An explosive attack erupts in a future version of New York City, and a young man with pink hair attempts to save the day with magic and the help of his robot pal. Jaden Smith is that man with pink hair, and his animated character is really into fashion.
Given a trailer Netflix released on Thursday, this appears to be the plot of a new Netflix anime series, “Neo Yokio,” created by Ezra Koenig, frontman of the band Vampire Weekend.
The show’s color palette, musical choices and fonts are reminiscent of the director Wes Anderson’s films (frequent Anderson-collaborator Jason Schwartzman is even involved). All of these details will either make you very excited, or cause you to take a hard pass on the show, which will debut Sept. 22.
If you’re in the former camp, here’s the description from Netflix to get you ready (Jude Law plays something called a “mecha-butler”!):
Welcome to Neo Yokio, the greatest city in the world. It’s the most populous urban agglomeration in North America, but its prestige does not merely stem from its size. Neo Yokio is a diverse labyrinth of cultural and architectural innovation at the forefront of global fashion and finance.
All of this is cold comfort to the lovesick Kaz Kaan (Jaden Smith), the youngest member of a family of “magistocrats” – pink-haired demon slayers who once liberated the city. Today, his demon-slaying is barely more than a side-hustle coordinated by his Aunt Agatha (Susan Sarandon) - Kaz himself would rather concern himself with shopping, field hockey and - of course – mending his broken heart.
Always by Kaz’s side are his faithful mecha-butler, Charles (Jude Law), and his inseparable friends Lexy and Gottlieb (The Kid Mero and Desus Nice) as he navigates the complexities of life in Neo Yokio and tries to stay one step ahead of his arch-rival, Neo Yokio’s number one most eligible bachelor, Arcangelo Corelli (Jason Schwartzman.)
Things take a mysterious turn when Kaz is drawn into the turbulent world of ex-fashion blogger Helena St. Tessero (Tavi Gevinson), setting in motion a sequence of events that force him to question everything he knows about Neo Yokio.
The show sounds like a lot. Maybe too much, even. But it sounds well worth checking out.
Ezra Koenig has not written a show before, although he did guest star on Diplo’s FXX cartoon show, “Major Lazer,” which had the same name as the famous producer’s electronic band. Koenig’s own band, Vampire Weekend, is allegedly working on a new album after a key member, Rostam Batmanglij, left the group to release his own music. Koenig is also executive producing the anime series along with fellow writer/executive producer Nick Weidenfeld.
It’s too early to tell if this will be Smith’s craziest role yet.
