Netflix’s TUDUM: Anime Spotlight was today, here are the highlights, complete with teaser trailers, synopsis, & release dates for upcoming Netflix anime series & films.
Opening the first ever TUDUM global fan event, Netflix today celebrated their ever growing slate of anime in the TADUM: Anime Spotlight, showcasing and celebrating both upcoming projects as well as stories fans already know and love. Anime continues to grow its fanbase on Netflix, with over 120 million households choosing to watch at least one anime on Netflix in the past year. Netflix is excited to continue bolstering their best-in-class lineup of anime from Japan and around the world.
During the virtual fan event presented and hosted by Netflix Anime V-Tuber N-ko, Netflix announced Drifting Home (premiering 2022), the next feature film project by critically acclaimed Studio Colorido, which delighted fans with their 2020 smash-hit A Whisker Away.
The upcoming original story about two childhood friends that drift into a mysterious sea alongside an entire housing complex, will join previously announced projects like the super-powered heist story Super Crooks (premiering November 25, 2021) based on a story by comic book legend Mark Millar or Bright: Samurai Soul (premiering October 12, 2021), an ambitious anime spin-off to the original Hollywood blockbuster starring Will Smith.
Netflix also gave fans a glimpse at some of their returning series, including Aggretsuko Season 4 (premiering December, 2021) and ULTRAMAN Season 2 (premiering in 2022), revealing a new teaser art for the long awaited sophomore season of ULTRAMAN as well as the key art and premiere timing for the return of Aggretesuko.
TUDUM: Anime Spotlight Recap
AGGRETSUKO Season 4
Global Premiere Date: December, 2021
Frustrated with her thankless office job, Retsuko the Red Panda copes with her daily struggles by belting out death metal karaoke after work. After becoming an underground idol to pay off her debts, Retsuko decides to quit OTMGirls and enjoy living a happy, normal life… but just as the company she works for is facing big changes, her relationship with Haida finally begins to move.
Original story by: Sanrio
Directed by: Rarecho
Animation Production: Fanworks
Bright: Samurai Soul
Global Premiere Date: October 12, 2021
In the time between the fall of the Shogunate and the rise of the Meiji era, a powerful bright light emitted from a wand brings an end to the long Shogunate period to avoid further bloodshed as Japan begins to shift toward a new era. Amid these circumstances, a one-eyed wandering ronin named Izou, who has lost his reason to live, and Raiden, an orc who detests murder and hopes to leave a life of thievery behind, separately meet a young elf girl named Sonya around the same time.
Together, they go on a journey along the Tokaido road to bring her and the wand she holds safely to the land of the elves in the north. Standing in their path is the mysterious organization Inferni, which aims to obtain the wand and revive the Dark Lord, who intends to rule all of creation. Inferni also uses the new Meiji government in its attempt to steal the wand from Izou, Raiden and Sonya. Traveling along the Tokaido road from Kyoto to Yokohama, Izou and Raiden begin their journey to protect the wand.
Directed by: Kyohei Ishiguro
Written by: Michiko Yokote
Character Designer: Atsushi Yamagata
Animation Production: ARECT
Drifting Home
Global Premiere Date: Coming in 2022
Kosuke and Natsume have been friends since childhood, but as time goes on the relationship between the two sixth graders seems strained as they keep avoiding one another. One day during their summer vacation, they go to a housing complex that is scheduled to be demolished.
Having grown up there, the place holds a lot of memories, but while playing, they suddenly get caught up in a mysterious phenomenon and when they regain consciousness, they see an entire ocean before them as the housing complex has drifted into a mysterious sea and Kosuke and Natsume with it. Will they be able to return to their previous world? A summer farewell journey begins…
Director: Hiroyasu Ishida
Screenplay: Hayashi Mori, Hiroyasu Ishida & Minaka Sakamoto
Character Designer: Akihiro Nagae
Assistant Character Designer: Fumi Kato
Composer: Umitaro Abe
Producer: Koji Yamamoto
Production: Studio Colorido
Planning: Twin Engine
SUPER CROOKS
Global Premiere Date: November 25, 2021
In this anime adaptation, small-time crook Johnny Bolt recruits the ultimate crew for one last heist — for real! From comic book legend Mark Millar, this super-powered heist story about eight super-villains is jam-packed with action and told in 13x 30-minute episodes lushly produced by Bones.
Original Graphic Novel created by: Mark Millar & Leinil Yu
Director: Motonobu Hori
Writer (Story Editor): Dai Sato
Composer: Towa Tei
Character Design Supervisor: Leinil Yu
Character Design: Takashi Mitani
Animation Production: bones (or BONES)
ULTRAMAN Season 2
Global Premiere Date: Coming 2022
Several years have passed since the events of Ultraman, with the legendary “Giant of Light” (光の巨人 Hikari no Kyojin) now a memory, as it is believed he returned home after fighting the many giant aliens that invaded the Earth.
Shin Hayata’s son Shinjiro seems to possess a strange ability, and it is this ability, along with his father’s revelation that he was Ultraman, that leads Shinjiro to battle the new aliens invading the Earth as the new Ultraman.
Based on a comic by: Tsuburaya Production, Eiichi Shimizu & Tomohiro Shimoguchi
Directors: Kenji Kamiyama & Shinji Aramaki
Music: Nobuko Toda & Kazuma Jinnouchi
Production: Production I.G. & SOLA DIGITAL ARTS
That concludes the TUDUM: Anime Spotlight recap and highlights.
Tessa Smith is a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-approved Film and TV Critic. On Camera personality and TV / Film Critic with 10+ years of experience in video editing, writing, editing, moderating, and hosting.