Disney’s New Must-Watch Series is Saving the Anime Industry

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Watching movies and TV shows online has become incredibly popular, especially since Netflix popularized the idea in the 2010s and other platforms followed suit. This trend really took off during the 2020 pandemic. Since then, streaming has become a more affordable and convenient option than traditional cable TV or going to the movie theater. Anime, in particular, has found a strong presence on these services, with Netflix surprisingly becoming a major distributor, even rivaling dedicated anime platforms like Crunchyroll.

The anime world has been shaken recently by changes at Hulu, a popular streaming home for anime for the past ten years. As Hulu prepares to merge with Disney+, it removed many favorite anime shows in August. This worried fans, given Disney’s past handling of anime content. However, Disney+ recently surprised everyone by releasing the animated adaptation of a project created with manga artist Yana Toboso, offering a hopeful sign for the future.

Disney Has a History of Pushing Anime to the Shadows

Disney launched its streaming service, Disney+, in 2019, making its classic movies and original TV shows easily accessible. As competitors like Netflix and HBO Max offered a wider variety of content, Disney introduced Star in 2021 to provide subscribers with movies and shows from other brands, expanding beyond just Disney content.

In 2022, Disney+ added anime to its streaming service hoping to benefit from its increasing popularity in Western markets. Unfortunately, Disney+ poorly handled the anime it licensed, damaging its relationship with partner company Kodansha.

Several anime series, including Go! Go! Loser Ranger, Undead Unluck, and Summertime Rendering, suffered from poor performance on Disney+ due to inadequate marketing, limited promotion, and availability issues in certain regions. Tokyo Revengers initially thrived on other platforms, but lost viewers when later seasons became exclusive to Disney+ and Hulu. Overall, Disney hasn’t prioritized the anime genre outside of Japan, even though it’s become incredibly popular worldwide.

Disney’s recent partnership with Kodansha isn’t the first time the company has struggled with anime. They previously partnered with Studio Ghibli, the incredibly famous animation studio behind beloved films like Kiki’s Delivery Service. Despite Ghibli’s reputation for creating wonderful, family-friendly movies, that partnership also ultimately failed.

Disney didn’t deliver on its promises to promote Studio Ghibli films, and also tried to heavily edit and cut scenes without approval from Ghibli. This deeply offended the studio and its co-founder, the renowned animator Hayao Miyazaki, damaging Disney’s relationship with both. The partnership ended in 2011, and Disney’s distribution rights eventually fully expired in the late 2010s and early 2020s, effectively ending their collaboration.

Disney Upped Its Anime Game by Collaborating with Yana Toboso

I remember when Disney teamed up with Yana Toboso, the creator of Black Butler, around the late 2010s to make a visual novel game called Twisted-Wonderland. What was really interesting about it was how it reimagined Disney villains. They took characters like the Queen of Hearts, Maleficent, Ursula, Jafar, Hades, and even Scar from The Lion King, and grouped them together as ‘the Great Seven.’ The game then places these villains as figures of authority at a magical academy—it felt a lot like Harry Potter—where they train young, gifted students in magic.

Fans of the anime series Black Butler, which has been popular since 2006, were excited to see the creator’s unique designs featured by Disney. This also sparked curiosity among Disney fans, introducing a new audience to anime and its culture.

I remember when Twisted-Wonderland first came out – it was incredibly popular! In Japan, it quickly went over 1.5 million downloads after launching in March 2020. Even before it was fully released in the U.S., it had more than 50,000 pre-registrations, exceeding expectations. Once the English version was available, the downloads jumped to 4.4 million! All that success led to an anime adaptation, which Yumeta Company and Graphinica announced in October 2021. We finally got to see it premiere on Disney+ just this October, about four years later.

Disney unexpectedly released dubbed promotional videos for Twisted Wonderland and even featured the series on its homepage when it launched, alongside an immediate English dub. This is a significant improvement over how Disney+ previously handled anime, addressing past concerns about both promotion and availability in different regions.

Disney’s Very First Original Anime is Surprisingly Impressive

The popularity of Twisted-Wonderland in Western countries is largely due to its impressive English voice cast. Many well-known voice actors are involved, including J. Michael Tatum, famous for his role as Sebastian Michaelis in Black Butler, who plays Headmage Dire Crowley. Johnny Yong Bosch, best known as Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach, voices Trey Clover, and Crispin Freeman, the voice of Itachi Uchiha in Naruto, plays Lilia Vanrouge. The cast also includes Aleks Le, known for Solo Leveling, as Silver, and Zeno Robinson, who voices Hawks in My Hero Academia, as Reggie Bucchi.

CloverWorks beautifully animates Toboso’s art style, which has become increasingly refined since its debut in Black Butler back in 2006, truly bringing their vibrant character designs to life. However, the work done by Yumeta Company and Graphinica on Twisted Wonderland is remarkably similar in quality, and does a fantastic job of faithfully representing each popular character.

The students all live in dorms designed around different Disney villains, offering a fresh, anime-inspired take on beloved characters. Azul Ashengrotto, based on Ursula, pretends to be a kind and helpful senior, but he’s secretly plotting. Malleus Draconia, who resembles Maleficent, is intentionally kept out of group events, a nod to Maleficent’s exclusion from Aurora’s party. And Riddle Rosehearts, the season’s main character, perfectly captures the arrogant anger that made the Queen of Hearts so frightening.

I recently watched the first episode of the Twisted-Wonderland anime, and it immediately introduced a large cast of characters. They all find themselves in a strange, magical world – it’s a classic ‘isekai’ setup where someone is transported to another world. Now, a lot of anime fans are tired of the isekai genre, but this one felt different. It doesn’t fall into the usual tropes. Instead, it reminded me more of how anime adaptations of otome games – those aimed at a female audience – tend to unfold.

Yuuken isn’t a powerful, destined hero; he’s a regular boy who originally represented the player in a video game. This has been a challenge for other anime adapted from dating sims, where the main character can become boring or flat in an attempt to appeal to everyone. But Yuuken is different – he has a charming personality all his own, making him feel like a genuine protagonist instead of just a blank slate for the audience.

I’ve been watching Twisted-Wonderland, and while only three of the planned eight episodes have been released, it’s already shaping up to be really enjoyable. It’s too soon to call it a masterpiece, but I’m having a lot of fun with it. The animation is gorgeous, the main character is incredibly likeable – seriously, they feel right at home alongside Disney and Pixar’s best heroes – and the supporting cast is where the show really shines. As a Disney collaboration, they’re endlessly entertaining. Honestly, even if you’re new to anime but a Disney fan, I think you’ll find a lot to love here. It definitely feels like this series has a lot of potential.

Disney May Just Redeem Itself by Giving Anime a Leg-Up in the Industry

While the Twisted-Wonderland The Animation anime isn’t perfect, it’s a positive first step. What’s really exciting is that Disney is creating an original anime where their name is part of the story itself. This suggests they’re learning to better manage the anime they acquire, which is good news, especially since many anime fans are losing access to Hulu – a major streaming platform – as it shuts down and merges with Disney+ in 2026.

If Disney, a major global entertainment company, effectively promotes anime, it could become much more established in the United States. This is especially important now, as some people worry that access to anime is decreasing due to current policies. Anime is already popular in Western markets, but with Disney’s support, its popularity could increase dramatically.

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2025-11-16 01:44