An indie anime that started with a Kickstarter trailer has picked up a very different kind of backing: an NBA veteran, an NFL running back, and a Kyoto animation house. Sentinel 6, an Afro-futurist sci-fi adventure set in 2429, is now being developed with Michael Carter-Williams and Jamaal Williams as executive producers and investors, and Creative Freaks attached to produce.
What’s being built
Created in 2019 by Jamaican-American writer Pat Stout and the late Bronx native Asa Palmer through their production company Sable Kudzu, the series takes place about 400 years after the Great Phoenix War. It follows six humans and intergalactic beings who share a sentinel power – mind, heart, sword and shield among them – against an intergalactic terrorist and a class-stratified post-apocalyptic Earth.
At this stage, the package is lean and specific: 11 to 12 half-hour episodes, a TV-MA new adult tone, and a pilot written by LeSean Thomas, known for Yasuke and The Boondocks.
The production math
The financing path is the part that matters for producers. A 2024 Kickstarter raised nearly $20,000 to produce a trailer with Chase A Cloud Studio. Late in 2025, after Palmer died earlier that year, Carter-Williams and Williams fully funded the pilot. The project then went to roughly two dozen animation studios, and Creative Freaks – headquartered in Kyoto and founded in July 2014 – won the assignment.
- Format: 11-12 thirty-minute episodes, TV-MA new adult, Afro-futurist sci-fi.
- Production: Kyoto-based Creative Freaks won the bid; Bang Zoom! leads reverse localization into Japanese.
- Creative: LeSean Thomas wrote the pilot and consults; Pat Stout created the world with the late Asa Palmer.
- Cast: King Vader with more than 6 million followers, plus EP Jamaal Williams and anime voice actor Cedric Williams.
Why English-first matters
The team says the show is one of the first known anime produced by a Japanese studio in the English language first. Burbank voice-over studio Bang Zoom! will lead what the project calls reverse localization into Japanese. For a global market, that ordering is strategic: it treats English-speaking fans as the home audience and the Japanese dub as the localization layer, rather than the reverse.
That also shapes casting. The current roster includes creator-influencer King Vader, who has more than 6 million followers across platforms, and veteran anime dub actor Cedric Williams.
Athlete fandom becomes a distribution asset
The athlete connection is not a one-off. Carter-Williams framed his involvement around seeing Black fans as longtime anime viewers. Williams said watching Naruto was part of his own fandom. Their participation gives Sentinel 6 a built-in press and fanbase channel well before any platform deal is announced.
The wider market supports that pitch. At Crunchyroll’s Anime Future Forum this week, the creator-athlete crossover was a visible theme; Olympic figure skater Amber Glenn appeared at an industry event, following Crunchyroll’s earlier collaboration with Olympian Noah Lyles. MLB’s Demon Slayer tie-in and NBA and MLB One Piece nights show league and franchise marketers treating anime as a real fan segment.
What to watch
Sentinel 6 still has to land a distributor or platform. For now, the team has done the hard packaging work: proof of demand, credible voices, an attached studio, and an English-first pipeline that could appeal to global buyers. Media planners should watch how the project uses King Vader’s 6 million follower base and athlete channels once promotion begins; that will be the audience test.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
