Oni: Thunder God’s Tale promises to be one of the most unique anime ever made. All thanks to being one of the first, if not the first, claymation anime. Don’t believe me? Then check out the trailer from Netflix below for yourself:

Aardman Animations Would be Proud

The only thing that could possibly make this any more Japanese is if they actually spoke it.

Netflix has just announced Oni: Thunder God’s Tale with the teaser trailer above on YouTube. The trailer shows some wonderful stop motion clay animation at work here, along with an interesting story. The trailer starts us off with a quartet of yokai apparently running towards trouble, and facing what seems to be an oni. The tengu (the yokai with the wings) of the yokai group even launches a small tornado at the oni. However, the trailer ends with a strangely peaceful scene, with the tengu apparently standing down in the face of a nonviolent oni. All in all, it’s an interesting setup for an anime, and not to mention a unique animation style. I would definitely like to see more of this.

Unfortunately, what Netflix doesn’t give us in that teaser trailer is a release date for Oni: Thunder God’s Tale. All we get is that the anime is “coming soon” only on Netflix, and that’s it. Hopefully, Netflix will have more information about when we’ll actually get to see this at a later time.

Oni: Thunder God’s Tale ~ Details

"Oni: Thunder God's Tale" key art.
Okay, why does this look so friggin’ adorable?

Details about Oni: Thunder God’s Tale are still sparse. It doesn’t even have its own Wikipedia entry at the time of this writing. However, this is what we do know.

Daisuke Tsutsumi will direct this anime, with Mari Okada writing. Tonko House is developing this anime in collaboration with Dwarf Animation and Megalis. Tonko House is best known for their short film The Dam Keeper. Considering that short film got an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film at the 87th Academy Awards, I think that speaks to the quality of their work.

The perfect mixture of cute and unsettling.

As for what Oni: Thunder God’s Tale is about? Well, Netflix has an official synopsis for it in the video description of their teaser trailer. Check it out below:

“In a world filled with the oddball gods and monsters of Japanese mythology, one of the creature’s free-spirited daughters, Onari, is determined to follow in the footsteps of the mighty heroes of lore, but her unique powers are yet to be revealed. Does she have what it takes to fight to protect her peaceful village from the encroaching threat of the gods’ mysterious enemies, the “Oni”?”

Source: Netflix Anime YouTube

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