Toho Animation unveiled over the weekend that it has a new Godzilla series in production—and the King of the Monsters is moving deeper into anime to appeal to young fans. 

Unlike most iterations of the franchise, this as-yet-named CG-animated series won’t focus directly on Godzilla, but on a boy who mysteriously possesses all of his powers. Early concept art revealed at the Singapore Anime Festival shows the boy armoring up with scales and dorsal plates to fire off Godzilla’s iconic atomic breath at his enemies. 

Anime is exploding in popularity among young viewers—and beyond the style, kids are drawn to the relatability and emotionality of anime storytelling. So it makes sense that the newest take on Godzilla could be drawing more heavily on the tradition of anime teen drama.  

Toho is co-producing this shonen anime series with Thai prodco Igloo Studio and Japanese anime studio Orange, which both helped produce its last kaiju anime Godzilla Singular Point for Netflix in 2021. But this new entry is actually Godzilla’s third anime adaptation—he debuted in the form eight years ago in Netflix’s CG-animated Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters movie trilogy. 

Netflix isn’t attached to Toho’s new Godzilla project yet, but both Igloo and Orange have a solid track record of getting their anime titles onto the platform, including My Daemon, Love Death + Robots and Beastars. Orange also produced CG-animated series Trigun Stampede for Sony’s anime streamer Crunchyroll in 2023, and a sequel is due out sometime next year. 

Toho is moving the Godzilla brand in several directions simultaneously to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. On top of the new anime series, it’s producing a sequel to international sensation Godzilla Minus One for adults, and Legendary Pictures will pair King Kong up with Godzilla again for its next MonsterVerse entry in 2027.