Pacific Rim. I was less enthusiastic about the sequel, 2018 s
Pacific Rim: Uprising, since it lacked any participation from del Toro and many of the original creative team, and the few returning characters from the first film were, in my opinion, ill-served by the directions it took the
franchise s narrative. Here in 2021, though, the world of
Pacific Rim has gotten another chance to capture the imagination of old and new fans, this time in the form of
Netflix original anime that purports to build on the ideas of the first two films while exploring creative new avenues of the Pacific Rim universe.
The single most memorable line of the
Pacific Rim franchise came in the first movie when Idris Elba’s battle-armored mech marshal, Stacker Pentecost, proclaimed, “Today, we are canceling the apocalypse!” In the first season of
Pacific Rim: The Black, which hit
Netflix on March 4, Stacker’s name is now relegated to Easter-egg status among a new generation of Jaeger pilots. They have big blue doll eyes, anime-style no-noses, and chins so sharp you could lance a Kaiju Skinmite with them.
Animated by
Polygon Pictures the Japanese studio known for its 3DCG Godzilla trilogy
The Black jumps forward to some indeterminate point in the monster-filled future. In doing so, it skips over what seems like a crucial bit of narrative: namely, said apocalypse. Apparently, it was rescheduled and happened mostly offscreen. What’s left in these seven easily-binged episodes is a post-apocalyptic Australia, straight out of