Jaden Smith, Steve Buscemi, Jude Law, Susan Sarandon, Desus and Mero, Jason Schwartzman, Tavi Gevinson, and more, all doing voice work for a semi-satirical anime set in a hipster-future New York City? Okay.
In Neo Yokio, Jaden Smith plays Kaz Kaan, a character described as “the #1 most eligible bachelor and demon slayer.” From the looks of this first trailer, the creators of Neo Yokio—Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig chief amongst them—know that people will be rolling their eyes at this thing’s very existence. The whole things smacks of a bunch of bold-faced names coming together to send up the genre conventions of a trendy medium. But it could also be very funny because of that. Here’s the official press release:
From creator, writer and executive producer Ezra Koenig (Vampire Weekend), writer/executive producer Nick Weidenfeld and his Friends Night banner, Neo Yokio is a new animated series starring the voice talents of Jaden Smith, Susan Sarandon, Jude Law, Tavi Gevinson, Jason Schwartzman, and Desus & Mero, along with Richard Ayoade, Ike Barinholtz, Steve Buscemi, Alexa Chung, Stephen Fry, Katy Mixon, Annet Mahendru, Kiernan Shipka, Willow Smith and Amanda Stenberg. A collaboration with Japanese anime studios Production IG and Studio Deen, along with MOI, the Seoul-based animation studio, the series is a postmodern collage of homages to classic anime, English literature and modern New York fashion and culture. Storyboard artists for the series include Kazuhiro Furuhashi (Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, Hunter x Hunter, Rurouni Kenshin) and Junji Nishimura (Ranma 1/2, Urusei Yatsura, Pro Golfer Saru).
Neo Yokio starts streaming on Netflix on September 22.