Netflix has released the first full trailer for its new 3DCG anime series , the latest in multiple decades of media releases based on the beloved manga by Shirow Masamune.
The trailer was shared by the official Netflix Japan Twitter account and posted to the Netflix Japan YouTube channel. It’s in Japanese, obviously, and so far Netflix has not made a version of the trailer with English subtitles available.
Update: A subtitled version is now available.
Among other things, the trailer reveals that many of the voice actors from the previously released anime will reprise their roles in this new series. This trailer also gives a much more detailed look at the show’s computer-generated art style, which has proven controversial with and anime fans since the initial teaser trailer was released several months ago.
Further Reading
On the bright side for fans, the series is the work of Kenji Kamiyama, the writer and director of the well-received anime series, as well as Shinji Aramaki, who worked on a fairly popular adaptation of another manga by creator Shirow Masamune.
A reasonable argument could be made that taking a radically different approach with this new series makes sense after more traditional anime offshoots from the manga have already been sufficiently successful that more of the same is not needed. But as was the case with the teaser trailer, it’s not just a question of whether CGI was the right move at all: it’s a question of whether the CGI actually makes the same kind of positive impression that other 3DCG shows like Amazon’s gave viewers. More than one Ars staffer felt that this trailer more closely resembles the early-’90s CGI kids’ show than it does the striking .
In other words, even if you make a strong case that 3DCG is an interesting avenue to explore with a new series, the actual execution still matters. Viewers will be able to make their own judgments about the quality of the series when it hits Netflix in April of this year.
