The streaming services continue to maneuver for anime supremacy, and although the Crunchyroll and Funimation services can’t be beat for both dub-and-sub sheer quantity, Netflix is emerging as quite a contender. The service streams several quality selections (including Death Note, which is an excellent gateway series and might get you hooked on anime streaming), and Keanu Reeves is developing a Brzrkr series (which he wrote and will star in), but before that happens, Netflix is bringing us the first trailer for Yasuke from Japanese animation studio MAPPA (Attack on Titan: The Final Season).
The series arrives with quite a pedigree, given that LaKeith Stanfield executive produces and voices the title character. The score will arrive courtesy of Flying Lotus, who also produces, and creator/director/producer LeSean Thomas will build upon his proven track record (The Boondocks, Cannon Buster, and Black Dynamite) of interweaving anime and Black culture. As for the story, Stanfield voices a character who’s based upon the real-life first African samurai. From the show’s synopsis:
The tale is set in a war-torn feudal Japan filled with mechs and magic, the greatest ronin never known, Yasuke, struggles to maintain a peaceful existence after a past life of violence. But when a local village becomes the center of social upheaval between warring daimyo, Yasuke must take up his sword and transport a mysterious child who is the target of dark forces and bloodthirsty warlords.
Netflix will stream Yasuke on April 29.