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When Bato.to, the world’s largest manga piracy site, finally went dark, the reaction from fans was telling. On Facebook, the comments told a familiar story. “Can anyone pm me for the new bato website name?” one user begged. Another pleaded, “Omg can someone tell me the new name? I discovered it a year ago and there are still so many manga I want to read, please?” The desperation in those requests exposed an uncomfortable truth.

One click is where all it takes. Fueled by faster translations and instant access, illicit manga platforms have become the default choice for fans unwilling to play by the industry’s slow rules.

The damage has already been done. In 2025, online content piracy cost Japan’s entertainment industry a staggering ¥5.7 trillion (US$36 billion) in lost revenue, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry. The figure, based on a survey across six major markets—Vietnam, France, Brazil, Japan, the United States, and China—confirms what creators have long feared. The black market is bleeding the industry dry.

Shoichiro Mizutani, founder of digital manga platform DouDouJin, argues that piracy is less a question of price and more a crisis of access. The problem, he suggests, runs deeper than cost, with availability emerging as the defining barrier across multiple markets.

“Official translations are delayed. Key titles are unavailable in entire regions. Payment methods exclude students and young readers. The single chapter sales model clashes with local habits,” Mizutani told Animenomics. “Meanwhile, pirate sites are faster, and they offer community through lively comment sections where readers connect. The legal market simply cannot compete.”

He added that manga piracy users actually represent a massive demographic in some markets, highlighting an opportunity where a well-executed subscription service could successfully convert and retain those elusive fans.

“The one exception is MANGA Plus [by Shueisha], whose subscription style model delivers a level of satisfaction far better aligned with what overseas users actually want,” he noted.

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A surging ‘oshikatsu’ economy has Japanese consumers spending hundreds of billions of yen on products featuring their favorite anime characters, helping push domestic anime merchandise sales up by 50 percent since 2018, according to data compiled by the Association of Japanese Animations, an anime industry trade group.

Merchandising today accounts for up to half of the entire domestic anime market, but many sellers and makers of anime merchandise don’t think that trend can continue for long.

“In recent years, market contraction driven by Japan’s declining population has become an increasingly material challenge,” Masahiro Arita, general manager of digital promotion at Tokyo-based retailer Parco, told Animenomics.

Parco operates a chain of department stores and shopping malls in Japan, often collaborating with anime licensors and creators to host exhibits featuring art from their works. The company also sells limited-edition merchandise licensed from rightsholders in pop-up stores and online.

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced Parco to close stores or reduce operating hours, the company decided to reevaluate its e-commerce business. It launched a new online store in 2022 that would allow them to sell products outside the country.

“Japan remains our primary base; however, we believe the appeal and cultural value generated by Parco should be accessible to audiences worldwide,” Arita said.

For help facilitating cross-border sales, Parco turned to e-commerce service provider Beenos, which had been listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange until last year, when it was acquired by Internet giant LINE Yahoo.

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Programming note: This weekly news briefing is going on a break and will return on April 8. I will be publishing a couple of special reports to fill the gap until that date.

• What’s happening: I am traveling to Tokyo to attend both IMART Global Business Matching and AnimeJapan. If you’re also attending and would like to meet, do reach out.

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Original anime films lag behind franchises in box office

Recent successes among franchise anime films in the box office have raised audience expectations for production quality and viewing experience across the board, putting pressure on budget-strapped original anime film productions.

Why it matters: Growing polarization in Japan’s anime film market risks crowding out original anime films that serve as incubators of new talent, a panel of anime creators, producers, and critics argued at this year’s Tokyo Anime Award Festival.

What’s happening: Original anime films have rarely earned more than ¥3 billion (US$19 million) domestically in recent years, while franchise films like Demon Slayer can reach ten times that amount.

• Streaming video services are changing viewing habits—audiences can quickly watch shows in advance before switching to sequels that are screening in cinemas.

• For works with a pre-established following, viewing a film in cinemas becomes a demonstration of fan devotion, such as to a favorite character, leading to repeat attendance and increased engagement.

Friction point: High-quality productions like Demon Slayer are also leading audiences to expect the same quality from original anime films, raising production costs and risk.

• Original anime films can also four to five years to produce, much longer than the time it takes to bring a franchise film to market.

Zoom out: Even among television shows, books, and other media, hit titles generate massive revenue, while others barely register, TMS Entertainment president Tadashi Takezaki highlighted during the panel.

• Earlier this month, the original anime film A New Dawn from animator Yoshitoshi Shinomiya and co-produced by France’s Miyu Productions earned just ¥17 million (US$107,000) in its opening weekend in Japan, overshadowed by wider releases from established titles like Doraemon and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime.

Kadokawa seeks to move manga translations in-house

Publishing giant Kadokawa is moving to centralize translation of its books and manga before they are licensed out to foreign publishers in an effort to speed up the process of bringing new titles overseas.

Why it matters: In-house translation provides foreign licensees with works that are nearly ready for publication, shortening the time gap between a Japanese release and a foreign release when pirated copies could appear.

• “We have now begun initiatives to translate works internally first—specifically those titles we wish to introduce to overseas markets,” Kadokawa chief global officer Takashi Sensui told The Bunka News trade newspaper.

How it happened: Since 2022, Kadokawa has been operating a Content Localization and Activation Center that produces English, Chinese, and other translations in-house.

• Works translated by CLAC are released by local publishing partners outside Japan and also distributed digitally on Kadokawa’s own BookWalker platform.

• A 2024 report by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry suggested that CLAC was also experimenting with artificial intelligence in the translation process.

• That same year, Kadokawa and three other manga publishers collectively invested ¥780 million (US$4.9 million) in Mantra, a Japanese startup that uses AI to deliver manga translations in 18 languages.

The bigger picture: Kadokawa’s current five-year roadmap calls for a target of ¥70 billion (US$440 million) in consolidated sales overseas by 2028, about 20 percent of total revenue.

• Kadokawa operates 21 subsidiaries in nearly a dozen territories, and in-house translation allows the publisher to quickly circulate works across all of its overseas units.

Clippings: Webtoon paid creators US$2.8b over 5 years

Naver-owned Webtoon Entertainment paid webcomic and webnovel creators on its various digital platforms a cumulative ₩4.15 trillion (US$2.8 billion) in revenue share between 2021 and 2025. (The Korea Times)

• Why it matters: It’s the first time Webtoon has disclosed creator revenue share figures since its 2023 prospectus for listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange, when it said that it had paid creators a cumulative US$1.8 billion from 2017 to 2022.

• Webtoon president Yongsoo Kim said the company will invest at least ₩70 billion (US$47 million) this year in creator support initiatives and content discovery.

Amazon MGM Studios hired Buddy Marini, a longtime entertainment executive who was general manager of Warner Bros. Discovery Japan until recently, to oversee film, television, and anime originals production in Japan. (Screen Daily)

• Between the lines: Marini’s departure from Warner Bros. Discovery Japan leaves uncertainty at the prolific anime producer as its Hollywood parent seeks a sale to Paramount Skydance.

Mamoru Hosoda’s Scarlet made a disappointing box office debut in anime-loving France last week, drawing just 1,300 admissions across more than 260 screenings on opening day. (Boxoffice Pro)

• Sony Pictures, which is distributing Scarlet worldwide, reportedly declined to fly Hosoda for interviews with French media, AnimeLand magazine editor-in-chief Bruno de la Cruz wrote on X.

E-commerce layoffs at Crunchyroll suggest the company is pivoting its online retail business—acquired from Iowa-based Right Stuf in 2022—away from a broad catalog model and toward subscriber-exclusive merchandise. (The Accidental Otaku)

Anime film revival screenings are increasing in frequency in Japan and around the world, fueled by anniversaries and production of remasters, as audiences increasingly prioritize known titles when going to cinemas. (The Japan Times)

London-based 8 Lions Entertainment acquired global digital distribution rights for TV Asahi’s Ninja Hattori, one of Japan’s longest anime series by episode count, and will start streaming it on YouTube in multiple languages. (Variety)

Sales of animation cels discarded by anime studios are soaring at secondhand anime merchandise stores as collectors and resellers outside Japan seek out materials from iconic productions. (Nikkei Asia)

Japan deepens Saudi manga artist training partnerships

A comic from Saudi Arabia was named a runner-up in the 19th Japan International Manga Awards in December, the highest placement of a work by a Saudi artist in the contest that’s sponsored by Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Why it matters: Japan and Saudi Arabia continue to deepen a collaboration to train young Saudi artists in manga and anime production, producing a pipeline of foreign talent for the manga and anime industries.

Catch up quick: At manga publisher Kadokawa, more than 200 Saudi artists to date have been trained in manga production in partnership with Manga Productions and the Saudi government, former Kadokawa Content Academy head Tetsuya Koga said during a panel discussion at this year’s Tokyo Anime Award Festival.

• Female creators make up about 60 percent of trainees, often favoring emotional storytelling and genres like horror.

• Story development and composition training occurred both in Riyadh and Tokyo, including internships at Japanese publishers and studios.

Yes, but: While some Kadokawa Content Academy graduates have made their debuts as manga artists in Japan, not everyone will be able to pursue a career in manga.

• Koga, who now works at Tokyo-based IP production studio Hike, says his new company plans to go beyond manga and explore collaborating on animation and 2.5D musical projects in Saudi Arabia.

Animenomics is an independently run and reader-supported publication. If you enjoyed this newsletter, consider sharing it with others.

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In case you missed it: Today marks 15 years since the earthquake and tsunamis that struck Japan’s Tohoku region. To commemorate this anniversary, I have unlocked the paywall on a piece I wrote two years ago reflecting on the role anime studios play in disaster recovery.

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Anime shift from home video to streaming accelerates

Japan’s domestic anime home video market shrunk by a stunning 31 percent in 2025 to ¥18.7 billion (US$118 million), according to the latest annual survey of home video sales and rental data conducted by the Japan Video Software Association.

Why it matters: Japan’s domestic anime home video revenue is now less than one-fifth of the size at the market’s peak in 2005, before the DVD bubble burst, as anime consumption shifts to streaming video.

By the numbers: Anime home video sales fell by 34 percent to ¥16.3 billion (US$103 million), the fastest rate of decline going back at least 25 years, with the exception of a 2022 post-pandemic market correction.

• Unit sales fell more than 36 percent to 2.3 million units, about half of the number of Blu-ray and DVD discs sold in 2020.

• Revenue from anime home video rentals, on the other hand, posted its first gain in nearly 20 years, rising 7.8 percent to ¥2.35 billion (US$14.8 million).

Zoom in: Among members of the JVA, anime revenue earned from streaming video on-demand services is up 48 percent from 2024 and is now 2.4 times the figure from 2021.

• When anime Blu-ray and DVD discs are still being produced, manufacturers are packing in more episodes per release, pushing up the average sales price per unit sold by 35 percent over the last decade.

Between the lines: Due to the disappearing market for anime for children below ten years old, since last year the JVA has reorganized its animation home video categories to no longer be based on target age demographic.

• Starting from the 2025 edition, sales and rental data categorize works by original medium, such as television, direct-to-video, or film.

Asahi Broadcasting anchors 3-year growth on anime IPs

Osaka-based commercial broadcaster Asahi Broadcasting Group will invest ¥8 billion (US$51 million) in anime production over the next three years, aiming to join at least 15 anime production committees, in a bid to grow its content rights business.

Why it matters: Asahi Broadcasting is Kansai region’s largest television network, but, like its peers in Tokyo, it expects revenue from broadcasting to decrease, and future growth will have to come from rights sales of titles in its media catalog.

Catch up quick: In order to chase anime growth outside Japan, the broadcaster has invested in international co-productions like Death Stranding: Mosquito, based on the franchise by renowned video game creator Hideo Kojima.

• Asahi Broadcasting partnered with Hollywood production studio Line Mileage and is animating Death Stranding: Mosquito at an in-house studio formed in 2020.

• It’s also partnering with acclaimed anime studio Kyoto Animation, also based in Kansai, on adaptations of the manga Sparks of Tomorrow and RuriDragon.

Yes, but: As a regional company, Asahi Broadcasting faces stiff competition for top-tier content from Tokyo’s commercial broadcasters, which have national reach.

• Revenue forecast for sales of all types of content, including anime, for the fiscal year ending in March 2026 is currently about 10 percent lower than the original goal set in 2021.

What we’re watching: Asahi Broadcasting is showing interest in acquiring companies outside Japan to grow its overseas anime business.

• It has already set up office in Shanghai to organize events and boost merchandise sales in China, and it plans to enter into anime merchandising in North America.

Clippings: Kadokawa consolidates anime studio offices

Kadokawa is consolidating five anime studios and back-office support departments, totaling 400 employees, into an office space in Ikebukuro’s Sunshine City building this fall as it looks to strengthen studio recruitment and talent development. (Press release)

• The move comes one year after Kadokawa named a dedicated executive to lead the company’s anime studio business.

• Operational consolidation doesn’t involve Doga Kobo and Kinema Citrus, which remain standalone, independent studios.

Berserk manga’s English-language volumes published by Portland, Ore.-based Dark Horse Comics have now sold more than 10 million copies, accounting for one in seven Berserk manga volumes in circulation globally. (Hakusensha)

• Zoom in: As previously reported by Animenomics, Dark Horse’s first hardcover deluxe edition of Berserk was the top-selling manga in the United States in 2024, Circana BookScan sales data show, despite having a sticker price of US$49.99.

Plush toy maker SK Japan saw its market capitalization double to ¥15 billion (US$95 million) over the course of last year as earnings rose with growing demand for plush character merchandise at claw machine arcades. (The Nikkei)

Webtoon Entertainment elevated strategy chief Yongsoo Kim, whom Animenomics interviewed last year, to president overseeing global innovation and growth initiatives at the South Korean-owned digital comics company. (Variety)

Saudi Arabia’s Manga Productions and Manga Arabia were named joint grand prize winners in the Cool Japan Public–Private Partnership Platform’s annual awards gala for their efforts to distribute anime and manga in the Middle East. (Gamebiz)

British auction house Christie’s will hold its first anime and manga auction in New York next week, pairing collectibles from the media with historical and contemporary Japanese art pieces. (Observer)

Kadokawa looks to writers abroad to grow light novels

“I don’t feel like there’s a shortage of Japanese authors in light novels. If anything, their numbers are increasing. On the other hand, the readership is declining. Looking back at the history of light novels, just like how the boom of anime based on light novel was followed by hit adaptations of web novels, I believe the market needs a new spark.”

— Satoshi Arima, MF Books editor-in-chief, Kadokawa light novels and new literature department

Context: Arima, who recently led a global contest for aspiring light novel writers at Kadokawa, told Otaku Lab in an interview that readers in their 50s and 60s are the most enthusiastic buyers of light novels in Japan. This demographic drove the light novel sales boom of the last decade, prompting publishers to commission manga adaptations and eventually anime adaptations when titles sell well.

• Because the contest was limited to works written in English, it attracted writers from outside Japan, many in their 30s, which Arima hopes will spur on writers at home to innovate and bring the domestic light novel market back to growth.

Popular folklore anime revived for new young viewers

Animax Broadcast Japan will begin rebroadcasting Traditional Japanese Folktales on the Kids Station satellite television network later this month, more than 30 years after the beloved anime program ended its broadcast.

Why it matters: Traditional Japanese Folktales, which first aired in 1975, is one of the longest-running anime programs in Japan and has aired in several European countries in the past.

• At its peak in the 1990s, domestic viewership reached 21 percent of households in the Tokyo region and 18 percent of Kansai region households.

Where things stand: Rightsholder Ai Kikaku Center plans to revitalize the property and reintroduce it to a new generation of young viewers for its 50th anniversary.

• The anime’s film footage and original drawings were retrieved from warehouses, where they laid dormant for decades, and all of the nearly 1,500 episodes in the series are being digitized.

• The firm is now seeking corporate partners that can help it create new products and services based on the anime.

The intrigue: Ai Kikaku Center is using AI technology to create new foreign language dubs while retaining the voices of narrators Etsuko Ichihara and Fujio Tokita, who died in 2019 and 2018, respectively.

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In case you missed it: Aniplex has indicated that screenings of the first Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle film in Japan could end as soon as early April as the company plans the final batch of audience bonuses for moviegoers.

• The film is still about ¥1 billion (US$6.7 million) short of overtaking Demon Slayer: Mugen Train as the highest-grossing film in the domestic box office, according to box office sales data provider Kogyo Tsushinsha.

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Anime rightsholders reduce reliance on film distributors

Anime production companies are accelerating efforts to form their own domestic film distribution systems, shifting away from using legacy theatrical distributors to build in-house expertise and retain a bigger share of box office earnings.

Why it matters: Anime’s fourteen highest-grossing films in 2025 earned a cumulative ¥90.1 billion (US$573 million) in the Japanese box office, but at least half of that was paid by producers to theatrical distributors like Toho, Shochiku, and Toei.

• Producers rely on distributors because they have established relationships with cinemas and exhibition companies that can screen the films.

Driving the story: This week, Sony-owned anime production planning firm Aniplex and publishing giant Kadokawa announced the formation of a joint venture company for anime film distribution and promotion, named Animec.

• That news was followed the next day by Bandai Namco Filmworks announcing the establishment of a film distribution division to expand in-house distribution to more Bandai Namco anime properties.

Zoom in: Bandai Namco Filmworks has seen early success in direct distribution efforts with Milky Subway: The Galactic Limited Express, a 46-minute short film that opened in fourth place in weekend box office rankings last month and has earned north of ¥400 million (US$2.5 million) domestically.

• Bandai Namco Filmworks also intends to use its direct distribution expertise, built through years of experience with co-distributing its Mobile Suit Gundam films, to redistribute older films in its ownership.

• For Kadokawa, a joint venture with Aniplex fulfills a commitment that Sony made with the publisher for “joint promotion of further media mix of both companies’ IP” that was made when Sony acquired a 10 percent stake in 2024.

Media Do pivots with U.S. manga publisher acquisition

Japanese e-book distribution giant Media Do is acquiring Seven Seas Entertainment, up to now the largest publisher of manga and light novels in North America that isn’t affiliated with a Japanese publishing house, for US$80 million.

Why it matters: The deal marks a significant pivot for Media Do, Japan’s largest e-books wholesaler, because the Los Angeles-based publisher draws most of its sales from printed books.

How it happened: Media Do is struggling amid a rapid deceleration in digital manga sales, which make up 90 percent of all e-book sales in Japan.

• In 2024, Media Do abandoned a five-year plan after failing to meet interim sales and profit targets, selling off units like web novel platform Everystar and anime and manga fan community MyAnimeList.

• A new five-year plan the company launched last April shifted its focus to overseas markets, where print sales still make up 90 percent of the publishing market.

Between the lines: Media Do “will not use AI in the translation operations of Seven Seas”, it said in a statement but plans to integrate Seven Seas production know-how into Media Do Translation System (MDTS), an AI-powered workflow it’s developing for digital translation of Japanese literature.

• Media Do sees text-based publications, which is translated into other languages at one-fourth the rate of manga, as a future area of growth for its new overseas business.

• Only 40 percent of text-based works in Japan are published as e-books when they are first released, and MDTS is intended to push domestic publishers to bring more non-manga e-books to the market for Media Do to distribute.

By the numbers: Seven Seas reported US$50.4 million in net sales in 2024, about 12 percent off its previous year peak, and it expects results to remain stable in 2025.

• Operating margin, however, has fallen from 23 percent in 2022 to 13 percent in 2024 as production costs increased after the COVID-19 pandemic.

• The Nikkei financial newspaper reports that Media Do wants to double Seven Seas’s annual publishing output, which will require diligent cost controls.

What we’re watching: How the acquisition by a Japanese company might affect the Seven Seas pipeline of Chinese literature featuring same-sex relationships.

• Since first licensing danmei novels featuring same-sex male relationships in 2021, Seven Seas has become North America’s largest publisher of the genre.

• Last year, the company also began publishing baihe novels featuring same-sex female relationships.

Clippings: Twin Engine adds anime studio Nut to group

Anime studio Nut, founded in 2017 and best known for animating light novel series The Saga of Tanya the Evil and manga series Blue Giant, has been acquired by anime production planning company Twin Engine. (Press release)

Japan’s capsule toy shipments rose 39 percent in 2025 to reach a total merchandise value of ¥196 billion (US$1.24 billion), driven by a domestic resurgence in classic IPs like Sanrio and Tamagotchi and demand for products from popular anime like Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen among foreign visitors. (Japan Capsule Toy Association)

Shogakukan is investigating its own MangaONE digital manga service after it found that editors rehired two manga creators for new works on separate occasions despite knowing that they had been convicted of sexual crimes. (Jiji Press)

Kyoto Animation’s Hideaki Hatta died last month at the age of 76 after leading the anime production studio for more than 40 years and becoming the public face of the company after it suffered a devastating arson attack in 2019. (The Yomiuri Shimbun)

Japan’s subscription video-on-demand revenue rose more than 14 percent in 2025 to nearly ¥602 billion (US$3.82 billion), thanks largely to subscription price increases at services like Netflix and Prime Video. (GEM Partners)

‘Jujutsu Kaisen’ game turns into success for CyberAgent

Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade, a turn-based role-playing game based on the popular anime series, has become the second most successful mobile game developed under the umbrella of CyberAgent, according to mobile analytics firm Sensor Tower.

Why it matters: As previously reported by Animenomics, CyberAgent has sought to replicate the success of the Umamusume: Pretty Derby mobile game, developed by its Cygames unit, as the company pivots from digital advertising to entertainment.

By the numbers: Jujutsu Kaisen: Phantom Parade accounted for about 17 percent of CyberAgent’s cumulative mobile game revenue from Japan in the two-year period since its launch in November 2023, according to Sensor Tower.

• Umamusume: Pretty Derby stayed ahead with 51 percent of cumulative mobile game revenue over the same period.

• While Japan only accounted for 32 percent of total downloads of Phantom Parade, players there made up 84 percent of total user spending on the game.

The intrigue: Phantom Parade’s average monthly active users in Japan over the two-year period surpassed that of miHoYo’s popular title Honkai: Star Rail, behind only Fate/Grand Order in the role-playing game category.

• Three out of four Japanese Phantom Parade players were male, and four out of five were ages 18–44.

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In case you missed it: Manga sales in the United States returned to growth in 2025 after two straight years of decline, with sales revenue up 4.6 percent and unit sales up 8.1 percent, trade publication ICv2 reports, citing Circana BookScan data.

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Domestic manga market shrinks for first time since 2017

Japan’s domestic manga sales fell in 2025 for the first time in eight years, according to publishing industry data compiled by the Research Institute for Publications, a unit of the All Japan Magazine and Book Publishers and Editors Association.

Why it matters: A quickening slowdown in digital manga sales in the second half of the year meant that the pace of digital growth can no longer reliably compensate for the tumbling print manga market.

By the numbers: The domestic manga market shrank by 1.7 percent to an estimated ¥693 billion (US$4.45 billion).

• Sales of print manga volumes fell by 14.4 percent, while manga magazines fell by 12.7 percent.

• As a result of digital manga’s 2.9 percent growth, its market share expanded to 76.1 percent of total sales, exceeding three-quarters of the manga market for the first time.

• With Japan’s broader publishing market also shrinking, print and digital manga’s combined share remained at 44.8 percent of total publishing sales.

Zoom in: Manga titles with popular anime adaptations like Medalist and The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity, both from Kodansha, sold well in Japan last year.

• However, no title came close to reaching the sales levels of My Hero Academia, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Oshi no Ko, all of which ended publication in 2024.

• Sales of manga magazines took a hit as convenience stores continued to reduce shelf space for books and magazines.

Between the lines: Publishers aren’t necessarily releasing fewer manga despite the falling sales revenue.

• New manga volume releases actually jumped 6.5 percent year-over-year in 2025 to just over 16,000 new titles, the largest annual increase since 2008.

Go deeper: I write about how publishers are preparing for a future of declining manga sales on ICv2.

Netflix exclusive ‘Cosmic Princess Kaguya’ hits cinemas

Anime film Cosmic Princess Kaguya! landed in fifth place in Japan’s box office rankings over the four-day holiday weekend, shocking Japanese film industry observers after it earned ¥291 million (US$1.87 million) despite being released on Netflix a month ago.

Why it matters: The success of Cosmic Princess Kaguya! in the box office “overturns the conventional wisdom that streaming is the enemy of movie theaters”, writes entertainment industry expert Motohiko Tokuriki.

How it happened: Cosmic Princess Kaguya! opened on Friday for a one-week limited engagement in just 19 theaters throughout Japan.

• Rather than rely on Netflix’s marketing channels, production planning firm Twin Engine opened dedicated social media accounts to market the film online.

• The film benefited from favorable reviews following its original Netflix release and a strong following thanks to its ties to Vocaloid and virtual YouTuber communities.

• Over the weekend, anime industry journalist Yumiko Watanabe reported multiple sold-out screenings even in movie theaters outside of Tokyo.

For comparison, Cosmic Princess Kaguya! earned more during its opening weekend than Mamoru Hosoda’s latest film Scarlet did in its disappointing box office debut in 447 theaters in November.

The bigger picture: While another anime film exclusively released on Netflix, Bubble, was also later released in cinemas in 2022, it didn’t attain the same box office success of Cosmic Princess Kaguya!

• The theatrical approach has grown in recent years, Real Sound reports, with non-anime Netflix titles like Bullet Train Explosion and KPop Demon Hunters receiving cinema screenings in Japan after successful streaming releases.

Clippings: Kinokuniya scouts expansion stores in 2026

Kinokuniya Book Stores of America is scouting locations for two or three additional stores in the United States by the end of 2026. U.S. sales more than doubled last year compared to 2024, and manga remains the bestselling category. (Publishers Weekly)

Trading conglomerate Itochu is acquiring a 5 percent stake in Japanese secondhand retailer BookOff from Kodansha, Shueisha, and Shogakukan for an estimated ¥1 billion (US$6.5 million). (The Nikkei)

• Why it matters: As previously reported by Animenomics, trading conglomerates are making a push into anime and character merchandising, and an investment in BookOff could help increase overseas availability of secondhand anime products.

Publishing giant Kodansha reported an increase in large transactions with global streaming video services in the fiscal year ended in November 2025. New adaptations of its manga titles and merchandise licenses also increased. (The Bunka News)

Tokyo-based startup Anique raised ¥1.3 billion (US$8.4 million) in Series B funding to establish anime collaboration cafes and immersive anime exhibits in South Korea, the United States, and Europe, following a successful entry into Taiwan. (Press release)

‘Ita’ shoulder bags decorated with anime character merchandise and accessories are gaining popularity among young women in Singapore and Southeast Asia, driven by social media and usage at local anime conventions. (The Straits Times)

Jujutsu Kaisen’s popularity is driving up demand for exhibition catalogs at a folklore museum in Japan’s Iwate Prefecture. The catalogs, which describes local customs for warding off evil, a central theme of the manga, have had five reprints. (The Mainichi)

Digital manga market shifts toward non-paying readers

“It would be beneficial if the [digital manga] industry could establish some rules to curb excessive free content and sales promotions.”

— Mikio Amaya, e-book distributor Papyless founder and chairman

Context: Digital publishing pioneer Amaya, who in 1995 founded Japan’s first e-book distributor, said in a lecture before the Japan Electronic Publishing Association that the country’s e-book market, of which digital manga make up 90 percent of sales, is headed toward a future with fewer and fewer paying readers.

What he’s saying: “If customers become accustomed to free content, manga’s digital distribution market could end up like the music digital distribution market,” Amaya warns.

• “As free music increased, starting around 2009, song-by-song downloads declined. This left only the advertising model and subscriptions viable, leading to reduced income for record companies and composers,” he said, citing data from the Recording Industry Association of Japan.

Rural prefectures in Japan warm up to anime industry

Ibaraki Prefecture, located northwest of Tokyo, will set aside ¥60 million (US$380,000) in its 2026 fiscal year budget to attract anime production studios and train animators locally, The Asahi Shimbun reports.

Why it matters: The move follows in the footsteps of rural prefectures like Niigata Prefecture and Kochi Prefecture in their attempts to revitalize local economies by capitalizing on the growing anime market.

• Attention has also been growing on anime production in rural prefectures in recent years thanks to Demon Slayer, whose anime production studio, Ufotable, is located in Tokushima Prefecture to the west.

What’s happening: Kasama High School, a public high school in Ibaraki, last year renamed its computer graphics major into an animation major to help address the shortage in the animation labor pipeline.

• The government will subsidize the seven vocational schools in Ibaraki that teach anime production with ¥30 million (US$190,000) to cover the cost of materials.

• In addition to attracting anime studios from Tokyo, the government will also use a ¥5 million (US$32,000) fund to subsidize local startups.

What they’re saying: “We will support the development of educational and employment opportunities so that young people can build careers in the growing animation industry,” Ibaraki prefectural government’s Industrial Policy Division chief Ryoji Suzuki told the Ibaraki Shimbun newspaper.

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In case you missed it: A United States federal district court has ruled that identity information obtained through Digital Millennium Copyright Act subpoenas can’t be used to pursue copyright cases overseas, limiting a tactic used by anime and manga rightsholders in Japan for global anti‑piracy enforcement.

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TV Asahi sets goal to double anime production by 2030

TV Asahi plans to double its anime production capacity over the next four years, the commercial broadcaster best known for classic titles like Doraemon and Crayon Shin-chan announced in a blueprint that seeks to transform the company by March 2030.

Why it matters: TV Asahi’s four-year management plan aims to shift the company from the television broadcasting business to a business that focuses on IP creation.

The details: Fresh off the success of anime investments like Hell Teacher: Jigoku Sensei Nube and Medalist, TV Asahi plans to increase the number of anime projects in which it leads the production committee.

• By retaining a greater percentage of licensing royalties from successful anime titles as the lead producer, the broadcaster aims to increase profits in the anime business by 50 percent.

• It also plans to increase collaborations with Shin-Ei Animation, the subsidiary anime studio that makes Doraemon and Crayon Shin-chan, and Toei Animation, in which TV Asahi is a major shareholder.

• India will become a focal point for the IP business as TV Asahi seeks to capitalize on its recent successes with Crayon Shin-chan in the country.

Zoom out: The broadcaster says it remains committed to television despite new emphasis on the IP business, especially after it secured first place in annual viewer ratings for multiple time blocks last year.

• TV Asahi plans to increase the number of late-night television slots for anime, up from the current three slots.

• It’s also building a closer relationship with streaming video service Abema, a joint venture with TV Asahi shareholder CyberAgent, to increase viewership of anime and other late-night content on the service.

What we’re watching: TV Asahi is also looking to recruit creators for a creative studio that uses generative artificial intelligence to make anime, dramas, and commercials.

Anime creators slam ByteDance over AI video generator

Chinese technology firm ByteDance faces questions from Japan’s anime creators over new updates to its AI video generation model Seedance, which is able to create footage that closely reproduce character designs and visuals from existing anime titles.

Driving the story: The Nippon Anime & Film Culture Association, an advocacy group for anime creators, lodged its concerns with the Japanese unit of TikTok, also part of ByteDance, after user-generated videos featuring famous anime characters spread on social media websites.

• In 2024, NAFCA received a donation from TikTok Japan to support “sustainable development of the anime industry”, such as the launch of an Animator Skill Test and live workshops.

What they’re saying: “We are deeply concerned about the use of content without sufficient copyright clearance and the use of technology that undermines the sustainability of production sites,” a media statement from NAFCA reads.

• “We expect ByteDance and many other generative AI developers to respond sincerely and respect the rights of creators,” it continues.

The other side: NAFCA says ByteDance responded with assurances that it’s working to address the concerns of rightsholders and that the recent release is a beta release, not an official one.

The bigger picture: The controversy over Seedance comes just months after Silicon Valley’s OpenAI similarly drew scrutiny over its Sora video generation model, which also reproduced anime character designs and visuals.

• Japan’s government has instructed ByteDance to make revisions to Seedance’s model, and the company also faced threats of legal action from Hollywood studios.

Clippings: Licensing veteran named Aniplex president

Sony Music has appointed Shu Nishimoto as the new president of Aniplex, putting an international licensing veteran and one-time president of Aniplex of America at the helm of the anime production planning company. (Animation Business Journal)

• In 2024, Nishimoto said that Aniplex was working to expand the reach of its titles in the global south, in territories like Southeast Asia, India and South Africa.

TV Tokyo invested ¥500 million (US$3.25 million) in IP development startup Minto, which will help the broadcaster expand its digital content offerings in Thailand and Vietnam. (Press release)

Anime figurine maker Kotobukiya will distribute its products in Genda-operated amusements facilities in North America, Europe, and Asia as the two companies form an extensive business collaboration. (Press release)

ABC Animation established a subsidiary in Shanghai in an effort by the anime production planning company to increase merchandise sales and to organize more events in China, starting with a Violet Evergarden pop-up store. (Gamebiz)

Tokyo International Film Festival Content Market attendance rose 13 percent last year to more than 4,600 attendees as anime and manga companies increased their presence amid growing interest in adapting their properties. (Branc)

CG anime studio NIA Animation was acquired by light novel and manga publisher AlphaPolis, the second acquisition of an anime studio in less than one year as the publisher rapidly increases investments in anime production. (Otaku Lab)

Anime studio TMS Entertainment is absorbing subsidiary Telecom Animation Film after more than 50 years in operation, including as the studio that animated Hayao Miyazaki’s Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro. (Gamebiz)

Prime Video’s international content lineup for 2026 will include high-profile anime licenses like the Warner Bros. reboot of Fist of the North Star and anime studio Science SARU’s adaptation of The Ghost in the Shell. (Fortune India)

Anime reached 50 percent of Japan’s streaming video subscribers and accounted for 26 percent of viewing hours on premium streaming services last year, according to Singapore-based video research firm Media Partners Asia. (Deadline)

TO Books eyes post-listing expansion in North America

“In regions experiencing significant economic growth, we will seek local partner companies that understand our business. North America has a rapidly growing manga market, and more companies are launching digital manga platforms. We want to consider models for collaborating with such companies.”

— Takeichi Honda, TO Books president

Context: Honda showed optimism for a North American expansion of his light novel and manga publishing company following its listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange last week, the Nikkei financial newspaper reports.

• He sees the continuing decline of Japan’s publishing industry revenues as a “temporary market shift”, remaining confident in the prospects of IP adaptations.

Yes, but: Honda admits that it will take time—at least three years—to see the impact of adaptations like anime, stage theater, and merchandise on the company’s financials.

• Of the anime productions based on TO Books titles today, only about one-third have a production committee led by the publisher, and new productions led by TO Books will take at least three years before they can be broadcast.

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In case you missed it: A recording of my talk with Mark Kennedy last week about the anime industry and how this newsletter operates behind the scenes is now available on Real Gaijin’s Substack website.

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Aniplex president Iwakami to be named Sony Music CEO

Sony’s leadership has appointed Aniplex president Atsuhiro Iwakami as the incoming president and chief executive officer of Sony Music Entertainment Japan, a sign of the anime production planning company’s growing influence in the Sony Music Group.

Why it matters: Iwakami’s appointment, which will be effective in April, marks the first time that an executive with a video production background will lead the Japanese music giant.

Catch up quick: More than half of Sony Music’s sales in Japan today come from non-music sources, including Aniplex, according to anime industry journalist Tadashi Sudo.

• Aniplex is also capping off a spectacular year in the box office, having produced both Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, the highest-grossing anime film globally, and Kokuho, Japan’s highest-grossing live-action film.

• External revenue from Sony Music’s visual media and platform business, to which Aniplex belongs, is up 42.8 percent in the nine months ended December 2025 compared to the same period last year.

How it happened: Prior to his decadelong tenure as the head of Aniplex, Iwakami was involved in the production of successful anime titles like the Monogatari series, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and Sword Art Online.

• Iwakami also produced Aniplex’s highly successful mobile game Fate/Grand Order and the blockbuster anime adaptation of Demon Slayer.

The bottom line: Iwakami’s appointment, Sudo says, allows Sony Music “to externally promote itself as a comprehensive entertainment company that goes beyond music and covers a wide range of areas, including anime, live-action films, characters, the Internet, and events”.

a16z leads AI anime character startup seed investment

San Francisco artificial intelligence startup Shizuku AI has raised US$15 million in seed investment from Silicon Valley venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz and mobile technology company DeNA.

Why it matters: It’s the first investment in a Japanese technology firm by Andreessen Horowitz, Nikkei Asia reports.

Backgrounder: Shizuku AI, founded by University of California, Berkeley, doctoral graduate Akio Kodaira, is the creator of virtual YouTuber character Shizuku, which uses artificial intelligence to interact with viewers’ comments during live video streams.

• Shizuku AI plans to develop the character into an AI companion that can converse with individual users and act as their personal assistant.

• Funds from the investment will go toward developing multilingual voice synthesis capabilities for Shizuku, building richer conversational AI, and increasing presence across platforms like Discord, YouTube, and X, Andreessen Horowitz partners say.

The bigger picture: In 2024, Andreessen Horowitz named anime AI companions and virtual YouTubing as two areas of the anime market where user engagement is rapidly growing.

• “The reason why anime is so resonant as a genre for AI companions is because character affinity / romance is already built into many of the best anime stories,” partners at the firm wrote.

Clippings: Toho is Fuji Media’s largest shareholder again

Film giant Toho will once again become Fuji Media’s largest major shareholder and see its voting right increase. The commercial television broadcaster is buying back shares after an activist investor group ended a campaign for corporate reform that emerged out of a sexual misconduct scandal. (Jiji Press)

• Some context: Cross-shareholding between Japan’s television broadcasters and film companies is common broadcasters are often investors in film productions.

TV Asahi Music-backed Extra Mile raised US$1.5 million in pre-seed funding for development of its manga production platform Hanasee, which uses AI agents to help web novel writers turn their works into manga. (Press release)

• What they’re saying: A public relations representative told Animenomics that a separate platform called Xross Road for publishing and managing the IP rights of manga produced on Hanasee is also expected to go live later this year.

CyberAgent is acquiring anime studio CygamesPictures from mobile gaming affiliate Cygames and renaming it CyPic as the digital advertising company continues to pivot into anime intellectual property production. (Gamebiz)

Tokuma Shoten launched a digital-only weekly publication spun out of Japan’s oldest existing anime magazine Animage that is designed for reading on smartphones and sold through major e-book stores. (Press release)

Telecommunications giant NTT West, which owns leading digital manga platform Comic C’moA, is grappling with the impact of a rapid slowdown in the digital manga market and seeks to establish new, highly profitable subsidiaries. (The Nikkei)

Crunchyroll’s online store is reportedly attempting to lower warehousing costs by reducing the SKU count of products that sell fewer units, raising questions about the continuity of relationships with smaller anime publishers that it inherited from Right Stuf. (Anime News Network)

‘Gundam’ set to see record sales year at Bandai Namco

“Through new initiatives this fiscal year, such as exhibiting at the Osaka–Kansai Expo and launching trading card games, the popularity of [Gundam], previously centered on Japan and Asia, has expanded into North America. Furthermore, the hit game SD Gundam G Generation Eternal has broadened our touchpoints to reach a wider range of fans. By continuing these multifaceted developments, we aim for stable growth at a high level, not just a temporary surge.”

— Bandai Namco on the future sales revenue of its Mobile Suit Gundam property

Context: Bandai Namco reported its third straight quarter of Mobile Suit Gundam exceeding ¥60 billion (US$390 million) in total IP sales revenue last week, prompting questioning from analysts about the sustainability of Gundam’s growth.

• Bandai Namco forecasts a record ¥240 billion (US$1.57 billion) in total Gundam IP sales revenue for the twelve months ending in April 2026, up 56 percent from the last fiscal year.

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An announcement: I will be a guest this week in a live recording of the Real Gaijin podcast with host Mark Kennedy on Substack, where I will answer questions about almost three years of writing this newsletter on the anime and manga industry.

• Broadcast starts at 8:00 a.m. Japan Standard Time on Friday, February 6. (See time for your location.)

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Japan combats counterfeit anime merchandise online

Sales of counterfeit anime and other character products caused ¥4.7 trillion (US$30.4 billion) in estimated financial damages last year, according to a content piracy survey commissioned by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry.

Why it matters: The figure represents the first measure of the impact of piracy on the market for Japanese entertainment merchandise, a key effort in the government’s goal to quadruple the overseas market for Japanese entertainment.

Some context: Previous editions of METI’s survey, conducted by advisory firm PwC Consulting on behalf of an anti-piracy trade group, the Content Overseas Distribution Association, only calculated damages from piracy using digital content.

• In a 100-point action plan published in June, METI highlighted a need “to expand countermeasures not only for digital content but also for merchandise and other products that Japanese content companies rely on as sources of revenue”.

What’s happening: “Counterfeit goods are rampant, especially in online shops, and it’s difficult to crack down on them,” one anime licensor wrote in its response to the latest annual anime industry survey by the Association of Japanese Animations.

• A separate survey by Internet monitoring firm Adish last year found at least 841 counterfeit anime merchandise with prices totaling ¥22.2 million (US$140,000) being sold online for five top anime airing in the second quarter of 2025.

• Overseas licensees are attempting to combat counterfeit merchandise, but anime companies often lack sufficient chain of title documentation that allows them to submit infringement claims to these online shops.

By the numbers: Japan’s domestic market for anime merchandise grew 6.8 percent year-over-year in 2024, according to data compiled in the AJA survey, but results are mixed abroad.

• “The anime video business seems to be doing well, but merchandise sales have been trending downwards since the COVID-19 pandemic,” the aforementioned anime licensor said. “Except for a few hugely popular top tier titles, most products aren’t selling.”

AI startup opens anime merchandise approvals platform

NTT Docomo-backed artificial intelligence startup AIPEX last week began operating an online platform that aims to speed up content licensor reviews of anime character illustrations to be used on commercial merchandise.

Why it matters: Anime merchandise availability remains a bottleneck outside Japan, and products are often delayed due to approvals that licensees must seek from anime licensors.

• With more than 300 anime series aired each year, delays in merchandise reviews could mean licensees missing out on a title’s window of popularity.

How it works: AIPEX’s platform uses machine learning to check whether creatives submitted by licensees adhere to the original work’s worldview and character design rules, such as color schemes and settings.

• When a creative is submitted, AI makes suggestions for revisions, which are then confirmed by a reviewer at the licensor before being sent to the licensee.

• In demonstration experiments conducted by the company, AI was able to shorten the time of review by about 50 to 70 percent, the Nikkei reports.

What they’re saying: “We aim to promote [platform] adoption by publishers, game companies, and other companies that own IPs such as characters, anime, and manga, and to establish it as a standard supervision infrastructure in the licensing business,” AIPEX founder and chief executive officer Atsushi Oshiro said in a recent interview.

• The company aims to sign on several dozen customers this year, according to the Nikkei.

Clippings: Aniplex buys Egg Firm anime planning firm

Aniplex acquired Egg Firm, an anime production planning company best known for managing the production of titles like The Disastrous Life of Saiki K., Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, and My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999. (Oricon News)

• Catch up quick: Egg Firm, founded in 2015 by a former producer from Genco, one of the first independent anime production planning companies, has grown rapidly in recent years thanks to a series of popular productions.

• Egg Firm’s net profit has quintupled in the last five years, reaching ¥78.4 million (US$504,000) in the fiscal year ending in March 2025, according to the company’s financial disclosures.

Entertainment magnate Tatsumi “Tom” Yoda is stepping back from more than 20 years of leading film distributor Gaga, including two years of leading the company’s new anime and media business division. (Animation Business Journal)

• Why it matters: Yoda, a co-founder of entertainment giant Avex and former chair of the Tokyo International Film Festival, led Gaga through a 2023 acquisition by amusement giant Genda and a pivot toward anime investments, culminating in a recent effort to enter direct anime film distribution in North America.

Crunchyroll’s viewership in Thailand has grown 50 percent year-over-year, leading the anime streaming service to increase investments with a new Thai-language user interface locally and dozens of new titles dubbed and subtitled in Thai. (Variety)

• In the United States, Crunchyroll is increasing prices on all three subscription tiers, the first price increase since 2019 on the streaming service’s lowest tier and the first since 2024 on its two upper tiers.

Japan’s top anime films with more than ¥1 billion (US$6.4 million) in domestic box office earnings generated a cumulative ¥90.1 billion (US$578 million) in 2025, nearly 20 percent more than the previous record set three years earlier. (Toyo Keizai Online)

Fuji Media’s Pony Canyon anime and music production subsidiary reported its third straight quarterly operating loss through December 2025, attributed to a lack of hit anime titles and decreases in merchandise and live event sales. (Gamebiz)

NTT Solmare’s MangaPlaza digital manga service in the United States saw daily sales double immediately following last month’s closure of pirated manga and webtoon site Bato.to. (Content Overseas Distribution Association)

Popular anime Detective Conan is facing backlash in China over a collaboration with My Hero Academia, whose anime adaptation was removed from video platforms in 2020 over the controversial naming of a villain charater. (Kyodo News via The Mainichi)

Permanent ‘Sailor Moon’ stage musical sets April debut

A permanent Sailor Moon stage musical production will begin holding performances in April for the first time in six years, as its producer, Nelke Planning, seeks to capitalize on a growing interest in stage productions among foreign visitors to Japan.

Why it matters: Japanese stage productions typically run for only two weeks to one month, which means travelers often end up visiting during a period when there is no show running, a Nelke Planning producer told the Kyodo news agency.

By the numbers: Overseas visitors have made up about 10 percent of the audience at Sailor Moon musical performances in Japan, according to Nelke Planning.

• Last year, the company brought the Sailor Moon musical abroad, performing Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: The Super Live to sold out shows in the United Kingom, the United States, and China.

What’s next: Nelke Planning is taking over Club eX, a performance venue at Tokyo’s Shinagawa Prince Hotel, for almost daily performances of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon: Shining Theater Shinagawa Tokyo starting in April.

• Actors in two teams will perform up to three shows a day, currently scheduled through the end of July.

• Nelke Planning had opened a popular Sailor Moon dinner theater in 2019, but that venue had to close in 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bigger picture: As previously reported by Animenomics, the 2.5-Dimensional Musical Association, a trade group of production companies creating musical theater adaptations of anime, manga, and games, is also increasing support for performance ticket sales in English to attract more foreign tourists.

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In case you missed it: Dragon Ball Super’s anime will be rereleased with new footage and updated visuals and sound later this year, and a sequel series is also being made as part of the Dragon Ball anime franchise’s 40th anniversary.

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Print manga sales tumble, digital manga slows down

Sales of print manga volumes in Japan fell 15 percent last year, the biggest drop since 2022, when the pandemic-era buying surge ended, newly released annual publishing industry data compiled by the Research Institute for Publications show.

Driving the story: After several hit manga titles—My Hero Academia, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Oshi no Ko, for example—ended publication in 2024, no new hit titles emerged in their place in 2025, suppressing overall print sales.

Zoom in: Japan’s print publishing market fell below ¥1 trillion (US$6.5 billion) for the first time in 50 years.

• This figure is far below the print publishing market’s peak of ¥2.6 trillion in annual sales in 1996.

Between the lines: Digital manga sales, which make up three-quarters of the manga market, continued its growth trajectory last year, but only at a rate of 2.9 percent, the category’s slowest growth rate on record.

• As previously reported by Animenomics, year-over-year growth of digital manga in Japan in the first half of 2025 was recorded at 4.6 percent.

• In the second half of the year, however, annual growth was just 1.5 percent, a warning sign that digital manga’s growth could come to an end sooner rather than later.

The bigger picture: Japan’s broader publishing market, meanwhile, fell 1.6 percent to ¥1.55 trillion (US$10.1 billion), the fourth consecutive year of decline.

Japan Foundation promotes anime films in African tour

Japan’s agency for cultural promotion abroad, the Japan Foundation, is starting the new year with an acceleration of its two-year campaign to develop a market for anime films in African countries.

Why is matters: Africa remains largely untapped for the anime industry, with the continent accounting for only 4.7 percent of all contracts signed between Japan’s anime companies and international parties in 2024, according to the latest industry survey by the Association of Japanese Animations.

What’s happening: The foundation’s Japanese Film Festival Africa Tour will travel to 14 countries throughout 2026 after stops in Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Rwanda last year.

• This weekend’s stop in Cairo will feature Studio 4°C president and producer Eiko Tanaka, who is scheduled to give a special lecture to local film and anime officials, Branc reports.

• Next month, the festival travels to Nairobi, where it will focus on showcasing anime films like Akira and Sand Land, and it’s expected to fuel collaborations between local animators and Japanese creators, The Star newspaper reports.

• A number of anime titles like Attack on Titan and Your Name are also being made available online in all 54 countries of the continent.

Reality check: Streaming platforms and new fan conventions are fueling growth in anime viewership, but the Japan Foundation recognizes that awareness of Japanese content among the public and the local media industry is still low.

• “While Africa contributes to viewership numbers, engagement metrics, and cultural relevance, it does not meaningfully participate in IP ownership, studio production, licensing negotiations, merchandising supply chains, adaptation rights, and financing decisions,” Lagos-based influencer marketing agency TIMA argues in a recent newsletter.

Clippings: Manga publishers recruit more foreign artists

Japanese manga and webtoon companies are increasingly recruiting foreigners to become manga artist, putting them in training programs and housing them in dorms to facilitate their introduction to the manga industry. (Nikkei the Style)

South Korea’s Kakao Entertainment has forced the closure of manga and webtoon pirate website Batoto and its user communities, which saw millions of monthly visitors. (TorrentFreak)

• An unorthodox anti-piracy unit within Kakao Entertainment that regularly recruits informants in order to bring legal action to pirate sites claimed responsibility for Batoto’s closure.

LINE Yahoo! Japan’s domestic flea market app is moving to ban high-priced resales of new Gundam robot plastic models after high demand for certain products led to shortages at toy and hobby retailers. (Otaku Lab)

Eleven percent of manga artists and 14.5 percent of illustrators surveyed by the Freelance League of Japan say that their incomes have decreased by at least 10 percent as a result of artificial intelligence technologies. (ITmedia AI+)

About half of manga readers in Japan have no strong positive or negative opinion on the use of artificial intelligence in manga production, according to a new survey of 1,000 people, but two-thirds of respondents are resistant to reading manga that are mostly produced by AI. (AdverTimes)

Mizuki Shigeru Museum and its surrounding attraction in western Japan’s Tottori Prefecture has seen international visitors double in the last three years, with visitors from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and elsewhere flocking to see characters from the manga author’s works. (Nikkei Asia)

Wine manga screen adaptation faces French legal limits

The arrival of a second season of the live action Drops of God television series, loosely based on Tadashi Agi and Shu Okimoto’s The Drops of God manga, revives a debate in France over legal barriers in the country’s illustrious wine industry.

Why it matters: The multinational production, which includes Hollywood’s Legendary Television, national broadcaster France Télévisions, and Hulu Japan, was named Best Drama Series in the 52nd International Emmy Awards.

Catch up quick: Since 1991, French law has prohibited the promotion of alcohol on television or in cinemas, which means a television series about wine like Drops of God can’t promote the wines it features.

• As was done in the first season, the French broadcast of the second season will blur wine bottles and their labels, according to La Revue du vin de France, one of the country’s most highly regarded wine publications.

• “It’s absurd in the country of wine, which represents a vital part of our agricultural trade balance. We should be proud of our heritage,” sommelier and restaurateur Sébastien Pradal, who selected the show’s featured wines, told the magazine.

• In Japan, however, as previously reported by Animenomics, real-life vintages that were featured in the original manga became bestsellers overnight.

By the numbers: While Drops of God received wide critical acclaim when it debuted on Apple TV in 2023, the French television broadcast the following year didn’t see the same success.

• An estimated 2.87 million people—a 14.2 percent market share—watched the first episode, but viewership fell 38 percent by the last episode.

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In case you missed it: AnimeJapan, the anime industry’s annual trade exhibition and business fair, kicked off event programming announcements for its 2026 edition last weekend.

• Organizers also announced registration details for the March 30 and 31 business fair days, though ticket sales haven’t opened yet.

• Animenomics plans to be in Tokyo to attend AnimeJapan. Please reach out if you are interested in a meeting.

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Gaga starts North American distribution of anime films

Japanese film distributor Gaga is planning an aggressive expansion of live-action and anime film direct distribution in North America, following a similar move made by film giant Toho in 2024.

Why it matters: Anime films have scored a string of successes in the North American box office in recent years, and Japanese companies are now looking to capture a greater share of the local sales revenue.

• When film distribution is handled by local companies, Japanese companies are able to outsource the cost of local promotion and distribution to partners while keeping a focus on rights revenue.

• In exchange for this arrangement, however, the local distributor often retains a large share of sales revenue if the film becomes a box office success.

Zoom in: Gaga is launching this effort with next month’s North American release of Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Beginning of A New Era, a film from Cygames’s mobile game franchise that earned ¥1.4 billion (US$8.9 million) in the Japanese box office.

• With the release, Gaga seeks to replicate the success of a concert film by Japanese superstar singer Ado, which it distributed on its own across more than 300 theaters last year.

• The release of the Umamusume film two years after its debut in Japan comes as the mobile game is growing in popularity after an English-language edition launched in June and won Best Mobile Game at the Game Awards in December.

Yes, but: “Large-scale releases require the know-how of local companies, which poses a high hurdle for Japanese companies,” anime industry journalist Tadashi Sudo writes in Animation Business Journal.

• After Toho distributed Godzilla Minus One directly in North America, it acquired New York-based anime and animation film distributor GKIDS to bring that kind of local film distribution expertise in house.

What’s next: Gaga’s corporate parent, amusement giant Genda, said last week that it plans to promote the Umamusume film at the 12,000 gaming corners it has swept up across North America.

Edia ramps up anime production for its own light novels

Tokyo-based Edia is quickly ramping up production of new anime properties after the company launched its anime production business last August, amid a transition from being a mobile services provider into an entertainment company.

Why it matters: Edia’s ownership of light novel and manga publisher Hifumishobo is an advantage for the company as it plays the role of both an originator of new media properties and an anime production investor.

• Companies without their own original properties compete to acquire popular IPs, often leading to increased development costs and less favorable terms, Gamebiz reports.

By the numbers: Edia is now developing at least five new anime titles for broadcast in 2028 and beyond, according to the company’s third quarter earnings results, up from three in the prior financial period.

• The company plans to scale up investments to tens of millions to several hundred million yen (hundreds of thousands to millions of United States dollars) per anime title, after previously only investing small amounts in production committees.

• To learn more about anime production, Edia initially participated in committees for Drugstore in Another World and The Aristocrat’s Otherworldly Adventure, both based on Hifumishobo light novel titles.

The bigger picture: As a production committee organizer and investor, Edia stands to benefit from a greater share of profits that come from licensing out the anime for merchandising, overseas distribution, and other secondary uses.

Clippings: MAPPA partners with Netflix on distribution

Anime studio MAPPA is deepening its collaboration with Netflix as a distribution partner as it doubles down on a studio-led anime production model where MAPPA is responsible on everything from story development to merchandise strategy. (Nikkei)

Sony Pictures and Netflix announced a global exclusive first streaming window deal that will bring all of Sony’s feature films to Netflix globally after completing their runs in theaters. (IndieWire)

• Between the lines: The deal doesn’t include anime films distributed by Sony’s Crunchyroll film business, but it sounds like it might include Mamoru Hosoda’s Scarlet, which isn’t released by Crunchyroll.

Toho is proposing the transfer of its ¥22.2 billion (US$140 million) domestic and overseas video sales and licensing business to subsidiary Toho Global as the film giant establishes a local presence in North America, Southeast Asia, and Europe. (Animation Business Journal)

IG Port warns that an ongoing diplomatic dispute between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan could affect its anime merchandise sales and licensing if the former introduces stricter regulations on the handling of Japanese media properties. (Gamebiz)

Spirited Away’s stage production sold 30,000 advance tickets in South Korea prior to its January 7 premiere in the country. It’s said to be the largest Japanese-language production in the history of South Korean theater. (Nikkei)

AI manga translations could sap public interest in Japan

“The success of Japanese manga overseas is thanks to foreign publishers. […] Despite this, Japanese publishers, now facing limitations in the domestic market, are developing generative AI and platforms to sell digital versions directly overseas, completely disregarding the role of these foreign publishers.”

— Karyn Nishimura, Tokyo-based French freelance journalist

Context: Nishimura, in a column for Newsweek Japan, argues that manga publishers’ overtures into using artificial intelligence technology for translation risk alienating the foreign manga translators whose work generate public interest in Japanese culture.

• Catch up quick: Mantra, an AI translation startup that has received investments from publishers, now has the capacity to produce 20,000 translated manga pages a month, up from 10,000 two years ago, founder Shonosuke Ishiwatari told the Nikkei financial newspaper.

• Publishers say AI-assisted manga translation gives them the ability to deliver new works to readers around the world more quickly, before pirated copies have the chance to proliferate online.

The bottom line: “Generative AI is merely a tool to increase sales through efficiency,” Nishimura argues.

• “The widespread use of generative AI in manga distribution is putting the cart before the horse and carries a high risk of undermining interest in the Japanese language and in Japan itself.”

Animenomics is an independently run and reader-supported publication. If you enjoyed this newsletter, consider sharing it with others.

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In case you missed it: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences shared on YouTube a special behind-the-scenes video of the animation of Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle, ahead of next week’s nominee announcements for the 98th Academy Awards.

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Fair Trade Commission publishes anime inquiry findings

Japan’s Fair Trade Commission last month shared the findings of its inquiry into labor practices in the anime industry, highlighting structural issues in the anime production committee model, copyright ownership, and bargaining power across the supply chain.

Why it matters: In releasing the report, the JFTC included a statement indicating that it’s prepared to create formal guidelines to regulate how committees, anime studios, subcontractors, and streamers negotiate and share information.

Rewind: The inquiry was launched after former prime minister Fumio Kishida asked the commission in 2024 to investigate possible contract abuses between production companies and freelance workers in film and anime.

Zoom in: The report centers around four types of business relationships in the anime industry—between the production committee and prime contractor studios, between prime contractors and subcontractors, between studios and freelancers, and between global streaming video companies and prime contractor studios.

• The commission won’t force production committees to ensure that anime studios remain profitable, but it wants committees to be more responsive when studios request budget increases to accommodate increasing demand for higher quality work, delays in production, and rising prices.

• Anime studios said they are effectively forced to give away intellectual property rights without meaningful compensation or negotiation, which the JFTC flagged as a potential abuse of the committees’ superior bargaining position.

• Subcontractors reported that cost-cutting at prime contractor studios cascades through the rest of the anime supply chain, creating a “race to the bottom” situation for wages at small studios and of freelancers.

• Half of anime studio producers surveyed by the JFTC said that streaming video companies don’t disclose viewership data, hindering fair negotiations and revenue‑share transparency.

How they reacted: The Nippon Anime & Film Culture Association, an anime labor advocacy group, praised the commission’s thorough work in a statement that also summarizes the report.

• “We believe that by widely sharing the contents of this survey with the public, including fans who love and support Japanese anime, the anime industry can engage in constructive discussions and make better choices,” the statement adds.

Publishing group invests in French anime co-producer

French publishing conglomerate Média-Participations has acquired a 25 percent stake in Paris-based animation production studio Miyu Productions, which has been gaining prominence for its anime co-productions with Japanese creators in recent years.

Why it matters: Média-Participations operates the streaming video service provider Animation Digital Network, which the conglomerate bought out from Crunchyroll in 2022.

• Partnering with Miyu Productions gives ADN the ability to acquire exclusive local and innovative works of anime in order to compete with Crunchyroll and other global streamers that also serve anime.

Catch up quick: Miyu Productions rose to prominence in Europe’s animation scene after its film Chicken for Linda! won the Annecy International Animation Film Festival’s top prize in 2023 and France’s César Award for Best Animated Film the following year.

• In Japan, it collaborates with innovative anime creators and invests in original and experimental works, such as Yoko Kuno’s Ghost Cat Anzu, which received award nominations in film festivals around the world.

• Miyu Productions is ramping up its Japanese co-productions, planning at least three anime films for 2026 and beyond, including one by award-winning director Masaaki Yuasa.

Between the lines: “French viewers bring something different to the table,” London-based anime industry consultant Jerome Mazandarani writes in a column. “They’re more open-minded about anime provenance and not fixated on whether something is or isn’t a ‘pure’ Japanese production.”

The intrigue: Miyu Productions and ADN are already developing “new production models for animated series in collaboration with Japan”, Bastien Guetta, ADN’s head of content development for marketing and theatrical, wrote on LinkedIn.

• This is the first indication that Miyu Productions is co-producing an anime series, having co-produced only anime short films and feature films until now.

Clippings: Light novel publisher TO Books to go public

Light novel publisher TO Books received approval for a public listing of its shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange starting in February, seeking to raise at least ¥1.68 billion (US$10.5 million) to recruit editors and IP development staff and increase advertising. (Animation Business Journal)

• Why it matters: Titles published by TO Books regularly rank among the top light novel series as compiled by Takarajimasha, and more than a dozen have received anime adaptations.

• This is the second public listing by a light novel publisher in four months, a signal of optimism in the market for light novels and related media mix projects.

Publishing giant Kadokawa is seeking potential acquisitions in Germany, the Middle East, and Latin America, as the publisher aims to grow the global market for its light novels and manga through direct sales rather than through local licensees. (The Nikkei)

Japan’s character merchandise lottery market has more than tripled since 2019, an analysis by toy wholesaler Happinet found, largely driven by the growth of online and overseas sales of lottery tickets since the COVID-19 pandemic. (The Nikkei)

Doraemon ended broadcast in Indonesia, a key Southeast Asian market where the anime series that became a cultural phenomenon aired on private broadcaster RCTI for 35 years. (The Indonesian Anime Times)

Japan accounted for nearly half of South Korea’s webtoon export market in 2024, an annual webtoon industry survey by the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism and the Korea Creative Content Agency found. (The Chosun Biz)

Comici rethinks data use for English manga platform

“Comici MANGA is designed to avoid using data in the creation process. Manga creation should be nurtured through the intuition of the author and the editor believing, ‘This is interesting,’ and through interactive, live feedback from readers during serialization.”

— Daisaku Manda, manga startup Comici founder and chief executive officer

Context: In a blog post revealing Comici’s English-language web and mobile platform for reading manga—previously reported by Animenomics—Manda argues that an overreliance on data in the webtoon creation process has resulted in webtoon studios converging on the same winning formula, stifling creativity and diversity in new titles.

• “Webtoons have been overly optimized for short-term sales, user engagement time, and conversion rates,” he writes.

• Manda says Comici MANGA will rely on data primarily in the delivery process: for recommending works, title discovery, and selecting works for translation.

One big thing: Comici MANGA’s digital back catalog includes Masayuki Kusumi and Jiro Taniguchi’s widely acclaimed manga The Solitary Gourmet, which was published in English in November by Spain’s Ponent Mon and London-based Fanfare.

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In case you missed it: Mamoru Hosoda’s Scarlet, the Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc film, My Melody & Kuromi, Dan Da Dan, and the third Star Wars: Visions anthology series are among several anime and anime-adjacent titles nominated in the 53rd Annie Awards.

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Link-U bets its future on AI-led manga app development

Link-U Technologies, Japan’s leading developer of digital manga platforms, is looking to replace much of its software development work with artificial intelligence as the digital manga market undergoes a shift at home and abroad.

Why it matters: Link-U is aggressively building digital manga platforms for Japanese publishers and distributors that are seeking to expand overseas, and the shift to AI-assisted app development could launch a technological race in digital manga abroad.

Driving the story: The company has reorganized its leadership team, with co-founder and chief technology officer Tsuyoshi Yamada moving into a chief AI officer role to lead the transformation efforts.

• Last month, Link-U said it had secured a ¥100 million (US$640,000) contract to build a digital manga service using AI-assisted software development.

• The announcement came just four months after it signed another contract worth ¥200 million (US$1.3 million) offering the same services.

What they’re saying: In a seminar held last April, Yamada said that 60 percent of Link-U Technologies employees saw increased productivity after the company began using Cursor, an AI-assisted software development service by Silicon Valley firm Anysphere.

• Recent announcements by Link-U indicate that the company will shift software engineers to upstream work such as system planning and design, where they can deliver more value.

The bigger picture: Link-U’s pivot toward AI-assisted development reflects a desire for more innovation in digital manga as the domestic digital manga market becomes increasingly competitive amid slowing growth.

• As of June 2025, there were 459 manga and e-book reading apps in Japan with more than 500 monthly active users, according to a survey by App Ape, a mobile analytics service.

• Overseas, however, manga publishers are expanding their digital footprint with their own manga apps rather than relying on local platforms, as Link-U has done for Shueisha with MANGA Plus and for Square Enix with Manga UP!

• Link-U’s recent partnership with anime streaming giant Crunchyroll to relaunch its manga app also demonstrates renewed attempts to encourage digital manga adoption outside Japan.

Clippings: Itochu invests in Taiwan e-commerce service

Trading conglomerate Itochu has invested in Taiwanese cross-border e-commerce service Bibian, which sees 40 percent of sales volume from customers in Taiwan who buy Japanese anime and character products. (Taiwan News)

• Bibian plans to expand its service beyond Taiwan and into North America and other parts of Asia by 2029.

Avex has exited its Singapore-based joint venture with Sanrio, though still remaining as a strategic partner after five years of helping the latter build a brand presence in Southeast Asia and multiplying regional sales by ten over that period. (Press release)

Comic Market organizers are considering extending the run of the twice-yearly sales event for anime and manga fan art and fan comics from two days to three days, which hasn’t occurred since the COVID-19 pandemic. (Otaku Lab)

• Last week’s 50th anniversary edition of Comic Market drew 300,000 visitors over two days, with over 10 percent more cosplayers attending compared to the same time last year.

AlphaPolis is canceling plans to publish and adapt into manga a web novel that won a fantasy novel contest organized by the digital manga and light novel publisher last year after most of the work was found to be generated using AI. (Otaku Lab)

• As previously reported by Animenomics, AlphaPolis is among several web novel platforms contending with a growing number of AI-generated works.

Magazine House to scale up manga publishing business

“We’ve been in the manga business for about three years now, and we’re just about breaking even. The timing worked out well because we could enter the market solely through digital distribution. If we had had to create a print magazine, entry would have been impossible.”

— Shuichi Tetsuo, Magazine House president and chief executive officer

Context: Magazine House is finally gaining traction in manga publishing thanks to its stylish Shuro digital manga portal, Tetsuo told The Bunka News newspaper, decades after the fashion and lifestyle publisher first exited the business following the end of a short-lived manga magazine in the 1990s.

• Magazine House, best known in Japan for iconic fashion magazines like Anan and Popeye, has used its magazine portfolio to promote and serialize some its manga titles, even having Anan and Shuro start a new manga contest last year.

• Since the formation of the manga editorial department under Takehiro Sekiya, whom Magazine House recruited from Leed Publishing, the team has grown to five editors.

What’s next: “Currently, the book editorial team has nine people and generates about 20 to 30 percent of the company’s total profits. We’d be happy if the manga business could grow to a similar level,” Tetsuo said.

FamilyMart adds anime arcade machines to 5,000 stores

Japanese convenience store giant FamilyMart is turning thousands of its branches into entertainment retail outlets, showcasing merchandise collaborations with anime and video game properties at a media event last month.

Why it matters: FamilyMart’s investment into entertainment experiences comes at a time when the chain’s customer base is shifting from working men in their 30s to 50s to teenage boys and girls, the Toyo Keizai business magazine reports.

What’s happening: FamilyMart plans to increase installations of arcade machines like crane games, which until now has been limited to around 1,600 stores in urban areas, to 5,000 stores, about 30 percent of its network.

• It’s also adding Pokémon Frienda arcade game machines on a trial basis at two locations in Tokyo and will collaborate with the Anime Tourism Association this year to feature anime titles in which FamilyMart stores have appeared.

Between the lines: Growth in the number of convenience stores in Japan has slowed to a trickle since the COVID-19 pandemic, adding only 100 stores in the last five years.

• FamilyMart itself has also closed more than 1,600 unprofitable locations since its acquisition of Circle K Sunkus in 2017, which means growth from the company must come from attracting new customers and growing per-customer spend.

• “By expanding the installation of in-store amusement facilities, we will create new reasons for customers to visit our stores that didn’t exist before,” chief marketing officer Hikaru Adachi told Toyo Keizai.

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Programming note: Merry Christmas! Animenomics will be on break next week. The next newsletter issue will be in inboxes on Wednesday, January 7, 2026.

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Toho sets sights on Europe with UK regional head office

Toho has selected the United Kingdom as its regional headquarters in Europe, the film distribution and production giant announced last week, capping a two-year expansion that also saw it acquire anime companies in North America and Southeast Asia.

Why it matters: Toho has hinted in investors presentations over the last year that a European base of operations would eventually serve as a launchpad for the company to build its presence in the Middle East, a quickly growing anime market.

How it happened: Animenomics reported in April that other anime companies have established their European operations in Paris, but London emerged as a contender for Toho thanks to successful West End performances of its stage theater productions, such as Spirited Away.

• Toho Theatricals UK, a subsidiary established last year to promote the company’s stage theater business in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, will be elevated to regional headquarters status, similar to operations in Los Angeles and Singapore.

• As part of the effort, Toho is injecting an additional £16 million (US$21.6 million) into the regional office, which could be used to acquire local companies.

Zoom in: Toho’s first acquisition in Europe is that of Glasgow-based Anime Limited, an anime film, home video, and streaming distributor that was last sold to Embracer Group-owned Plaion Pictures in 2022.

• Embracer has been criticized in the video game industry for amassing high debt levels from aggressive acquisitions over the last decade, a pattern also seen in Anime Limited financial statements reviewed by Animenomics.

• In the fiscal year ended March 2025, Anime Limited reported a net loss of £2.15 million (US$2.9 million) and had a negative balance sheet for the third year in a row due to high levels of debt.

What’s next: Anime Limited is expected to benefit from access to Toho’s vast IP portfolio as it expands beyond the United Kingdom and France into Germany, Italy, and other European countries.

• As part of the deal, Toho has agreed to keep Plaion Pictures as a partner in local merchandise marketing and distribution, a business segment that Toho is trying to grow.

Overseas licenses of anime merchandise jumped in 2024

Growth in anime merchandise licenses outside Japan outpaced growth in licenses for other anime content and product types in 2024, according to the results of an annual anime industry survey by the Association of Japanese Associations.

Why it matters: Japanese anime rightsholders see availability of merchandise abroad as a critical gap in their quest to grow overseas anime revenues.

• “While works of anime have reached audiences worldwide through streaming services, the surrounding ecosystem of merchandise and various fan events has lagged behind, and fans continue to flock to Japan in search of a ‘fan paradise’,” the report’s authors wrote.

By the numbers: Of the more than 5,000 anime licensing agreements with overseas partners signed in 2024 that was tracked by the AJA, 21.8 percent included an option for merchandise, up from 15.5 percent in 2023.

• Two out of five agreements that included anime merchandise rights didn’t involve rights for any other type of anime content.

• Nearly all of the remaining agreements involving merchandise were paired with rights for anime television broadcast.

Zoom in: Streaming video remains anime’s most popular viewing format outside of Japan, with two-thirds of new licenses for anime video content including a digital distribution option.

• An analysis conducted by Parrot Analytics and published in the AJA report found that both Netflix and Crunchyroll increased streaming video subscription revenue attributable to anime viewers in 2024, compared to the previous year.

• The Walt Disney Company’s combined streaming portfolio of Hulu and Disney+ continued to closely trail Crunchyroll by the same measure.

What we’re watching: HBO Max’s anime-associated subscription revenue more than doubled from 2023 to 2024, according to the Parrot Analytics data, which highlights the platform’s growing importance for anime distribution.

• With HBO Max part of the Warner Bros. Discovery streaming portfolio, a sale of Warner Bros. to Netflix, if successful, would reshape a growing corner of the anime streaming market.

Clippings: Genda forms strategic alliance with Bushiroad

Genda and Bushiroad are forming an alliance that could see Genda’s gaming arcades around the world serve as distribution points and event venues for Bushiroad’s anime trading cards. (Animation Business Journal)

• Go deeper: Genda’s gaming arcades are sweeping North America, and Bushiroad is benefiting from growing demand for anime trading cards.

Publishing giant Kadokawa is accelerating recruitment of production staff for its game office as the company makes game adaptations of its own manga, light novels, and anime properties a priority. (Denfaminicogamer)

• In 2026, Kadokawa will publish Oshi no Ko: Match Star, a mobile game based on the Oshi no Ko anime that has earned the company ¥9.4 billion (US$60 million) in licensing sales revenue, to coincide with the anime’s third season.

Webtoon Entertainment’s in-house anti-piracy tool Toon Radar, which uses artificial intelligence, has allowed the company’s Korean-language platform to reduce same-day leaks of new webtoon chapters by 80 percent. (The Chosun Biz)

Organizers of ComicUp, one of China’s largest animation, comics, and gaming (ACG) fan conventions, is removing exhibitors of Japanese-themed content from this weekend’s event amid an ongoing diplomatic dispute between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. (South China Morning Post)

Anime retailer Animate has launched a ticketing platform in an attempt to create a central service for ticket sales and promotion for anime, manga, and video game events in Japan. (Press release)

1 last thing: Animenomics expertise recognized in 2025

Amid a tumultuous year in the entertainment business in 2025, Animenomics regularly provided expert analysis of the evolving anime and manga business, which continues to become increasingly global and complex.

Driving the story: A story we ran in February about the end of duty exemptions on low-value imports to the United States and its potential impact on Japanese anime merchandise was chosen by the Los Angeles Press Club earlier this year as a finalist in the 18th National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards.

• Animenomics was interviewed throughout the year by media outlets like BBC News, Screen Daily, and The Japan Times.

• Our reporting was also cited by publications like Variety, Semafor, and Anime News Network.

One big thing: Animenomics began publishing stories by outside contributors this year and conducted interviews with company and studio executives, with more to come in 2026.

• Reporters interested in writing for Animenomics should review our submissions guide.

By the numbers: Over 2,000 people started subscribing to Animenomics in the last 12 months, and paid subscribers have grown from 24 to 50.

• Monthly views peaked in August thanks to a crowded publication schedule that included 4 newsletter issues for free subscribers and 5 issues for paid subscribers.

An appeal: Consider upgrading to a paid subscription to keep Animenomics going in the new year. Thank you!

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In case you missed it: Crunchyroll this month began streaming in the Indian market all eight anime films by director Makoto Shinkai, including Hindi-language dubs of Your Name, Weathering with You, and Suzume.

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New app store law could benefit digital manga market

Japan’s digital manga market stands to benefit from a mobile app store antitrust law starting Monday that allows developers to sidestep Apple’s and Google’s 15–30 percent app store fees by directing users to their own websites to make purchases.

Why it matters: Promoting off-app payments could allow digital manga platforms to keep more revenue from users amid slowing growth as a result of the digital manga market reaching maturity.

• The law is already expected to boost the average operating profit of mobile gaming companies like Bandai Namco and CyberAgent by as much as 6 percent, the Nikkei financial newspaper reports.

By the numbers: Japan’s 50 highest-earning mobile apps for reading manga earned a cumulative ¥200 billion (US$1.3 billion) in revenue in 2024, according to estimates by entertainment researcher Atsuo Nakayama based on data from mobile analytics firms Sensor Tower and AppMagic.

• These mobile apps, whose primary business model is the sale of points or coins that users can spend to purchase newly published manga chapters, stand apart from web-based platforms that sell digital manga.

• “In Japan, the players in the [manga] application market and mobile web market are very different from one another,” Sinbae Kim, chief growth officer at LINE Digital Frontier, operator of the LINE Manga mobile app, told Animenomics in July.

Yes, but: Developers that choose to support off-app payments would need to spend additional money to develop and promote a web store and build relationships with payment processors.

• They would also be responsible for user data storage and security according to Japan’s information security regulations.

Friction point: Three out of five Japanese mobile app users surveyed by mobile app marketing firm Repro say they aren’t aware of off-app payments, potentially creating a substantial adoption hurdle for manga app developers.

• While more than half of survey respondents would be interested in using off-app payments because of the potential cost savings, the same ratio of respondents is concerned about data security when making purchases outside apps.

Japan sees an excess of secondhand anime merchandise

Japan faces a glut of anime merchandise from the convergence in anime’s production boom and the surge of the oshikatsu economy, leading to excess stock at secondhand anime merchandise stores.

Driving the story: Last month, the Osaka branch of the K-Books chain of used goods stores specializing in anime and manga merchandise said it would stop purchases and sales of secondhand items for more than a dozen anime and video game properties.

• The list includes titles like The Quintessential Quintuplets, My Dress-Up Darling, and Blue Archive, which comes as a surprise since many of these have become popular only within the last five years.

What’s happening: Anime merchandise, which was once sold only in specialty stores, can now be found in convenience stores, pop-up stores, ¥100 shops, and more retail outlets, the Daily Shincho news outlet reports.

• Acrylic plates printed with anime characters, priced affordably in the ¥1,000–2,000 (US$6–13) range, have also grown in popularity over the last decade, leading manufacturers to produce them abundantly.

• Products sold in blind boxes or randomly through lottery have also grown in number, leading to increased sales to secondhand stores by consumers who end up receiving a product they aren’t interested in.

Zoom out: With more than 300 individual anime titles aired every year, the lifecycle of the average anime series is also becoming shorter, making it more difficult to keep up audience interest before they move on to character merchandise for the next property.

What we’re watching: Japanese households have amassed a cumulative ¥91 trillion (US$585 billion) in used goods, 22 percent of which are hobby and leisure products, according to a survey by e-commerce giant Mercari.

• Seeing the situation as an opportunity to redistribute supply, Mercari earlier this year launched a mobile app that lets consumers abroad buy products like anime merchandise that are listed on its domestic secondhand goods marketplace.

• Mercari’s app launched first in Taiwan and Hong Kong and plans to launch in the United States in the spring of 2026.

Clippings: ‘Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle’ ends China run

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle’s first anime film ended its planned theatrical run in China last week amid political tensions between Tokyo and Beijing, earning a total of CN¥677 million (US$96 million) in 28 days. (Kyodo News via The Mainichi)

• Infinity Castle’s box office earnings make it the third highest-grossing anime film ever released in China, after Suzume and Your Name.

Voice actor agency 81 Produce and speech synthesis technology firm ElevenLabs are partnering on an effort to convert anime and other Japanese-language programs into other languages with permission from rightsholders. (ITmedia)

Osaka-based Round One’s gaming arcades with anime-related prizes are bringing new life to empty shopping malls in the United States. Profit margin of the company’s U.S. business exceeds that of the domestic Japanese business. (Nikkei Asia)

NTT Solmare’s MangaPlaza digital manga service in North America is entering print publishing with three original romance titles from its Japanese imprint C’moA Comics, to be printed and distributed by printing giant Dai Nippon Printing. (Press release)

• Backgrounder: As previously reported by Animenomics, MangaPlaza serves a predominantly female audience, and the move signals NTT Solmare’s growing confidence in the demand for female-oriented manga in print in the United States.

TV Asahi screened its Indo-Japanese joint production of Obocchama-kun in Japan for the first time last weekend at the inaugural Aichi Nagoya International Animation Film Festival. (Mantanweb)

Singapore and Malaysia are cracking down on undeclared imports of Pokémon cards that exceed air travelers’ duty-free allowance limits as the value of the trading cards surges worldwide. (South China Morning Post)

Toho CEO touts vertical integration in anime as strength

“Compared to other sectors, anime and IP are currently growth areas within the entertainment industry. We also want to focus our efforts there, so we’re receiving quite a few [merger and acquisition] proposals from those areas and are actively considering them. However, it isn’t to the extent that we feel it absolutely has to be this particular company or that this specific area is lacking in our company. We’re actually looking at things quite broadly.”

— Hiroyasu Matsuoka, Toho chief executive officer

Context: Matsuoka, in an interview with business media outlet Pivot, recognizes that a business like Toho is rare around the world because not many countries allow vertical integration across film production, distribution, and exhibition.

• What he’s saying: He considers Toho’s integrated approach to IP as its strength, allowing the company to adapt Spy × Family (whose anime adaptation it funded) and Spirited Away (whose film it distributes) into stage productions.

• “More and more people are learning what we can do with an integrated approach and are considering teaming up with Toho,” Matsuoka said. “As a result, I think Toho’s presence in the anime industry is gradually becoming more apparent.”

What’s next: Toho is also moving into merchandising, this week establishing a 60–40 joint venture with character figurine maker Good Smile Company, giving the company the ability to develop, make, and distribute products from its own anime IPs.

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In case you missed it: I spoke with The Japan Times recently about potential impacts of the latest political spat between China and Japan on anime exports to the world’s second-largest movie market.

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Warner Bros. sale includes 20 years’ worth of anime IPs

Warner Bros. Entertainment, the streaming and studios half of Hollywood media and entertainment giant Warner Bros. Discovery, has spent the last two decades investing in Japan, but a possible sale of the company could impact dozens of anime titles in its portfolio.

What’s happening: Warner Bros. Entertainment said last week that it will sell itself to video streaming giant Netflix after a pending break-up of Warner Bros. Discovery, but it now faces a hostile takeover bid by rival conglomerate Paramount Skydance for all of Warner Bros. Discovery’s assets.

What’s at stake: Since the mid-2000s, Warner Bros. has invested in around 90 anime titles in Japan, including leading production committees for popular shows like JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and Record of Ragnarok.

• “As part of our strategy to bring Japanese creative content globally, we currently release four to five titles per year, but we plan to further expand this number in the future,” Warner Bros. Discovery Japan general manager Buddy Marini told the Keizaikai business magazine earlier this year.

• An analysis of production committees of anime aired in 2022–2023, published at Tokyo’s Comic Market last year, found that Warner Bros. Japan is ranked among the top ten companies that lead the most anime production committees.

What we’re watching: A successful sale of Warner Bros. to Netflix would significantly expand the streamer’s owned anime IP catalog and reduce licensing costs, though it’s uncertain how rising investments in anime at Warner Bros. would square with Netflix’s shift to funding fewer of its own anime productions.

• “If Netflix buys Warner Bros., they’ll almost certainly reduce their output compared to the before times,” Entertainment Strategy Guy, a highly respected and anonymous Hollywood expert, hypothesized in his newsletter.

• Netflix would also gain the Warner Bros.-owned streaming service HBO Max, which has an exclusive partnership with anime film distributor GKIDS to stream films by Studio Ghibli and other iconic anime directors in North America.

• Conversely, a sale to the other bidder would instantly make Paramount Skydance a major player in anime production and distribution despite the company never having invested in the anime industry.

The bigger picture: In Japan, the prospect of Warner Bros. properties and HBO Max titles joining Netflix threatens recent gains made by domestic streaming video leader U-NEXT, which hosts HBO Max titles in the country today.

• “Looking at Japan’s media and content industry, if one foreign company becomes too powerful, it could potentially destroy others. In fact, in South Korea, Netflix has become a monopoly, dealing a blow to the broadcasting and film industries. I think Japanese companies need to work together to create an axis of opposition,” U-NEXT chief executive officer Yasuhide Uno told Kyodo News agency last month.

Clippings: Sony plans anime, game stablecoin payments

Sony Financial Group’s banking unit will issue a United States dollar-denominated cryptocurrency known as a stablecoin in 2026, with plans for the coins to be used to pay for anime and video games in Sony’s ecosystem. (Nikkei Asia)

• Why it matters: The combination of consumer reach and media infrastructure makes Sony’s stablecoin stand out against other corporate-issued stablecoins, Payment Expert reports.

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle’s first anime film picked up a Best Animated Motion Picture nomination in the 83rd Golden Globe Awards, the first time a franchise anime film has been selected over an auteur-driven standalone feature. (Cartoon Brew)

Crunchyroll will end ad-supported on-demand streaming at the end of the year. The company still has several free ad-supported streaming television channels on services like YouTube Primetime Channels and Samsung TV Plus. (Anime News Network)

Dōjinshi retailer Melonbooks will open its first store outside Japan in Taiwan later this month, selling self-published adult manga from both markets, as well as anime merchandise and books from local publishers. (Otaku Lab)

Japan’s government plans to form a consortium of manga industry, government, and academic entities to fund and create a unified digital platform for distributing manga to foreign markets. (The Yomiuri Shimbun)

Japan’s oshikatsu spending on fandom experiences and merchandise shows little sign of retreating despite concerns about inflation among consumers. (Bloomberg Opinion)

Takaichi appeals to Saudi investors with anime, manga

“Just shut your mouths and invest everything in me!”

— Sanae Takaichi, Japanese prime minister, to investors from Saudi Arabia

Context: Takaichi ended her address to attendees of a Saudi investment summit in Tokyo last week with a reference to an exclamation by Attack on Titan protagonist Eren Yeager, anchoring Tokyo’s invitation for Saudi investors on the country’s love for Japan’s manga and anime.

• Reality check: As previously reported by Animenomics, despite a push by Saudi Arabian companies to form collaborations with anime and manga properties, rightsholders as a whole are in no rush to welcome Saudi money.

1 chart to go: Kadokawa dominates light novel rankings

Takarajimasha has published its annual rankings of the best light novel serials of the past year, with titles published by Kadokawa’s imprints dominating both the bunko (mass-market paperback) and tankōbon (large paperback and hardcover) categories.

Zoom in: This year marks ten years since Takarajimasha published a special edition that ranked user-generated web novels, and the light novel industry has now fully embraced web novels as sources of original stories to be turned into printed books.

• Shōsetsuka ni Narō remains the dominant platform where publishers seek out web novels to acquire, but publishers have also begun to set up their own web novel platforms in recent years.

• As previously reported by Animenomics, these web novel sites are now contending with a growing number of works that are generated using artificial intelligence.

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In case you missed it: Seven anime titles are up for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category of the 98th Academy Awards, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced last month.

• They are Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc (screened in the United States, as required by award eligibility rules, by Sony Pictures), ChaO (GKIDS), Colorful Stage! The Movie: A Miku Who Can’t Sing (GKIDS), Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle (Sony Pictures), Dragon Heart: Adventures Beyond This World (Entertainment Studios), 100 Meters (GKIDS), and Scarlet (Sony Pictures).

• Zoom out: Eligible anime-adjacent titles include China’s The Legend of Hei 2 (GKIDS) and South Korea’s Lost in Starlight (Netflix).

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Web novel sites respond to rise in AI-generated works

Japanese user-generated web novel platforms are contending with a growing number of works that are generated with artificial intelligence, creating a dilemma for the publishing and production companies that adapt them into manga, anime, and films.

Why it matters: Web novels has grown rapidly in the last decade as a source of new and original content that anime and manga companies can scour for potential entertainment IPs.

• The Apothecary Diaries, which has become a flagship anime at Toho with three seasons and a film, originated as a web novel on the Shōsetsuka ni Narō platform.

What’s happening: AlphaPolis, a manga and light novel publisher which operates its own user-generated web novel platform, last month moved to prohibit AI-generated works from being entered into contests.

• Publishers rely on these contests to identify works that can be turned into manga and eventually into anime. AlphaPolis has at least eight such anime adaptations planned for 2026 and beyond.

• Another platform, Tales, will suppress AI-generated works that are uploaded in mass and prevent them for dominating user rankings.

Rewind: Such restrictions were introduced following an incident in October, where a web novel generated using AI placed at the top of the daily rankings of Kakuyomu, Kadokawa’s user-generated web novel platform.

• It wasn’t the first instance of an AI-generated novel ranking first on Kakuyomu—a different work also placed first in July—but readers quickly discovered that the creator was serializing 38 AI-generated novels simultaneously three times a day.

Friction point: “As AI becomes more widespread, even authors who have previously refrained from using AI will likely start using it. Naturally, what lies ahead is a world flooded with massive amounts of AI-generated novels,” Seiichiro Hayakawa, an anime commentator and scenario writer, hypothesizes in a column for Magmix.

• Following the commotion on Kakuyomu, Hayakawa himself sought to test the limits of AI web novel generation and published 120 works in a single day on the platform.

• He contends that if 100 web novel creators were to match his output daily, the platforms would quickly become paralyzed with the sheer volume of new works released daily, and readers would stop using the platforms.

Hosoda’s ‘Scarlet’ underperforms in box office debut

Anime director Mamoru Hosoda’s film Scarlet earned a disappointing ¥210 million (US$1.35 million) in its weekend debut in Japanese cinemas last month, a contrast to the ¥890 million (US$5.72 million) earned during Belle’s first three days in 2021.

Why it matters: Scarlet’s producers had ambitious goals for the film. Studio Chizu president Yuichiro Saito told Nikkei Entertainment! magazine that he wants the film to win an Academy Award.

• On Monday, box office sales data provider Kogyo Tsushinsha showed that Scarlet had fallen out of the top ten weekend box office rankings just one week after its debut.

Zoom in: Nippon Television, Japan’s most powerful commercial television network and a longtime financial backer of Hosoda’s anime films, had thrown its weight into advertising Scarlet but to little effect.

• Ahead of Scarlet’s release, Nippon TV broadcasted Hosoda’s four previous films on its flagship Friday Roadshow programming block, a strategy the network has used for Studio Ghibli film releases.

• “It’s a project that pushed us past our limits,” Nippon TV film producer Toshimi Tanio told the Nikkei Entertainment! magazine.

What happened: “Television stations no longer have the power to make a film a hit,” media consultant Osamu Sakai writes in a column for Toyo Keizai Online.

• Investments by Japanese television broadcasters in the domestic film industry in the 2000s helped push domestic films to outearn Hollywood films by the end of the decade, but that power is waning.

• A number of Japanese moviegoers on the social media platform X noted empty theaters as they attended screenings of Scarlet.

• “It seems that no matter how hard Nippon TV promotes a film, it can easily be defeated by word of mouth,” Sakai observes, pointing to negative reviews about Scarlet on social media.

What we’re watching: How Scarlet will perform abroad when it opens in several East Asian markets next week.

Clippings: Kadokawa acquires Singapore event company

Publishing giant Kadokawa acquired an 80-percent stake in Singapore-based Anime Festival Asia organizer SOZO, giving the publisher access to live events and direct-to-consumer channels with which to grow its Southeast Asia footprint. (Press release)

• Between the lines: Japanese talent agency HoriPro, a longtime business partner of SOZO, will retain a small stake in the company, but Aniplex parent Sony Music Entertainment Japan no longer holds shares despite investing in SOZO in 2015.

• Go deeper: Kadokawa’s venture into publishing and merchandising in Indonesia, next door to Singapore

Angoulême International Comics Festival’s 2026 edition is cancelled after hundreds of artists and dozens of publishers and funders withdrew attendance and support over allegations of mismanagement, lack of financial transparency, and the mishandling of a rape complaint at the festival’s operating entity. (Le Monde)

• Manga artists and publishers have increased their prominence at Angoulême in recent years, and the 2026 edition planned to include exhibitions on art by horror manga artist Kazuo Umezz and art from Hitoshi Iwaaki’s Parasyte.

Twin Engine, the anime production planning firm founded by former Fuji Television anime producer Koji Yamamoto, is entering the manga publishing business and plans to manage its titles all the way to anime adaptations. (Comic Natalie)

China’s film regulator has frozen approvals of several Japanese anime and live-action films in a dispute between the two countries’ governments over Taiwan, though Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle has avoided being pulled from theaters. (Bloomberg)

Cloud computing company Cloudflare must pay Japan’s top four manga publishers ¥500 million (US$3.2 million) for providing servers to manga piracy websites, Tokyo District Court ruled last month. Cloudflare said it plans to appeal. (The Japan Times)

Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs plans to develop an artificial intelligence system to detect pirated manga content online and automate creation of deletion requests and issuance of warnings to content providers. (The Yomiuri Shimbun)

Light anime could boost sales at small manga publishers

“Compared to a late-night anime series that takes hundreds of millions of yen and more than three years to produce, light anime can be made for about one-fifth of that cost, and in less than a year from planning. Data has shown that the sales growth rate of the original book or manga remains the same. In fact, the short production period of less than a year could be considered to have the benefit of mutual customer referrals, as the anime can be made at a time when the work is popular.”

— Kiya Maeda, Imagica Infos president

Context: Maeda, in an interview with The Bunka News weekly newspaper, says that the light anime production process that his anime production company co-developed with Dai Nippon Printing has been beneficial for small manga publishers looking to invest in anime without taking on big risks.

• Catch up quick: Light anime production adds motion to manga and webtoon panels without needing to create drawings from scratch, reducing the burden on human resources and speeding up time to broadcast.

• “There is a now growing disparity in production costs. While large-scale anime recoup their investments through overseas expansion, light anime are smaller in scale and shorter in length, so the investment is lower,” Maeda highlighted.

• The intrigue: “Some works are able to fully recoup their investment through domestic streaming alone,” he added.

Disclosure: This story has been updated to add more context about how light anime production works.

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Programming note: Animenomics will be on break next week. The next issue will hit inboxes on Wednesday, December 3.

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CyberAgent founder picks head of anime as successor

CyberAgent founder and chief executive Susumu Fujita plans to turn over the reins of the digital advertising and entertainment company to Takahiro Yamauchi, a 19-year veteran of the company and the head of its anime and IP business division.

Why it matters: Fujita’s selection of Yamauchi, who was picked to lead CyberAgent’s anime and IP division last year, reflects the company’s transformation from a digital advertising agency to an entertainment company in the last five years

Catch up quick: As previously reported by Animenomics, CyberAgent is feeling the urgency to diversify its business as the digital advertising industry faces an uncertain future.

• Following the financial success of Umamusume: Pretty Derby’s mobile game and anime at its Cygames video game development affiliate, CyberAgent sought to replicate Umamusume’s success at a group level.

• Since then, the company has acquired visual novel development studio Nitroplus and recruited veteran producers from Bandai Namco and WIT STUDIO to lead new anime studio subsidiaries.

• Last year, CyberAgent won a joint bid to lead a production an anime production committee for Shueisha’s Kagurabachi manga with film production giant Shochiku.

Zoom in: CyberAgent’s year-end financial results presentation last week reported that its media and IP business, which also includes the Abema streaming television service, posted its first profitable year since launch in 2015.

• Yamauchi, who was appointed Abema’s chief operating officer two years ago, was also instrumental in turning around the service to become profitable.

Japanese children manga access falls with print manga

Increasing bookstore closures around Japan plus the need to use a credit card to buy digital manga mean fewer Japanese children are interacting with manga on a day-to-day basis now than in the past, says a board director at manga publisher Kodansha.

Why it matters: This reality facing the domestic manga market has pushed Kodansha to use its manga properties to move into anime and merchandising to create new fan touchpoints, Hirotoshi Kurita, also a former Weekly Shonen Magazine editor-in-chief, told the magazine of the Japan Business Federation (the Keidanren).

Rewind: As previously reported by Animenomics, Kodansha has invested in efforts to bring more of its manga properties into cinemas, like rivals Shogakukan and Shueisha.

• In the fiscal year that ended in November 2024, Kodansha’s revenue from rights sales abroad climbed 14.5 percent year-over-year, driven by growth in sales of anime film rights and merchandising rights, The Bunka News newspaper reports.

• Revenues from license rights sales have also jumped at other manga publishers as interest in rights for secondary use grow at home and abroad.

Zoom out: Kurita, who oversees Kodansha’s global strategy, wants the proportion of digital manga sales at the company to grow beyond 10 percent, but online piracy is a challenge to that vision.

• “Even though we know there is a demand [for digital manga], pirated copies prevent the formation of a market,” he observed.

What we’re watching: Whether a push toward digital manga sales in North America—if the fight against online piracy is successful—could leave out young readers like in Japan despite a growing need for middle grade manga in places like the United States.

Clippings: ‘Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle’ a hit in China

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle’s first installment earned an estimated CN¥381 million (US$53.6 million) in its opening weekend in Chinese cinemas, and attendance was the biggest for an anime film since The First Slam Dunk in 2023. (ETtoday)

• It likely won’t surpass Suzume’s box office record in China, according to ticket sales forecasts, but the bookings were enough to make Infinity Castle the first Japanese film to earn more than ¥100 billion (US$690 million) worldwide.

San Francisco-based manga startup KiraKira Media renamed its Azuki digital manga service, originally launched in 2021, to Omoi due to “brand confusion” with the former name being used by other companies. (Anime News Network)

• Between the lines: United States Patent and Trademark Office records reviewed by Animenomics found that KiraKira Media reassigned its Azuki trademark to Los Angeles-based web3 content studio Azuki Labs as part of a settlement agreement that the companies signed in May.

• KiraKira Media, which received the Azuki trademark in 2022, opposed Azuki Labs’s three trademark applications for the Azuki name in other categories in 2023, and the companies took the next 18 months to negotiate the settlement.

• KiraKira Media licensing and marketing director Evan Minto declined to comment on the details of the settlement. Azuki Labs chief executive officer Alex Xu didn’t respond to questions sent by Animenomics.

Webtoon Entertainment will select ten Korean- and English-language webtoon titles to be adapted by Hollywood animation studio Warner Bros. Animation with help from teams at subsidiaries Webtoon Productions and LINE Digital Frontier. (Deadline)

• Our thought bubble: Webtoon’s declining global readership—down 8.5 percent year-over-year for the quarter ended in September—continues to be a challenge for the company, as noted earlier this year, and this deal is an investment bet to draw curious readers down the road.

Manga’s Arab readership is growing, but the lack of Arabic-language releases has pushed readers in the United Arab Emirates to instead purchase English and Japanese editions. (Gulf News)

Anime studio DLE has been creating “alternative anime” productions with medium-quality animations that focus on shorter delivery times to producers and rightsholders using know-how from anime’s Flash animation era. (Otaku Lab)

Docomo Anime Store’s anime subscription video on-demand platform ranked first in a customer satisfaction survey of more than 8,800 Japanese streaming platform users, the second year in a row the service has ranked first among anime streamers. (Oricon)

Bandai Namco executive seeks focus on end customers

“What matters [in the content business] is how much royalty income flows back to Japan through IP licensing. Since the business model is fan-based, maximizing IP licensing royalty revenue is key. What we should truly focus on isn’t the export value of anime or video games themselves, but rather the total end-user market value: how much money fans worldwide ultimately spend on products and services born from that IP.”

— Nobuhiko Momoi, Bandai Namco Holdings executive vice president

Context: Momoi, Bandai Namco’s second-in-command, argues in an interview with the monthly magazine of the Japan Business Federation that the government’s latest plan to support anime, manga, video games, and other entertainment sectors should be measured by more than just exports.

• What he’s saying: “[Content’s] complex, multi-layered business structure involves distribution, secondary use, and related businesses, making it difficult to gauge the overseas market size and economic impact,” Momoi explained.

• He favors a ground-up approach of calculating the overseas market based on the royalty rate and income that Japanese IP licensors receive from sales to retail consumers abroad.

Manga SaaS startup to launch English platform in 2026

Tokyo-based manga technology startup Comici plans to launch an English-language manga reading platform in 2026, founder and chief executive officer Daisaku Manda announced at last week’s International MANGA Assembly Reiwa Toshima.

Why it matters: Comici is best known domestically as the developer of the Comici+ software-as-a-service platform that allows smaller manga publishers to build hosted digital manga services without needing to build their own web infrastructure.

• The company also has a direct-to-consumer platform that allows webtoon and manga creators to publish their works directly to readers.

The details: It’s unclear which version of the platform Comici plans to create in English, but company plans to launch its service in North and South America, Europe, and Southeast Asia.

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In case you missed it: Animate Girls Festival, a large-scale event centered on otome content—anime, manga, and video games aimed at women—drew a record 168,775 visitors to Tokyo’s Ikebukuro neighborhood last weekend.

• Why it matters: The event, which is in its 16th year, is an annual demonstration of female fans’ buying power in Japan’s anime, manga, and video game fandom.

• Japanese women spend an estimated 36 percent more on fan merchandise than men, according to a recent survey by marketing research firm GEM Partners.

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Kadokawa writes down ¥3 billion Doga Kobo acquisition

Kadokawa is writing down last year’s nearly ¥3 billion (US$19.4 million) acquisition of Doga Kobo, the studio responsible for animating the hit anime series Oshi no Ko, the publishing giant told investors last week.

Why it matters: Kadokawa’s move reflects a broader challenge in the anime industry with calculating the value of studios that make anime but have no ownership stake in the intellectual property rights for those titles.

Catch up quick: Kadokawa said in an annual securities report filed in June that it paid a premium of nearly ¥2.9 billion (US$18.8 million) for Doga Kobo—reflecting expectations around the studio’s reputation, creative potential, and future earnings—but it’s now writing down that value by ¥2.7 billion (US$17.5 million).

What they’re saying: “This goodwill impairment recorded as an extraordinary loss does not indicate any concerns about the future of [Kadokawa’s] studio business,” the company assured analysts at its quarterly financial results presentation.

• In choosing to continue to operate Doga Kobo as a subsidiary rather than closing it, Kadokawa signals a commitment to building sustainable studio economics.

• “Our strategy is to increase profitability by centralizing indirect costs and non-creative expenses [across seven studios],” the company said during its financial results presentation.

Zoom in: Earlier this year, the publisher established an anime studio business division to improve operations in the group’s seven anime studios, Doga Kobo included.

• “While leveraging each studio’s specialized strengths to enhance production capabilities, we are also streamlining management and back-office functions across all companies,” chief studio officer Takeshi Kikuchi said in an interview published in Kadokawa’s annual integrated report.

• Kadokawa also plans to optimize the studios’ personnel management operations and bring in its education business to help with recruitment.

Anime studio closures reach highest level since 2018

Japanese anime studio bankruptcies and closures for the first nine months of the year are at their highest level since 2018, according to an analysis of corporate data by the Teikoku Databank credit reporting agency.

Why it matters: Despite the anime market’s continued expansion, “production sites are falling into a state of ‘busyness without profits’, unable to pass on rising costs to prices,” writes Teikoku Databank researcher Daisuke Iijima, the report’s author.

Where things stand: More than three years have passed since the Japanese yen started rapidly depreciating against the United States dollar, putting pressure on anime studios that rely on foreign outsourced labor.

• Because an anime can take three to four years to make from the time agreements with production partners are signed, there may be some anime productions today whose contracts are still based on exchange rates when the yen was stronger.

• When producers hire anime studios as domestic primary contractors, these lead studios are paid in yen, and they become responsible for filling the gap in foreign labor expenses that are denominated in dollars.

• The two primary contractor studios that became insolvent this year—Ekachi Epilka and Cloud Hearts—were known to rely heavily on outsourced labor.

Between the lines: Further analysis of 72 anime studios that have closed since 2016 found that about 70 percent were smaller studios that specialized in specific tasks, like in-between animation, coloring, and 3D CG production.

• While these smaller studios primarily operate within the country, some domestic material and labor costs have also risen the past couple of years.

• Some anime industry observers also point to Japan’s continued phasing out of consumption tax reporting exemptions for small businesses as a possible cause of specialty anime studios choosing to close voluntarily.

Clippings: ‘Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle’ opens in China

Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle’s first anime film arrives in cinemas in mainland China on Friday, where first-day ticket presales have already exceeded CN¥50 million (US$7 million). (Gamebiz)

• If Infinity Castle earns more than CN¥807 million (US$113 million) over the course of its run, it will surpass Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume to become the highest-grossing Japanese anime film ever released in China.

Japanese entertainment companies are driving gains in profits in nonmanufacturing sectors for the six months ended in September, buoyed by low exposure to tariffs by the United States. (Nikkei Asia)

• Four of the country’s five top commercial broadcasters also reported higher sales and profits thanks to strong sales of their programming IP portfolios abroad, the Nikkei financial newspaper reports.

Otaku USA magazine, the last remaining anime news magazine in North America, is moving to a twice-yearly publishing schedule, nearly two years after the periodical first switched from a bimonthly schedule to a quarterly one. (Anime News Network)

Kadokawa plans to appoint an executive officer to oversee manga and light novels separately from general publications after operating profit fell 94 percent year-over-year in the combined publishing business from April through September. (Otaku Lab)

Cool Japan Fund has invested US$10 million in Singapore-based apparel company Coolmate, which primarily operates and manufactures in Vietnam, to expand sales and development of merchandise that use anime and manga characters. (Press release)

Neopage targets Japanese romance web novel readers

Neopage, a web novel platform launched last year with a ¥3 billion (US$19.4 million) investment from a Hong Kong firm, is using its founder’s Chinese market expertise to develop emerging genres in Japan’s web novel market.

Why it matters: As previously reported by Animenomics, Japan’s web novel market is dominated by isekai fantasy titles where a protagonist is transported to or reborn in a fantasy world, crowding out other genres.

• Many of these isekai fantasy web novels are acquired by Japanese publishers and are eventually adapted into anime.

What’s happening: Neopage wants to grow the market for romance and boys’ love web novels, which are popular in the Chinese market but underrepresented in Japan, The Bunka News reports.

• “Similar to BL, [female-oriented romance] is a highly popular genre in Japan for manga and short dramas, but in web novels, the number of works is low, and the market is still very small,” Yasuhiro Kawabata, who oversees Neopage promotion and marketing in Japan, told the publication.

• The company envisions successful titles being adapted into short dramas and audio media, creating IPs that can be exported outside Japan.

By the numbers: Some romance novels published on Neopage have already earned more than ¥1 million (US$6,500), showing the potential for the genre.

• The company has contracts with 400 writers and has paid a total of ¥100 million (US$647,000) in manuscript fees as of October.

• In order to continue growing its catalog of romance titles, Neopage is focused on recruiting Japanese housewives and young women demographics.

Backgrounder: Neopage’s founder is Ivan Luo, one of the founders of Chinese web novel platform Qidian and also a former executive at Tencent-backed web publishing giant China Literature.

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In case you missed it: Japanese booksellers will get access to new book and manga charts from Billboard Japan on Thursday, The Yomiuri Shimbun reports, with the data being made available to the general public for a fee starting next month.

• As previously reported by Animenomics, they will be Japan’s first book charts to measure digital readership, data that has been missing despite digital manga’s growing importance in the country’s e-book and broader publishing market.

• General manager Seiji Isozaki also told The Bunka News in August that Billboard Japan plans to release rankings showing Japanese book and manga titles that are popular abroad starting in 2026.

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Anime revenues abroad jump as domestic sales stagnate

Growth in overseas revenues of Japan’s anime industry accelerated in 2024 compared to the previous year, climbing 26 percent, the third consecutive year of double-digit growth, according to an annual analysis by the Association of Japanese Animations.

Why it matters: Anime’s global market expanded 14.8 percent at the second fastest annual growth rate since 2019, when it grew 15.3 percent.

• A global surge since the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a 75 percent jump in overseas revenues since 2020, while domestic revenues grew 41 percent.

By the numbers: Overseas spending on licensed anime content and products stood at ¥2.17 trillion (US$14.1 billion) in 2024.

• With international licensing deals being transacted in United States dollars, the anime industry also benefits heavily from recent depreciation of the Japanese yen.

• Between 2020 and 2024, the yen depreciated about 30 percent against the dollar, allowing international buyers to increase product offerings for a surging fandom.

Yes, but: At home, there is concern that anime’s domestic market is stagnating after showing just a 2.8 percent annual revenue growth to ¥1.67 trillion (US$10.8 billion).

• Taking into account Japan’s average headline inflation rate of 2.7 percent in 2024—inflation in culture and recreation was even higher at 5.4 percent—it’s likely that the domestic anime market was flat or even shrank.

• “One reason is that program sales to television stations, which have sustained the market until now, have plateaued,” anime journalist Atsushi Matsumoto wrote in a column this week.

• “Furthermore […] while new content acquisitions remain robust on domestic and international platforms, the procurement of older catalog titles appears to have largely run its course,” he added.

Between the lines: Studios and production companies that make anime saw total revenue growth of 9.1 percent, slower than the broader market that includes product sales.

• As previously reported by Animenomics, an analysis by credit reporting agency Teikoku Databank done earlier this year showed that studios’ revenue growth is increasingly concentrated in larger establishments.

• “The domestic anime production scene faces a chronic shortage of personnel, and domestic production capacity is already nearing its limits,” Matsumoto explained.

Toei Animation plans new anime studios outside Japan

Toei Animation will establish additional animation studios in Southeast Asia by 2030, the company said last week as it laid out an ambitious plan for doubling revenue and operating profit in the next five years.

Why it matters: The formation of two or three new studios in the region is expected to increase the number of Toei Animation’s anime production lines by 50 percent over today’s level.

The bigger picture: As previously reported by Animenomics, Southeast Asia has seen a surge of investment in recent years, allowing the region to exert influence on global anime productions.

• Toei Animation has had a presence in Southeast Asia since 1992, when it entered into an animation joint venture with a Philippine company.

• The Manila studio, in which Toei Animation took full ownership in 1999, already handles about 70 percent of the company’s animation production workload today.

Zoom in: Toei Animation plans to spend an estimated ¥24 billion (US$156 million) in the next five years to establish the new studios, staff them, and invest in digital work processes.

• Earlier this year, the company established a new studio in Osaka to diversify its domestic workforce away from the flagship studio in Oizumi, Tokyo.

• It will also invest an estimated ¥70 billion (US$455 million) in IP production and ¥39 billion (US$254 million) international licensing and distribution.

The intrigue: Toei Animation has also set a long-term goal of achieving ¥500 billion (US$3.25 billion) in revenue beyond 2030, more than the estimated combined revenue of all Japanese anime production companies in 2024 just announced by the AJA.

• “If the mid-term management plan targets and long-term goals are achieved, the landscape of Japan’s anime business is set to change dramatically,” anime journalist Tadashi Sudo writes in the Animation Business Journal.

Clippings: Kodansha forms Hollywood live-action studio

Publishing giant Kodansha established a Hollywood live-action film and television studio named Kodansha Studios that will adapt the publisher’s manga and novel titles with the help of Academy Award-winning filmmaker Chloé Zhao. (Nikkan Sports)

Anime and manga publishers are warning Silicon Valley technology firm OpenAI that they are prepared to challenge it in court for any unauthorized use of characters by the Sora 2 text-to-video generative artificial intelligence model. (The Asahi Shimbun)

Anime studio CloverWorks has established a new division named Flint Base as a gateway to recruit and train graduating students as in-between animators for up to two years before they continue in their careers. (Press release)

Changsha-based Yoousi, a Chinese animation technology startup that implements artificial intelligence in animation production processes, is setting its sights on the Japanese market following a multimillion-dollar angel funding round. (KrASIA)

Russia’s media watchdog has blocked access to Gaudiy-owned anime and manga community platform MyAnimeList in the country, part of an ongoing effort by the government to restrict the availability of LGBTQ content. (The Moscow Times)

Mitsui Fudosan’s LaLaport shopping center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, has emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic as a retail hub for Japanese anime and games, triggered initially by last year’s opening of a pop-up store by anime retailer Animate. (Gamebiz)

Disney bets on ‘Twisted-Wonderland’ to pull anime fans

“[Disney Twisted-Wonderland: The Animation] will reach markets where the [Disney Twisted-Wonderland] game is already active, such as the United States, Australia, and Singapore. We expect it to also serve as a catalyst for expanding the Disney fan base by attracting new fans in Europe, where anime enjoys high popularity.”

— Gaku Narita, The Walt Disney Company Japan executive director of original content

Context: Narita, in an interview in Nikkei Entertainment! magazine’s December issue, said that Japanese anime is an important part of the Disney+ streaming service’s core strategy and that it’s focusing on local content development.

• Disney Twisted-Wonderland: The Animation, based on the successful mobile game collaboration by Disney Japan and anime production planning company Aniplex, debuted on Disney+ and Hulu streaming services last week.

What’s next: Disney Japan games director Nana Gadd also told the magazine that the company planned from the beginning to develop Disney Twisted-Wonderland beyond games and into merchandise and other media.

• “We hope that more people engaging with [the world of] Twisted-Wonderland will create a cycle where they then try the game,” she explained.

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