Pacific Rim's 14-Part Series Is So Good, It Makes The Movies Look Small

Published Aug 29, 2026, 4:04 PM EDT Tom is a Senior Staff Writer at Screen Rant, with expertise covering everything from hilarious sitcoms to jaw-dropping sci-fi epics. Initially he was an Updates writer, though before long he found his way to the TV and movies team. He now spends his days keeping Screen Rant readers informed about the TV shows of yesteryear, whether it's recommending hidden gems that may have been missed by genre fans or deep diving into ways your favorite shows have (or haven't) stood the test of time. Tom is based in the UK and when he's not writing about TV shows, he's watching them. He's also an avid horror fiction writer, gamer, and has a Dungeons and Dragons habit that he tries (and fails) to keep in check. When fans say they love the scale of the Pacific Rim movies, they are not talking about the size of the Kaiju and the Jaegers that fight them. The most impressive scale of the franchise is its worldbuilding. Across only two feature-length titles, 2013’s Pacific Rim and 2018’s Pacific Rim Uprising, the series established a world that felt as fleshed out as many established sci-fi properties. That is definitely an achievement, but it also makes watching the Pacific Rim movies a little frustrating. Both films offer glimpses of one of modern sci-fi’s most intriguing settings, and both feel as though they barely scratch the surface of the franchise’s narrative potential. Fortunately, Pacific Rim: The Black arrived on Netflix in 2021 to dive deeper into the world of Pacific Rim than ever before. Across two seasons, the anime moves beyond blockbuster spectacle and explores a world forever changed by the emergence of Kaiju. Pacific Rim: The Black follows siblings Taylor Travis (Calum Worthy) and Hayley Travis (Gideon Adlon) as they pilot an old training Jaeger, Atlas Destroyer, throughout the ruined wasteland that was once Australia on a search for their parents. Set around 5 years after the events of Pacific Rim Uprising, Pacific Rim: The Black is the prolonged journey through Pacific Rim’s world that fans have always yearned for. Pacific Rim: The Black Pushes The Franchise In Bold New Directions Unlike many TV spinoffs of established movie franchises, Pacific Rim: The Black has greater ambitions than simply recreating the excitement of its source material on the small screen. The two-season Netflix anime significantly expands the lore, exploring parts of the Pacific Rim universe that the movies barely touch. Rather than treating the franchise's established mythology as a sacrosanct set of rules to be adhered to, the series uses it as a foundation for something considerably darker and stranger. The most significant change is the setting. Australia has been abandoned following a devastating Kaiju invasion, leaving the continent is a post-apocalyptic wasteland where the enormous interdimensional creatures roam freely. Humanity's struggle is no longer about defending major cities from individual attacks as it was in Pacific Rim and Uprising. Survival itself has become the central conflict, giving Pacific Rim: The Black an opportunity to show the long-term consequences of the Kaiju War. The Netflix Pacific Rim series also takes the mythology into genuinely radical territory. Human-Kaiju hybrids are central to the story of Pacific Rim: The Black, while religious cults devoted to worshipping Kaiju have also emerged. The fact that humanity’s reaction to the appearance of the gigantic beasts isn’t exclusively fear and loathing is a huge shift of the status quo, and definitely something that needs to be further expanded upon. These fresh ideas injected into the franchise by Pacific Rim: The Black make the world of Pacific Rim feel more ambitious and unpredictable than ever before without abandoning the core concepts established by the movies. All in all, The Black provides the best look so far at the consequences of a Kaiju invasion anywhere in the franchise, demonstrating that Pacific Rim has enormous narrative potential beyond battles between Kaiju and Jaeger pilots. It’s Not Only Franchise Fans Who Will Enjoy Pacific Rim: The Black By this point, it should be obvious why fans of the Pacific Rim movies should watch Pacific Rim: The Black. However, the anime isn't one of Netflix's most enjoyable animated series simply because it expands the lore of Pacific Rim. It’s so highly regarded because it’s hugely entertaining even for viewers who've never seen the films. As a post-apocalyptic sci-fi series, Pacific Rim: The Black works beautifully thanks to how immersive and atmospheric it is. The ruined Australian landscape feels isolated and dangerous, while the constant threat of Kaiju gives even quieter sequences a sense of tension. The show understands that a world devastated by monsters should feel fundamentally different, and not just like our own only with a possible Kaiju emergence being an additional obstacle to work daily life around. The animation of Pacific Rim: The Black is another major strength. The Jaeger and Kaiju battles retain the spectacular scale expected from Pacific Rim, but the anime format allows the action to move with a freedom that would be difficult to achieve in live action. The fights are consistently impressive, and the stylized visual design gives the series its own identity rather than making it feel like a simple animated imitation of the films. The characters are also incredibly watchable. Taylor and Hayley have understandable motivations, distinct personalities, and believable development, while the supporting roster contains many intriguing and fun-to-watch figures. Combined with its phenomenal fight scenes and beautiful animation, Pacific Rim: The Black offers plenty to enjoy beyond its franchise connections. It is not merely a good Pacific Rim spinoff; it is a strong sci-fi anime in its own right. Release Date 2021 - 2022 Network Netflix Showrunner Craig Kyle, Greg Johnson Cast Gideon Adlon Hayley Travis (voice) Calum Worthy Taylor Travis (voice) Directors Masayuki Uemoto, Susumu Sugai Franchise(s) Pacific Rim Creator(s) Craig Kyle, Greg Johnson