General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

B: the Beginning

B: the Beginning is a Japanese original anime series produced by the studio Production I.G as a Netflix original, first released worldwide on Netflix on March 2, 2018. It is a crime and supernatural thriller set in the fictional Kingdom of Cremona, where genius detective Keith Kazama Flick rejoins the Royal Investigation Service (RIS) just as a serial killer known as "Killer B" begins murdering vicious criminals and carving a B-shaped mark at each crime scene.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Format	Season 1: 12 episodes x 25 minutes, released worldwide on Netflix March 2, 2018¹
Studio and creator	Production I.G; created by Kazuto Nakazawa and Production I.G, screenplay by Katsunari Ishida, music by Yoshihiro Ike¹
Original title	Announced as Perfect Bones, later renamed B: The Beginning³
Second season	B: The Beginning Succession, 6 episodes, streamed globally from March 18, 2021⁴
Setting	The constitutional monarchy of Cremona, in the northeast of the Chrono Archipelago²
Main cast	Hiroaki Hirata (Keith Kazama Flick), Yuki Kaji (Koku), Asami Seto (Lily Hoshina)⁵
Recognition	Selected at the 42nd Annecy International Animation Film Festival; excellence prize in the TV & Commissioned category at the 20th Bucheon International Animation Festival⁶^•⁷
Rating	TV-MA on Netflix⁵

Spoilers

Premise and story

The series takes place in Cremona, a small, apparently peaceful constitutional monarchy where medieval heritage buildings coexist with advanced technology. The country is shaken by a string of gruesome murders in which only vicious killers are targeted; from the enigmatic mark left at each crime scene, people call the mysterious executioner "Killer B". Former detective Keith Kazama Flick is called back to the Royal Investigation Service after an eight-year hiatus, and a new team assembles to end the bloodshed, while a larger and more ominous scheme begins to emerge.²

The second protagonist is Koku, a mysterious youth who may be an ally of the RIS or a target. Production I.G's Japanese synopsis describes him changing his body into an inhuman form and, as the black-winged figure, continuing to carve the letter B as a message for a woman.⁵^•⁸ Production I.G's season synopsis describes the two men as confronting their own pasts with great sacrifice: Keith exposes the dark secrets behind the Kingdom of Cremona, and the mutant wunderkind Koku reunites with the most precious memory of his stolen childhood.⁴

Succession. The second season, B: The Beginning Succession, picks up several months later, when the world seems to have forgotten the turmoil of the first season. Keith returns to the Royal Police to conduct his own investigations, Koku and Yuna try to live an ordinary life in peace, and the consequences of the Jaula Blanca experiments resurface when Koku's supposedly dead lab mate Kirisame suddenly appears.⁴ The season's six episodes follow Keith's abduction, Killer B's return, and a conspiracy involving the crown.⁹

Production

B: The Beginning was the first Netflix Original Anime collaboration between Production I.G and Netflix.² The project was first announced under the title Perfect Bones; Production I.G announced the renaming to B: The Beginning in November 2017, together with the March 2, 2018 worldwide release date.³

Kazuto Nakazawa, born in Niigata Prefecture in 1968, directed the series and served as character designer and key animation supervisor. He was globally known for directing the animated sequence in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), for character designs and animation supervision on Shinichiro Watanabe's Samurai Champloo (2004), and for Linkin Park's music video Breaking the Habit (2004, MTV VMA Viewer's Choice Award). B: The Beginning marked his directorial debut in a serial project.² Yoshinobu Yamakawa is credited as co-director on the first season, with Katsunari Ishida on screenplay, Takanori Tanaka as art director, and Rui Kuroki as producer.¹

The theme song, "The Perfect World", was composed by former Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman and performed by Jean-Ken Johnny of Man with a Mission, with bass by KenKen. The score was composed by Yoshihiro Ike, a Japan Academy Film Prize winner known for Blood: The Last Vampire.² An English dub featuring Ray Chase, Johnny Yong Bosch, Cristina Vee, Todd Haberkorn, Kyle McCarley, Doug Stone, and Faye Mata, among others, was previewed by Netflix Japan before the worldwide debut.¹⁰

Netflix's departure from the traditional broadcast-season model gave the production unusual scheduling freedom; the director described the three-year development period as flexible and extravagant compared with standard anime production schedules.¹¹ For the second season, Itsuro Kawasaki took over as director, with the cast reprising their roles.¹²

Reception

Season 1 holds a 50% Tomatometer from 6 critics and a 77% Popcornmeter score from more than 50 audience ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, which calls it "a visually stunning anime with awesome action sequences and memorable heroes".¹³ The Japan Times' review, titled "'B: The Beginning': Netflix anime gets a 'B' for effort", described it as Netflix's first original anime to feel "normal", set in the fictional quasi-European country of Cremona and populated by deranged psychopaths.¹⁴ Common Sense Media rates it 16+ for violence, noting that solving serial murders is a central theme with chases, bloody knives, and blood spatters, and that its many storylines are often convoluted and hard to follow.¹⁵

The series received international recognition: it was selected at the 42nd Annecy International Animation Film Festival⁶ and won an excellence prize in the TV & Commissioned category at the 20th Bucheon International Animation Festival, one of Asia's largest animation-focused festivals, founded in 1999.⁷ On receiving the Bucheon award, Nakazawa confirmed that a second season was in production.⁷

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Anime and manga › Anime series, episodes, and franchises › OVAs, ONAs, and streaming-original anime

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

Notice something wrong?