Bass X Machina rides onto Netflix as Studio Mir turns a frontier lawman into a steampunk western hero
Netflix has released all six episodes of Bass X Machina, LeSean Thomas’s adult animated steampunk western animated by Studio Mir, with Brian Tyree Henry voicing a reimagined Bass Reeves.
Netflix released Bass X Machina on 3 November, dropping all six episodes of the adult animated series at once. Created by LeSean Thomas and animated by South Korea’s Studio Mir, the limited series blends the American western with steampunk machinery and supernatural horror — and arrives as one of the streamer’s most unusual animated launches of the year.
The series is set in a lawless steampunk West overrun by brutal outlaws, machines and supernatural terrors. At its centre is a father who is forced to become judge, jury and executioner to protect his family, knowing that every act of justice he carries out may ultimately cost him the very people he is fighting to save.
The story is a reimagining of Bass Reeves, the real-life frontier lawman who became one of the first Black deputy United States marshals west of the Mississippi River. The series takes that historical figure and rebuilds him for a heightened, machine-filled frontier, mixing documented history with invention from the title onwards.
Oscar nominee Brian Tyree Henry voices Bass and also serves as an executive producer. Janelle Monáe performs the theme song, “Honor Killing,” and stars as the voice of Glory, while the cast also includes Tati Gabrielle as Dana, Cree Summer as Ahni, Chaske Spencer as Lighthorse, Currie Graham as Rivenbark and Starletta DuPois as Etta.
Behind the scenes, Thomas and Henry executive-produce alongside Jennifer Wiley-Moxley and Chad Handley. The animation comes from Studio Mir, the Seoul studio whose credits include Devil May Cry and X-Men ’97, and which built its reputation on action series such as The Legend of Korra.
For Thomas, the series continues a career spent working between American and Japanese animation. He is known for The Boondocks and for earlier Netflix animated series Yasuke and Cannon Busters, and Bass X Machina has been presented as his most personal take yet on the western — a genre he approaches through anime-influenced action rather than live-action tradition.
The road to release had one notable bump. The series was first announced for 6 October, but the launch was pushed back by a month to 3 November, a change revealed around the Annecy International Animation Festival. Netflix ultimately kept the new date and released the complete season in a single drop.
That format is deliberate. Bass X Machina is billed as a limited series of six episodes, a self-contained story rather than the opening chapter of an open-ended franchise. Releasing it whole, rather than weekly, underlines that design and lets viewers take the full arc in one sitting.
Early reviews have singled out Studio Mir’s work for praise, describing some of the studio’s most stylish action to date and a soundtrack-driven energy that carries the genre mixture. Critics have been more divided on parts of the storytelling, but the consensus in the first wave of coverage is that the series is visually distinctive even by Netflix’s crowded animation standards.
No second season has been announced, and as a limited series the show was not designed to require one. Whether Netflix revisits this world may depend on viewing figures over the coming weeks and on whether Thomas and the producers choose to expand a story that was built to stand alone — for now, the six episodes on the platform are the complete ride.
