Pacific Rim: The Black

Did You Know?

• The series has a 71% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 14 reviews.
• The critical consensus notes the series carries over the grit but little of the humor of the film franchise.

Plot

In the same universe as the original film, Kaiju from the Pacific Rim overrun Australia, and humanity's Jaegers fail to stop them, leaving isolated survivors. Five years after their parents leave to fight the Kaiju and never return, siblings Taylor and Hayley Travis activate an abandoned training Jaeger, Atlas Destroyer. They journey to find their parents while facing Kaiju and hostile survivors who want the Jaeger.

Production

Netflix announced an anime series adaptation in November 2018, originally planned for a 2020 release. In October 2020, the title Pacific Rim: The Black and a 2021 release window were revealed, along with a second season greenlit. Legendary Television produced the series, with Polygon Pictures handling animation. Greg Johnson and Craig Kyle served as showrunners, Brandon Campbell composed the music, and Jae-hong Kim and Hiroyuki Hayashi directed. Episodic direction was by Takeshi Iwata, Susumu Sugai, and Masayuki Uemoto, with art direction by Yūki Moriyama. The showrunners' concept was chosen from several pitches to Legendary. They considered 2D or 3D animation, but concerns over 2D costs and camera limitations in detailed environments led them to 3D while retaining 2D aesthetics, for which they chose Polygon Pictures. Polygon Pictures representative director Shūzō John Shiota and producer Jack Liang expressed excitement about working in the Pacific Rim universe. Polygon staff handled most design work, with assistance from supervising director Jae-hong Kim, and both teams met in Tokyo to discuss designs.