Studio Colorido, the production company behind the anime films Penguin Highway and A Whisker Away, announced its next anime film Drifting Home will be coming to Netflix worldwide sometime in 2022.
The announcement was part of the TUDUM: Anime Spotlight, a pre-show for Netflix's TUDUM announcement event on YouTube. Directed by Penguin Highway director Hiroyasu Ishida, the newly revealed Drifting Home is about childhood friends Kosuke and Natsume. One day, while playing in an apartment complex scheduled for demolition, the building mysteriously ends up drifting out in the ocean -- based on the trailer's narration, possibly in another world entirely -- and the two friends need to make their way home.
The first trailer for Drifting Home features scenes from Studio Colorido's first two films before revealing 35 seconds of footage from the new one. The animation showcased in the footage looks stylistically similar to Colorido's previous films, particularly Penguin Highway, with which it shares not only its primary director but also its animation director, Fumi Kato.
Netflix also released the first poster for Drifting Home. In addition to Kosuke, Natsume and their apartment on the ocean, the poster highlights four other characters, seemingly friends of the main duo who will help them investigate their supernatural situation.
Released in 2018, Penguin Highway is a feature film adaptation of a novel by Tomohiko Morimi, the author of the original The Tatami Galaxy novel and screenwriter of its upcoming sequel anime Yojohan Time Machine Blues. The story follows a precocious fourth-grade boy Aoyama as he deals with both the start of puberty and a whole bunch of penguins mysteriously appearing in his town. The movie is currently available to stream on Amazon Prime Video, Hoopla and Tubi.
Studio Colorido's second film, A Whisker Away, is about a middle school girl named Miyo Sasaki who finds a mask that allows her to turn into a cat, a power she uses to get close to the boy she likes but turns out to have negative consequences. The film was originally scheduled for a Japanese theatrical release in 2020 but had to cancel such plans due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Netflix released the film worldwide, establishing a partnership with Colorido that continues today with Drifting Home.
Drifting Home will stream worldwide on Netflix in 2022, as well as have a theatrical release in Japanese theaters.
Sources: YouTube
