First look at Netflix's Weird Western anime Bass X Machina

Netflix has been investing heavily in anime by signing deals with major studios including MAPPA and Madhouse, and it is expanding the form by blending Western and Eastern animation tropes. That mix proved successful with the 2023 revenge thriller Blue Eye Samurai; Netflix’s director of adult animated series, Jermaine Turner, showed a new clip for Blue Eye Samurai season two at Annecy and also unveiled a first look at Bass X Machina.

Bass X Machina is a Weird Western take on the story of Bass Reeves, an escaped slave who became the first Black deputy U.S. Marshal. A minute-long clip shown at Annecy has Bass using a cyborg arm to catch a bullet from a minigun on a moving train, then transform the arm into a gun to fire back, all set to a hip-hop beat.

When an outlaw blames Bass for his brother’s death, the lawman executes him and says, "You're back with him now." Brian Tyree Henry voices Bass and serves as an executive producer.

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