The streamer is adapting Reeves’ comic book into a live-action movie and an animated series.
Yes, Keanu Reeves co-wrote a comic book, Kickstarter-funded it, and published it earlier this month. Now Netflix has jumped on the news by acquiring the rights to BRZRKR and confirming two adaptations.
Created and co-written by Reeves, BRZRKR is described as "a brutally epic saga about an immortal warrior’s 80,000 year fight through the ages.”
However, not everyone shared the excitement of seeing Reeves taking on what is poised to be an iconic role. Some anime aficionados, in fact, had a problem with Netflix’s announcement.
Keanu Reeves Voicing An Anime? Fans Come For Netflix’s Wording
“Exciting news! Netflix is developing a live action film AND follow-up anime series based on Keanu Reeves’ BRZRKR,” Netflix announced on his Twitter page NX yesterday (March 22).
“Reeves will produce and star in the film, and voice the anime,” the tweet also read.
Some scoffed at the slightly confusing use of the word “anime”.
“Why do you call every single cartoon with semi realistic character designs an anime?” one user pointed out.
“Cause I'm 99 percent sure that's what this is gonna be,” they added in a subsequent tweet.
Another fan reiterated the importance of the country of origin, implying that “anime" can only be used to refer to an animated story if it is written and produced in Japan.
Does Anime Have To Come From Japan?
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word “anime” is short for animēshiyon, from English, and was first used in the mid-1980s to indicate animation coming from Japan.
While outside of Japan the word is used to describe animation produced in Japan in a colloquial manner, the word in Japanese is used to include all animated works, regardless of their origin.
It might be more accurate to use anime-styled to refer to animation not produced in Japan but resembling the distinctive Japanese style of animation, as one fan said.
"How many times should you weebs be told that if it's non-Japanese, then the ‘anime’ they mean is anime-STYLED animation?!” they commented.
“Is it hard enough to understand what they mean? Twitter has max characters allowed in a tweet, so it'd be a waste of total characters to type ‘anime-styled,’” the continued, defending Netflix’s choice of words.
Whether it's colloquially "anime" or more accurately "anime-styled", we can't wait for Reeves to take on the role of B. in both live-action and animated form.