The upcoming Drifting Home movie has been revealed to be the first of three movies produced by Studio Colorido for Netflix in a newly announced partnership.
The second movie, directed by Tomotaka Shibayama (A Whisker Away co-director) and described as a “slightly wondrous” love story, will be released in 2024. Its title was not revealed, but an image board depicting a boy and girl in a snowy setting was released.
Drifting Home is set to premiere on Netflix and in Japanese cinemas on September 16, 2022. Prior to the partnership, Netflix released the Studio Colorido-produced A Whisker Away in 2020.
Kaata Sakamoto, Netflix’s vice president of content in Japan, told Reuters, “In order to… win globally, we must win locally first.” He added, “We are ramping up our investment in Japan content, not just in volume but in a variety of genre and formats.”
At a TIFFCOM Online Seminar last year (via Anime News Network), Netflix Product Manager Michael Smith described anime as “a huge success story on Netflix,” with A Whisker Away noted for entering the top 10 in more than 30 countries. ANN also reported that more than 120 million households watched at least one anime on the streaming platform in 2020.
Earlier this month, Netflix revealed that it had lost 200,000 subscribers and predicted that it will lose 2 million more in Q2 2022. However, it also said that it was “seeing nice growth” in APAC regions like “Japan, India, Philippines, Thailand and Taiwan.”
Sources: @NetflixAnime, @NetflixJP
