Competition in the anime landscape has been neck-and-neck between Netflix and Crunchyroll as they duke it out to become the medium’s premier destination. While the latter continues to put its best foot forward by casting a wide net of shows and establishing a new wing to work with original creators on anime and live-action projects for a global audience, the former is maintaining its track record of exclusive series with in-demand studios. One such exclusive is a detective-style anime coming in 2027 in which the sleuth can talk to cars.
Go With the Clouds, North-by-Northwest, based on Aki Irie’s manga series and animated by studio Qzil.la(Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice) is a supernatural seinen drama series set in Land’s End, Iceland. It follows Kei Miyama (Tomohiro Ono), a 17-year-old detective who, as we addressed above, can talk to cars. According to the show’s official plot synopsis, Kei being a detective and a car whisperer are only two of his secrets. The last is that he can’t talk to girls. Evidently, Kei prefers the company of cars to people. Anyways, Kei—whose name we’re 90 percent sure is a pun on kei cars—can’t make a living talking to cars alone. So he takes on odd jobs as the local detective, solving cases ranging from lovers’ quarrels to recovering lost items and people.
Eventually, Kei’s gumshoeing around Iceland leads him to an aloof Icelandic beauty, triggering a series of events that lead to ghosts roaming the lands at night. That’s right. We’ve got a man talking to cars and ghosts in this anime. Truly a Mad Libs of yes and-ing. You can check out Go With the Clouds, North-by-Northwest‘s laid-back official teaser trailer below.
While the above plot synopsis reads like anime nonsense, this isn’t the first time the genre has used a really out-there premise to tell a moving story. Arguably the best example of an anime hewing similar to Go With the Clouds, North-by-Northwest‘s vibe is Your Name anime director Makoto Shinkai‘s supernatural 2022 film Suzume. Like Go With the Clouds, North-by-Northwest, Suzume follows a 17-year-old girl with the uncanny ability to talk to an anthropomorphic chair. A chair, we should also mention, she also romances. It won Best Film at Crunchyroll’s 2024 Anime Awards, so there must be something to the formula of talking to inanimate objects.
Can the ability to talk to cars help Kei Miyama with his job as a detective in Iceland?
Go With the Clouds, North-by-Northwest, coming exclusively to Netflix in 2027. pic.twitter.com/ZtZpfSx1oa
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Anywho, if Go With the Clouds, North-by-Northwest‘s mix of chill vibes and a nonchalantly absurd premise, has your interest piqued, the show will stream on Netflix sometime in 2027. If you can’t wait that long and need to know how a teenager could use cars to solve crimes, check out its manga from Kodansha.
Want more io9 news? Check out the best movies and TV shows to stream this month and all the upcoming sci-fi, fantasy, and horror books that should be on your radar.
