Picture: Lady Napoleon (left) and Beat & Motion (right)
There are many new and exciting anime series headed to Netflix in 2025, but what about two projects we’ve been waiting years for updates on? It’s been a hot minute since we learned more about Lady Napoleon and Beat & Motion. So, what’s happened to the projects? Sadly, Lady Napoleon has been shelved, but we’re still expecting to see Beat & Motion on Netflix sometime soon. Below are all the details regarding both projects.
In case you’re looking for more anime to watch on Netflix, you can find our July preview here.
Whatever happened to Lady Napoleon?
First announced in 2021, we’d been waiting a long time for any updates on Lady Napoleon. However, fans will be sad to learn that Netflix has silently canceled the project.
While Netflix never made an official announcement, the only word we’ve had came from the website fullfrontal.moe, who, in a tweet in May 2023, revealed that character designer Hisayuki Tabata (Fate/Stay Night) had discussed at a panel at the Convention Jonetsu that a project he had been working on had been canceled. Although they couldn’t share the photos from the event, they provided detailed descriptions of everything that was discussed.
Sorry, we’re late with our article this week; we were busy attending @JonetsuConv, where character designer Hisayuki Tabata was invited as a guest of honor!
Mr. Tabata gave to panels during the con, one where he presented his canceled project and one alongside Yukio Takatsu.… https://t.co/46XCksBS50
— fullfrontal.moe (@fufuro_moe) May 8, 2023
Here are the details from the tweet related to Lady Napoleon:
“This production, an order from some streaming platform he could not share the name of, was sadly canceled a few months back. However, he got special authorization to share his design works at the event. Sadly we aren’t allowed to share any pictures, but we will do our best to describe them to you. It was very important for him to be able to share this work with a French audience as the work was supposed to be about a girl named Sophie, a descendant of Napoleon, who would chase after three artifacts having belonged to Napoleon which, because as a descendant of Napoleon, she feels entitled to this treasure. A lot of ideas and designs were reminiscing of Fate.
Mr. Tabata was a character designer on the Fate Unlimited Blade Works series and Heaven’s Feel movies. An illustration of Sophie riding a bike was shown, which immediately reminded of Saber in Fate/Zero. Sophie had two sidekicks, a handsome butler named Butler, who would often use disguises and was inspired by Lupin III’s Jigen, and Ninja Gai, a ripped black dude in a knight suit, who would also make use of disguises such as a cop or firefighter uniform. There are other supporting characters, such as Sakura, a Japanese actress starring in the Hollywood movie Ninja Angels; Nelson, a rich millionaire with a prosthetic hand and his aid Mark; and Talleyrand, who, despite his nice and kind looks might hide something else.
The first antagonist shown was Geita, who looked like an old noble with a mustache and would have had his place as an antagonist in Code Geass. There was also a young boy who was shown wearing a Guy Fawkes mask and labeled as « Anonymous (Terrorist) » whose design looked quite similar to Fate’s Shiro. The main antagonist was named Gilgamesh. He is a handsome guy who looks calm and composed, but some sketches showed him in a fit of rage. Other characters appeared in the series, such as Rasputin and his henchman Pugachev, Anastasia, Lalo, and a character wearing a uniform of the imperial Japanese army. There was also Gilgamesh’s father, a crazy professor who was shown to have fused with a bird, having the body of a bird and his human head an inversion of Egyptian gods (he would wear Osiris’s eyes). “
So, while Netflix never made any official confirmation regarding the canceled project, suffice it to say we won’t be seeing any Lady Napoleon anytime soon.
Whatever happened to Beat & Motion?
Another anime project we’ve been waiting years for an update on, there is no clear indication from Netflix that this project has been shelved, so we’re under the impression that Netflix still has plans to release Beat and Motion. But here’s a little more background on what has happened with the franchise recently.
Earlier this year, the Beat and Motion manga came to an end with its 48th chapter. Its run began in Shōnen Jump+ on February 25, 2023, and concluded on January 25, 2025. A total of six volumes were released for the manga.
Beat and Motion will be ending on January 25, with chapter 48.
The Manga is the Winner of Jump+’s MILLION TAG competition and is guaranteed to get an anime adaptation which will stream on Netflix. pic.twitter.com/YKz5Czb7v6
— Anime News And Facts (@AniNewsAndFacts) January 10, 2025
While the series was given a chance to end with the 48th chapter, both fans of the manga and manga readers, in general, reacted to the news as if the serialization had been canceled. We can’t provide the figures to say otherwise, but word from fans is that the manga sold poorly, which would explain why it came to an early end.
But what does this mean for the anime? Given that the anime was ordered before the manga even began serialization, we would have expected an update by now. The closest thing to an update we’ve received is a page from the 48th manga chapter on Shōnen Jump online, which states the anime is still coming.
The most important part of the page, when translated from Google Translate, states the following:
“The animation production and worldwide distribution that they won by winning the audition program “MILLION TAG” is currently underway behind the scenes! Please look forward to the creative enthusiasm of Tatsuhiko, Nico, and the others depicted in the animation!”
When translated, a part of the page also states:
“CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION!!”
So, given that information from Shōnen Jump, we’re under the impression that the anime is still on the way. The number of seasons we’ll see remains to be seen. The manga’s abrupt ending could have impacted production if there had been more to the story that author Naoki Fujita had planned. For now, we await further updates directly from Netflix.
Are you sad that Lady Napoleon has been canceled by