Netflix has branched out into original programming with shows such as "Orange Is the New Black," and the online streaming giant announced last week that it will be debuting an anime TV series July 4.

Netflix's original anime series, "Knights of Sidonia," could increase the company's profile and attract more customers.

Netflix is no stranger to anime productions: The company streams "Pokemon: Indigo League," "Pokemon: Black and White," "Digimon" and "Astro Boy," among others.

Anime is a Japanese style of film and TV animation.

Netflix's "Knights of Sidonia" is not original; the anime TV series aired in Japan between April and June, iO9 reported. Maybe Netflix was eager and impressed enough to get the 12-episode series just in time for the summer.

"Knights of Sidonia" is based off the manga comic series of the same name, iO9 reported. The story follows the journey of Nagate, a young man born into an advanced society of "genetically engineered refugees" who fled Earth's cataclysmic destruction one millennia earlier. Everyone lives on a massive space ship called Sidonia.

Nagate soon discovers he has the gift to be a pilot, and now he must become one of Sidonia's elite protectors and defenders against the Guana, shape-shifting aliens whose sole purpose is to extinguish humanity's existence.

"Knights" sounds like a futuristic dystopian society. The series is produced by Tokyo-based Polygon Pictures, Variety reported. Polygon Pictures is also behind animated TV series "Transformers Prime," "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" and "Tron: Uprising," among others.

The series is in Japanese, so Netflix is expected to either dub it in English or have subtitles in English.

One critic said "Knights" is drawn with extreme detail, humorous, that it is attentive to the plot and that its structure could make it an "international cult favorite." The critic adds that this is creator's Tsutomu Nihei's "most accessible work to date."

A clip of "Knights of Sidonia" is below.