It seems that a lot of anime series are preparing for their arrival on Netflix. Although in recent months we got to know that Netflix is planning several anime productions; this week the platform confirmed its commitment to it—and announced that it intends to release dozens of anime titles in the remainder of this year.
In particular, according to Bloomberg, Netflix took advantage of its presentation at the AnimeJapan 2021 convention to reveal that it plans to launch 40 new anime titles during this year.
This move by Netflix obviously has to do with its ambitions in the Asian market. However, it also responds to the success that anime movies and series have had on that platform. After all, Taiki Sakurai, Netflix’s head of anime production, revealed that global viewing of anime shows on streaming increased by roughly 50% over the past year.
Half of the 200 million subscribers Netflix has worldwide saw at least one anime program in recent months. In addition, anime shows like Blood of Zeus established themselves as among the most popular in terms of series in more than 80 countries. Anime movies like Demon Slayer: Mugen Train,Gintama: The Final, and Violet Evergarden: The Movie have been killing it in the 2020 Japanese box office, despite the pandemic.
Although there is still no detail of all the anime production that Netflix plans to premiere in the coming months, for now the company’s plans include projects such as Yasuke, Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, The Way of the Househusband and the adaptation of the Record of Ragnarok manga, for which Netflix confirmed its participation this week with the premiere of a trailer and setting an airing date for June.
In an interview, Taiki Sakurai said: “We want to be able to pride ourselves as being the top entertainment destination with good quality content. The growth of our business is directly connected to the growth of our anime.”
