Netflix is making Altered Carbon and Pacific Rim animes – CNET

Good news, everybody! If you can’t wait for the second season of sci-fi cyberpunk series Altered Carbon, it will soon be a Netflix Original anime.

Set in the same universe as the first season, the anime explore new elements of the series, and features writing from Cowboy Bebop scriptwriter Dai Sato, who’s also written for another popular sci-fi anime, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

The announcements came at Netflix’s See What’s Next Asia event in Singapore, which featured appearances from CEO Reed Hastings, House of Card’s Robin Wright, and Narcos’ Diego Luna and Michael Pena.

For Wright, who can be seen in the last season of House of Cards, said that she missed the clothes and shoes of her character, Claire Underwood, but added that she’s turning her attention to directing, having enjoyed the experience of doing so for the final Cards episode.

“I’m putting the acting aside right now, and am really focused on directing film,” said Wright.

Interestingly, the Pacific Rim movie series, which itself is based on mecha anime, will now go full circle and be an actual anime, featuring a plot about a pair of siblings piloting a Jaeger across a wasteland to look for their parents. Showrunners include Craig Kyle of Thor: Ragnarok and Greg Johnson of X-Men: Evolution.

Other animes in the lineup include Cagaster of an Insect Cage, Yasuke and Trese, which is based on a Filipino graphic novel.

Besides anime, other Asian Originals include Thai series, The Stranded, which revolves around a teenager and his friends stranded on a remote island, where they must find a way to rescue themselves while mysterious things happen around them. It sounds a little like Lost, but with an Asian touch. Fans of ghost mysteries will also like Shimmers, a Thai drama series about five teens haunted by ghosts in northern Thailand.

Also announced was Taiwanese drama Triad Princess, which looks like a fun series about the daughter of a triad boss who becomes an undercover bodyguard of a famous actress, while Nowhere Man will also have gangsters, but it’s a more serious take with jailbreaks involved.

Release dates for the Asia Originals have not yet been revealed — Netflix is getting back to us on dates, but the new shows and anime will all be streamed globally.

What we do know is that upcoming Korean zombie six-episode series Kingdom has a release date of Jan. 25 — earlier reports had pegged it to sometime in December — and a second season is also on the way. We’ll have a review of the first two episodes really soon.

Netflix Asian Originals

Anime

• Altered Carbon
• Pacific Rim
• Cagaster of an Insect Cage
• Yasuke
• Trese

TV series

• The Stranded
• Shimmers
• Triad Princess
• Nowhere Man
• Kingdom

Note: The above list is not complete — Netflix will reveal the entire slate at the second day of the event.

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