Mark one up for persistence: After numerous anime adaptations ranging from “awful” to “not too bad,” Netflix finally strikes gold with its live-action take on the global phenomenon One Piece.
Rebirth’s format is unusual-45 minutes per episode, a rarity in anime-but it allows each episode to spotlight one of the signature enemy kaiju from the classic films in greater depth and pack in enough city-smashing action that you’ll be left asking "Godzilla who?" Set in 1989 Tokyo, this CG anime series follows youngsters Boco, Joe, and Junichi-and their bully Brody, an American whose parents work on a military base-as the world is besieged by hordes of monsters, with the barely understood force of nature that is Gamera the only thing that can stop them. Oh, and he’s also, canonically, “friend to all children.” It’s this latter point that serves as the basis for Gamera Rebirth, the first new project for the turtle titan in 17 years. He’s a giant, fire-breathing turtle with an impenetrable shell, one who can fly and become a flame-spewing, razor-edged, aerial spinning top of doom.
While the latter has earned the epithet “King of the Monsters” and movie franchises in both its native Japan and the US, Gamera is perhaps best known as the subject of loving ridicule on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Gamera has never enjoyed the same respect that fellow kaiju Godzilla has. A far cry from the gag-a-minute approach of its creator’s earlier work, Disenchantment can be a bit of a slow burn at times, but with its drier comedy and rejection of an episodic status quo, it’s one of the most interesting adult animated comedies to come out of the US in years. With the aid of her personal demon, Luci, and a besotted elf bestie named Elfo, Bean flips the kingdom on its head, unearths ancient secrets, and battles her greatest enemy: her mom.
“Would rather stay a drunken troublemaker” reluctant. Over the course of five seasons, it charts the journey of Princess Bean, who yearns to be free from her royal obligations to Dreamland, taking her from drunken troublemaker to reluctant hero. Go in with that expectation and you’ll be disappointed-this is a far more structured and arc-based show. Coming from The Simpsons creator Matt Groening, it was presented in opposition to his later Futurama, lazily swapping sci-fi for fantasy. Netflix screwed up the pitch on Disenchantment. With eight episodes, each around an hour long, this is as prestigious as any live-action thriller the streamer has produced, and a testament to both Tezuka and Urasawa's respective geniuses. This adaptation is not only a faithful recreation of Urasawa's retelling, but is stunningly animated to a standard rarely seen in Netflix's original anime productions. Meanwhile, Atom (Astro's Japanese name) is recast as a former peace ambassador, effectively a propaganda tool rolled out at the end of the 39th Central Asian War, still dealing with trauma from the experience. The focus shifts from the heroic boy robot to grizzled cybernetic detective Gesicht as he investigates a series of murders of both humans and robots, each victim left with makeshift horns crammed into their heads. In 2003, Naoki Urasawa ( Monster, 20 th Century Boys) updated original creator Osamu Tezuka's hugely influential "The Greatest Robot on Earth" story arc for his manga Pluto, opting for a more adult approach.