Brian Tyree Henry's steampunk Black western anime has a date and a very good cast
Bass X Machina arrives November 3, and Brian Tyree Henry turned up in person to introduce the first official teaser — which is the kind of thing an executive producer does when they actually want to be there.
Henry voices Bass, a bounty hunter with a mechanical arm that reconfigures into a double-barrel shotgun in roughly a second, plus the disturbing history that came attached to the arm. The character takes his name and outline from Bass Reeves, the first Black U.S. marshal. The setting is a steampunk West populated with mechanical bulls and assorted bots, and the plot sends him across it dispensing justice while trying to get home to his family. The visual reference points, going by the footage: The Harder They Fall, Wild Wild West, and a dash of Mortal Engines.
The people behind it matter. Creator LeSean Thomas made Yasuke and Cannon Busters, and has spent a decade building Black-led animation inside a Japanese production pipeline. Studio Mir is animating — the house behind Skull Island, Devil May Cry, and the Witcher films.
The voice cast is stacked:
- Janelle Monáe, who also performs the opening theme
- Tati Gabrielle
- Cree Summer
- Chaske Spencer
- Currie Graham
- Starletta DuPois as Etta
Henry described the project as the first Black western anime in the medium's history, and made a point of saying he had no interest in being the kind of EP who never finds out how the sausage gets made. His words were considerably less polite than mine.