Pacific Rim: The Black

This article is about the Netflix series. You may be looking for the scrapped series, Steel Warriors.

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Pacific Rim: The Black
Thumbnail poster for Pacific Rim: The Black
Genre	Science fiction
Creator	Craig Kyle, Greg Johnson
Production crew
Director	Jae Hong Kim (Supervising Director), Hiroyuki Hayashi (Supervising Director), Jamie Simone (Voice Direction)
Producer(s)	Craig Kyle Greg Johnson, Ken Duer
Writer(s)	Craig Kyle Greg Johnson
Starring	Calum Worthy, Gideon Adlon, Erica Lindbeck
Music by	Brandon Campbell
Editor	Adam Redding
Corporate information
Distributor	Netflix, Click for full list Legendary Entertainment, Polygon Pictures
Production information
Air Date	March 4, 2021
Language	English, Japanese
Runtime	20 min (approx.)
Season(s)	2
Broadcast(s)	Netflix
Original Run	March 4, 2021 - April 19, 2022
Previous	Pacific Rim Uprising

"Everyone on the continent has five days to reach the following cities: Brisbane, Darwin, Perth, or Sydney. If we don't get there, no one will come for us. No one will save us. God be with us all."

—News Reporter, "From the Shadows"

Pacific Rim: The Black (パシフィック・リム: 暗黒の大陸, Pashifikku Rimu Ankoku no Tairiku) is an animated series produced and distributed by Legendary Television Studios and Polygon Pictures in association with Netflix. Pacific Rim: The Black follows siblings Hayley and Taylor, who learn to pilot an abandoned Jaeger in a post-apocalyptic Australia overwhelmed by the Kaiju. Originally set for a 2020 release, before it was pushed back to 2021. The series was greenlit for two seasons. The first season debuted March 4, 2021. The second and final season debuted on April 19, 2022.

Official Description

"There was a time when Kaiju rose from the Pacific Rim only to encounter gigantic robots, Jaegers, built to fight them back. That time has passed. Now, Australia has been overrun by Kaiju, forcing the evacuation of an entire continent. Left behind, teenage siblings Taylor and Hayley embark on a desperate search for their missing parents, teaching themselves to pilot a battered, long-abandoned Jaeger to help in their quest and give them even the slightest hope of surviving."

—Official Description

Story

Season One

Kaiju have taken over the continent of Australia. The Pan Pacific Defense Corps have initiated Operation Blackout: The evacuation of civilians and personnel from Kaiju-compromised areas. All Jaegers and Shatterdomes have been destroyed or buried to avoid compromise. After rescuing civilians from a Kaiju attack, Rangers Ford and Brina Travis leave to find help in nearby evacuation cities. Five years later, their children, Hayley and Taylor, discover the buried PPDC base Shadow Basin, which houses the Mark-3 Jaeger, Atlas Destroyer. Atlas Destroyer is a decommissioned training Jaeger with no weapons, left behind during the PPDC's evacuation.

Activating Atlas Destroyer draws the attention of a Category IV Kaiju, Copperhead, who destroys their safe haven, and kills the survivors they lived with. With no options left, they use Atlas Destroyer to begin the search for their parents. The search is met with multiple setbacks. While searching for for a power cell, Taylor and Hayley meet a boy trapped in the basement of the PPDC Recruitment Center. Following a close call with a Kaiju-Jaeger Hybrid and several canine Kaiju, they meet Shane and Mei in Bogan. The siblings battle the Kaiju Copperhead throughout their journey. A showdown with the Kaiju-Jaeger Hybrid, Apex, reveals remnants of the Hybrids. "The Sisters" that were referenced by Shane, are revealed alongside the revelation of the Kaiju Messiah.

Season Two

To be Added

Episodes

Main article: List of Pacific Rim: The Black Episodes

Jaeger and Kaiju

Jaegers Atlas Destroyer Striker Berserker Hunter Vertigo Marauder Sentry Drone Jaegers Chaos Nemesis (arm) Horizon Bravo (remains) November Ajax (remains; opening sequence) Valor Omega (remains) Titan Redeemer (remains; opening sequels) Saber Athena (remains) Obsidian Fury (remains) Coyote Tango (remains)

Kaiju Bone Spur Acidquill Copperhead Kaiju Boy Ripper Apex Kaiju Eel Trespasser Hybrid Kaiju Breacher Leatherback (cameo) Slattern (cameo) Mutavore Yamarashi (mentioned) Otachi Trespasser Insurrector Kaiju Tick Drone Jaegers (remains; flashback)

Cast

Voice (JPN)	Voice (ENG)	Character
Yui Shimodaya	Gideon Adlon	Hayley Travis
Yūsuke Kobayashi	Calum Worthy	Taylor Travis
TBA	Camryn Jones	Young Hayley Travis
Yuki Urushiyama	Cole Keriazakos	Young Taylor Travis
Iku Minase	Erica Lindbeck	Loa
TBA	Ben Diskin	Kaiju Boy
Jin Yamanoi	Andy McPhee	Shane
Ayaka Shimoyamada	Victoria Grace	Mei
TBA	Nolan North	Marshal Rask
Yuko Kaida	Allie MacDonald	Brina Travis
Yuya Uchida	Jason Spisak	Ford Travis
TBA	David Errigo	Root
Daisuke Hirakawa	Leonardo Nam	Rickter
Rui Kato	Martin Klebba	Spyder
Tomoya Yano	Vincent Piazza	Joel Wyrick
TBA	Bryton James	Corey
Masato Niwa	Ryan Robinson	Demarcus
Megumi Ohara	TBA	Sister
TBA	Ron Yuan	Shiro Ito

Background

Format

Pacific Rim: The Black is an episodic series, building on the story of the original film and Pacific Rim Uprising. The series will follow a brother and his younger sister piloting an abandoned Jaeger across hostile territory in search of their parents.

Pre-Production

Following the departure of Guillermo del Toro from the production of the Pacific Rim sequel, affiliated projects planned for release, such as the animated series, and ongoing comic book series, were quietly cancelled or reworked into a miniseries. Legendary Entertainment reworked the sequel into Pacific Rim Uprising, directed and co-written by Steven S. DeKnight.

November 7, 2018, Legendary announced an animated series project was moving forward with Netfix. The series was among a hundred announced or returning original series produced by Netflix as their first "content showing" for Japan, Taiwan, Thailand and South Korea.

Craig Kyle, co-writer of Thor: Ragnarok, and Greg Johnson, head writer of the 2000 series X-Men: Evolution were announced as the series showrunners.

July 2019, during the Los Angeles Anime Expo, Legendary Entertainment announced the series would debut in 2020 with an initial plan for two seasons. The Tokyo-based animation company, Polygon Pictures, would co-produce the series. Elie Dekel, vice president of brand development and consumer products for Legendary Entertainment, cited that the production would be one of the most expensive for Netflix's original anime series.

Production

Production for the series officially begin in 2019. Polygon Studios art director Yuki Moriyama sought to maintain the unrefined action of the films for the series, while acknowledging many elements about the universe's presentation would were necessary to change to better suit the animation format.

The tone of the series would be darker than the films. Supervising director Hiroyuki Hayashi was interested in focusing on a future wherein humanity has been exhausted by the war against the Kaiju. “We came up with the idea that the social gap between different groups would widen under these circumstances. Especially in the frontline areas left behind, people would only see advanced technology when it is necessary."

Atlas Destroyer illustrated by Jūki Izumo.

The Kaiju designs were created by concept artist Yuuki Morita, who worked with the animators to make the concept art's realistic designs meld with vibrant color tones that work in anime. The goal was to render the Kaiju without losing the detail present in Morita's work. Collaboration between Polygon Studios and Legendary Entertainment, according to Hayashi, gave the Kaiju designs an "international flavor" as a result of diverse artists bringing their own ideas to the concept of the Kaiju.

Jaegers Atlas Destroyer, and Hunter Vertigo were designed by Jūki Izumo, who consulted Pacific Rim concept artists Keith Thompson, Hugo Martin, Oscar Cicconi, Guy Davis, and Francisco Ruiz Velasco. Sculptor Yuji Katagiri designed the maquettes for the Jaegers, which were then rendered by Industrial Light and Magic. According to Izumo, they tried to follow the design philosophy of the first film, as well as Japanese plastic model designs. They also considered the setting and timeline of the universe, working with the animation directors and showrunners who had final say on the Jaeger designs.

Critical Reception

As of March 2021, developing critical consensus of Pacific Rim: The Black is mixed to positive on review aggregate sites. The series earned a 71% (based on thirteen critical reviews) fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and Metacritic currently counts three positive critical reviews.

Trivia

• Like Netflix's other animated projects (The Dragon Prince, Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters), Pacific Rim: The Black was animated with Toon Boom Animation software.
• According to SciFi Japan, the first season of Pacific Rim: The Black is seven episodes long.
• In a 2020 interview with Collider, when asked about Pacific Rim: The Black, Charlie Hunnam stated he was not involved in the production or aware of the series.

External Links

• Pacific Rim: The Black | Netflix Official Site
• Pacific Rim: The Black - Internet Movie Database
• Sci-fi Japan Publicity Page