Netflix teases Japanese lineup full of zombies, robots, and pokémon

Anime Expo took place over the weekend, and Netflix used the opportunity to show off some of its upcoming slate of Japanese programming. It wasn’t all anime either; in addition to animated series, we also got a look at the live-action zombie flick Zom 100 and some new details on the streamer’s One Piece adaptation, which headlined Netflix’s recent Tudum event.

Here are the biggest announcements you might have missed.

Billed as a comedy and a horror flick, Zom 100 — an adaptation of the manga of the same name — is about a guy named Akira (Eiji Akaso) who wakes up one day to find his town has been overrun with the undead. Instead of being scared or sad, though, he’s just happy he doesn’t have to go into the office anymore. And he uses the opportunity to finish a bucket list before he’s turned into a zombie himself. The movie starts streaming on August 3rd.

We got our first look at the incredible adorable stop motion series back in February, and this new behind the scenes video shows just how cute the characters really are. More importantly: it confirms that the series will start streaming in December 2023. Hopefully there will be some figures for sale by the time it starts streaming, because I need one of those Psyducks.

I mean, just look at this little fella:

Based on a story arc from Osamu Tezuka’s iconic Astro Boy manga, Pluto is a mystery that starts following a series of robot murders. Here’s the premise:

A murder occurs in an orderly world where robots are unable to kill humans. The robotic Europol investigator Gesicht takes the case, but the mystery deepens when he finds no trace of a human at the scene of the crime. As he pursues the truth, Gesicht uncovers the most evil manifestation of hate that history ever seen, one that is bent on bringing destruction to the world…

It starts streaming on October 26th.

We just got our first look at Netflix’s live-action take on One Piece, and now comes some exciting news for fans of the original anime: the original Japanese voice cast are all returning to dub the series.

In other One Piece news, Crunchyroll also announced that the English dub for the anime series will be available to stream on its service starting on July 6th.

Finally, Netflix confirmed that the third and final season for the anime Beastars will stream sometime in 2024. It’s described as a “new chapter” that takes place after the final battle from season 2 (which premiered back in 2021) though we don’t have many other details right now, aside from the new character designs above.