The ‘new’ genre dominating Netflix

More than 100 million households across the globe have tuned in and Australian audiences have doubled this year. It’s not new but it’s venturing into new place. What has audiences enthralled?

Howl's Moving Castle.

It was not too long ago that fans of anime would need to find ‘creative’ ways to get their Japanese animation fix. If you looked hard enough you could find a few of the more popular series here and there, but if you wanted something more you’d have to hit the pirate sites.

Fast-forward a few years and the global popularity of anime has exploded. Today almost all of the streaming services have some type of anime offering and are ramping up to cater to unprecedented demand.

In its 2019 Anime Industry Report, the Association of Japanese Animations reported the global anime market was valued at $12.83 billion, up from $3.64 billion in 2010. In contrast the domestic Japanese market has risen far slower over the same period.

A scene from Netflix 's Pokemon: Mewtwo Strikes Back

Netflix is one streamer to notice the sharp increase in popularity and moved to capitalise on the trend, ramping up its slate of known anime brands and partnering with industry leaders to create its own original shows.

The investment, which is significant, has paid off, with the platform doubling its anime audience in 2020. From October 2019 to September 2020, more than 100 million households across the globe watched at least one anime title on Netflix.

And while audiences have enjoyed the traditional Japanese series that have been around for years, they are also tapping in to the newer shows.

“The top 10 most popular (anime) titles in Australia in 2020 are Pokemon or (Studio) Ghibli titles like Spirited Away, but also totally new titles like Blood of Zeus, an original IP,” explains Netflix chief anime producer Taiki Sakurai.

Significantly, two anime titles — Seven Deadly Sins and Baki — have cracked Netflix’s overall Top 10 lists in more than 50 countries, beating out thousands of other classic and original shows available on the service.

Netflix anime Howl's Moving Castle.

Anime is such a major part of Japanese culture, the shift away from a strong domestic focus to one that encompasses a much wider global audience — and in turn has started to tell stories that aren’t just anchored in Japan — can be seen as an affront to some who have been in the industry for decades, but many of the younger artists see it as a huge creative opportunity.

Sakurai, who is based in Tokyo and was involved in anime production before joining Netflix in 2017, has a favourite analogy he likes to use when describing how newer anime is a good hook for the more traditional stuff.

“It’s almost like sushi breaking into the global market probably 10 or 20 years ago,” he says.

“One of the major things that played a role in making sushi global was the California roll, which is probably not considered traditional edomae sushi but it played a big role to introduce the entire sushi concept to a global audience. And then once they got into that ... they found more traditional to also be a compelling (prospect).”

He sees Netflix as the middleman who can bring together creatives from across the world to make anime that appeals broadly — both modern and traditional.

Spirited Away.

“One of our strengths is that Netflix can work as a hub for these creators — global international creators,” he says.

“One of the titles that is coming up next year is called Eden. The director, the writer and the character designer come from Japan but the showrunner is from the US, the music composer Kevin Perkin is from Australia and the background artist is from China.”

While this shift in focus has been great for audiences and a financial bonanza for the industry, it’s also provided many young artists in Japan a whole new canvas to work on at a time when some were starting to feel hamstrung by tradition.

“Some of the younger generation creators were kind of fed up and were like ‘not another Japanese boy story taking place in Japan. We’ve been doing this for over a century and it’s not new anymore’,” Sakurai says.”

TOP 10 NETFLIX ANIME:

1 Pokemon: Mewtwo

Strikes Back

Evolution (below)

2 Spirited Away

3 Blood of Zeus

4 Howl’s Moving Castle

5 ONE PIECE: East Blue

6 The Seven Deadly Sins: Imperial Wrath of the Gods

7 Transformers: War for Cybertron: Siege: Chapter 1: Siege

8 Dragon Ball Super: Broly

9 My Neighbor Totoro

10 Parasyte: The Maxim