Streaming giant Netflix announced at Tokyo's AnimeJapan 2021 Expo that it was launching 40 new anime titles in 2021 alone.

If you are an anime lover, 2021 is about to be your year. Streaming giant Netflix announced at Tokyo's AnimeJapan 2021 Expo that it was launching 40 new anime titles in 2021 alone. This includes new movies and TV shows. 

This number would double the number of anime releases Netflix dropped in 2020, according to Bloomberg. So why this big investment? The answer is simple: dominance of the Asia market is extremely important to Netflix's bottom line. According to a Bloomberg report in 2020, Netflix was looking to double its investment in Asia in this year. (Netflix has spent around $2 billion in Asia since 2018.) And this makes sense: according to Bloomberg, the worldwide anime market will hit $36 billion by 2025.

Some of the titles that have been already confirmed seem legitimately dope. We have Eden — Netflix's first original anime — which comes from the mind of Yasuhiro Irie, the director of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. That will debut internationally on May 27th.

There is also The Way of the Househusband, based on a Japanese manga series, and Yasuke, which is about an African samurai, both dropping in April (on the 8th and 29th, respectively.) Or Record of Ragnarok, which is about gods fighting humans to decide the fate of the world, which is coming in June. And then there is Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, based on the iconic video game, which will feature the voices of the actors who played Claire and Leon in the 2019 Resident Evil remake.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Taiki Sakurai, Netflix’s chief anime producer, said: 

“We want to be able to pride ourselves as being the top entertainment destination with good quality content... The growth of our business is directly connected to the growth of our anime.”