Netflix is announcing at Annecy an anime series adaptation of “Fool Night,” the critically acclaimed manga written by Kasumi Yasuda and currently serialized in Shogakukan Inc.’s Big Comic Superior.
Netflix will launch the series in 2026. The announcement, which is being made at a Netflix Anime panel on Tuesday, marks the first-ever collaboration between two of Japan’s most prolific anime studios: Sunrise, known for the “Mobile Suit Gundam” franchise and works like “Cowboy Bebop,” and Shaft, renowned for the unique and vivid style of “Puella Magi Madoka Magica” and the “Monogatari” series.
The creative team for the series boast similarly impressive bonafides, such as director Atsushi Yukawa, a unit director on the ”Suzume” series, composition writer Jin Tanaka (“Oshi no Ko”), sound director Yota Tsuruoka (“A Silent Voice”), and composer Tatsuya Kato (“Dr. Stone”). The ongoing manga also comes with acclaim, ranking in 2023’s Kono Manga ga Sugoi! (an annual list of the best manga, chosen by industry professionals) as well as winning best suspense manga at the Japan Expo Awards (Daruma Awards) in 2023.
“Fool Night” is set in a dystopian future where the Earth is deprived of sunlight by thick clouds, leading to a permanent winter and eternal night. As a result, vegetation has died off, meaning a lack of oxygen. In an attempt to stabilize this depleting oxygen supply, the drastic measure of “transfloration” was created: a practice where humans are transformed into plants in order to balance out this oxygen shortage.
