Danica Davidson
July 8, 2025 
Netflix has made it clear it’s very interested in anime, and at last weekend’s Anime Expo it shared some of why it’s so excited about Japanese animation.
For one thing, the streaming service says that more than half its worldwide viewers — about 300 million individuals — are anime watchers. The amount of anime viewing on the platform has also tripled since 2020. In 2024, Netflix’s Global Top 10 (Non-English rankings) had 33 anime titles on the list. That’s more than twice the number in 2021.
Last year on Netflix, various anime got streamed more than a billion times around the globe. The company has also noticed that 80% to 90% of viewers watch dubbed anime, not subbed, so Netflix is making sure to roll out the dubs in many languages.
The streamer is pushing some titles harder than others, and the anime title it’s pushing the most right now is Sakamoto Days. Its first season ranked in the top numbers for 53 different nations! New episodes are slated for July 14.
Other titles Netflix is really pushing include Cyberpunk: Edgerunners 2, My Melody & Kuromi, Record of Ragnarok III, Beastars Final Season and The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity. Netflix pointed out that all sorts of anime genres do well, like science fiction, slice-of-life, action and fantasy. Some of their most popular titles include Jujutsu Kaisen, SPY x FAMILY, My Happy Marriage, Delicious in Dungeon, Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance, and Pokémon Concierge.
VIZ Media publishes the original Sakamoto Days manga by Yuto Suzuki, and gave this description for the first volume:
Sakamoto Days Plot
Time has passed peacefully for Sakamoto since he left the underworld. He’s running a neighborhood store with his lovely wife and child and has gotten a bit…out of shape. But one day a figure from his past pays him a visit with an offer he can’t refuse: return to the assassin world or die!
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
