Sakomoto Days

Source: Netflix

‘Sakomoto Days’

Anime viewership on Netflix has tripled on the streaming service over the past five years and is now watched by more than 50% of subscribers, according to figures revealed at the Anime Expo in Los Angeles.

The number of subscribing households that watch Japanese animation is 150 million, which Netflix estimates to be about 300 million individual viewers.

The streamer also reported that 33 anime titles appeared on its Top 10 list in 2024, more than double than in 2021, which included action-adventure titles My Hero Academia, Dan Dan Dan and Demon Slayer.

Last year, anime was viewed more than 1 billion times on the service, with 80-90% of global viewers watching dubbed in a language other than Japanese.

Netflix also previewed several upcoming anime titles. These includes new episodes of Sakomoto Days, a comedy-drama series that follows the life of a retired hitman-turned-family man; My Melody & Kuromi, a stop-motion series based on the titular characters from Sanrio; and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2, the sequel to the anime based on the popular Cyberpunk 2077 video game.

Future series include a third season of brawler Record Of Ragnarok, romantic drama The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity and the final season of the anthropomorphic animal thriller Beastars.

Netflix’s original anime film slate includes titles from Studio Ponoc, a Tokyo-based studio run by former Studio Ghibli producer Yoshiaki Nishimura. The streamer entered a multi-film partnership with Ponoc last year, the first title of which was the studio’s The Imaginary. Netflix previously closed a deal for three films with Studio Colorido, which have included Drifting Home and My Oni Girl.

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