Netflix had a massive hit with the 2017 release of the urban fantasy action film Bright, directed by David Ayer from a screenplay by Max Landis. In the years since we have heard that a sequel is in the works – last year, Louis Leterrier was offered the chance to bring a script by Ayer, Evan Spiliotopoulos, and T.S. Nowlin to the screen – but Bright 2 still hasn’t made it into production. Instead, the next Bright project to be released into the world will be the anime series Bright: Samurai Soul, which moves the elf and orc action to 1800s Japan. The series will be available to watch on the Netflix streaming service as of October 12th, and a trailer can be seen in the embed above.
Directed by Kyohei Ishiguro and scripted by Michiko Yokote, Bright: Samurai Soul is set during the end of the Shogunate and the beginning of the Meiji period, so around 1867 / ’68. Endeavoring to “blend the culture of Japan with the world of Bright“, Ishiguro had animation producers ARECT fuse “the characteristics of Japanese woodblock print art with 3DCG technology.” Atsushi Yamagata provided the character designs.
The series has the following synopsis:
In the time between the fall of the Shogunate and the rise of the Meiji era, a powerful bright light emitted from a wand brings an end to the long Shogunate period to avoid further bloodshed as Japan begins to shift toward a new era. Amid these circumstances, a one-eyed wandering ronin named Izou, who has lost his reason to live, and Raiden, an orc who detests murder and hopes to leave a life of thievery behind, separately meet a young elf girl named Sonya around the same time. Together, they go on a journey along the Tokaido road to bring her and the wand she holds safely to the land of the elves in the north. Standing in their path is the mysterious organization Inferni, which aims to obtain the wand and revive the Dark Lord, who intends to rule all of creation. Inferni also uses the new Meiji government in its attempt to steal the wand from Izou, Raiden and Sonya. Traveling along the Tokaido road from Kyoto to Yokohama, Izou and Raiden begin their journey to protect the wand.
Simu Liu provides the voice of Izou, a one-eyed wandering samurai; Fred Mancuso voices the orc Raiden, who attempts to redeem himself from a life of thievery; and Yuzu Harada voices young elf girl Sonya.
I was not a fan of Bright, but it doesn’t look like being a fan of the movie will be required to enjoy Bright: Samurai Soul.