For too long, animation has been treated more like a genre than a medium. But some of the greatest storytellers, including Guillermo del Toro, have long championed the idea that animation is not limited to children’s stories, family entertainment, or one specific kind of visual language. It is a medium capable of telling stories that are strange, intimate, violent, heartbreaking, funny, and deeply human. That idea feels especially relevant to Netflix’s latest anime slate, which shows just how wide the medium can stretch.
What makes Netflix’s latest anime slate so interesting is that these projects are not all doing the same thing. Blue Eye Samurai is a bloody revenge story. Fool Night is bleak sci-fi built around oxygen shortages and humans becoming plants. Bass X Machina is a steampunk western with machines and supernatural terrors. The Ribbon Hero reimagines a classic from Osamu Tezuka through a modern animation lens. None of these titles prove animation is a genre. They prove it is a medium with no real ceiling.
The Nerds of Color and a few other select journalists were invited to attend Netflix’s animation slate preview, where the streamer offered an early look at its upcoming anime titles out of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
In the sizzle reel, Yuzi Yamanov, who leads anime at Netflix, spoke about how the medium has grown from something embraced by a dedicated fan community into a major force in global entertainment. Anime, he said, is now shaping culture, inspiring fandoms, and connecting people around the world. Netflix is seeing that growth firsthand, bringing anime to members in more than 190 countries and regions and in up to 34 languages. More than half of Netflix members regularly watch anime, and in 2025, anime titles were viewed over 1.5 billion times.
That kind of reach helps explain why Netflix is putting so much emphasis on anime as part of its larger animation strategy. But what stood out about the showcase was not just the size of the slate. It was the range of it. These titles bring together some of the most significant creative forces in animation today, from acclaimed Japanese studios to internationally produced projects that draw deeply from anime’s visual language and storytelling sensibility.
Yamanov framed Netflix’s anime approach around putting creativity first while respecting the local voices and cultures where these stories begin. That is especially important when looking at projects like THE ONE PIECE, The Ribbon Hero, Fool Night, and Sparks of Tomorrow, all of which come with either major creative legacies or highly specific artistic identities. Netflix’s ambition, according to Yamanov, is to be a place where creators can bring their boldest ideas to life and where fans can discover stories that stay with them long after they finish watching.
One of the biggest titles highlighted was THE ONE PIECE, WIT Studio’s brand-new adaptation of Eiichiro Oda’s best-selling manga, which has more than 600 million copies in circulation worldwide. Coming to audiences in February 2027, the series will start from the very beginning with the East Blue saga. Unlike the long-running anime series, which has been moving full speed ahead for more than 25 years, this new adaptation is being positioned as a fresh entry point for new fans and a familiar-but-new experience for longtime ones.
Produced by WIT Studio, the animation team behind Attack on Titan and Spy x Family, THE ONE PIECE will be directed by Masashi Koizuka, with Taku Kishimoto handling series composition and Kyoji Asano and Takatoshi Honda serving as character designers and chief animation directors. The promise here is not just to retell Luffy’s earliest adventures, but to use modern animation technology and a new creative approach to make one of manga’s most recognizable stories feel immediate again.
Netflix also spotlighted The Ribbon Hero, an upcoming animated feature inspired by Osamu Tezuka’s Princess Knight. Directed by Yuki Igarashi, the film marks his feature directorial debut after earning global recognition for his animation work on Jujutsu Kaisen and his directorial work on Star Wars: Visions: Lop & Ochō. The film follows a lone hero who chooses to defy a harsh destiny, set in a delicately crafted world brought to life through polished action.
There is also Fool Night, an adaptation of Kasumi Yasuda’s acclaimed manga, which brings together Sunrise and Shaft in what Netflix describes as a landmark collaboration between two of Japan’s most storied animation studios. Set in a distant future where thick clouds have trapped Earth in constant winter and night, the story centers on Transfloration, a desperate technology that turns humans near death into plants in order to help produce oxygen. It is bleak sci-fi with a body-horror edge, but the emotional hook comes from Toshiro Kamiya, a young man living in poverty while trying to support his mentally ill mother before choosing the path of the “Spiriflor.”
On the more emotionally intimate side of the slate is Sparks of Tomorrow, from Kyoto Animation. Set in an alternate version of the early 20th century where steam power has shaped technological progress and Kyoto is blanketed in constant smoke, the series follows a boy hardened by the loss of his brother and a deeply devout girl carrying grief and regret for her deceased mother. When their paths cross, they begin exploring the secrets of the 20th Century Electrical Catalog, a glimpse into the future they both long for. Yamanov described the series as a beautiful story of hope and rebirth, and coming from the studio behind Violet Evergarden and Free!, that emotional weight makes sense.
The showcase also offered a new look at Blue Eye Samurai Season 2, the next chapter of the Emmy-winning animated series created by Amber Noizumi and Michael Green. This time, Mizu’s bloody quest continues in London, where she faces new friends, old foes, and her own demons. Meanwhile, in Japan, Akemi and Taigen navigate Edo Castle under a dangerous new Shogun, while Ringo searches for a new purpose.
Rounding out the slate is Bass X Machina, a steampunk western from creator LeSean Thomas and executive producer Brian Tyree Henry. Set in a lawless world filled with brutal outlaws, machines, and supernatural terrors, the series follows a father forced to become judge, jury, and executioner, knowing that every act of justice meant to protect his family may ultimately cost him the very people he is fighting for.
Taken together, Netflix’s anime slate reflects just how wide the medium has become. There are beloved manga adaptations, original stories, returning favorites, and international productions that continue to draw from anime’s visual language. More than anything, the showcase presented anime as a global storytelling force, one that Netflix clearly sees as central to its future.
Anime has always had a way of speaking to people who grew up feeling a little outside of the mainstream. The stories are big, strange, emotional, and sometimes completely ridiculous, but they also create room for identity, grief, rage, hope, and survival in ways live action does not always allow. So seeing Netflix highlight Japanese studios, international creators, and stories that move across cultures feels like a reminder that animation has never been small. It has always been a place where outsiders, dreamers, fighters, and weirdos could see something of themselves.