Netflix and Japan's Toho studio have launched Human Vapor, an eight-part streaming thriller that reimagines Toho's 1960 science-fiction cult classic about a Tokyo killer who murders his victims while existing as a shape-shifting cloud of gas. The project is significant because it marks Toho's first-ever streaming series and its decision to open a vault of 90 years of Japanese intellectual property to Netflix, while also pooling leading Japanese and Korean talent in a rare cross-industry collaboration built to appeal both regionally and globally.

Directed by Shinzo Katayama, who admits to feeling considerable pressure given the source material's revered pedigree, the series was written by Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho with Ryu Yong-jae, and features visual effects from Shirogumi, the studio that won a VFX Oscar for Godzilla Minus One. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos flagged it as a flagship 2026 title. The story follows TV reporter Kyoko and detective Kenji Okamoto investigating the gaseous killer, unravelling a conspiracy tied to a shadowy facility called the White Center, and functions as both a monster mystery and a social thriller about power and powerlessness in contemporary Japan. All eight episodes premiered worldwide on 2 July.