Netflix News: 'Evangelion', 'Cowboy Bebop', Roald Dahl and More
Netflix have acquired the worldwide streaming rights to the classic 1995 anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. Despite being one of the most influential and hotly debated anime series of all time it has been unavailable (at least in English) for some time.
On paper Evangelion (known by fans as Eva for short) seems like a fairly standard anime of teens piloting giant robots fighting giant monsters. In execution, though it's something entirely more fascinating than that. According to an old article on some website called AFA (*cough*) it's "ultimately a deeply personal work by director Hideaki Anno, that can be read as a treatise on depression, it also works as a postmodern deconstruction of anime tropes."
Netflix have the international rights to both the 26 episode TV series and the subsequent movies Death and Rebirth and The End Of Evangelion (not to be confused with the movie reboot series Rebuild Of Evangelion) and they will be available from Spring 2019. It has not yet been revealed if it will stream with the original AD Vision dub of whether Netflix will commision a new one.
Still in the realm of classic 90's anime, Netflix have also picked up 10 episodes of the live-action Cowboy Bebop TV series. First announced last year the series is being produced by Netflix with Tomorrow Studios, with original Japanese producer Sunrise also on board. The first episode is being penned by Christopher Yost (Thor: The Drak World, Thor Ragnorok). Original creator Shinichiro Watanabe will serve as a consultant on the project.
Rilakkuma and Kaoru a new stop-motion series from Japan has a new trailer and an April 19, 2019 release date.
Adult comedy Big Mouth will return for a third season in 2019.
Netflix have announced plans to create animated adaptations of the works of beloved British children's author Roald Dahl. It sounds less like they will be producing straight adaptations of the books but rather are creating a Dahl-Universe (Dahliverse?) that will expand beyond the stories themselves. The Roald Dahl Story Company have been very selective with who they will sell the rights to, which explains why there have been relatively few adaptations of his work to date (especially when you consider his books' worldwide popularity). This suggests that Netflix's pitch must have been pretty persuasive. The adaptations will be in the form of "limited event series", and will include The BFG, Matilda, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, The Twits, George's Marvellous Medicine and many more.
