Bizarreness

Bizarreness is an American adult animated mystery thriller television series created by Ken Shibuya which premiered on RKOx on March 12, 2022.

Synopsis
In a world populated by anthopomorphic, Blake Lobo, a who is a driver for the  Vroomi, lives an ordinary life in  until he begins driving an eccentric recurring customer named Prez around the city. As events unfold, Blake realizes Prez has more sinister intentions than a need for a rideshare, and meetings and conversations with different citizens make him realize that Prez may be involved in criminal activity.

Things take a turn for the worse when Blake is then involved in a police investigation into the murder of his ex-girlfriend Lauren, and Blake attempts to prove his innocence and seeks the truth about both Prez and the murder and begins speculating that the two are connected to one another but is unsure if Prez is a suspect or an accomplice.

Cast and characters

 * Ken Shibuya as Blake Lobo
 * Lenny Tan as Prez
 * Justine Brennan as Marcie Redd (season 1)
 * Tony Kwan as Max Fox
 * Benny Yamada as Takashi Mane
 * Bailey Coleman as Jermaine Shep
 * Marcie Wong as Anna Black
 * Donna Chou as June Husk (season 1–2)
 * Leanna Yeoh as Morgan Husk (season 2–present)
 * Jamie Hong as Sandra Fox (season 2–present)
 * Angela Germain as Diane Snow (season 2)

Conception
In 2016, RKOx cancelled Percy Sengoku's first series, Question Air, after just three seasons. Sengoku sought to created another animated series, regardless of whether or not RKOx in specific would pick it up. He unsuccessfully pitched two animated series: the first was a black comedy about a rideshare driver who works as a part-time mercenary, while the second was a drama about an entire family being framed for a murder and clearing their names. Both series were turned down; in 2023, Sengoku stated that he regretted ever pitching them, as the former was "a bad imitation of " while the latter was "just plain bizarre and rightfully turned down". He then combining the two ideas into a show with a similar premise to Bizarreness, but with human characters.

Sengoku had met Geo Moreno during the production of Saint Freaks in 2009, and they decided to stay in touch after the show ended. In 2019, Sengoku looked at some old artwork of Ken Ochoa, a werewolf character from that series, and that was when he decided to make the characters anthropomorphic. He outlined a pitch for a show called Drive of the Bizarre, which he reworked into Bizarreness after adding more characters to the main cast of the series, such as Marcie or Max.

Development
In early 2018, Sengoku met RKOx Inc. President Raphael Cohen to pitch two animated projects. Upon being asked which he preferred, Sengoku chose Bizarreness. They wrote a lengthy treatment for the series and then brought it to Robert J. Croft, who suggested the show add a  angle. Sengoku originally pushed against the idea, but realized that it could be worked into an "interesting storyline". Croft also pushed for Blake to be a celebrity instead of a driver, but Blake was firmly against the the idea. He said in an interview, "The whole point of the show is that Blake is just an ordinary dude who gets caught in the middle of some really crazy shit. If we made him famous, that would ruin the show." The two compromised my having a storyline where Blake meet recurring character Dolph Whelan, a down-on-his-luck rock star who is involved in the murder mystery.

Sengoku and Croft searched for a number of different artists to design the characters, and they ultimately decided on having Sengoku be the lead character designer and Moreno and webcartoonist Fabricio Valenzuela design the side characters. Sengoku had previously thought Moreno and Valenzuela how to draw in his signature style while working on the music video for Watswat's "Lone Friend". They reached out to -based animation company Studio Memo about further developing the visual style and producing and animating the series. Having worked with Moreno and Sengoku in the past, Studio Memo accepted the invitation.