Anime might have proven itself to be a bankable genre, as streaming service provider Netflix announces 30 new anime titles for 2018.
Netflix announced last week that it will spend up to $8 billion for original content in 2018. Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos revealed that 30 original anime series and 80 films to be released next year would get the most of the budget. This was to meet the goal of the company to have 50 percent original content by the end of 2018.
Anime shows that are slated for release next year in Netflix, as reported by Anime News Network, include Kyoto Animation's "Violet Evergarden," DLE Inc.'s "Sword Gai: The Animation," Toei Animation's "Knight of Zodiac: Saint Seya," Satelight's "Cannon Buster," and TMS Entertainment's "Baki." The first anime series to ever be released by Netflix is "Neo Yokio," which stars Jaden Smith as the voice of Ezra Koenig.
The announcement could as well be the answer to some of the service's possible problems. It can be recalled that Disney pulled out all its films from Netflix, as the animation giant plans to stream their content on their own platform by 2019. However, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings responded to speculation that the company would crumble in the wake of Disney's move.
"In terms of its significance relative to growth, you can see we've done very well in international without it," Hastings said, as Disney contents were mostly unavailable to other countries in the first place.
This move might also be a bid to up its game, as Netflix had seen Hulu, one of its competitors, winning big in Emmys with its "The Handmaid's Tale." Amazon, meanwhile, snatched two Oscar awards for the movie "Manchester by the Sea."
Netflix's 2018 budget is roughly $1 billion more than this year's allocation. The company also saw a massive increase in its net income, from $52 million last year to $130 million for the third quarter of 2017. From its 104 million paying subscribers, 4.5 million are new subscribers.
