2nd Edition | March 2021

ADULT
ANIMATION
WHITE
PAPER

2

Figure 1: Harley Quinn – DC Comics

The “Great Adult Animation
Boom” is in Full Swing
From mind-bending sci-fi comedies like The Midnight Gospel
to dramatic, action-based mini-series like The Liberator, tocomic book inspired shows like Harley Quinn, adult animation
has entered a period of rapid growth and genre diversification.
The streamers, broadcasters and cablers have caught on —there are over 100 new adult animated series on order. That’s
a whopping 100% increase from a year ago. The upcoming
series includes a whole new class of video game spinoffs,
TV series reboots, and anime-inspired productions that will
significantly expand the audience for adult animation. I am
calling this phenomenon ‘The Great Adult Animation Boom.’Tableof Contents
1.

About the Author

4

2. Sources

5

3. What This Report Covers

6

4. Sponsorship7

5. Summary of the State of the Adult Animation Industry

86. Adult Animated Comedy

10

7. Fox’s Animation Domination

12

Fox’s Current Adult Animated Series

15

Fox’s Upcoming Adult Animated Series

16

8. Netflix’s Unbridled Ambition for Adult Animation

17

Netflix Comedy

20

Netflix Anime

21

Netflix Video Game Based Animated Series

21

Netflix’s Current Adult Animated Series

22

Netflix’s Upcoming Adult Animated Series

23

9. Comedy Central Makes a Hard Pivot

25

Viacom’s Current Adult Animation Series

26

Viacom’s Upcoming Adult Animation Series

26

10. WarnerMedia: HBO Max, Adult Swim & DC Comics

27

HBO Max’s Current Adult Animated Series

29

HBO Max’s Upcoming Adult Animated Series

29

Adult Swim’s Current Adult Animated Series

30

Adult Swim’s Upcoming Adult Animated Series

31

11. Sci-Fi Comedy Crossovers

32

Current Sci-Fi Comedy Adult Animated Crossovers

34

Upcoming Sci-Fi Comedy Adult Animated Crossovers

35

12. Syfy’s TZGZ Block and Short Format Pipelines

36

Current Adult Animated TZGZ Block Series

37

Upcoming Adult Animated TZGZ Block Series

37© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 2

Tableof Contents
13. Blasts From the Past: Reboots and Spinoffs

38

Current Adult Animated Reboots and Spinoffs

40

Upcoming Adult Animated Reboots and Spinoffs

40

14. Is It Still Anime If It’s Not Produced in Japan?

42

Current Adult Animated Anime-Inspired
or Anime Based on Western IP

46

Upcoming Adult Animated Anime-Inspired
or Anime Based on Western IP
15. Drawing from Comics and Graphic Novels

46
47

Current Comic-Book Inspired Adult Animated Series48

Upcoming Comic-Book Inspired Adult Animated Series

49

16. Why Video Games are the New IP Gold Rush

50

Current Adult Animated Series Based on Video Games53

Upcoming Adult Animated Series Based on Video Games53

17. The Rise of Dramatic “Non-Comedy Genre Shows”

54

Current Adult Animated Non-Comedy Genre Series

56

Upcoming Adult Animated Non-Comedy Genre Series

56

18. Production Technology

59

19. Social and Mobile Streaming60

20. Notable Upcoming Shows

62

21. Opportunities in an Untapped Global Market

64

22. Critical Role: a Case Study in Crowdfunding Animation

66

23. The Great Adult Animation Boom70

24. In Summary

74

25. The Adult Animation Database75

Current Adult Animated Series – Ranked by Popularity

77

Upcoming Series – (Alphabetical Order)81

26. Index of Images

86© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 3

Figure 2: John Evershed, CEO High Concentrate

1. About the Author
John Evershed is the head of High Concentrate LLC, a company specializing in the
research, packaging, development, sale of animated TV series and movies for adultaudiences. Evershed is the founder and former CEO of Mondo Media, producer anddistributor of animation for young adults where he launched and programmed a
Mondo branded OTT channel on WarnerMedia’s VRV platform, and generated over
6 billion views on YouTube.
Evershed executive produced multiple TV series including Gary and His Demons,currently airing on the Syfy channel, Happy Tree Friends on MTV International
and The Mondo Animation Hour, a mini-block, that aired on the El Rey Network.
Evershed has won multiple awards in his capacity as Executive Producer including
Dick Figures: The Movie, winner of the Berlin Film Festival Best Animated Movie
for Adults and Happy Tree Friends, winner of an Annie for Best Animated TV Series
for Adults.
Evershed serves on the boards and consults with entertainment and technology
companies including Chonky (crowd-based entertainment financing), Trioscope(hybrid live action animation studio), ZikVid (digital video platform), Mellow Manor(animation festival), and Mondo Media (multi-platform animation channel and library).
For consulting on adult animation or help with packaging, development and selling,please contact us at the email address below. High Concentrate is always looking
for IP (original books, comic books, video games, podcasts, etc.) to develop and taketo market. We are also looking for finished product including English and foreign
language series and movies. Please do not submit treatments, scripts, pitches, etc.
without reaching out first and signing a submission release.
Contact jevershed@highconcentrate.com© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 4

2. Sources
This white paper is not for sale and is intended to be a free snapshot for anyone
with an interest in the adult animation industry. This document is for personal use
and nothing in it should be re-published without permission from the author. All theinformation in this white paper was gathered from published material and generalindustry knowledge. I have attributed sources wherever possible. The contents ofthis report are one person’s analysis of the market for adult animation. I have madean honest attempt to evaluate the market and back up my positions with as muchdata as I can gather. Anyone with different points of view are encouraged to contact
me regarding any position in this paper, because you might be right! My hope is tokeep things interesting and avoid problems that I see with market analysis broadly– especially in the entertainment field – where press releases get regurgitated withstatistics that miss important trends due to disruption, shifts in technology, andevolving consumer tastes.

The Adult Animation Database
The data in this report is a snapshot of the market as of Feb 21, 2021. The numbers,
where not attributed to a source, are derived from The Adult Animation Database.
The database is maintained by High Concentrate on a daily basis and we make it free
for anyone interested in visiting the site.

Figure 3:
Gary and His Demons– Syfy© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 5

3. What This Report Covers
This is the second edition of the Adult Animation White Paper, which covers 2020and provides an outlook for 2021. The report focuses exclusively on adult animatedTV series — mostly quarter, half and occasionally hour-long series. These shows are
typically written and produced in English. This research is limited to shows that are
currently airing as well as shows that are in development or production. It does notcover library material except where noted. This document does not cover animatedmovies for adults. (It’s a relatively short list.) While the report does cover Japanese
anime treatments of Western IP and Western animation produced in interpretationsof anime styles, it does not cover anime more broadly. This white paper does not
attempt to cover any children’s animation, which is both a distinct and considerablylarger market. The buyers covered in this report are streaming platforms, networks,
cable, and digital distributors. Many series share multiple production partners,
making it difficult to attribute any one show to any one production company. Where
possible, the report attempts to attribute all producing entities to each series.

Figure 4:
The Midnight Gospel- Netflix© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 6

4. Sponsorship
As opposed to charging for this research report, I elected to go the sponsorshiproute to make it as widely available as possible. I am grateful to our sponsor,
Toon Boom Animation, for their financial support in producing the Adult Animation
White Paper. Any opinions expressed in this white paper are strictly those of theauthor and do not reflect those of the sponsor.
Toon Boom Animation are the developers behind Harmony and Storyboard Pro.
Harmony is the industry's leading 2D animation software, while Storyboard Pro isideal for independent creators and production teams to layout stories and hit the
ground running in production. Fully-featured 21-day trials are available to download
at toonboom.com.

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 7

5. Summary of the State of
the Adult Animation Industry
1.

QUANTITY OF UPCOMING ADULT ANIMATED SERIES DOUBLES.
Over the past year, the total number of upcoming adult animated TV series
grew from 50 to 103.

2. ANIMATED COMEDY HAS UNOFFICIALLY REPLACED LIVE ACTION SITCOMS.
Young adults prefer animated comedy over live action sitcoms.
3. REBOOTS AND SPINOFFs, from Good Times to Masters of the Universe, comprisea disproportionately large crop of upcoming adult animated reboots andspinoffs.
4. ANIME is in demand. Sony acquires Crunchyroll from WarnerMedia while
Netflix and HBO Max continue to buy new anime at a rapid clip. The line
between the Western and Japanese animation continues to blur.
5. VIDEO GAMES exploded on the scene with 15 new video game IP inspired
series in production, up from 2 last year. Many of these adaptations will be
produced as anime or in an anime style.

Figure 5:
Archer - FX

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 8

6. COMIC BOOKS are another fertile source of inspiration for adult animatedseries, although proportionately not as dominant a source of IP as it is forlive-action adaptations.
7. SCI-FI COMEDY CROSSOVERS are over-represented in the current andupcoming crop of adult animated series.
8. THE STREAMERS, especially Netflix, are by far and away the most active buyersof adult animation, accounting for 50% of all new projects in development
or production.
9. NETFLIX is the most aggressive buyer in the adult animation space with 22 newseries on order.
10. FOX is the only major broadcast network actively airing adult animation. The
channel continues to ramp up development and production of new series.
11. CABLER’S APPETITE FOR ADULT ANIMATION CONTINUES TO GROW.
Most cable channels targeting 18-34s with scripted programming have orderedat least one adult animated series.
12. YOUNG ADULTS watch less traditional TV. In percentage terms, the amountof time 18-34-year-olds as a whole spent watching traditional TV in Q1 2020
dropped by about 15.3% from the previous year.1
13. PACKAGING IS ESSENTIAL. Most buyers are looking for fully-formed packages
with proven writers, artists and voice talent leaving fewer opportunities forquirky, off-beat series.
14. DIGITAL remains uncertain. Quibi’s quick rise and demise leaves only Facebook
Watch and YouTube Premium as limited active digital buyers of adult animation.

1Marketing Charts, September 14, 2020
© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 9

Figure 5:
The Simpsons- Fox

6. Adult Animated Comedy
One could argue that the enduring popularity of the adult animated sitcom isdue in large part to the massive popularity of one show: The Simpsons. The yellow
family from Springfield proved that the time-tested formula works. From Family
Guy to South Park, animated sitcoms are some of the most enduring and valuable
franchises in the history of television. However, consumer acceptance of animation
as a medium is widening to include new genres, including action, horror, and drama.
Adult animated comedy isn’t going away any time soon, but things are about to geta lot more interesting. Here’s why...
In 2017, Rick and Morty surpassed Modern Family, and The Big Bang Theory to
become the most-watched comedy across all of television.2 The adult animatedsitcom has proven to be more durable than the live-action sitcom, which has fallenout of favor. The three act sitcom structure, with one main plot and two subplots,
is designed to maximize a limited, twenty-two minute, commercial-laden half hour
experience. These restrictions have fallen away with the proliferation of ad-freesubscription services becoming the primary platform of choice for 18-34s.

2

Vulture - Rick and Morty Is Now the No. 1 TV Comedy Among Millennials, Oct 4, 2017

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 10

“Somewhere along the way, animated comedy
replaced live action sitcoms as millennials preferredmedium for consuming comedy.”
Somewhere along the way, animated comedy replaced live action sitcoms as
millennials’ preferred medium for consuming comedy. Live-action comedic
TV series are becoming as rare as live-action comedic movies. Do a Google search
for the most popular live-action comedy TV series. It will call up a list of series
that are no longer in production — shows like Arrested Development, Community
and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Do the same for adult animated series and it’s almost all
current series — shows like South Park, Bob’s Burgers, and Archer. There are a totalof 60 new comedic adult animated series accounting for 60% of upcoming adultanimated series.

Figure 6:
Rick and Morty- Adult Swim

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 11

Figure 7:
Animation Domination
Block - Fox

7. Fox’s Animation Domination
Fox is the only broadcast network committed to adult animated comedy, with two
massive animation franchises — The Simpsons and Family Guy. In 2019, Fox Corp.
purchased Bento Box Entertainment, the studio behind the long-running Bob’s
Burgers, as it sought to strengthen its adult animation brand.
After a five-year hiatus, Fox’s Sunday night Animation Domination returned in
September 2019. The programming block exclusively features prime-time animatedsitcoms and includes The Simpsons, Family Guy, Bob’s Burgers, Duncanville, Blessthe Harts, and The Great North. Fox is in the midst of a major expansion of its
animation portfolio, with 14 new series in development. Daniel Weidenfeld (The Eric
Andre Show and China, IL) is Fox’s senior VP of animation and oversees all animatedproduction and development, both for the network and third parties. According
to Weidenfeld, “Animation is a key part of our business; we are really looking to
growing our slate and potentially even adding another hour of animation on ourschedule in a targeted section of the year.”3
Fox Entertainment’s President Michael Thorn said earlier this year, “We arelooking to take our legacy and build on it.” He added: “Part of that is tied toour programming goals and our Fox Entertainment goals in terms of having anownership stake in those animated series. When they work, they work extremely
well financially as well.”4 It will be interesting to see which of these upcoming series
stick and whether the Fox expands beyond its Sunday night slot.

3

Deadline – Fox’s Michael Thorn On Net’s Animation Expansion & Future
Of The Simpsons, Bob’s Burgers & Family Guy, Jan 7, 2020

4

Comicbook – “Greater Good” Animated Workplace Comedy in the Works at
Fox From American Dad Co,Creator, Nov 10 2020
© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 12

“Animation is a key part of our business; we are reallylooking to growing our slate and potentially evenadding another hour of animation on our schedule
in a targeted section of the year.”
Fox works almost exclusively with experienced writing teams and world-classvoice talent. Their shows, on the whole, are targeted at an older, wider audience
than Netflix or Adult Swim. The palette and style of all the family sitcoms are sosimilar that, from a distance, it can be difficult to tell them apart visually. (See image
at top of page 12.) The Simpsons characters are arguably the most abstract andthere’s a trend towards realism that makes each subsequent series a little harder todifferentiate from what came previously.
Fox’s Animation Domination block is a little too safe for young adults who tend to
gravitate to the darker cynicism of Rick and Morty and Bojack Horseman. It’s worth
noting that The Simpsons and Family Guy were relatively controversial when theyfirst aired on Fox. Most great comedy is at least a little dangerous – especially early
in a show’s incarnation. Bart Simpson seems harmless now but he was considereda bad boy in the early days of the series, and Seth MacFarlane was pretty notorious
for pushing boundaries. HBO Max’s Harley Quinn is a good example of a comedy
series that is finding new buttons to push. Adult Swim’s comedic series have always
been the most experimental and young adults have rewarded them with ratings.
Fox is still the number one broadcast network with the 18-34 demo, but, like all
broadcasters, they’re fighting an inexorable decline in their 18-34 ratings. Fox has
stated they are committed to finding their next animated franchise, and from thelooks of their upcoming line-up they have made the determination that they needto diversify the block beyond the family sitcom.
Fox’s last two functional/dysfunctional family sitcoms Bless the Harts and The Great
North haven’t received a lot of attention since their launch and rank 50th and 51st in
the most-popular adult animated series ranking. Fox was able to introduce a third
hit with Bob’s Burgers, but you wonder how far that formula can be pushed.

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 13

To Fox’s credit, they stuck with Bob’s Burgers. According to Bouchard, in the earlydays of Bob’s Burgers, “[the Fox execs] weren't necessarily seeing it in the numbers,
but they were hearing about it from their friends and from their kids and from social
media.”5 It’s not clear if Fox will have the same patience with their new series —
especially with the volume of upcoming projects looking for a home on the block.

“When Loren Bouchard first introduced
Bob’s Burgers to Fox, it was a story abouta family of cannibals.”
When Loren Bouchard first introduced Bob’s Burgers to Fox, it was a story about afamily of cannibals. Coming from the Adult Swim school of irreverence, Bouchard
thought he had to push boundaries to get Fox to buy his show. Fox, however,convinced him to abandon the humans-eating-other-humans angle and focus on
the family and character dynamics.
The line-up of upcoming shows looks more adventurous: Crag Banyon PI, a series
currently in development, “follows the supernatural adventures of an alcoholic
ex-cop and current private investigator, as he solves cases in an alternate noir,
otherworldly reality.” Housebroken, another upcoming Fox series, is about “ananthropomorphic therapy dog, who explores human dysfunctions and neurosis
by applying her knowledge of psychiatry through leading a group of otheranthropomorphic neighborhood animals in group therapy sessions.”6 These log
lines don’t sound very “Foxy.”Fox ordered two new series — one from Dan Harmon (Rick and Morty), and an
one-hour animated drama project from Jeff Davis (Criminal Minds) so they’re clearlyin the mood for breaking out of the family sitcom mold. Something tells me that if
Bouchard pitched the cannibal angle for Bob’s Burgers to Fox in early 2021, he might
have ended up making a very different show.

5

The Hollywood Reporter - 'Bob's Burgers' Originally Featured a Family of Cannibals
and Other Secrets Revealed in THR's Oral History, May 19, 20166

Deadline - Fox Orders ‘Housebroken’ Animated Comedy Series Starring
Lisa Kudrow From Sharon Horgan, Clea Duvall, Jennifer Crittenden,
Gabrielle Allan & Kapital, Dec 19, 2019
© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 14

Figure 8:
Bob’s Burgers

Fox’s Current Adult Animated Series
Description

Creator(s)(and Other Work)

Studio(s)Family Sitcom

Emily Spivey(Up all Night, SNL)

Titmouse, Inc., Jessebean, Inc.,
Lord Miller Productions,
Fox Entertainment,
20th Television

Bob’s Burger

Family Sitcom

Loren Bouchard(Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist)

Bento Box Entertainment,
Wilo Productions,
Buck & Millie Productions,
20th Television

Family Guy

Family Sitcom

Seth MacFarlane (American Dad,
The Cleveland Show)

Fuzzy Door Productions
20th Television

Family Sitcom

Wendy Molyneux,
Lizzie Molyneux and Minty
Lewis, Loren Bouchard (Bob’s
Burgers)

Bento Box Entertainment,
Double Molyneux Sister Sheux,
Wilo Productions,
Fox Entertainment,
20th TelevisionMatt Groening, (Futurama,
Disenchantment)

Gracie Films,
20th Television,
Distributor,
20th Television (1989–2020),
Disney–ABC Domestic Television(2020–present)

Show

Bless the Harts

The GreatNorth

The Simpsons

Family Sitcom© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 15

Fox’s Upcoming Adult Animated SeriesShow

Description

Creator(s)(and Other Work)

Studio(s)ClueSpinoff fromboardgame

TBA

Entertainment One,
Bento Box

Cocky

ComedyJack Amiel and Michael Begler(The Knick)Fox Entertainment,
Bento Box

Crag Banyon PI

Supernatural
Mystery Comedy

Shane Black (Lethal Weapon,
The Predator), David Silverman(The Simpsons)

Fox Entertainment,
Bento Box

Demi-God

Hybrid AnimatedLive Action

Katie Greenway (The Millers,
Bella and the Bulldogs)

Fox Entertainment

The Greater GoodWork placecomedyMike Barker (American Dad), Stoney
Sharp (Comedy Bang! Bang!)Fox Entertainment

Housebroken

Anthropomorphic
therapy dog

Jennifer Crittenden(The Simpsons, Everybody
Loves Raymond, Seinfeld, Veep,)
Clea DuVall, Gabrielle Allan

Kapital Entertainment,
Merman,Bento Box Entertainment,
Fox Entertainment

Lil Kev

Story of Kevin Hart
as a young boy

Kevin Hart (comedian),
Michael Price (The Simpsons)and Matt Claybrooks(Everybody Hates Chris)

20th Century Fox TV,
Lionsgate

Name TBD

Jermaine Fowler
Project based on
growing up in
MarylandJermaine Fowler creator,
writer EP (Superior Donuts)

Fox Entertainment

Name TBD

Dan Harmon
Project

Dan Harmon (Rick and Morty,
Community)

Fox Entertainment,
Bento Box

Name TBD

Jeff Davis One
Hour Drama
Project

Jeff Davis (Criminal Minds)

Fox Entertainment,
Bento Box

Ocean Village

Florida Apartment
Building Comedy

Daniel Katz (Deep Space 69,
Trip Tank, Like Share Die)

Bento Box, Look Mom Prod.

Prince Wawa

Original abouta Merman

Tim Baltz, Lilly Sullivan(Cobra Kai)

Sony Pictures TV

Shell Beach

Original Comedy

Tyler, The Creator (musician) &Lionel Boyce & Davon Wilson(Adult Swim’s Loiter Squad)Fox Entertainment andBento BoxThe X-Files:
Albuquerque

X-Files “B-team”
comedy spinoff

Chris Carter (X-Files) Rocky Russo
and Jeremy Sosenko

20th Television,
Fox Entertainment,
Bento Box

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 16

Figure 9: BoJack Horseman - Netflix

8. Netflix’s Unbridled
Ambition for Adult Animation
By 2028, Netflix will spend $26 billion per year on content, up from $17 billion in
2020.7 Netflix has literally said out loud that they want to go head-to-head with
Disney. As a result, they’re making an enormous financial commitment to animation
to back up their fighting words.

“Netflix was born in Silicon Valley. Early on,
BoJack’s numbers signaled to Netflix that adultanimation was the perfect “hack” to attract
young adult audiences.”
Netflix is home to BoJack Horseman, one of the first original series to premiereon the streamer in 2014, one year after House of Cards. Netflix aired the lastof 77 episodes before it put Bojack out to pasture in the beginning of 2020.
GQ magazine praised the show as one of the best of the decade, and IndieWireranked BoJack Horseman as the greatest animated television series of all time.

The show has been praised for its realistic take on depression, trauma, addiction,
self-destructive behavior, racism, sexism, sexuality, and the human condition.
The series received numerous accolades, including four Critics’ Choice Television
Awards for Best Animated Series, three Annie Awards and two Writers Guild of
America Awards. It also received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations,
including two for Outstanding Animated Program. This is a long way of saying that
BoJack Horseman was an important series for Netflix.

7

Fortune - Netflix will spend over $17 billion on content in 2020: Analyst, Jan. 16, 2020
© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 17

It’s not unusual for animation to help put channels (or in this case a streamer)on the map. Fox was on the brink of shuttering when The Simpsons first started
to gain traction and helped turn Fox into the 4th major network, while Beavis andButt-Head was one of the first non-music, breakout shows for MTV. South Parkhas been credited with saving Comedy Central from the brink of oblivion. Netflix
was born in Silicon Valley. BoJack Horseman’s numbers signaled to Netflix that adultanimation was the perfect “hack” to attract young adult audiences.

Figure 10:
Big Mouth - Netflix

Netflix has a multi-tiered strategy aimed at locking in Netflix as the definitive home
for adult animation:• Volume — Announced at least 24 new original series in development or production.
• Quality — Sourcing packaged projects from top tier writers, voice talent andanimation studios.
• Production Capacity — Signed a 171,000 square foot lease for an animation
studio in Burbank.
• Titmouse — Signed a first look with Titmouse, the most prolific adultanimation studio.
• Anime — Signed deals with several key Japanese studios.
• Video Games — Loading up on new animated series based on video games.
• Comedy — Appears to be targeting Adult Swim as the new home for adultanimated comedy.

• Non-Comedy Genre — More adventurous than most of their competitionin their appetite for non-comedy dramatic series.

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 18

Netflix’s adult animation division is headed up by Mike Moon. Tonally, Netflix
animated series are wide ranging. This is unlike Adult Swim, which tends towards
a quirkier, more irreverent-branded house feel. The addition of the video gamebased series and anime will only serve to expand what defines Netflix animation.
Streamers are more algorithmically driven than cable channels, so they canafford to be more eclectic in their choices than a branded block like Adult Swim or
Animation Domination that rely heavily on cross promotions, branding and ratings.
Netflix gravitates towards packaged originals from proven teams and studios, andbranded IP with major footprints, like their upcoming video game-based series,
anime series, reboots and spinoffs.

Figure 11:
Love, Death and Robots- Netflix

Netflix is also home to Love, Death and Robots, the animation showcase anthology
series featuring animation from world-class creators and studios. The show ispresented by Tim Miller and David Fincher. Love, Death and Robots clearly signals
the direction that adult animation is heading – that is more dramatic genre projects.
One has to believe there will be a breakout from this series.

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 19

Figure 12:
F is for Family- Netflix

Netflix Comedy
Netflix current originals are primarily comedies, including Nick Kroll’s Big Mouth,
comedian Bill Burr’s F is for Family, Matt Groening’s Disenchantment and The
Midnight Gospel from Duncan Trussell and Pendleton Ward. Netflix’s upcoming
comedies include Agent King, featuring Elvis Presley as a spy; Captain Fall, from thecreators of Norsemen; and Human Resources, a spinoff from Big Mouth.

Figure 13:
Disenchantment- Netflix© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 20

Netflix Anime
Netflix’s anime effort is headed by John Derderian, director of Japan and Anime.
Derderian has made public statements about Netflix’s long-term commitment toanime: “We’re going to partner with studios for five years, ten years, so they cantake that money to have certainty of revenue and invest in space and tools andpeople,” and, “We’re in an anime boom, but we’re not investing in boom-or-bust
cycle.” According to Derderian, demand for Japanese animation is especially highin Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin Americas.8 Netflix now has deals with several
Asian studios including Naz, Science Saru, and Mappa (producing LeSean Thomas’s
upcoming Yasuke series) in Japan and Studio Mir in South Korea. According toCartoon Brew, Netflix “has pushed hard into the anime space in recent years,
challenging dedicated services like Crunchyroll and Funimation. It has previously
struck non-exclusive partnerships with Japanese studios Production I.G, Bones,
Anima, Sublimation, and David Production. In February, it partnered with six
Japanese creators to develop anime shows.”9

Netflix Video Game Based Animated Series
Netflix is doubling down on video game inspired animated series, including
The Cuphead Show!, Overwatch, Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness, Shadowlands:
Afterlives, Splinter Cell and Tomb Raider. Many of these series based on gamefranchises will be produced as anime or in an anime style. (See our chapter:‘Is It Still Anime If It’s Not Produced in Japan?’).

8

Bloomberg - Netflix bets on animation to battle Disney, Apple in streaming wars,
Nov 6, 2020

9

Cartoon Brew - Netflix Strikes Partnerships With Four Animation Studios
From Japan And Korea, Oct 24, 2020
© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 21

Netflix’s Current Adult Animated SeriesShow

Description

Creator(s)(and Other Work)

Studio(s)Big Mouth

Coming of Age Sitcom

Nick Kroll (Kroll Show, The Oh,
Hello Show, The League)

Danger Goldberg Productions,
Good at Bizness, Inc., Fathouse
Industries Titmouse, Inc.

Blood of Zeus
(formerly Godsand Heroes)

Action Anime

Charley Parlapanides, Vlas
Parlapanides (Death Note,
Immortals)

Powerhouse Animation Studios

Bojack Horseman(last season)

Sitcom, Tragicomedy,
Black comedy,
Surreal humor,
Comedy-drama, Satire

Raphael Bob-Waksberg (Undone)

Tornante Television, Boxer vs.
Raptor, ShadowMachine

Castlevania

Drama, Dark fantasy
Action, Adventure
Horror, Anime

Warren Ellis, (Transmetropolitan,
Global Frequency)

Frederator Studios, Powerhouse
Animation Studios, Shankar
Animation, Project 51 Productions
Mua Film,

Disenchantment

Sitcom Black Comedy
Medieval Fantasy

Matt Groening (The Simpsons)
Josh Weinstein (The Simpsons)

The ULULU Company RoughDraft Studios

F is for Family

Sitcom Comedy Satire

Bill Burr (comedian actor) andMichael Price (The Simpsons)Wild West Television, Loner
Productions, Big Jump Productions,
King of France Productions, Oasis
Animation, Gaumont Animation

The Liberator

War Drama – miniseries

Jeb Stuart (Die Hard, Fugitive)

A&E Studios, Unique Features
Trioscope Studios

Love Death +RobotsAnthology, Science
fiction

Tim Miller (Deadpool)

Blur Studio, Netflix Studios

The MidnightGospelScience fantasy,
Surrealism Dark,
Comedy Adventure,
Psychedelic

Pendleton Ward, Adventure Timeand comedian Duncan Trussell

Oatmeal Maiden Titmouse, Inc.

Paradise PD

Crime, Action, Black
Comedy, Surrealism
Animated Sitcom

Waco O’Guin (Brickleberry)
Roger Black (Yucko the Clown)

Damn! Show Productions, Bento
Box Entertainment, Odenkirk
Provissiero Entertainment

Seis Manos

Martial arts
Supernatural Action,
Anime

Brad Graeber, Álvaro Rodríguez

Powerhouse Animation Studios,Viz Productions

Trailer Park Boys:
The AnimatedSeriesMockumentary
Sitcom Black comedy
Crime comedy

John Paul Tremblay, Robb Wells,and Mike Smith.

Sunnyvale Productions, Swearnet
Pictures, Entertainment One
Television

Tuca and Bertie
Note: heading to
Adult Swim

Sitcom, Surreal humor
Slice of Life

Lisa Hanawalt (Bojack Horseman)

The Tornante Company, Brave
Dummy, Boxer vs. Raptor,
ShadowMachine© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 22

Netflix’s Upcoming Adult Animated SeriesShow

Description

Creator(s)(and Other Work)

Studio(s)Agent King

ComedyPriscilla Presley, John Eddie,
Mike Arnold (Archer)Sony Pictures Animation

Blue Eye Samurai

Action Adventure

Michael Green and Amber
NoizumiNA

Captain Fall

ComedyJon Iver Helgaker and Jonas
Torgersen (Norsemen)

NA

The Cuphead Show!

Comedy based on video game

Chad and Jared Moldenhauer

StudioMDHR and King
Features Syndicate

Cyberpunk:
Edgerunners

Action – Anime based on
Cyberpunk 2077 video game

Hiroyuki Imaishi (Kill la Kill,
Promare, and Gurren Lagann)Studio Trigger

DiabloFantasy Horror – Anime basedon video game

Andrew Cosby (Hellboy, Eureka)

Blizzard

DOTA: Dragons Blood

Fantasy – Based onvideo game - animeNA

Studio MirEntergalactic

MusicalKid Cudi (recording artist)

Khalabo Ink Society

FarzarSci-Fi Comedy

Roger Black & Waco O’Guin(Paradise PD)

Odenkirk ProvissieroEntertainment, Bento
Box Entertainment

Godzilla: Singular
Point

ActionAtsushi Takahashi

Bones and Orange

Good Times

Comedy – Sitcom

Carl Jones, (The Last O.G., The
Boondocks, and Black Dynamite)

Fuzzy DoorHeaven’s Forest

Fantasy – Epic

Warren Ellis (Castlevania)

Powerhouse Animation

The House

Comedy – Dark

Emma de Swaef and Marc James
Roels (This Magnificent Cake,
Nexus Studios
Oh Willy)

Human Resources

Comedy - (spinoff from Big
Mouth)

Nick Kroll (Big Mouth), Andrew
Goldberg, Mark Levin, Jennifer
Flackett, and Kelly Galuska

Brutus Pink

Inside Job

ComedyShion Takeuchi (Gravity Falls)

Netflix Animation

Kong: Skull Island

Action – Anime based on movie

Brian Duffield (Underwater,
Spontaneous, Love andMonsters) is writing andexec producing.

Powerhouse Animation

Magic: The Gathering

Fantasy based on card game

NA

NA

Masters of the
Universe: Revelation

Fantasy – Based on TV Series

Kevin Smith (Clerks, Jay andSilent Bob)

Jetlag Productions,
Mattel, Powerhouse
Animation

Mulligan

ComedyTina Fey (SNL, 30 Rock) andRobert Carlock (30 Rock)3 Arts Entertainment,
Bento Box Entertainment
and Universal Television© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 23

Netflix’s Upcoming Adult Animated Series [con’t]
Show

Description

Creator(s)(and Other Work)

Studio(s)Overwatch

Fantasy – Anime basedon video game

Nick van Dyk

Blizzard

Q-Force

ComedySean Hayes and Todd Milliner,
Mike Schur, (Parks andRecreation) Gabe Liedman(Brooklyn Nine-Nine, PEN15)

Fremulon, Universal TV,
3 ArtsResident Evil: Infinite
Darkness

Fantasy - based on World of
Warcraft video gameNA

TMS Entertainment

Splinter Cell

Spy Thriller – Anime based onvideo game

Derek Kolstad (John Wick)

UbisoftTomb Raider

Action – anime basedon video game

Tasha Huo, (The Witcher: Blood
Orange)Legendary© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 24

Figure 14: Beavis and Butt-Head - Viacom

9. Comedy Central
Makes a Hard Pivot
Comedy Central is shifting their original programming focus from live-action toanimation. As part of this effort, ViacomCBS announced that they are rebooting
Beavis and Butt-Head, Ren and Stimpy, and Jodie, a Daria spinoff, while at thesame time closing down many of their live-action series. Upon the news of Comedy
Central cancelling Tosh.0, Daniel Tosh quipped, “I look forward to doing an animatedreboot of my show on MTV in 25 years.”10
It will be a challenge for ViacomCBS to reboot series like Beavis and Butt-Head.
Most comedy does not age particularly well. For those old enough to remember, try
re-watching the last episode of M.A.S.H. A staggering 106 million people watchedthat episode, which was the most ever in the history of television.11 It may trigger anout-of-body response — as in, was I the same person who actually liked that show?

“Upon the news of Comedy Central cancelling
Tosh.0, Daniel Tosh quipped, “I look forward
to doing an animated reboot of my show on
MTV in 25 years.”
For the record, Viacom had already tried rebooting both Beavis and Butt-Headand Ren and Stimpy. Neither of these reboots were well received and, if anything,attracted generally negative reviews from die-hard fans. One assumes ViacomCBS

will start to develop new original series to build up around these reboots. Will theykeep enough powder dry to invest in new content and give themselves enough

10 HITC – Is TOSH.O Cancelled? Fate of the Comedy Central Series Explained, Sep. 16, 2020
11 Washington Post – 106 million People Watched M.A.S.H.’’ finale 35 years ago.
No Scripted Show Since Has Come Close, Feb. 28, 2018
© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 25

runway to make it all work? Personally, I hope I am proven wrong and this approachworks. It would be wonderful to have another serious adult animation buyer in themarket. Viacom is also looking for homes for other animated projects based on IP

from the Viacom vault. Its Clone High series, for example, is heading for HBO Max.

Figure 15:
Ren & Stimpy- Viacom

Viacom’s Current Adult Animation Series
Show

South Park

Description

Creator(s) (Other Work)

Studio(s)ComedyMatt Stone, Trey Parker (TeamAmerica, World Police, Book of
Mormon)Celluloid Studios (1997) Braniff
Productions (1997–2006)
Parker-Stone Productions(2006–07) South Park Studios(2007–) Comedy Partners

Viacom’s Upcoming Adult Animation SeriesShow

Description

Creator(s) (Other Work)

Studio(s)Beavis andButt-Head

Comedy Reboot

Mike Judge (Silicon Valley,
King of the Hill)

TBD

Clone High

Comedy Reboot

Phil Lord, Christopher Miller(Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,
The Lego Movie) and Bill Lawrence(Scrubs)

For HBO Max

Jodie

Comedy (Daria Spinoff)

Grace Edwards (Insecure,
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt)

TBD

Ren & Stimpy

Comedy Reboot

John Krisfalusi

TBD© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 26

Figure 16: Rick and Morty - Adult Swim

10. WarnerMedia:
HBO Max, Adult Swim & DC Comics
HBO Max, Adult Swim, and DC Comics are the three key components toWarnerMedia’s adult animation strategy. HBO Max now has a landing page tohelp viewers find their favorite adult animation more easily. The hub includes
Crunchyroll, Studio Ghibli, Looney Tunes, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim.
Suzanna Makkos is HBO Max's EVP of Original Comedy and Adult Animation.
Michael Ouweleen is the President of Adult Swim. Adult Swim, Cartoon Network’s
adult animation block, is home to Rick and Morty, the most-watched comedy series
for 18-34s on television. DC Comics is home to some of the world’s most-valuable
superhero characters, including Batman and Superman. HBO Max paid $500M
for the streaming rights to Viacom’s South Park franchise that will serve as thecornerstone of their adult animation strategy. HBO Max also invested an estimated$1 billion (phew) for the animation rights to Roald Dahl's books.

Warner Brothers has a sizable world-class animation production capacity between
Warner Brothers Animation, Cartoon Network Studios, and Williams Street.
Sam Register is the president of Warner Bros. Animation, Warner Digital Series
and Cartoon Network Studios. This scale will be important because all the third

party studio’s capacity will be stretched thin with the surge in demand for adultanimation. HBO Max will continue to mine the DC vaults for IP that translates

into adult animated series. HBO Max has a bona fide hit with critics and fans inHarley Quinn, a DC Universe character. The SVOD is expanding to 18 new upcoming
adult animated series from its 3 current series (Close Enough, Harley Quinn andYoung Justice).

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 27

I have to believe that in the long run, WarnerMedia will abandon Adult Swim as a
cable channel to focus on becoming the adult animation producer and programmer
for HBO Max. I can’t see how any young adult-facing cable channel can survive
cord-cutting: This is the case across all the major entertainment companies that are
increasingly structuring their businesses around their streaming platforms.
For reasons I don’t understand, WarnerMedia sold Crunchyroll to Sony. Crunchyroll
is a successful standalone SVOD with 3 million paying subscribers and arguably
would have been a reliable anime feeder into HBO Max. I am not sure what anime
will be left for HBO Max or Adult Swim if Sony (Crunchyroll) and Netflix continue
to aggressively lock up anime output from Japan. As I mentioned elsewhere in thiswhite paper, I fully anticipate doing a comprehensive analysis of anime next year
and by that time some of these open questions will become clearer.

Figure 17:
Close Enough- HBO Max

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 28

HBO Max’s Current Adult Animated SeriesShow

Description

Creator(s)Studio(s)Close Enough

Surreal Comedy

J. G. Quintel, Sean Szeles,
Matt Price, Calvin Wong

Cartoon Network StudiosHarley Quinn

Black comedy Surreal comedy
Superhero Crime

Justin Halpern, Patrick
Schumacker, Dean Lorey

Warner Bros. Animation DC Entertainment Yes,
Norman Productions, Ehsugadee Productions

Young Justice

Action Adventure Science fiction
Superhero Teen drama

Brandon Vietti Greg Weisman

DC Entertainment Warner Bros. Animation

HBO Max’s Upcoming Adult Animated SeriesShow

Description

Creator(s)Studio(s)10-Year Old Tom

ComedySteve Dildarian (The Life and Times ofTim)

Tomorrow Studios,
ITV Studios

Aquaman: King of
AtlantisSuperhero Mini-Series

James Wan (Saw, Insidious)

Warner Bros. Animation

Batman: The AnimatedSeries (rumored reboot)Superhero

TBD

TBD

The Boondocks(Reboot)

Comedy Sitcom

Aaron McGruder

Sony Pictures Animation

ChinosOriginal Comedy
Sitcom

Eddie Huang

Color Correct

Clone High

Comedy Reboot

Phil Lord, Christopher Miller (Cloudy
with a Chance of Meatballs, The Lego
Movie) and Bill Lawrence (Scrubs)

MTV Entertainment
Studios

Cover(in development)

Espionage thriller

Brian Michael Bendis and David Mack

Rooster Teeth Studios

Fired on Mars

Workplace Comedy
starring Pete Davidson

Nate Sherman and Nick Vokey

Warner Bros. AnimationGame of Thrones(anime rumor)

Fantasy based on the
TV series

TBD

TBD

Gremlins: Secretsof the Mogwai

Fantasy spinofffrom a movie

Tze Chun

Warner Bros Animation

Hello Paul(In development)

Comedy about aneurotic cat PeteDavidson to voice

Sean Solomon (AOK, Lucas Bros
Moving Co., Animation) Domination
High-DefNA

Keeping Up With theJones’s

SitcomHugh Davidson (Mike Tyson
Mysteries)

WB Animation© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 29

HBO Max’s Upcoming Adult Animated Series [cont’d]Show

Description

Creator(s)Studio(s)Obi(in development)

ComedyObi Arisukwu and Arthur Harris (TheLast OG).

Studio 71

The Prince

Royal Family
Political Satire

Gary Janetti (Family Guy, Will andGrace)

Bento Box Entertainment,
20th Television

Santa Inc.

Seasonal Comedy
starring Seth Rogenand Sarah Silverman

Alexandra Rushfield (Shrill, Parks andRec)

Point Grey Pictures

Uncanny Valley(in development)

Sci-Fi Comedy

Ed Helms (The Office, The Daily Show)
with creators/executive producers
Brendan Walter and Greg Yagolnitzer

Universal Television,
Electric Picture

Velma

Scooby-Doo Spinoff
starring Mindy Kaling(The Office)Charlie Grandy, (The Daily Show, SNL,The Office) Howard Klein, (Carnivàle),Sam Register

Warner Bros. Animation

Young Love

Drama based on the
Oscar winning short

Matthew A. Cherry (Hair Love) andCarl Jones (Boondocks)

Sony Pictures Animation

Adult Swim’s Current Adult Animated SeriesShow

Description

Creator(s) (other work)

Studio(s)12 Oz Mouse

SurrealComedyMatt Maiellaro (Aqua Teen
Hunger Force)

Williams Street, Radical Axis (series),
Awesome, Inc. (special)

Ballmastrz: 9009

Sci-Fi Comedy

Christy Karacas (Superjail)Titmouse, Inc., C.C.K. Rad (Season 2),
Williams Street

JJ Villards
Fairytales

HorrorComedyJ.J. Villard (King Star King,
Chestnuts Icelolly, Monsters
Vs. Aliens)

Villard Film, Cartoon Network Studios,
Williams Street

The Jellies

SitcomTyler, The Creator(musician)Bald Fade Productions, Augenblick Studios,
Whalerock Industries, Williams Street

Lazor Wulf

ComedyHenry Bonsu, with Daniel
Weidenfeld

Titmouse, Inc. (Pilot), Bento Box Entertainment(season 1), 6 Point Harness (season 2),
Williams Street

Momma Named
Me Sheriff(Mr. Pickles)

Animatedsitcom Dark
comedyWill Carsola and Dave
Stewart

HotHouse Productions, Day by Day Productions,
Williams Street

PrimalFantasy,
Horror, Action

Genndy Tartakovsky(Dexter's Lab, Samurai Jack,Star Wars: Clone Wars)

Cartoon Network Studios, Williams Street,
Studio La Cachette

Sci-fi Comedy

Justin Roiland (Solar
Opposites), Dan Harmon(Community)

Williams Street, Harmonious Claptrap, Starburns
Industries (seasons 1–2), Justin Roiland's Solo
Vanity Card Productions!, Rick and Morty, LLC.
(season 2–3), Green Portal Productions (season 4)

Rick and Morty© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 30

Adult Swim’s Current Adult Animated Series [cont’d]Show

Description

Creator(s) (other work)

Studio(s)Robot Chicken

SketchComedySeth Green and Matthew
Senreich along with cohead writers Douglas
Goldstein and Tom Root

ShadowMachine Films (2005–2012) (seasons 1–5),
Stoopid Monkey, Stoopid Buddy Stoodios (2012present), (season 6–present) Sony Pictures Digital(2005–2012) (seasons 1–5) Sony Pictures Television(2012–present) (season 6–present), Williams Street

TigtoneFantasy
ComedyAndrew Koehler andBenjamin Martian

Titmouse, Inc., Babyhemyth Productions,
Williams Street

The Shivering
Truth

Created by Vernon
Comedy,Chatman (Wonder Showzen)
Surreal, Sketch and directed by Chatman
and Cat Solen

Squidbillies

Black Comedy

Jim Fortier and Dave Willis(Aqua Teen Hunger Force)

Williams Street

Tender Touches

Soap Opera
ParodyDavid Bonawits, (FishCenter Live) Lauren Payne,
and Maxime Simonet

Six Point Harness (season 2), Awesome, Inc.
(season 3), Williams Street

The Venture
Bros. (last season)

ComedyChristopher McCulloch(Tick)

Astro Base GO!, NoodleSoup Productions(2003–04), World Leaders Entertainment(2006–10), Titmouse, Inc. (2011–2018),
Williams Street

Yolo: Crystal
Fantasy

ComedyMichael Cusack

Princess Pictures, Williams Street

ShadowMachine (season one), HouseSpecial(season two), PFFR, Williams Street

Adult Swim’s Upcoming Adult Animated SeriesShow

Description

Creator(s) (Other Works)

Studio(s)Birdgirl

Comedy spinofffrom Harvey
BirdmanProduced by Susan Shipsky and directedby Rich Ferguson-Hull (Harvey Birdman,
Ugly Americans)

ME Productions, Awesome Inc.

Blade Runner:
Black Lotus

Anime series
based on movie

Shinji Aramaki, Kenji Kamiyama(Ultraman, Ghost in the Shell)

Sola Digital Arts

Teenage
Euthanasia

Dystopic
coming-of-allages comedy

Alissa Nutting (Made for Love) and
Emmy-Nominated Producer Alyson Levy
(Shivering Truth)

Augenblick

Tuca andBertieComedy (formerly
Netflix)

Lisa Hanawalt (BoJack Horseman)

The Tornante Company,
Brave Dummy, Boxer vs.
Raptor, ShadowMachine© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 31

Figure 18: Futurama - Fox

11. Sci-Fi Comedy
Crossovers
There is a rich animated sci-fi comedy tradition that includes some of the all-time
most popular adult animated series — shows like Futurama, Gravity Falls andInvader Zim. Creators have gravitated towards these sci-fi comedy hybrids because
they are an easy way to present more complex themes and, by their nature, push
the boundaries of the imagination. My prediction is that sci-fi comedy crossovers
are transitional and will be a gateway to more ambitious dramatic adult animation.
Comedic sci-fi is a flexible platform for storytellers to tell funny, complex stories
packaged in a way that is relatively easy for audiences to enjoy and for buyers
to greenlight.

“Sci-fi comedy crossovers
are transitional and a gateway
to more ambitious dramatic
adult animation.”
The stories are about almost anything and can take place almost anywhere in theuniverse. They explore the human condition and the more ambitious ones (likeRick and Morty and The Midnight Gospel) pose existential questions about ourexistence from a unique point of view, with all the strengths inherent to classic
science fiction. Although comedy plays less of a role in most science fiction
literature, sci-fi premises are a reoccurring platform for animated comedy series.

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 32

Figure 19:
Solar Opposites- HuluMy expectation is that this will change as Western audiences (and the rest of theworld) increasingly accept animation as a vehicle for any kind of story. Japaneseaudiences have already made this transition. Japanese anime can cover anythingfrom fighting robots to romance to a retired yakuza boss adjusting to life as astay-at-home dad. There’s no reason why the rest of the world will not get to thesame place.
Current animated sci-fi comedy series include Rick and Morty, Solar Opposites,
Final Space, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Close Enough and The Midnight Gospel. These
series consistently command some of the largest audiences for adult animation— especially Rick and Morty. There’s a lot of shared genes amongst these series —many of them have hired current and former Rick and Morty writers. Upcoming
sci-fi comedies include the spinoff X-Files: Albuquerque, and Chronicles of Frank.

Figure 20:
Final Space - TBS© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 33

Current Sci-Fi Comedy Adult Animated Crossovers
Show

Description

Creator(s)(Other Work)

Buyer

Studio(s)Close Enough

Sci-Fi Comedy

J. G. Quintel (RegularShow)

HBO Max

Cartoon Network Studios

Devil May Care

ComedyDouglas Goldstein (Robot
Chicken)Syfy

Psyop, Titmouse

Final SpaceSpace Opera
Comedy Drama

Olan Rogers (comedian)TBS

ShadowMachine, Jam FilledEntertainment, Star Cadet New
Form Digital Conaco (S1–2) Studio
T (S1)

Magical Girl
Friendship
Squad: Origins

Sci-Fi Comedy

Kelsey Stephanides

Syfy

Cartuna

Sci-Fi Comedy

Pendleton Ward
(Adventure Time)and Duncan Trussell,comedian

Netflix

Oatmeal Maiden Titmouse, Inc.

The MidnightGospel

Sci-Fi Comedy

Justin Roiland (Solar
Opposites), Dan Harmon(Community)

Adult Swim

Williams Street Harmonious
Claptrap Starburns Industries(seasons 1–2) Justin Roiland’s Solo
Vanity Card Productions! Rick andMorty, LLC. (season 2–3) Green
Portal Productions (season 4)

Sci-Fi Comedy

Justin Roiland (Rickand Morty) and Mike
McMahan (Star Trek:
Lower Decks)

Hulu

Solo Vanity Card Productions!,
Important Science, 20th Television

Star Trek:
Lower Decks

Sci-Fi Comedy

Mike McMahan (Solar
Opposites)

CBS All Access

CBS Eye, Animation Productions,
Secret Hideout, Important Science,
Roddenberry Entertainment,
Titmouse, Inc.

Wild Life

ComedyAdam Davies Dylan
Dawson Alex Plapinger

Syfy

Nice Try, Octopie, Network
Valparaiso Pictures, TZGZ
Productions

Rick and Morty

Solar
Opposites© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 34

Upcoming Sci-Fi Comedy Adult Animated Crossovers
Show

Description

Creator(s)(Other Work)

Buyer

Studio(s)2051

Sci-Fi Comedy –Animated Workplace
ComedyMo Mandel (Comedy Knockout),
Jason Fuchs (Wonder Woman)

Amazon3 ArtsEntertainment

The Black Hole

Sci-Fi Comedy

Dino Stamatopoulos (Creator,
Moral Orel) and Michael Waldron(Producer, Rick and Morty)

Syfy

Starburn
Industries

The Chronicles ofFrank

Sci-Fi Comedy

Chris Osbrink (Writer/Director,
Trip Tank)

Syfy

ShadowMachine

FarzarSci-Fi Comedy

Roger Black & Waco O’Guin(Paradise PD)

Netflix

Odenkirk
ProvissieroEntertainment
and Bento Box
Entertainment

Fired on Mars

Sci-Fi Comedy
starring PeteDavidson

Carson Mell and Dave Sirus(King of Staten Island)
based on a short by NateSherman and Nick Vokey

HBO Max

TBA

The Hospital

Sci-Fi Comedy –DarkNatasha Lyonne, (Orange is
the New Black) Maya Rudolph(SNL, Idiocracy)

AmazonAnimal Pictures

The Pole

ComedyMatthew Bass (Future Man)
and Theodore Bressman(Future Man). Mark Gordon(Producer, Ray Donovan)

Syfy

Yeti Farm Creative

Psycho Psalms

Stop Motion Dark
Comedy Sci-Fi

David Braun and Nicholas
D’Agostino

Syfy

Open The Portal,
Tractor Pants

Uncanny Valley(in development)

Sci-Fi Comedy

Ed Helms (The Office, The Daily
Show) with creators/executive
producers Brendan Walter andGreg Yagolnitzer

Universal
Television,
Electric Picture

Uncanny Valley(in development)

X-Files:
Albuquerque

Sci-Fi Comedy

Chris Carter (X:Files), Rocky
Russo, Jeremy Sosenko,(Paradise PD)

Fox

Bento Box

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 35

Figure 21:
Magical Girl Friendship
Squad - Syfy

12. Syfy’s TZGZ Block andShort Format Pipelines
TZGZ is a late night programming block that first premiered in April 2019 on Syfy.
Expanding Syfy’s programming into original adult animation has been a priority for
NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment according to President Chris McCumber, whooversees USA Network and Syfy. The block features animated series aimed at adultaudiences with a focus on “animated comedy, which has to have some tie to science
fiction, horror, and fantasy.”12 The block's name is derived from the letters of thealphabet that come after those in Syfy's name.
The TZGZ block very neatly fits into my thesis about the importance and popularityof sci-fi comedy crossovers. There are currently four original series in production(Magical Girl Friendship Squad, Wild Life, Hell Den and Devil May Care) and six
series in various stages of development. They also license Futurama and Mondo/
Blue Ant’s Gary and His Demons.
I am a proponent of Short Format Pipelines, like TZGZ. This model has worked
well for programmers in the past. Comedy is so dependent on voice and POV thatthe only way to find successful shows is to start small, with a high volume of shortpilots, and then get behind the projects that show signs of traction. Using shortformat pipelines, I was able to find IP like Happy Tree Friends, Dick Figures andGary and His Demons — all of which scaled into successful TV series and movies.

12 Deadline - Syfy Ramps Up Animation Push With First Original Series & Pilot Orders
For New TZGZ Block, Jan. 17, 2020
© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 36

This time-tested model has also worked for Fred Seibert during his stint at Hanna
Barbera, where he produced 28 short films that eventually became hits, including
Genndy Tartakovsky's Dexter's Laboratory, David Feiss' Cow and Chicken and I Am

Weasel, Van Partible's Johnny Bravo, John R. Dilworth's Courage the Cowardly Dog,and Craig McCraken's The Powerpuff Girls.

I look forward to seeing what shows break out of the TZGZ pipeline.

Current Adult Animated TZGZ Block SeriesShow

Description

Creator(s)(and prior/other work)

Studio(s)Devil May Care

Dark Comedy

Douglas Goldstein (Robot Chicken)

PSYOP, Titmouse

Hell Den

Sketch Comedy

Sean Cowhig ,Neil Garguilo, BrianJames O'Connell, David F. Park,
Justin Ware

Dr. God Productions, Rafael
Raffaele Entertainment, Shout!
Studios, TZGZ Productions

Magical Girl
Friendship Squad

Magical Girl Comedy

Kelsey Stephanides

Cartuna, TZGZ Productions

Wild Life

SitcomAdam Davies

Nice Try., Octopie Network,
Valparaiso Pictures, TZGZ
Productions

Upcoming Adult Animated TZGZ Block SeriesShow

Description

Creators(and prior/other work)

Studio(s)The Black Hole

Sci-Fi Comedy

Dino Stamatopoulos
and Michael Waldron

NA

The Chronicles
of Frank

ComedyChris Osbrink

NA

Plutonians

Sci-Fi Comedy

NANA

The Pole

ComedyMatthew Bass and
Theodore Bressman

Yeti Farm Creative

Psycho Psalms

Dark Comedy –Stop Motion

David Braun and Nicholas
D'Agostino

Open The Portal, Tractor Pants

The Summoner

ComedyCharlie Hankins(New Yorker Cartoonist)

Stoopid Buddy Stoodios© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 37

Figure 22: Good Times - HBO Max

13. Blasts From the Past:
Reboots and Spinoffs
Viacom isn’t the only network turning to reboots: CBS Television’s Star Trek:
Lower Decks is currently the one on-air spinoff, but there are at least 18 otherannounced reboots or spinoffs in development or production. Many of these arespinoffs from some of the most valuable franchises in the entertainment industry
including Game of Thrones, Godzilla, Blade Runner, and King Kong. Others arespinoffs from classic animated and live action series, including Viacom’s reboots
like Beavis and Butt-Head and Ren & Stimpy. There are multiple upcoming animatedspinoff series based on live-action series, like X:Files and the sitcom Good Times.

“The benefit of the animated spinoff isthat streaming services can broaden their
big-name content without treadingon the toes of the live-action originals”
It will be interesting to see how far these animated spinoffs veer from their source
material. It’s difficult to see, for example, a straight handling of the Good Times
sitcom as an animated series. Unless it’s meant to be ironic, the voice of that show
will seem antiquated for today’s audiences. They are going to have to do something
very different from the original to make it work.
Comedy Central’s reboot mania, on the other hand, appears to be motivated by theratings success that Adult Swim and Netflix have had with adult animation, andpossibly as a pivot in reaction to the decline in popularity of live-action comedy.
(Or they gave up on the challenge of finding new hit comedies.)© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 38

Craig Elvy, writing for Screen Rant, makes an excellent observation about the
animated spinoff phenomenon: It’s a lower risk way of extending IP than big budget
features or series. According to Elvy, “The benefit of the animated spinoff is thatstreaming services can broaden their big-name content without treading on thetoes of the live-action originals — and usually at a lower cost. The more projects
exist simultaneously under a single franchise umbrella, the more the overall brandrisks being diluted. This phenomenon can be seen with The Walking Dead andits three current live-action shows. But the medium of animation offers natural
separation. Jurassic World fans can enjoy Camp Cretaceous as both a show in its own
right and an extension of the wider dinosaur universe, but those who find no meritin the spinoff can easily stick to live-action. A poorly-received animated spinoff
is far less likely to damage the brand than a live-action one.”13

Figure 23:
Masters of the Universe:
Revelation - Netflix

13 Screen Rant, Why So Many Franchises Are Getting Animated Spinoff Shows, Jan 28, 2021
© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 39

Current Adult Animated Reboots and Spinoffs
Show

Description

Creators(and prior/other work)

Star Trek:
Lower Decks

Sci-Fi Comedy
Spinoff

Mike McMahan(Solar Opposites)

Buyer

Studio(s)CBS All Access

CBS Eye, Animation Productions,
Secret Hideout, Important
Science, RoddenberryEntertainment, Titmouse, Inc.

Upcoming Adult Animated Reboots and Spinoffs
Show

Description

Creators

Buyer

Studios(s)Batman: The
Animated
SeriesReboot of the classic
animated series(rumor)TBD

HBO Max

TBD

Beavis andButt-Head

Comedy Reboot

Mike Judge (Silicon Valley,
King of the Hill)

ViacomTBD

Birdgirl

Harvey Birdman
Spinoff

Paget Brewster

Adult Swim

Awesome Inc.

Blade
Runner:Black Lotus

Action Anime basedon the movie

Shinji Aramaki and Kenji
Kamiyama

Adult Swim

Sola Digital Arts

The
Boondocks

RebootAaron McGruder (original
creator)

HBO Max

Sony Pictures Animation

Clone High

Comedy Reboot

Phil Lord, Christopher Miller(Cloudy with a Chance of
Meatballs, The Lego Movie)
and Bill Lawrence (Scrubs)

HBO Max

TBD

Good Times

Sitcom Spinoff

Carl Jones (The Boondocks,
Black Dynamite) Tracy Morgan(The Last O.G,)

Netflix

Act III, Unanimous Media(Steph Curry), Fuzzy Door
(Seth MacFarlane)

Human
Resources(spinoff from Big
Mouth)

Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg,Mark Levin, Jennifer Flackett,and Kelly Galuska

Netflix

Brutus Pink

Game ofThrones(rumor)Spinoff from Gameof Thrones Series

TBD

HBO Max

TBD

Godzilla:
Singular
Point

Action Anime basedon movie

Atsushi Takahashi

Netflix

Bones and Orange© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 40

Upcoming Adult Animated Reboots and Spinoffs [cont’d]Show

Description

Creators

Buyer

Studios(s)Gremlins:
Secrets of the
Mogwai

Fantasy Spinoff from
Gremlins feature

Tze Chun

HBO Max

Amblin Television Warner
Bros. Animation

Jodie

Comedy (Daria Spinoff)

Grace Edwards (Insecure,
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt)

ViacomTBD

Kong: Skull
IslandAction Anime, Spinofffrom King Kong movie

Brian Duffield (Underwater,
Spontaneous, Love andMonsters) is writing andexec producing.

Netflix

Powerhouse Animation

Masters of
the Universe

He Man Spinoff

Kevin Smith (Clerks)

Netflix

Powerhouse Animation
Studios

Ren & Stimpy

Comedy Reboot

John Krisfalusi

ViacomSpümcø (seasons 1 and 2)
Games Animation(seasons 3–5) Nickelodeon
Animation Studio

Tuca andBertieRebootLisa Hanawalt, (Bojack
Horseman)

Adult Swim
(formerly
Netflix)

The Tornante Company,
Brave Dummy, Boxer vs.
Raptor, ShadowMachine

Velma

Scooby-Doo spinoffCharlie Grandy, Howard Klein,
and Sam Register

HBO Max

Warner Bros. Animation

X-Files:
Albuquerque

Comedy Spinoff from
X-Files TV Series

Chris Carter (X:Files),Rocky Russo, Jeremy Sosenko,(Paradise PD)

Fox

Bento Box

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 41

Figure 24: Avatar: The Last Airbender - Netflix

14. Is It Still Anime If
It’s Not Produced in Japan?
Avatar: the Last Air Bender, a 12-year old Nickelodeon series, blew up on Netflix
and exceeded everyone’s expectations with the longest-consecutive run on thestreamer’s top 10 TV series chart — ever since the service began promoting their
daily top 10s. At the same time, Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, theshow’s original creators abandoned a highly anticipated live-action spinoff due
to creative differences with Netflix. Netflix announced that despite the creators’
departure, they were proceeding with the live-action spinoff. It is not clear if thiswill impact the possibility of new animated episodes for the franchise.

“Epic, serialized, anime-style story-telling
like Avatar that appeal to all ages might
be one of the formulas for success for
future adult animated series.”
According to Collider’s Rafael Motamayor: “Avatar sat at the perfect intersection
between serious, adult storytelling and goofy yet fun children’s entertainment,
and it knew when to lean one way over the other.”14 Epic, serialized story-telling
like Avatar: The Last Air-Bender that appeals to all ages might be one of the keys
to success for future adult animated series. Avatar: The Last Airbender could still
become a key franchise for Netflix. It’s a big enough world and there’s clearly anappetite for the property. Avatar: The Last Airbender is a Burbank-produced series
that is clearly inspired by Japanese anime.

14 Collider, How A 15-Year-Old Cartoon Remained the Most Successful Netflix
Show of the Summer, July 17, 2020
© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 42

Figure 25:
Seis Manos- Netflix

Anime-inspired, Western-produced hybrids like Avatar could become a category
unto itself and potentially challenge traditional Japanese-produced anime. Manyof the newly announced video game adaptations and spinoffs have been announced
as anime productions.
There are, however, limitations to how quickly the Japanese anime production
companies can respond to the surge in demand for anime. According to Roland
Kelts, writing for Nikkei Asia, “Japan’s anime industry has been plagued for years
by adverse conditions: long hours in cramped studios, razor-thin profit margins,and domestic labor shortages.” Kelts goes on to explain: “Japan’s anime industry
has been reluctant to embrace global standards in digital, computer-generated
3D imagery, adhering instead to a 2D model of visual art, much of it hand-drawn
by employees crammed into tiny open-air cubicles, surviving on instant noodles
and sometimes sleeping under their desks. The environment is as antiquated ascompany policy: working from home does not compute.”15“There is a very real ceiling to Japan’s ability toquickly ramp up to meet the demand for anime.”
The reliance on hand-drawn paper animation is, of course, a large part of the appealof Japanese anime. But these limitations, coupled with Japanese COVID employment

15 Nikkei Asia, Japan's anime studios fall victim to coronavirus disruptions, May 20, 2020
© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 43

restrictions and the increased competition between locally financed anime andinternational buyers like Netflix and Crunchyroll, would indicate to me that there
is a very real ceiling to Japan’s ability to quickly ramp up to meet the demand foranime series.
This is where I believe Western-produced anime inspired productions will start
to play a role. Companies like Texas-based Powerhouse Animation (Castlevania,
Seis Manos, Blood of Zeus) are realizing the benefits of producing these types ofseries using more efficient modern Western production pipelines.

There needs to be a word to describe western
produced anime. I am going to take a shot at coining‘gaibume,’ which is a portmanteau of the Japanesewords for ‘outside’ and ‘anime.’
The global anime market is valued at over US $24 billion with roughly half comingfrom domestic Japanese sales and the other half from international. Today’s English
language adult animation market is a fraction of Japan’s. By my estimates, today’s
adult English language animation market is in the single digit billions. It’s largely
a domestic market but it is growing rapidly.
The 2019 Association of Japanese Animation Annual Report explains that “the global
adult animation market has historically been Japan’s monopoly, but if this trend[towards Western produced anime] shifts into high gear, Japan’s dominance may
be threatened.”16Japan’s animation industry is right to be concerned, although there will always be
a rabid fandom for authentic Japanese anime. The major opportunity for Western
animation producers is for adult animation to expand into more genre and dramaticstory-telling. Dramatic series account for the majority of the original content spend
on the streaming platforms. If Western-produced anime can start to tap into thestreamer budgets for drama, it will expand the adult animation market dramaticallyover the next 10 years.

16 Japanese Animation Industry Report 2019
© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 44

Here’s a handful of notable upcoming anime or anime-inspired productions:
Blade Runner: Black Lotus is aco-production between Crunchyroll
Figure 26:
Blade Runner: Black Lotus- Adult Swim Crunchyroll

and Adult Swim, in partnership with
Alcon Television Group. Based on theclassic sci-fi movie, the series is being
produced in Japan.

Godzilla Singular Point is an upcoming
Figure 27:
Godzilla Singular Point- Netflix

Japanese anime TV series based on the
Godzilla franchise. Directed by Atsushi
Takahashi, the series is scheduled to airin April 2021.

Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is one of several
Figure 28:
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners- Netflix

video game adaptations that will be
produced as an anime series. Anime
appears to be the style of choice forvideo game spinoffs.

Splinter Cell – Netflix and Ubisoft teamed
Figure 29:
Splinter Cell
- Netflix

up to produce an anime series adaptationof the video game. Derek Kolstad,(John Wick) to write and produce.
2 season, 16 episode order.

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 45

Current Adult Animated Anime-Inspired or
Anime Based on Western IP
Show

Description

Creators

Buyer

Studio(s)Blood of Zeus
(formerly Godsand Heroes)

Action Anime

Charley Parlapanides
Vlas Parlapanides

Netflix

Powerhouse Animation Studios

Castlevania

Drama, Dark fantasy
Action, Adventure
Horror, Anime

Warren Ellis,(Transmetropolitan,
Global Frequency)

Netflix

Frederator Studios, Powerhouse
Animation Studios, Shankar Animation,
Project 51 Productions, Mua Film

Dragons
Dogma

Adventure, Dark
Fantasy, Anime

Shinya Sugai

Netflix

Sublimation

Seis Manos

Martial arts
Supernatural Action,
Anime

Brad Graeber, Álvaro
Rodríguez

Netflix

Powerhouse Animation Studios, Viz
Productions

Upcoming Adult Animated Anime-Inspired or
Anime Based on Western IP
Show

Description

Creator(s)(Other Work)

Buyer

Studio(s)Blade Runner:
Black Lotus

Action Anime based on movie
franchise

Shinji Aramaki and Kenji
Kamiyama

Adult Swim,
Crunchyroll

Sola Digital
Arts

DiabloFantasy Horror – Anime

Andrew Cosby (Hellboy, Eureka)

Netflix

Blizzard

Cyberpunk:
Edgerunners

Action – Anime based on
Cyberpunk 2077 video game

Hiroyuki Imaishi (Kill la Kill,
Promare, and Gurren Lagann)

Netflix

Studio Trigger

Dantai

Original, Afro-futuristicscience fiction series

Idris Elba

Crunchyroll,
Adult Swim

TBD

DOTA: Dragons
Blood

Fantasy – Based on video
game, anime

NA

Netflix

Studio Mir

Game ofThrones (rumor)

Fantasy – Anime spinoff fromTV series

TBD

HBO Max

TBD

Godzilla:
Singular Point

Action – spinoff from movie

Atsushi Takahashi

Netflix

Bones and
OrangeKong: Skull
IslandAction Anime, Spinoff fromKing Kong movie

Brian Duffield (Underwater,
Spontaneous, Love and Monsters)
is writing and exec producing.

Netflix

Powerhouse
Animation

Overwatch

Fantasy – Anime based on
Overwatch video game

NA

Netflix

Blizzard

Splinter Cell

Spy Thriller – Anime spinofffrom video game

Derek Kolstad (John Wick)

Netflix

UbisoftTomb Raider

Action Anime

TBD

Netflix

Powerhouse
Animation© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 46

Figure 30: Invincible - Netflix

15. Drawing from Comics
and Graphic Novels
Comics and graphic novels naturally extend themselves to animated series.
Harley Quinn, the DC comic-book based series, is a breakout hit. Advancing to its
third season and well-received by both critics and fans, the dark comedy is movingfrom DC Universe (now focused exclusively on digital comics) to its new homeon HBO Max. This category accounts for about 10% of the upcoming adult animatedTV series.
Some of the more notable upcoming series include Invincible, an hour-long,
2D superhero series from Robert Kirkman, creator of The Walking Dead, produced
by Atomic Cartoons. “The superhero space in film and television is extremely
crowded, so I thought that one way to make [Invincible] stand out and be moreunique would be to have it in animated form,” said Kirkman.17“The superhero space in film and television is extremely
crowded, so I thought that one way to make ‘Invincible’
stand out and be more unique would be to have it inanimated form,” said Kirkman.
Hulu is producing two other comic based series, including the comedy M.O.D.O.K.,
a Marvel, stop-motion series from Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, and Hit Monkey, another
Marvel property. Live action TV series adaptations of comic books have surged in
the wake of live action features on the SVODs. There are a number of upcoming

comic-based projects and it is an important source of IP for adult animation but not
at the scale of live-action adaptations. It appears that Hulu is the most committed
to comic-based adult animated series, although I believe this to be a large enoughcategory to work on many channels and streamers.
17 Los Angeles Times - Why TV’s next Golden Age might come thanks
to adult animation, Nov 23, 2020
© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 47

Figure 31:
M.O.D.O.K. – Hulu

Current Comic-Book Inspired Adult Animated SeriesShow

Description

Creator(s)BuyerStudio(s)Harley Quinn

DC Comics Black comedy
Surreal, Comedy,
Superhero, Crime

Justin Halpern Patrick
Schumacker Dean
Lorey

HBO Max

Warner Bros. Animation DC
Entertainment Yes, Norman
Productions Ehsugadee
Productions

Young Justice

Action Adventure Science
fiction Superhero Teendrama

Brandon Vietti Greg
Weisman

HBO Max

DC Entertainment Warner
Bros. Animation

Figure 32:
Hit Monkey - Hulu

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 48

Upcoming Comic-Book Inspired Adult Animated SeriesShow

Description

Creator(s) (Other
Work)

Buyer

Studio(s)Aquaman: King of
Atlantis

DC Comics

James Wan (Saw, Insidious)

HBO Max

Atomic Monster andWarner Bros Animation

Batman: The
Animated Series(rumored)

D.C. Comics

NA

HBO Max

NA

Condorito

Comedy – Based on
Comic

NA

NA

Anima, Lunes

Cover(in development)

D.C Comics

Brian Michael Bendis andDavid Mack

HBO Max

Rooster Teeth Studios

Depardieu Only
Knows

Comedy – based ongraphic novel

Based on story by Gerard
Depardieu

NA

Toon Factory

Invincible

Drama Superhero
from Image Comics

Robert Kirkman (TheWalking Dead)

AmazonPrime Video

SkyboundHit Monkey

Marvel Comics

Josh Gordon and Will
Speck

Hulu

Marvel Studios

Hungry Ghost

Dark Horse, horror
anthology

Based on story by Anthony
Bourdain (chef, author, TV
personality)Sony
optioned

Sony Pictures Animation

M.O.D.O.K

Marvel Comedy,
Science fiction,
SuperheroJordan Blum and Patton
Oswalt (comedian, King ofQueens)Hulu

Marvel Studios,
Stoopid Buddy Stoodios

What If?

Marvel Comics,
Anthology, Superhero

A.C. Bradley

Disney +Marvel Studios© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 49

Figure 33: Castlevania – (Konami) Netflix

16. Why Video Gamesare the New IP Gold Rush
There are a staggering 10 new video game inspired adult animated series in theworks. That’s up from two on-air video game based series in 2020: Castlevania
and Alien Isolation – The Digital Series. Netflix has ordered at least nine of theupcoming video game based series. New adult animated series based on video
games now account for at least 10% of all the upcoming adult animated series. Manyof these video game series will be adapted as anime or anime inspired projects.

The quantity of upcoming TV series based on video games
and audience’s willingness to embrace adult animation
make this genre a potentially explosive new category.
According to Brandon Katz, writing for Observer: “When the Marvel Cinematic
Universe films took the entertainment world by storm and became the highestgrossing film series in box office history, the franchise success propelled acataclysmic shift in pop culture: it transformed geek culture into cool culture.”
Yohan Varella, CEO of accounting marketing agency Epic Firms, stated: “Thisprowess alone obliterated the interest gap between teenage boys and middle-aged
moms (and everyone else in between) and is now dragging another IP sleeping giant
into the battle for film and TV watchers’ dollars—the video game industry—which
generated more revenue than the film and music industries combined.”18
There’s a generation of video game players who have grown accustomed to in-gamecinematics. As a result, there’s built-up pressure from these massive gaming
communities to see their favorite characters come to life in longer, linear formats.
However, adapting games into movies has been historically fraught with peril, withmost movies negatively received by critics and fans alike.

18 Observer – Video Games Will Soon Be Hollywood’s Next Great IP War, Dec 23, 2020
© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 50

More recently however, Netflix’s The
Witcher, a live-action dramatic series
Figure 34:
The Witcher - Netflix

based on the video game (and Andrzej
Sapkowski’s novels), became the mostin-demand TV show in the world. Thisbodes well for the new class of video
game inspired animated series. The
quantity of upcoming TV series based onvideo games and audience’s willingness to

Figure 35: Resident Evil:
The Infinite Darkness –(Resident Evil, Capcom)
Netflix

embrace adult animation make this genre
a potentially explosive new category.
The list of upcoming games includes somemajor franchises with massive global
footprints including League of Legends,
World of Warcraft, DOTA, Cyberpunk

Figure 36: Diablo –(Diablo, Blizzard)
Netflix

2077, Diablo, Overwatch and Resident Evil.

Figure 37: Overwatch –(Overwatch, Blizzard)
Netflix

Figure 38: Arcane(League of Legends)– Riot Games© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 51

One of the video game inspired projects
I am looking forward to is The Cuphead
Figure 39:
DOTA Dragons Blood(DOTA) - Netflix

Show!. Based on the video game Cuphead,the characters are designed with arubber hose art style similar to thework of Fleischer Studios in the 1930s.
The Cuphead Show! is an upcoming
American-Canadian animated series for
Netflix, produced by StudioMDHR and

Figure 40:
Shadowlands Afterlives(Blizzard, World of
Warcraft) - Blizzard

King Features Syndicate, and animationfrom Lighthouse Studios in Ireland.
Dave Wasson (director on Mickey Mouse
Shorts) is the executive producer on
the project with co-executive producer
Cosmo Segurson (director on Rocko’sModern Life: Static Cling).

Figure 41:
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners(Cyberpunk 2077)- Netflix

Figure 42:
The Cuphead Show!
- Netflix© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 52

Current Adult Animated Series Based on Video GamesShow

Description

Creator(s)BuyerStudio(s)Sci-Fi Comedy

Mike McMahan(Solar Opposites)

CBS All Access

CBS Eye, Animation Productions,
Secret Hideout, Important Science,
Roddenberry Entertainment,
Titmouse, Inc.

Castlevania

Alien Isolation –The Digital Series

Sci-Fi Horror

Jeff Juhasz

IGN

Reverse Engineering Studios (RES),
TitraFilm Dvgroup, 20th Century
Fox, IGN

Upcoming Adult Animated Series Based on Video GamesShow

Description

Creator(s)BuyerStudio(s)ArcaneLeague of Legends Spinoff,
Fantasy Sci-Fi

NA

TBD

Riot Games, Fortiche
Productions

ARK: The AnimatedSeriesAction Adventure spinofffrom the video game

Jay Oliva(Batman: The Dark Knight
Returns, Justice League:
The Flashpoint Paradox)

TBD

Studio Wildcard

Captain Laserhawk:
A Blood Dragon Vibe

Spinoff from video gameAdi Shankar

TBD

TBD

The Cuphead Show!

ComedyChad and
Jared Moldenhauer

Netflix

StudioMDHR
and King Features
Syndicate

Cyberpunk:
Edgerunners

Action – Anime based on
Cyberpunk 2077 video game

Hiroyuki Imaishi(Kill la Kill, Promare,and Gurren Lagann)

Netflix

Studio Trigger

DOTA:
Dragons Blood

Fantasy – Based on video
game, anime

NA

Netflix

Studio Mir

DiabloFantasy Horror – Anime

Andrew Cosby(Hellboy, Eureka)

Overwatch

Fantasy – Anime based on
Overwatch video game

NA

Netflix

Blizzard

Resident Evil:
Infinite Darkness

Based on the Horror Video
Game from Capcom

Hiroyuki Kobayashi

Netflix

TMS Entertainment
and animated by
QuebicoShadowlands:
Afterlives

World of War Craft Game

NA

Ginx

Blizzard
Entertainment

Splinter Cell

Spy Thriller – Anime spinofffrom video game

Derek Kolstad (John Wick)

Netflix

Ubisoft

Blizzard© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 53

Figure 43: Primal - Adult Swim

17. The Rise of Dramatic“Non-Comedy Genre Shows”
Dramatic “non-comedy genre shows” like Netflix’s Castlevania, Adult Swim’s
Primal and Amazon Prime’s Undone have all gained enough traction to warrant
new season orders. To understand the importance of this development, you haveto look at the breakdown of spending on the streaming services. The vast majorityof spending is on scripted dramatic series. If adult animation can carve into a
fraction of this budget, it will open the door to a significant amount of production
dollars for studios that make this transition.
Trioscope’s The Liberator, a hybrid-live war drama mini-series, stayed on Netflix’s
top 10 most-watched list for three weeks in late 2020. The Liberator tells the storyof a ragtag unit of soldiers on a march to liberate prisoners from the notorious
Dachau concentration camp. It’s another series that signals that adult audiences are
increasingly accepting of animation as a serious, dramatic, story-telling medium.

Figure 44:
Undone Amazon Prime© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 54

According to reporting from Nellie Andreeva and Denise Petski for Deadline,“An animated version of Game of Thrones may be headed to HBO Max. The streamer
is kicking the tires on a potential animated drama series in the world of Game ofThrones. The project is believed to be in very early, exploratory stages, and there
is no concept or creative team on board.”19“Almost all of the upcoming video game, comic-bookand western anime series are in the ‘non-comedy genre’
category. This new era will be the single largest shift
in the history of adult animation.”Sony-owned Crunchyroll announced inearly 2021 that the streamer is partnering
Figure 45:
The Liberator- Netflixwith Idris and Sabrina Elba to produce
Dantai, an original anime series. The
series is described as an “Afro-futuristicscience fiction series … set in a city where
the rise of biotechnology has created anever-widening gap between the havesand have-nots. Two rising stars fromeither side of this divide are pitted against

Figure 46:
Game of Thrones- HBO Max

each other in a story that will ultimately
explore equality and kinship within acorrupt society.”
Almost all of the upcoming video game,comic-book and western anime series
are in the ‘non-comedy genre’ category.
This new era will be the single largest

Figure 47:
Idris Elba, Dantai Crunchyroll,
Adult Swim

shift in the history of adult animation
since The Simpsons showed adultaudiences that cartoons were morethan just kids content.

19 Deadline ‘Game Of Thrones’ Animated Drama Series Eyed At HBO Max,
Part Of Suite Of ‘GoT’ Projects Explored By WarnerMedia, Jan 27, 2021
© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 55

Current Adult Animated Non-Comedy Genre SeriesShow

Description

Creator(s)BuyerStudio(s)Castlevania

Sci-Fi Comedy

Mike McMahan(Solar Opposites)

CBS All Access

CBS Eye, Animation
Productions, Secret
Hideout, Important Science,
Roddenberry Entertainment,
Titmouse, Inc.

The Liberator

War Drama –mini-series

Jeb Stuart(writer Die Hard, Fugitive)

Netflix

A&E Studios, Unique Features
Trioscope Studios

PrimalFantasy, Horror,
ActionGenndy Tartakovsky(Dexter's Lab, Samurai Jack,Star Wars: Clone Wars

Adult Swim

Cartoon Network Studios,
Williams Street, Studio La
Cachette

Seis Manos

Martial arts
Supernatural
Action, Anime

Brad Graeber Álvaro
Rodríguez

Netflix

Powerhouse Animation
Studios, Viz Productions

UndoneDrama

Raphael Bob-Waksberg
and Kate Purdy

Amazon Prime

The Tornante Company,
Boxer vs. Raptor, Submarine,
Amsterdam Hive House
Project

Blood of Zeus

Fantasy,
AdventureCharley and Vlas
Parlapanides

Netflix

Powerhouse Animation, Asia
Minor Pictures

Upcoming Adult Animated Non-Comedy Genre SeriesShow

Description

Alien Isolation –The Digital Series

Sci-Fi Horror, Video
game spinoff

ArcaneCreator(s)BuyerStudio(s)Jeff Juhasz

IGN

Reverse Engineering
Studios (RES), TitraFilm
Dvgroup, 20th Century
Fox, IGN

League of Legends
Spinoff, Fantasy Sci-Fi

NA

TBD

Riot Games, Fortiche
Productions

ARK: The
Animated Series

Action Adventurespinoff from the video
game

Jay Oliva (Batman: The Dark
Knight Returns, Justice
League: The Flashpoint
ParadoxTBD

Studio Wildcard

Batman: The
Animated Series(rumor)DC Comic Superhero

NA

HBO Max

NA

Captain
Laserhawk: A
Blood Dragon Vibe

Spinoff from video
game

Adi Shankar

TBD

TBD

Cover
(in development)

espionage thriller
based on D.C. Comic

Brian Michael Bendis andDavid Mack

HBO Max

Rooster Teeth Studios© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 56

Upcoming Adult Animated Non-Comedy Genre Series [cont’d]Show

Description

Creator(s)BuyerStudio(s)Cyberpunk:
Edgerunners

Action – Anime basedon Cyberpunk 2077
video game

Hiroyuki Imaishi (Kill la Kill,
Promare, and Gurren Lagann)

Netflix

Studio Trigger

Dantai

Original Afro-futuristicscience fiction series

Idris Elba

Crunchyroll,
Adult Swim

TBD

DiabloFantasy Horror –Anime

Andrew Cosby (Hellboy,
Eureka)Game of Thrones(rumor)Spinoff from TV series

TBD

HBO Max

TBD

Godzilla: Singular
Point

Anime spinoff from
Godzilla movie

Atsushi Takahashi

Netflix

Bones and Oranges

The Havana Job

Original Drama

Greg Nichols, Michael
LeSieurNA

Trioscope Studios

Heaven’s Forest

Fantasy Epic

Warren Ellis

Netflix

Powerhouse Animation

Hit Monkey

Action, based on DC
Comic

Josh Gordon and Will Speck

Hulu

Marvel Animation

Hungry Ghosts

Horror, Based on Dark
Horse Comic

Anthony Bourdain

Sony

Sony Pictures(optioned)

Invincible

Drama Superhero
Based on Comic

Robert Kirkman

AmazonPrime Video

Skybound,Image Comics

Kong: Skull Island

Action Anime, Spinofffrom King Kong movie

Brian Duffield (Underwater,
Spontaneous, Love andMonsters) is writing andexec producing.

Netflix

Powerhouse
Animation

Magic: The
Gathering

Fantasy Based on thecard game

Masters of the
Universe

He Man Spinoff

Kevin Smith (Clerks)

Netflix

Powerhouse
Animation Studios

Overwatch

Fantasy – Anime basedon Overwatch video
game

NA

Netflix

Blizzard

Pantheon

Sci-Fi

Craig Silverstein (Turn:
Washington's Spies, Nikita)

AMC

AMC Studios, Titmouse

Resident Evil:
Infinite Darkness

Based on the
Horror Video Game
from Capcom

Hiroyuki Kobayashi,(Capcom game producer)

Netflix

TMS Entertainment andanimated by Quebico

Shadowlands:
Afterlives

Baed on World of
Warcraft Game

NA

Ginx

Blizzard Entertainment

Splinter Cell

Spy Thriller –Anime spinoff fromvideo game

Derek Kolstad (John Wick)

Netflix

Ubisoft

Blizzard© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 57

Upcoming Adult Animated Non-Comedy Genre Series [cont’d]Show

Description

Creator(s)BuyerStudio(s)Tomb Raider

Action – anime basedon video game

Tasha Huo, (The Witcher:
Blood Orange)

Legendary

Tomb Raider

Woman inthe Book

Original Drama, Latinx

Daniel Persitz and is written
by Eva Gonzalez Szigriszt
and Pamela Garcia Rooney.
Jeanette Moreno King willserve as director and will
work with Jeanette Jeanenne.

Facebook
Watch

Starburn Industries

Young Love

Drama based on the
Oscar winning short

Matthew A. Cherry (Hair
Love) and Carl Jones(Boondocks)

Sony
Pictures
Animation

Young Love

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 58

18. Production Technology
The release of the Epic Games Unreal 5 Engine attracted a lotof attention in 2020. It looks like an increasingly important
tool for creating linear content. It’s pretty easy to envision
fully-animated or hybrid-animated series being produced using
the Unreal Engine. One problem remains though – capturing
the nuance of human performances using 3D characters on
a TV budget. This remains a big enough challenge, one has toassume, that there’s a lot of energy being invested in figuring
out how to overcome this problem.
Gaming worlds and characters built in Unreal Engine port relatively easily into linear
media. I would not be surprised if some of the upcoming video game to TV series
adaptations are not built at least in part using the Unreal Engine. We are not talking
about the expensive Mandalorian LED wall type productions that attracted a lot of
attention but entire series being built using the Unreal Engine. Zafari for example,
is a 2017 kid’s show and was the first animated television series rendered entirely
with the Unreal Engine.
Trioscope, on the other hand, has decided
that there’s no replacement for the subtlety ofhuman performances so they’re focusing on
how to seamlessly integrate stylized live action
performances into rendered environments.

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 59

19. Social andMobile Streaming
Quibi quietly greenlit multiple adult animated series and promised to be an active
new buyer, only to shutter after six months, stranding several projects.
Quibi’s closure shut the door on almost all direct-to-consumer digital/mobile
possibilities for adult animation, leaving only Facebook Watch and YouTube as
active but limited digital buyers. My research is showing only one animated series
heading for Facebook Watch. It’s a Latinx, horror drama series called Woman in
the Book starring Diane Guerrero (Orange is the New Black), developed by Crypt TV
and animated by Starburns Industries.
There are a handful of children’s publishers that have developed really large
followings on YouTube, including Moonbug Entertainment (Little Baby Bum),the third most-subscribed channel on YouTube. These are typically relatively
simple animations with nursery rhyme soundtracks. Some of the best performing
videos can generate billions of views.

Figure 48:
Little Baby Bum— Moonbug© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 60

Figure 49:
Hazbin Hotel— A24

At the same time, YouTube has been removing ads from adult animated series ifthey’re deemed too sexual or violent, which really limits adult-skewing animation
and reduces the commercial viability of adult animation on the platform.
There have been exceptions, where shows originate on YouTube and get pickedup as long form TV series. A recent project that has made this transition is Hazbin
Hotel, created, directed, written and produced by the social media sensation
Vivienne ‘VivziePop’ Medrano. The pilot was made entirely by freelance animatorsand is largely financed by Medrano's Patreon followers. A24, the film distribution
company responsible for movies like Uncut Gems, is developing a series based on
the pilot.
The recent success of Hazbin Hotel is a rare exception. At least a couple of series
that I was personally involved with during my tenure at Mondo Media have madethe jump from the internet to TV, including Happy Tree Friends (G4TV) andmore recently Deep Space 69 (Syfy). There are a number of other adult animatedproperties that made the jump, including Ugly Americans and Annoying Orange.
There are very limited opportunities to make money with scripted content onsocial video in general, and certainly not much room for expensive animation. Thishas been one of my personal great disappointments. Call me a masochist, but I still
believe there’s a pathway for adult animation on digital. It seems like such a natural
fit for a direct-to-consumer play. VRV made a stab at adult animation but it quickly
ran out of steam when they spread their investment out too thinly amongst too
many non-animation channels. This is 20/20 hindsight, but I maintain that VRV
would have been better to have focused their investment on Western-produced
animation to become a direct-to-consumer, complimentary animation offering
to Crunchyroll and a digital-facing competitor to Adult Swim.

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 61

Figure 50: Critical Role:
The Legend of Vox Machina— Amazon Prime Video

20. Notable Upcoming Shows
Here are some of the noteworthy, upcoming, and hard-to-easily-categorize shows.
Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machina is scheduled to release in summer/fallof 2021. The series — based on livestreamed Dungeons & Dragon games hosted
by Matthew Mercer, along with fellow voice actors Ashley Johnson, Marisha Ray,
Taliesin Jaffe, Travis Willingham, Sam Riegel, Laura Bailey and Liam O’Brien — raised
a staggering $14M on Kickstarter. Titmouse is producing and the series will air on
Amazon Prime. Part of the appeal of the series on Twitch was the improv natureof the tabletop games, but The Legend of Vox Machina will be scripted by Jennifer
Muro (Onyx Equinox).
Agent King, a Netflix series scheduled to release in 2021, should be interesting.
Here’s the logline: “Elvis trades in his jumpsuit for a jetpack when he joins a secret
government spy program to help battle the dark forces that threaten the country.”
Fashion designer John Varvatos is custom-designing Elvis’s wardrobe. I will belooking for Elvis in distressed leather Chuck Taylors.

Figure 51:
Agent King— Netflix© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 62

Figure 52:
Santa Inc —HBO Max

Comedy duo Sarah Silverman and Seth Rogen are teaming up to voice Santa Inc.,a Christmas-themed animated comedy series for HBO Max. Lionsgate and Rogen’s
Point Grey Pictures are producing. The eight-episode half-hour series will be
written by Alexandra Rushfield, an EP on Hulu’s Shrill and co-EP on Parks andRecreation. Will this series be the perennial adult equivalent to Elf? I can think ofmany movies and TV specials but can’t think of another Christmas-themed series.
AMC ordered Pantheon, a one hour prime time sci-fi drama, based on Ken Liu’s
short stories, and loaded it up with an impressive voice cast, including Taylor
Schilling (Orange Is the New Black), Rosemarie DeWitt (Little Fires Everywhere),
Aaron Eckhart (Midway) and Paul Dano (Escape at Dannemora). Titmouse isproducing. The first episode was scheduled to premiere in late 2020, so it is alreadya little late. This is a pure dramatic science fiction series (no comedy) so it’s in aposition to be a ground-breaking landmark series if it is successful.

Figure 53:
Ken Liu’s novels© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 63

21. Opportunities in an
Untapped Global Market
Foreign governments are beginning to demand that the American streamers startinvesting in locally-produced content, which will help create a diversity of voices on
their platforms. Canada, for example, is demanding that the streamers invest $635M
in Canadian produced content by 2023.20 One could assume other countries will
implement similar regulations. If taken as a model for the rest of the world, it could
add up to many billions of dollars being spent by the streamers on local content in
the countries where they want to operate.
Because the streamers will be obligated to spend more on original content in themarkets where they want to distribute, foreign animation studios might want toadopt the children’s financing model and use the streamer’s licensing fees coupledwith tax credits (common in a lot of countries that produce animation) to financeinternational productions.

20 Hollywood Reporter - Canada to Force Netflix, Amazon Prime to Pay for Local
Content, Nov. 3, 2020
© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 64

“Because the streamers will be obligated to spend
more on original content, foreign animation studios
might want to adopt the kid’s animation financing
model and use the SVOD licensing fees coupledwith tax credits to finance international productions.”
The problem is that many of the streamers will demand that they control all
international markets. This might negate the opportunity for independent studios
to structure deals where they retain ownership and finance their productions
through pre-sales to select territories and preserve upside in unsold territories.
With the exception of Japanese anime and a handful of Canadian productions,
my research shows very few international studios actively producing for the adultanimation buyers (especially when compared to children’s animation). Because adultanimation has been so dominated by culturally-specific US comedy (Fox sitcoms,
Adult Swim, etc.), there’s been few doors open for foreign produced series.
The surge in demand for adult animation from domestic studios (many clustered in
Los Angeles) has them all maxing out on their capacity. As demand for non-comedy
genre series grows, and streamers are forced to start spending on local content
in the markets where they want to operate, foreign studios can step in to fill thedemand. Especially dramatic or genre series that are not US-specific comedy.
Alternatively, domestic animation studios might want to partner with live-action
studios with high level talent networks (writing, voice, etc.) to jointly produce more
ambitious dramatic projects that should increasingly gain acceptance in the market,
if my assumptions about the growth in non-comedy genre animation play out overthe next five years.
French studios are particularly well-positioned to take advantage of the increasing
popularity of the style and the growth of dramatic animation as a category. Theircreators grew up on a steady diet of anime and you can see it in their work.

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 65

22. Critical Role: a Case Studyin Crowdfunding Animation
The clout and scale of the recent streamer launches and their massive content
investments has overshadowed an area of entertainment financing that is quietly
growing. I want to draw attention to crowdfunding, because I believe this is alegitimate and somewhat overlooked method for financing new productions.
Any creator or property with a fandom would be well-advised not to overlook
crowdfunding, and it is about to get more sophisticated than a simple
Kickstarter raise.

“I want to draw attention to crowdfunding,because I believe this is a legitimate andsomewhat overlooked method for financing
new productions.”
Full disclosure, I am working with Chonky, a newplatform that will support entertainment raises up
to $5M USD. Launching in Q2 2021, Chonky takes
advantage of new FINRA/SEC rules that permits
creators to raise project financing — much like
Kickstarter, but instead of fans pledging money forrewards, they purchase shares and participate in the
profit generated by the project once it goes to market.
Way back in 2013 at the dawn of crowdfunding, I wasproud to play a small role in a Kickstarter campaign for
Dick Figures: The Movie, a 2D animated feature. Driven
Figure 54:
Dick Figures - Mondo

by the charismatic duo of Ed Skudder and Zack Keller
and their 150 million views on YouTube, the pair pitched
their hearts out on Kickstarter and raised a recordbreaking $313K at the time. We made the movie and it
was profitable within the first 3 month of its release.

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 66

Figure 55:
Hazbin Hotel— A24

More recently Hazbin Hotel, a musical comedy web series — created, directed,
written and produced by Vivienne ‘VivziePop’ Medrano — raised enough moneyon Patreon to pay friends and freelancers to produce a short that generated
65 million views on YouTube. It was enough that A24 picked up the project as
a television series.
Critical Role is an American web video series, in which a group of professional voiceactors play Dungeons & Dragons in front of a livestreamed audience. The series
has aired on various social video platforms since 2015. On March 4, 2019 CriticalRole launched a Kickstarter campaign for a TV series that generated a staggering$11.3M for an animated series based on the property. The campaign started asa raise for a single half hour for $750K. Within 24 hours, they had raised $4.3M.
By the time they were done, they had raised enough to fund 10 episodes. It was
one of the most quickly-funded campaigns in Kickstarter history, and was themost funded Kickstarter for TV and film projects.

“If you've got the patience and have the wherewithal
to grow a low cost franchise ‘seed format’ (web comic,
vlog, audio podcast, serialized fiction, etc.) there isa point where you can turn to crowdfunding for a longform linear show.”© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 67

Figure 56:
Critical Role:
The Legend of Vox Machina- Amazon Prime Video

There are several key ingredients that led to Critical Role’s successful Kickstarter Raise:1.

Critical Role built a large audience for a dense, ever-evolving story. It iscompelling content with a passionate audience: The series has amassed over
150 million views on YouTube. No longer considered a fringe pursuit, Dungeons& Dragons is the new cool, with Critical Role’s own campaign setting, Explorer's
Guide to Wildemount, at the top of the Publishers Weekly’s chart of best-selling
hardcover nonfiction books.

2. The global board games market is anticipated to reach values of more than
$12B by 2023, growing at a CAGR of over 9% during 2017-2023.21 This seems likea natural counter response for young adults (with 24/7 screens in their faces)
looking for face-to-face contact with their friends.
3. Animation is hugely popular with 18-34s. The streamers are all doubling downon adult animation — especially Netflix, Hulu and HBO Max. Adult Swimconsistently attracts the largest cable audience of young adults.
According to reporting from Todd Spangler for Variety, the team initially pitched
the idea to the major streamers and a few TV networks22. They thought it would bea slam dunk, with the scale of the audience they had built. There was some interest
from the traditional buyers but mostly it was met with confusion. When they tried
to describe the weekly show, the buyers just didn’t get it.
21 Reportlinker, Board Games Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2018-2023,
Dec. 11, 201822 Variety — Critical Role Team, After Record-Breaking Fan Crowdfunding Response,
Vows to Make ‘The Best Goddamn Cartoon Anyone Has Ever Seen,’ Mar. 8, 2019
© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 68

Critical Role has shifted their windowing strategy as the social video landscape has
evolved. Today it's a blend of Twitch, VOD and YouTube. The format is a weekly
show that runs for three to five (and in some cases six) hours, and is streamed live
on Critical Role's Twitch channel on Thursdays. The VOD is made available forsubscribers of Critical Role's Twitch channel immediately after airing, before being
uploaded to Critical Role's YouTube channel the following Monday, where it can bewatched for free.
The Legend of Vox Machina will be written by Jennifer Muro, and animated byTitmouse, Inc. (Bigmouth, The Midnight Gospel). The project is slated for releasein summer/fall of 2021. It's interesting that Amazon Prime Video announced thatthey had acquired the streaming rights to The Legend of Vox Machina, and hadcommissioned 14 additional episodes. It seems to have come full circle. Amazon now
understands that the social media footprint of Critical Role is large and meaningful.
I am not sure why the Critical Role team felt it was safer to go with the streamer
than to go back to Kickstarter. Maybe it was too fraught with uncertainty?
Does the ‘starter’ in Kickstarter imply that you can only raise money once before
you grow up, or is it a well you can keep going back to for subsequent seasons orsequels? If Amazon eventually decides to cancel the series, maybe the cast behind
Critical Role will take the animated series back to the social video platforms andstart the process all over again. I'm looking forward to seeing how the new animatedseries turns out. Half of the fun of the live shows was their spontaneity, so hopefullysome of that spirit will be preserved in the animated series.

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 69

23. The Great Adult Animation BoomIn summary, there are a total of 104 upcoming, adult animated series as of February
2021. That’s more than a 100% increase from one year ago. The streamers now
account for 50% of all the upcoming adult animated series. Netflix is the mostactive adult animation buyer accounting for roughly one quarter of all the upcoming
series. HBO Max announced several new series in early 2021 and appear to be asbullish about adult animation as Netflix. Animated comedies, reboots, spinoffs, video
games, comics and anime will all play a major role in what I am calling “The Great
Adult Animation Boom” that is about to play out over the next decade. And Fox, thelone broadcaster in the adult animation game, has dramatically upped their orders
for new scripts, pilots and series for their Animation Domination block with at least
14 announced new projects (currently 5 on-air series).

“Animated comedies, genre, reboots, spinoffs, video
games, comics and anime will all play a role in what I am
calling “The Great Adult Animation Boom”
ANIMATED COMEDYAnimated comedy has replaced sitcoms as young adult's preferred vehicle for
comedy. Comedy Central is re-branding themselves as a home for adult animation
and re-booting several Viacom classic animated series including Beavis andButt-Head, Ren & Stimpy and Jodie a Daria spinoff. Fox has significantly upped
up the volume of new series they’re putting into development. It looks like Fox is
stepping out of their family sitcom template judging from the orders they’re placing
for new series. Adult Swim still has more on-air adult animated comedy than any
other channel or streamer but new series announcements appear to be slowing.

VIDEO GAMESThere are 11 new upcoming series based on video games – that’s up from two a year
ago. The list includes some of the most recognizable video game franchises like
Diablo, Splintercell, Overwatch, Tomb Raider and Cyberpunk. Netflix is particularly
focused on adult animated video game adaptations. Many of these will be made with
anime-inspired art styles.

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 70

REBOOTS & SPINOFFS
There are 15 upcoming animated reboots and spinoffs. Many of these are spinoffs
from some of the most valuable franchises in the entertainment industry including
Game of Thrones, Godzilla, Blade Runner, and King Kong. Others are spinoffs fromclassic animated and live action series like Viacom’s reboots or sitcoms or TV shows
like Good Times.

COMIC-BOOK BASED SERIES
Series based on comic books are the underlying IP for several upcoming series
and include Invincible, a rumored reboot of Batman: The Animated Series andan Aquaman: King of Atlantis mini-series. HBO Max will be the home for the
DC Universe series like Harley Quinn, and Disney-owned Hulu will be the home
for the upcoming Marvel adult animated series like M.O.D.O.K. and Hit Monkey.
This could be another important adult animation category judging by the receptionthat Harley Quinn has received.

ANIME
Western animation studios like Powerhouse Animation (Austin, Texas) are producing
what I am calling “gaibume” - that is anime produced in the US or jointly with
US and Japanese partners. Powerhouse produces Castlevania, Seis Manos andthe upcoming anime series Kong: Skull Island and Tomb Raider. More American/
Japanese partnerships like Blade Runner: Black Lotus blur the line between
animation and anime. The recent Crunchyroll (Sony) announcement of the Idris Elba
sci-fi fantasy series Dantai is in keeping with this new trend. Many of the upcoming
video game series will be produced as anime. It’s clear that by the third edition of
the Adult Animation White Paper, we will have to cover animation and anime as
simply one category.

SCI-FI COMEDY CROSS-OVERS
Sci-fi comedy cross-overs are very much in vogue in 2021. The line-up of sci-fi
comedy crossovers includes current series like Rick and Morty, The MidnightGospel, and Solar Opposites and upcoming series like X-Files: Albuquerque.
My theory is that the sci-fi comedy cross-overs are a gateway to more ambitious,
dramatic storytelling.

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 71

NON-COMEDY GENRE
And finally, non-comedy genre (sci-fi, horror, drama, etc.) is where much of thegrowth in new audiences for adult animation will occur over the next decade.
Not that animated comedy is going anywhere. There is a whole new crop of
upcoming video game based series – many of these will be produced as anime orwith anime-inspired art styles. This type of content will export well internationallybecause western audiences are ready for more ambitious animated story-telling andthey will appeal to a wider audience than US-based comedic animation which has
its own built-in limitations. I am reasonably confident that much of the non-comedy
genre content will work but remain concerned that talent will be stretched thin andit’s somewhat of an unproven category. If this push into more ambitious animatedstorytelling works, it will redefine adult animation.

STREAMERS
Netflix and HBO Max have the most aggressive adult animation strategies. Almost
all of the other streamers have ordered adult animated series with the possible
exceptions of Disney+ and Apple TV+ that remains focused on family programming.
Disney is using Disney-owned Hulu as their home for more adult fare. You canfind original series like Solar Opposites and Crossing Swords on Hulu. Amazon’s
current adult animated series include the critically acclaimed Undone and the highly
anticipated comic book adaptation Invincible.

CABLE
All the cable channels that carry original scripted programming targeting young
adults have adopted their own adult animation strategies. This includes cablers likeSyfy’s TZGZ block, AMC - Archer and the upcoming sci-fi drama series Pantheon,
TBS - Final Space and American Dad!, and Showtime – Our Cartoon President.
Cable’s ratings are in decline but Adult Swim remains an important brand with its
flagship series Rick and Morty.

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 72

STUDIOS AND TALENT
As a result of this unprecedented activity, the buyers are stepping up. According
to The Ringer, CBS TV Studio’s Katie Krentz “Every time I take a pitch out to sell,
there’s a new buyer. Oh, we’re pitching we’re pitching to Peacock. Oh, now we’re
pitching HBO Max. And that’s been so wild. It used to just be taking it to threeor four buyers. Now you have as many as 12 to 14 places you can be taking[a show] to.”23 The unprecedented demand for adult animated series is going to put
pressure on animation studios. Is there enough talent to produce all of this newcontent? Will the product suffer as a result of the talent being spread too thinly
across all of the projects that have been announced over the past year. Will someproducers turn to international studios for help to address the need? Animation has
benefitted from the availability of all the out of work writers and actors. Hopefully
the world will return to normal sooner than later. Something that several of these
upcoming adult animated projects will break out over the next two years and thetalent that was attracted to adult animation during the COVID era will continue
happily working with the new medium.

23 The Ringer - TV’s Future Will Be More Animated, Sep 16, 2020
© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 73

24. In Summary
There have been three major shifts on the pathway to consumer acceptance of adultanimation since the early nineties.
Up until Bart Simpson first rode his skateboard into our living rooms, animation
was pretty much exclusively a kid’s medium. Since that day, Fox has been playing
by the rules that The Simpsons animated family sitcom established. This resulted in
Broadcast Phase1990’stwo of the largest TV franchises in the history of TV. It does appear however thatFox is starting to adapt to 18-34s’ increasing interests in animated fare that’s strays
from the sitcom format. Fox is widening the dial out on the kinds of shows they aredeveloping going forward. And, Fox is expanding their Animation Domination block
because adult audiences have embraced animation as their preferred format for
consuming comedy.
Shortly after The Simpsons first aired, MTV kicked off the second era with shows like
Beavis and Butthead and the ground-breaking Liquid TV anthology series, but forsome reason, their animation efforts fizzled out. Ten years later, Cartoon Network

Cable Phase2000’sneeded something to prop up their late night ratings so they picked up the baton
that MTV dropped and emerged as the go to channel for quirky, irreverent adultanimation. To this day, Adult Swim still attracts the largest audiences of 18-34s of
all the cable channels. Rick and Morty is the full realization of the cable phase but
the series’ popularity happened to coincide with young adult’s abandonment ofbroadcast and cable in favor of the streaming services.
One year after Netflix’s first original series House of Cards debuted and 10 years
after Adult Swim launched, Netflix premiered a new, dark, animated comedy
about a washed up horse. BoJack Horseman showed the Netflix programmersthat the best way to “hack” into a young adult audience was adult animation. The
streamers no longer needed to cram shows into 22-minute sitcoms with commercial
interruptions. They’re less expensive than most scripted live action series and they

Streamer Phase

have more staying power. Streamers can afford to make shows for more niche2020’saudiences than the broadcasters or cablers. This shift has opened the doors tomore ambitious story-telling – genre series, dramas, etc. that will have international
appeal, which will be attractive to the streamers who all have global ambitions.
The cultural influence of video games is seeping into adult animation. Netflix,in particular, has doubled down on this category. And, anime – either Japaneseproduced or anime-inspired animation seems to be a strong stylistic influence formany of the upcoming video game based animated series.
© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 74

25. The Adult Animation Database
Note – for Complete Up To The Minute Data Visit: The Adult Animation Database.

Current Original Animated Series – By Buyer (First Window)
Netﬂx
HBO Max
Adult Swim
Amazon Prime
Hulu
Syfy
Fox
Facebook Watch
YouTube Premium
Comedy Central
CBS All Access
AMC
Showtime
FX
Rooster Teeth
Ginx TV
TBS
Apple TV+
Fuse
IGN
IMDB
FXX
0

5

10

15

20

25

20

25

Upcoming Animated Series – By Buyer (First Window)
Netﬂx
HBO Max
Adult Swim
Amazon
Hulu
Syfy
Fox
Facebook Watch
YouTube Premium
Comedy Central
CBS All Access
AMC
Showtime
FX
Disney+Ginx TV
TBD
0

5

10

15

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 75

Upcoming Original Adult Animated Series – By Genre
Horror • 4% Musical • 1%
Action/Adventure • 6%
Superhero • 6%
Sci-Fi • 7%
Drama • 8%

Comedy/Sitcom • 62%

Fantasy • 10%

Upcoming Original Adult Animated Series – By Source IP
Board Game • 3%
Book/Comic Book • 3%
Online Series or Short • 4%
Movie • 6%
Comic Book • 10%
Original • 54%
Video Game • 11%

TV Series • 13%

Upcoming Original Adult Animated Series – By Buyer(1st Window)
Digital & Mobile • 6%
TBD • 9%Broadcast • 12%
Streamer • 56%

Cable • 21%

For the complete up-to-the-minute list visit: The Adult Animation Database.

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 76

Current Adult Animated Series – Ranked by Popularity**Blended scores based on data from IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes.

1

Blended
Rank

Show

Genre

Buyer

Studio(s)PrimalFantasy, Horror,
ActionAdult
Swim

Cartoon Network Studios, Williams Street, Studio
La Cachette

9.5

Williams Street, Harmonious Claptrap, Starburns
Industries (seasons 1–2), Justin Roiland's Solo
Vanity Card Productions!, Rick and Morty, LLC.
(season 2–3), Green Portal Productions (season 4)

9.3

2

Rick and Morty

Comedy, Sci-Fi

Adult
Swim

3

BoJack Horseman(last season)

Tragicomedy
SitcomNefflix

Tornante, Boxer vs. Raptor, ShadowMachine

9.1

4

UndoneComedy, Drama

AmazonPrime

Tornante, Boxer vs. Raptor, Submarine
Amsterdam, Hive House Project

9.1

5

Young Justice

Superhero

HBO Max

DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Animation

9.1

6

The Venture Bros.
(last season)

Comedy, Satire

Adult
Swim

Astro Base GO!, NoodleSoup Productions (2003–04), World Leaders Entertainment (2006–10),
Titmouse, Inc. (2011–2018), Williams Street

9.1

7

Harley Quinn

Superhero

HBO Max

Warner Bros. Animation, DC Entertainment
Yes, Norman Productions, Ehsugadee
Productions

8.9

8.7

8

Trailer Park Boys

Comedy Sitcom

Netflix

Trailer Park Productions (2001–2008), TopsailEntertainment (2001–2008), Showcase Television(2001–2008), Sunnyvale Productions (2014–
present), Swearnet Pictures (2014–present)

9

The MidnightGospelSurrealComedy

Netflix

Oatmeal Maiden, Titmouse, Inc.

8.8

10

ArcherSitcom Parody

FX

Floyd County Productions, FX Productions

8.7

11

Bob's Burgers

SitcomFOX

Bento Box Entertainment, Wilo Productions,
Buck & Millie Productions (Seasons 2-10)
20th Television

8.7

12

Castlevania

Horror Action
Adventure

Netflix

Frederator Studios, Powerhouse Animation
Studios, Shankar Animation, Project 51
Productions, Mua Film

8.7

13

F is For Family

Sitcom

Netflix

Wild West Television, Loner Productions, Big
Jump Productions, King of France Productions,
Oasis Animation, Gaumont Animation

8.7

14

Blood Of Zeus

Fantasy

Netflix

Powerhouse Animation Studios, Dongwoo, A&E

8.6

15

Close Enough

Surreal Sitcom

HBO Max

Cartoon Network Studios

8.6

16

Big Mouth

Coming of Age
Sitcom

Netflix

Danger Goldberg Productions, Good at Bizness,
Inc., Fathouse Industries, Titmouse, Inc.

8.5

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 77

Current Adult Animated Series – Ranked by Popularity* [cont’d]*Blended scores based on data from IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes.

Blended
Rank

Show

Genre

Buyer

Studio(s)17South Park

ComedyComedyCentral

Celluloid Studios (1997), Braniff Productions(1997–2006), Parker-Stone Productions (2006–
07), South Park Studios (2007–), Comedy Partners

8.5

18

Love, Death andRobotsAnimation
Anthology

Netflix

Blur Studio, Netflix Studios, Variety of 3rd Party
Studios

8.4

8.4

19

Robot Chicken

Sketch Comedy

Adult
Swim

ShadowMachine Films (2005–2012) (seasons
1–5), Stoopid Monkey, Stoopid Buddy Stoodios(2012 present), (season 6–present) Sony Pictures
Digital (2005–2012) (seasons 1–5) Sony Pictures
Television (2012–present) (season 6–present),
Williams Street

20

The Shivering
Truth

ComedySurreal Sketch

Adult
Swim

ShadowMachine (season one), HouseSpecial(season two), PFFR, Williams Street

8.4

21

Solar Opposites

Comedy Sci-fi

Hulu

Justin Roiland's Solo Vanity Card Productions!,
Important Science, 20th Television

8.3

22

American Dad

Comedy SitcomTBS

20th Television, 20th Animation, Underdog
Productions, Fuzzy Door Productions

8.2

23

The Simpsons

Comedy Sitcom

FOX

Gracie Films, 20th Television

8.3

24

Gary and His
DemonsComedy Sitcom
HorrorSyfy

Mondo Media, Solis Animation, Look Mom!
Productions, Blue Ant Media

8.1

25

Final SpaceSpace Opera
Comedy DramaTBS

ShadowMachine (animation production), Jam
Filled Entertainment (animation services), Star
Cadet, New Form Digital, Conaco (S1–2), Studio
T (S1)

7.9

26

RWBY

Sci-Fi Action
Adventure

Rooster
Teeth

Rooster Teeth Productions

7.9

27

gen:LOCK

Sci-Fi Action
Adventure

HBO Max

Rooster Teeth Productions

7.9

28

Family Guy

SitcomFOX

Fuzzy Door Productions, 20th Television

7.8

29

Central Park

Musical Sitcom

Apple TV+

Bento Box Entertainment, Wilo Productions,
Angry Child Productions, BrillsteinEntertainment Partners, 20th Television

7.8

30

Sugar and Toys

Sketch Comedy
ParodyFuse

This is Just a Test, 245 Enterprises

7.6

31

Disenchantment

Fantasy Sitcom

Netflix

The ULULU Company, Rough Draft Studios

7.4

32

The Jellies!

SitcomAdult
Swim

Bald Fade Productions, Augenblick Studios,
Whalerock Industries, Williams Street

7.3© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 78

Current Adult Animated Series – Ranked by Popularity* [cont’d]*Blended scores based on data from IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes.

Blended
Rank

Show

Genre

Buyer

Studio(s)33

The Liberator

Drama Action

Netflix

A&E Studios, Unique Features, Trioscope Studios

7.2

34

Yolo: Crystal
Fantasy

ComedyAdult
Swim

Princess Pictures, Williams Street

7.2

35

Dragon's Dogma

Anime Dark
Fantasy

Netflix

Sublimation

7.1

36

Wild Life

ComedySyfy

Nice Try, Octopie Network, Valparaiso Pictures,
TZGZ Productions

7.1

37

Ballmastrz: 9009

Sci-Fi Comedy

Adult
Swim

Titmouse, Inc., C.C.K. Rad (Season 2), Williams
Street

7.0

6.8

38

Duncanville

SitcomFOX

Bento Box Entertainment, Paper Kite
Productions, Scullys Productions, 3 ArtsEntertainment, Universal Television, Fox
Entertainment, 20th Television

39

TigtoneFantasy
ComedyAdult
Swim

Titmouse, Inc., Babyhemyth Productions,
Williams Street

6.8

40

Tooning Out theNews

Political Satire

CBS All
AccessThe Late Show with Stephen Colbert

6.8

41

Fundamentally
CynicalDark Comedy

AmazonPrime

BlackEye Productions, POW animations, Pow
Animation Studio

6.8

42

12 Oz Mouse(series return)

SurrealComedyAdult
SwimWilliams Street, Radical Axis (series), Awesome,Inc. (special)

6.6

43

Squidbillies

Black Comedy

Adult
Swim

Williams Street

6.5

44

Magical Girl
Friendship Squad:
Origins

ComedySyfy

Cartuna

6.5

45

Tender Touches

Soap Opera
ParodyAdult
Swim

Six Point Harness (season 2), Awesome, Inc.
(season 3), Williams Street

6.4

46

Alien: Isolation –The Digital Series

Sci-Fi Horror

IGN

Reverse Engineering Studios (RES), TitraFilm,
DVgroup, 20th Century Fox, IGN

6.3

47

Momma Named
Me Sheriff (Mr.
Pickles)

SitcomAdult
Swim

HotHouse Productions, Day by Day Productions,
Williams Street

6.2

48

Hell Den

ComedySyfy

Dr. God Productions, Rafael RaffaeleEntertainment
Shout! Studios, TZGZ Productions

5.4© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 79

Current Adult Animated Series – Ranked by Popularity* [cont’d]*Blended scores based on data from IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes.

Blended
Rank

Show

Genre

Buyer

Studio(s)49

Our Cartoon
President

Political Satire

Showtime

Spartina Productions, Licht Media Solutions, CBS
Television Studios, Showtime Networks

6.1

50

Bless the Harts

SitcomFOX

Titmouse, Inc., Jessebean, Inc., Lord Miller
Productions, Fox Entertainment
20th Television

6.1

51

The Great North

SitcomFOX

Bento Box Entertainment, Double Molyneux
Sister Sheux, Wilo Productions, Fox
Entertainment, 20th Television

6.1

52

You're Not a
Monster

Comedy Horror

IMDb

Grammnet Productions, Bold Soul Studios,
Ranker

6.0

53

Star Trek: Lower
Decks

Sci-Fi Comedy

CBS All
AccessCBS Eye Animation Productions, Secret Hideout,
Important Science, Roddenberry Entertainment,
Titmouse, Inc.

5.8

54

Paradise PD

Sitcom

Netflix

Damn! Show Productions, Bento Box
Entertainment, Odenkirk ProvissieroEntertainment

5.5

55

JJ Villards
Fairytales

Horror Comedy

Adult
Swim

Villard Film, Cartoon Network Studios, Williams
Street5.4

56

Lazor Wulf

ComedyAdult
Swim

Titmouse, Inc. (Pilot), Bento Box Entertainment(season 1), 6 Point Harness (season 2), Williams
Street4.9

57

Crossing Swords

SitcomHulu

Buddy System Studios, Tom Is Awesome, Stoopid
Buddy Stoodios, Sony Pictures Television

4.4

58

The Freak Brothers Sitcom

TBD

Starburns Industries, WTG Enterprises

0.0

59

Cake

Anthology
SketchFXXSLAQR, FXP

0.0

60

Alpha Betas

ComedyYouTube(too early to
be measured)© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 80

Upcoming Series – (Alphabetical Order)
For the complete up-to-the-minute list visit The Adult Animation Database.

Show

Genre

SourceBuyer

Studio1

10-Year-Old-Tom

ComedyOriginal

HBO Max

Tomorrow Studios, ITV Studios

2

2051

Comedy –Workplace

Original

Amazon3 Arts Entertainment

3

Agent King

ComedyOriginal

Netflix

Sony Pictures Animation

4

Alien vs. Predator

Horror Action

Movie Spinoff

NetflixNA

5Alpha Betas

ComedyOriginal

NA

Starburns Industries

6

Amberville

Comedy Dark

Original

Amazon Prime

Annapurna

7

Arcane (League ofLegends)

Fantasy

Video GameNA

Riot Games, Fortiche Productions

8

ARK: The AnimatedSeriesActionAdventure

Video Game

NA

NA

9

Aquaman: King of
AtlantisSuperhero

Comic Book

HBO Max

Warner Bros. Animation

10

Batman: The AnimatedSeriesSuperhero

Comic Book

HBO Max

Warner Bros. Animation

11

Beavis and Butt-Head(Reboot)

ComedyTV Series –RebootComedyCentral

3 Arts12

Birdgirl

ComedyTV Series –Spinoff

Adult Swim

ME Productions, Awesome Inc.

13

The Black Hole

ComedyOriginal

Syfy

Starburns Industries

14

Blade Runner: Black
Lotus

Sci-Fi

Movie

Adult Swim,
Crunchyroll

Sola Digital Arts

15

Blue Eye Samurai

ActionAdventure

Original

Netflix

TBA

16

The Boondocks

Comedy Sitcom

TV Series –Reboot

HBO Max

Sony Pictures Animation

17

Captain Fall

ComedyOriginal

Netflix

TBA

18

ChinosComedy –SitcomOriginal

HBO Max

Color Correct

19

The Chronicles of Frank

ComedyOriginal

Syfy

Shadow Machine

20

Clone High (reboot)Comedy Sitcom

TV Series –RebootComedyCentralViacom© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 81

Upcoming Series – (Alphabetical Order) [cont’d]
For the complete up-to-the-minute list visit The Adult Animation Database.

Show

Genre

SourceBuyer

Studio21

Clue

Drama Mystery

Board Game –Spinoff

Fox

Entertainment One, Bento Box

22

Cocky

Comedy –SitcomOriginalFox

Fox Entertainment, Bento Box

23 Condorito

Comedy –SitcomComic Book

TBD

Anima, Lunes

24 CoverSuperhero

Comic Book

HBO Max

Rooster Teeth Studios

25

Crag Banyon P.I.

Crime Drama

Book

FOX

TBD

26

Critical Role:
The Legend of
Vox Machine

Fantasy –ComedyBoard Game

Amazon Prime

Titmouse

27

The Cuphead Show!

ComedyVideo Game

Netflix

TBD

28

Cyberpunk:
Edgerunners

Sci-FiVideo Game

Netflix

Trigger

29

Dantai

Sci-Fi Fantasy
Anime

Original

Crunchyroll

Green Door Pictures, Pink Towel
Pictures

30 Depardieu Only Knows

Comedy –Drama

Comic Book

TBD

Toon Factory

31 Devil May Care

ComedyOriginal

Syfy

Syfy

32

DiabloFantasy Horror

Video Game

Netflix

TBD

33

Dota: Dragons Blood

Fantasy

Video Game

Netflix

Studio Mir

34 Dr. Havocs Diary

ComedyOnline Series

Syfy

35

ComedyOriginal

YouTubePremium

Artists First

36 Entergalactic

MusicalOriginal

Netflix

Khalabo Ink Society

37

Fairfax

ComedyOriginal

Amazon Prime

Titmouse

38 Farzar

Sci-Fi Comedy

Original

Netflix

Odenkirk ProvissieroEntertainment, Bento Box
Entertainment, Fox Entertainment

39

Fired on Mars

Sci-Fi Comedy

Original

HBO Max

TBA

40

Game of Thrones (nameTBD)

Fantasy

TV Series Spinoff

HBO Max

TBA

Dumb People Town

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 82

Upcoming Series – (Alphabetical Order) [cont’d]
For the complete up-to-the-minute list visit The Adult Animation Database.

Show

Genre

SourceBuyer

Studio41

Godzilla: Singular Point

ActionMovie

Netflix

Bones and Orange

42

Good Times

Comedy –Sitcom

TV Series

Netflix

Fuzzy Door

43 The Greater Good

Comedy –Workplace

Original

FOX

FOX

44

Gremlins: Secrets of the
Mogwai

Fantasy Comedy

Movie Spinoff

HBO Max

Warner Bros

45

The Harper House

ComedyOriginal

CBS All Access

CBS Television Studios

46

The Havana Job

Drama

Book

NA

Tricscope Studios

47

Hazbin Hotel

ComedyOnline Series

TBD

A24, Vivziepop

48

Heaven’s Forest

Fantasy - Epic

Original

Netflix

Powerhouse Animation

49

Hello Paul

ComedyOriginal

HBO Max

TBA

50

Hit-Monkey

ActionComic Book

Hulu

Marvel Animation

51

The Hospital

Comedy Sci-Fi

Original

AmazonAnimal Pictures

52

The House

Comedy Dark

Original

Netflix

Nexus Studios

53

Housebroken

Comedy –SitcomOriginal

FOX

20th Century FOX, Kapital

54

Human Discoveries

ComedyOriginal

Facebook
Watch

ShadowMachine

55 Human Resources

ComedyTV Series Spin Off

Netflix

Brutus Pink

56

HorrorComic BookIn
Development

Sony Pictures Animation

57 Inside Job

ComedyOriginal

Netflix

Netflix Animation

58 Invincible

Superhero

Comic Book

Amazon Prime

SkyboundHungry Ghosts

59

Jodie
(Daria Spinoff)

Comedy Sitcom

TV Series Spin Off

ComedyCentralViacom Studios

60

Keeping Up with The
Joneses

Comedy –SitcomOriginal

HBO Max

WB Animation

61

Kong: Skull Island

Action Spinoff

Movie

Netflix

Tractor Pants, Powerhouse

62

Lil Kev

Comedy –SitcomOriginal

FOX

20th Century FOX, Lionsgate© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 83

Upcoming Series – (Alphabetical Order) [cont’d]
For the complete up-to-the-minute list visit The Adult Animation Database.

Show
63 Magic: The Gathering

Genre

SourceBuyer

StudioFantasy

Card Game

Netflix

AGBO

64

Magical Girl Friendship
Squad

ComedyOriginal

Syfy

NA

65

Masters of the Universe:
Revelation

Fantasy - EpicTV Series Spin Off

Netflix

Jetlag Productions, Mattel,
Powerhouse Animation

66

Mega City Smiths

Comedy –Drama

Original

AMC

Stoopid Buddy Stoodios

67

M.O.D.O.K.

Superhero

Comic Book

Hulu

Marvel Animation

68

Mulligan

ComedyOriginal

Netfllix

3 Arts Entertainment, Bento Box
Entertainment and Universal
Television

69

Multifarious Maris

ComedyOriginal

Showtime

ShadowMachine

70 The Multivorce

Comedy Sci Fi

Original

CBS All Access

CBS All Access

71

Name TBA

Drama

Original

FOX

Bento Box, 20th Century FOX

72

Name TBA

ComedyOriginal

FOX

Bento Box, 20th Century FOX

73 Oaklandia

ComedyOriginal

Amazon

NA

74

Obi

ComedyOnline Series

HBO Max

Studio 71

75

Ocean Village

Comedy Sitcom

Original

FOX

FOX Entertainment, Bento Box
and Look Mom! Productions

76

Overwatch

Fantasy

Video Game

Netflix

NA

77

Pantheon

Sci-Fi

Book

AMC

TBA

78

The Pole

ComedyOriginal

Syfy

Yeti

79

Plutoniams

Comedy Sci-fi

Original

Syfy

Brave Media, Yeti Farm

80

Predator

Sci-Fi - Action

Movie Spinoff

TBD

TBD

81

The Prince

Political Satire

Original

HBO Max

20th Century FOX Television,
Bento Box Entertainment

ComedyOriginal

Fox

Sony Pictures TV

83 Psycho Psalms

Comedy Dark

Original

Syfy

Open the Portal, Tractor Pants

84

ComedyOriginal

NetfixFremulon, Universal TV, 3 Arts

82

Price Wawa

Q-Force© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 84

Upcoming Series – (Alphabetical Order) [cont’d]
For the complete up-to-the-minute list visit The Adult Animation Database.

Show

Genre

SourceBuyer

Studio85 The Ren & Stimpy Show

SItcom

TV Series –Spinoff

ComedyCentralViacom86

Resident Evil: Infintie
Darkness

Drama

VIdeo Game

Netflix

TMS Entertainment

87

Ricky & Cricket

ComedyOriginal

Amazon3 ArtsComedyOriginal

HBO Max

Point Grey Pictures

88 Santa Inc.
89

Shadowlands: Afterlives(World of Warcraftspinoff)

Fantasy

Video Game

Ginx TV

Blizzard

90

Shell Beach

ComedyOriginalFox

FOX Entertainment, Bento Box

91

Splinter Cell

Drama –
SuspenseVideo Game

Netflix

Netflix Animation

92

The Summoner

ComedyOriginal

Syfy

Stoopid Buddy Stoodios

93 Superbago

Superhero –ComedyOriginalIn
Development

Stoopid Buddy Stoodios

94

Teenage Euthanasia

ComedyOriginal

Adult Swim

Augenblick95

Tomb Raider Anime
SeriesActionVideo Game

Netflix

Anime Production TBA

96

Jermaine Fowler Project- Name TBD

ComedyOriginal

FOX

FOX

97 Tuca and Bertie

Sitcom

TV Series –RebootAdult Swim

The Tornante Company, Brave
Dummy, Boxer vs. Raptor,
ShadowMachine

98

Uncanny Valley

ComedyComedy Sci-Fi

HBO Max

TBA

99

Velma

ComedyTV Series –Spinoff

HBO Max

Warner Bros Animation

100

What If…?

Superhero

Comic Book

Disney+Marvel Animation

101

Wild Life

ComedyOriginal

Syfy

TZGZ Project102

Woman in The Book

Drama

Original

Facebook
Watch

Starburn Industries

103

The X-files:
Albuquerque

Comedy Sci-fi

TV Series –Spinoff

FOX

20th Century FOX

104

Young Love

Drama

Online Series

HBO Max

Sony Pictures Animation, Lion
Forge Animation© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 85

26. Index of Images
Figure 1:

Harley Quinn – DC Comics

1

Figure 2:

John Evershed, CEO High Concentrate

4

Figure 3: Gary and His Demons – Syfy

5

Figure 4:

The Midnight Gospel - Netflix

6

Figure 5:

Archer - FX

8

Figure 5:

The Simpsons - Fox

10

Figure 6: Rick and Morty - Adult Swim

11

Figure 7:

12

Animation Domination Block - Fox

Figure 8: Bob’s Burgers

15

Figure 9: BoJack Horseman - Netflix

17

Figure 10: Big Mouth - Netflix

18

Figure 11: Love, Death and Robots - Netflix

19

Figure 12: F is for Family - Netflix

20

Figure 13: Disenchantment - Netflix

20

Figure 14: Beavis and Butt-Head - Viacom

25

Figure 15: Ren & Stimpy - Viacom

26

Figure 16: Rick and Morty - Adult Swim

27

Figure 17: Close Enough - HBO Max

28

Figure 18: Futurama - Fox

32

Figure 19: Solar Opposites - Hulu

33

Figure 20: Final Space - TBS

33

Figure 21: Magical Girl Friendship Squad - Syfy

36

Figure 22: Good Times - HBO Max

38

Figure 23: Masters of the Universe: Revelation - Netflix

39

Figure 24: Avatar: The Last Airbender - Netflix

42

Figure 25: Seis Manos - Netflix

43

Figure 26: Blade Runner: Black Lotus - Adult Swim Crunchyroll

45

Figure 27: Godzilla Singular Point - Netflix

45

Figure 28: Cyberpunk: Edgerunners - Netflix

45

Figure 29: Splinter Cell - Netflix

45

Figure 30: Invincible - Netflix

47© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 86

26. Index of Images
Figure 31: M.O.D.O.K. – Hulu

48

Figure 32: Hit Monkey - Hulu

48

Figure 33: Castlevania – (Konami) Netflix

50

Figure 34: The Witcher - Netflix

51

Figure 35: Resident Evil: The Infinite Darkness		– (Resident Evil, Capcom) Netflix

51

Figure 36: Diablo – (Diablo, Blizzard) Netflix

51

Figure 37: Overwatch – (Overwatch, Blizzard) Netflix

51

Figure 38: Arcane (League of Legends) – Riot Games

51

Figure 39: DOTA Dragons Blood (DOTA) - Netflix

52

Figure 40: Shadowlands Afterlives (Blizzard, World of Warcraft) - Blizzard 52
Figure 41: Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (Cyberpunk 2077) - Netflix

52

Figure 42: The Cuphead Show! - Netflix

52

Figure 43: Primal - Adult Swim

54

Figure 44: Undone - Amazon Prime

54

Figure 45: The Liberator - Netflix

55

Figure 46: Game of Thrones - HBO Max

55

Figure 47: Idris Elba, Dantai - Crunchyroll, Adult Swim

55

Figure 48: Little Baby Bum — Moonbug

60

Figure 49: Hazbin Hotel — A24

61

Figure 50: Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machina
		— Amazon Prime Video

62

Figure 51: Agent King — Netflix

62

Figure 52: Santa Inc — HBO Max

63

Figure 53: Ken Liu’s novels

63

Figure 54: Dick Figures - Mondo

66

Figure 55: Hazbin Hotel — A24

67

Figure 56: Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machina
		- Amazon Prime Video

68© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 87

Phew. If you made it this far you must be pretty dedicated. You may want to follow
me on Linkedin to read my most recent posts on adult animation.
And bookmark this link for the Adult Animation Database. The database ismaintained daily and has all the latest data on current and upcoming adultanimated series. If you haven’t already, it’s a good idea to connect with meon LinkedIn so I show up in your feed.
Please contact me at jevershed@highconcentrate.com if you are in need of
consulting or have IP that you want help with packaging and taking to market. High
Concentrate is also looking for finished adult animated TV series or movies. We areespecially interested in animated foreign language movies or TV series and English
language books, graphic novels or comics that are intended for adult audiences.

© Adult Animation White Paper | High Concentrate LLC, 2021 | All Rights Reserved | 88