trigger style going for it.
Farzar, meanwhile, is an adult animated sci-fi comedy series from Paradise PD’s Roger Black and Waco O’Guin. It centers on the son of a legendary hero who, despite coming up short, may just rid his world of an alien menace. Or maybe it’s just about drawing cartoon characters naked. Despite owing a great deal to fantasy cartoons of the 1980s, it is expressly not for kids. The series debuts in July.
Arcane was a surprise hit for the service when it debuted in last November. To celebrate, the platform is adding a set of Arcane profile icons to the service’s user interface. Additionally, the Riot Games YouTube account will soon host Arcane: Bridging the Rift, a behind-the-scenes look at the animated sensation. As seen in a clip from the series, it will dig into Riot’s ambition to put a League of Legends story in the eyes of a new audience and “unleash the potential” of the Fortiche Productions, a French animation firm Riot partnered with for earlier music videos and other promotions. A second season of Arcane is currently in production.
Another behind-the-scenes glimpse came courtesy of director Alberto Mielgo, who discussed his startling short film “Jibara” from Volume 3 of Love, Death + Robots. The extended clip also revealed some of the storyboarding, motion capture, and computer animation techniques used to bring its surreal, yet very realistic setting to life.
