Aki Irie's Iceland-set detective manga Go with the Clouds, North-by-Northwest (Hokuhokusei ni Kumo to Ike) now has a broadcast home and a global one. The TV anime starts airing on TBS in Japan in 2027 and will stream exclusively on Netflix worldwide, which means Philippine viewers get it on the same service as everyone else.

The details came in an October 8 release from Qzil.la, the studio animating the series, alongside a key visual and the first promo video.

A boy, a Jimny and a talent for talking to cars

The story follows Kei Miyama, a 17-year-old Japanese boy living with his grandfather near Iceland's 64th parallel. He has three secrets: he can talk to cars, he is bad with girls and he works as a detective. Cases range from tracking down a runaway dog to finding someone's love at first sight, and he drives between them in his Suzuki Jimny.

The key visual puts Kei in front of a wide Icelandic landscape in a design that echoes the cover of the manga's first volume. The promo video picks up where that image leaves off, with Kei driving alone down a long, straight road.

The manga has passed 1.6 million copies in circulation as of April 2026, and a continuation volume is already on sale in Japan.

A new studio label's first credit

The release doubles as a launch for Gram21, a new label at Qzil.la. It is the long-form animation division Qzil.la took over from IMAGICA Infos in February 2025, and this series is its first announced production. The name comes from the popular notion that a human soul weighs 21 grams, which the company frames as a promise to put a soul into every work.

The main staff:

  • Chief director and series composition: Takashi Sano
  • Character design: Chikashi Kubota
  • Animation production: Qzil.la (Gram21)

Tomohiro Ono stars as Kei. In his comment on the official site, he points to the series' slow, quiet pace and the mysteries that cut through it as the reason it pulled him in.

Why the Netflix deal matters here

Quieter seinen titles like this one often struggle to find a legal home in Southeast Asia, and fans end up waiting on a licensing announcement that may never come. A worldwide Netflix exclusive removes that wait. The trade-off is that the series lives on one platform, so it will not turn up on other local streamers.

An exact 2027 premiere date and episode count have not been announced. Irie, for her part, promises viewers the anime will "take you to Iceland."