Streaming Animation Debuts We’re Looking Forward To In January 2024
The new year brings a host of new titles set to debut on streaming platforms, so we looked through all the currently scheduled debuts to pick a few standouts that we’re excited to check out in January.
Hazbin Hotel
Platform: Prime Video
Release Date: January 19
This is one of indie animation’s biggest success stories of the last several years. In 2019, Hazbin Hotel creator Vivienne Medrano (online alias Vivziepop) released a self-produced pilot episode of this wildly funny animated series about a hotel in hell on Youtube. It quickly went viral, and indie powerhouse A24 picked up the project. Earlier this year, Prime Video ordered two seasons of the musical comedy, with the first set to debut with four episodes on January 19. Bento Box Entertainment is handling animation. The show features all the sex and swearing that audiences enjoy in much of the adult animation produced in the U.S. today but adds to it Broadway-like musical numbers and sincere character development that takes it to the next level. At least, that’s the impression we got from the pilot and the trailer. Here’s hoping the series is everything that fans have been waiting for.
In the Know
Platform: Peacock
Release Date: January 25
Sure to be one of the most niche series hitting a major platform in January, In the Know is a stop-motion comedy created by Zach Woods (The Office), Brandon Gardner (David), and Mike Judge (King of the Hill). It also represents Peacock’s first foray into adult animation. Spoofing public radio and modern PC culture in equal parts, the show highlights the hypocritical side that each of us possesses, no matter how well-intentioned we are in our everyday lives. More than just a series about radio conversations, Woods and Gardner say they want to start “funny, scary, friendly conversations” about our contemporary world. Sadly, there is no trailer for the show yet, but the few images that have been released show off highly detailed puppets that each promise loads of character. No surprise there, as the stop-motion animation was handled by the brilliant stop-motion studio Shadowmachine, whose credits include Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio and Morel Orel.
Solo Leveling
Platform: Crunchyroll
Release Date: January 6
Solo Leveling unspools 10 years after a mysterious gateway opens, connecting our real work with another dimension more like something from a video game. After the gate opens, people possessing superhuman powers called “hunters” are awakened and begin battling otherworldly monsters. Adapted from the popular Korean manhwa (comic) of the same name, Solo Leveling heavily features video game themes. It makes sense, then, that A-1 Pictures, which produced the hugely popular video-game-themed Sword Art Online, produces this show. Solo Leveling also features motion graphics from Production I.G., producers of Attack on Titan and PSYCHO-PASS. Sword Art Online director Shunsuke Nakashige helms the series.
