Netflix subscribers have barely a month left to stream one of the platform’s best original anime series, and it won’t have a streaming home once it leaves.
In a shocking move, Netflix has officially announced that Kuromukuro will be leaving the streaming platform more than a decade after its premiere. Currently, Kuromukuro is set to exit the Netflix streaming library on October 4, after which it won’t be available on any major (or minor) streaming platform whatsoever.
Netflix’s Kuromukuro Is Leaving Streaming 10 Years After Its Original Release
Produced by studio P.A. Works and licensed globally by Netflix (with Ponycan USA also distributing in North America), Kuromukuro premiered on the streaming giant back in 2016 and quickly found a foothold with fans. Kuromukuro spans hundreds of years, with an extraterrestrial invasion nearly 500 years ago setting the stage for an explosive, mech-fueled epic in the modern day.
The official logline for Kuromukuro from Netflix reads, “When mecha attack a research center, its students, pilots, and researchers must fight back with the help of mysterious artifacts and a young samurai.” Kuromukuro largely revolves around Kennosuke Tokisada Ouma, born in the Sengoku period in the mid-1400s, who was sealed away for centuries within the control unit of the “Black Relic,” a two-person mech uncovered during the construction of the Kurobe Dam in the 1950s. Together with high school student Yukina Shirahane, Kennosuke uses the Black Relic to battle alien forces that see Earth as just another world to be forcefully “civilized.”
Over the series’ original run, Kuromukuro ran for 26 episodes across two seasons. Kuromukuro proved to be a hit with critics and audiences alike, with the series currently boasting a 7.1/10 rating on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), averaged across more than 1,600 reviews.
Kuromukuro even received a sequel in 2018 in the form of the light novel Kuromukuro: A Ghost at a Speed of 20,000 Kilometers per Second. Written by Ryo Higaki, who was one of the head writers on Kuromukuro, and illustrated by Yuriko Ishii, who served as character and concept designer on the original series, Kuromukuro: A Ghost at a Speed of 20,000 Kilometers per Second was published by P.A. Books and ran for seven volumes before coming to a close.
That Kuromukuro is leaving Netflix comes as a shock to many, and not just because it was one of the streaming platform’s first major anime productions. Over the past two years, Netflix has ramped up its original anime development, not to mention its adaptations and reboots of beloved titles like One Piece and the range of outside shows and films it offers. As such, the fact that the streaming giant is willing to cut a hit like Kuromukuro seems at odds with its ongoing efforts in the anime space.
