Human Vapor on Netflix is already a hit: 24.3 million hours in week 2

Netflix’s eight-episode Japanese sci-fi thriller Human Vapor premiered on July 2, and it’s already moving fast. In its second week, the series pulled in 24.3 million viewing hours, landed in the Top 10 in six markets, including Hong Kong, South Korea, and Thailand, and climbed to No. 1 in Japan, according to Netflix.

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The show takes Toho’s 1960 cult film and pushes it somewhere much darker: a murder carried out live on air by someone who can turn into gas. That changes the setup from the old bank-robber story into more of a serial-killer thriller, with a broader international hook.

Human Vapor also marks Netflix’s first project with Toho, and it’s a Japan-South Korea co-production. Yeon Sang-ho wrote and executive produced, Shinzo Katayama directed all eight episodes, Shun Oguri and Yu Aoi lead the cast, and Shirogumi, the Oscar-winning effects house behind Godzilla Minus One, worked on footage shot across 120 locations in Japan.

If darker sci-fi thrillers are your thing, this one looks like a good bet. Early reviews have pointed to its ambition, visual style, and themes of social inequality and abuse of power, even if some critics think the pace sags a little between the biggest reveals.

You can stream Human Vapor on Netflix now.

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