Back to All NewsNetflix Marks 10 Years in Japan, Announces Three New Series That Will Keep You Hitting The Next Episode
Entertainment
12 September 2025
GlobalJapan
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Straight to Hell (Drama Series)
Did Someone Happen to Mention Me? (Comedy Series)
STEEL BALL RUN JoJos Bizarre Adventure (Anime Series)
This September, Netflix celebrates a decade since launching in Japan - ten years of bringing bold, high-quality storytelling to audiences across the country and around the world. Guided by our mission to Entertain the World and a commitment to individuality and bold ideas, we have continually expanded our slate with high-quality stories that defy the norm and spark fandom.
Looking ahead to the next decade, Netflix will continue to push boundaries and bring unforgettable entertainment from Japan to the world. To mark this milestone, we are announcing three standout titles coming soon: the drama Straight to Hell, comedy series Did Someone Happen to Mention Me?, and the anime STEEL BALL RUN JoJos Bizarre Adventure.
And this is just the beginning. We remain dedicated to creating stories that seize attention, move hearts, and inspire fans, ushering in the Next Episode that no one has seen yet.
Straight to Hell
Japan's most famous fortune-teller, Kazuko Hosoki, once held the nation in her thrall. Was she a savior or a devil? Wealth, fame, romance - she had it all. But what shocking, untold half-life lay behind it?
From the Sh wa through Heisei eras, Hosoki became Japan's most renowned fortune-teller, dominating the media and igniting national fervor. With unforgettable predictions like You'll die and You'll go to hell, she reigned as a dark hero. Her books set a Guinness World Record as the best selling fortune telling publications worldwide, and in the 2000s, she became a full blown social phenomenon. Yet before becoming a fortune teller in her mid forties, she forged a path by means that defy belief. Now, the long obscured, blacked out half of her life is finally revealed.
Erika Toda brings Kazuko Hosoki to life with piercing intensity and striking presence, portraying a woman who would stop at nothing for desire, captivating and unsettling those around her. Directors Tomoyuki Takimoto - renowned for incisive portrayals of human nature and weighty, socially conscious direction - and Norichika Ohba, who helped shape Hosoki's formidable character through exhaustive research from the project's earliest days with Netflix, depict Hosoki's whirlwind half life with meticulous, powerful imagery. Following The Naked Director and Sanctuary, Netflix introduces a bold new antihero in its roster.
Straight to Hell streams in 2026, only on Netflix.
Talent quotes:
Erika Toda (as Kazuko Hosoki) I knew of Kazuko Hosoki, but I didn't know what kind of person she really was. I just thought a flashy fortune-teller had shown up on TV. People must really like fortune-telling - that was all it meant to me. Who would have imagined that I'd be the one to play this loud, big-laughing fortune-teller I had no interest in? She felt like someone far away, nothing like me at all. Some of you may think it's amusing that I'm playing her, but this story portrays the real life of Kazuko Hosoki from not so long ago - one you don't know - and I'm certain it will draw you into this world and toss you around. I want you to witness why this fortune-teller became a social phenomenon and captivated so many.
Director Tomoyuki Takimoto I disliked Kazuko Hosoki. Whenever she appeared on TV, I changed the channel. And yet I accepted this reckless project for two reasons. Hosoki wrote an autobiography titled Onna no Rirekisho ( A Woman's R sum ). There are plenty of exaggerations and untruths, but taken together, her little-known rise from post-war poverty is immensely compelling and overflowing with classic drama: love, betrayal, ambition, ill intent, and self-preservation. In today's world, bound so tightly by compliance, the energetic figure of a woman who lived true to her desires at each moment looked incredibly magnetic to me.
The second reason was the powerful partner I had in Erika Toda. It's no easy task for an actor to convincingly embody someone's life-let alone Hosoki's, from age 17 to 66. She delivered even more ferocity than I expected. Through her performance, I discovered how that once-in-a-generation trickster came to be. When you finish the finale, I promise you'll be overwhelmed by the duel between two monsters: Kazuko Hosoki and Erika Toda.
About Straight to Hell Cast: Erika Toda Directors: Tomoyuki Takimoto, Norichika Oba Screenplay by Manaka Monaka Director of Photography: Taro Kawazu Production Designer: Mitsuo Harada Sound Recordist: Yasuo Takano Set Decorator: Junichi Ishigami Edited by: Nobuyuki Takahashi, Masaya Okazaki Music by: Hibiki Inamoto Stylist: Haruki Kouketsu VFX Supervisor: Yoshinori Makino Producers: Tatsuya Banno, Tomoo Fukatsu Line Producer: Koji Harada Production Companies: Django Film, Corp. Planning and Produced by: Netflix
https://www.netflix.com/straighttohell
Did Someone Happen to Mention Me?
Screenwriter Kankuro Kudo and producer Akira Isoyama are teaming up once again for Did Someone Happen to Mention Me? The pair, who have produced a string of hits such as the Netflix series Lets Get Divorced and Extremely Inappropriate!, will take on the theme of "the desire for recognition" with a completely original script.
The story follows Gen Takasegawa, the first Japanese actor to play the lead role at London's Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, who has been unable to return to Japan for some time. After two years, he finally makes his way back home, only to face the greatest tragedy for someone driven by a need for recognition: he is suddenly and completely
