Cross-border anime merchandise sales jump
Plus: Gov't backs anime studios joining production committees; Manga abundant in U.S. libraries; Critic reflects on anime's overseas market; and more
This is your weekly Animenomics briefing, covering the business of anime and manga. Today is Wednesday, March 12, 2025.
In case you missed it: A 4K restoration of Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke, the first 4K restoration of a Studio Ghibli film, will debut exclusively in IMAX theaters in the United States and Canada from New York-based anime film distributor GKIDS.
Anime-related transactions rise at proxy buying service
Gross merchandise value of anime-related cross-border purchases made using proxy purchasing service Buyee in 2024 jumped 46 percent year-over-year, service operator Beenos told Japanese media and anime licensing professionals earlier today.
Why it matters: Buyee’s full-year transaction data indicate that there is significant unmet demand overseas for anime merchandise even after the anime market outside Japan surged ahead of the domestic market two years ago.
Entertainment analytics firm Parrot Analytics estimate that anime generated US$14.3 billion in merchandising revenue worldwide in 2023.
By the numbers: Anime-related merchandise accounted for 29 percent of all cross-border purchases made on Buyee in 2024, up four points from the previous year.
Latin America and Southeast Asia, two rapidly emerging markets, saw total value of anime-related purchases jump 58 percent and 44 percent, respectively.
Beenos also told investors last month that total merchandise value processed by Buyee and Tenso.com, a sister service for package forwarding, grew 12.4 percent year-over-year in the October–December quarter to ¥22.7 billion (US$154 million).
Where things stand: One Piece merchandise were the most popular globally among all anime titles that aired in 2024, followed by Chiikawa and Pokémon.
One Piece topped the popularity list in five of the six regional markets tracked by Buyee. Chiikawa was the most popular in East Asia.
Among last year’s new anime IPs, merchandise from Blue Archive the Animation, based on a South Korean role-playing video game, was the most popular globally.
What we’re watching: Beenos said in today’s presentation that, among properties airing their first anime season in the first quarter of 2025, Disney Twisted-Wonderland, Sakamoto Days, and Guilty Gear Strive are expected to see the most cross-border merchandise purchases.
Merchandise from Heaven’s Official Blessing, an anime title produced in China, and Solo Leveling, based on a South Korean webtoon series, recorded large jumps in purchases last year, but Beenos said it hasn’t seen any broad buying trends for Chinese and South Korean properties yet.
Gov’t supports anime studios in production committees
Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, in a meeting of the entertainment and creative industry policy study group, has said that it plans to support efforts by anime studios to join anime production committees.
Why it matters: Production committees own intellectual property rights to the vast majority of anime produced today.
On many anime productions, studios are hired and paid a flat fee as contractors and are unable to collect royalty from profits gained through licensing.
Catch up quick: Proposals for studios to be able to retain a portion of the intellectual property rights of anime they produce have gained momentum since the Japan Research Institute think tank raised the issue in a white paper last year.
As previously reported by Animenomics, profitability has also begun to diverge between large studios that have the means to invest in production committees and cash-strapped smaller studios.
What’s next: METI is expected to formalize its 100-point action plan to support the overseas expansion of Japanese entertainment industries later this month.
Clippings: Most U.S. libraries have manga collections
An estimated 94 percent of libraries in the United States have manga in their collections, according to a survey conducted by Mangasplaining at the 2023 and 2024 annual conferences of the American Library Association. (Yahoo! Japan News)
Shueisha-backed anime distributor REMOW reported ¥1.86 billion (US$12.7 million) in operating losses in the fiscal year ending in October 2024. Net sales rose more than 60 percent year-over-year to ¥1.34 billion (US$9.1 million). (Company Activities Total Research Institute)
Kadokawa’s Book Walker Global manga and light novel platform will be operated by San Antonio, Texas-based digital light novel service J-Novel Club beginning in April following the consolidation of its parent company into Kadokawa’s digital services subsidiary Dwango. (Press release)
Crunchyroll’s localization approaches vary in Asian markets. It didn’t make Tagalog translations because Philippine viewers are comfortable with English, and subtitles are prioritized in Indonesia because of local preference for Japanese audio. (The Nikkei)
Tokyo’s Yoyogi Animation Academy has partnered with anime planning company Starry Cube and Chainsaw Man anime director Ryu Nakamura’s anime production unit Andraft to form the anime studio, Aurora Animation. (Oricon News)
Post-production studio Imagica Lab., which has worked on dozens of anime titles, will reduce its workforce by 28 percent after 94 employees took voluntary retirement offers in a cost-cutting effort. (Gamebiz)
Tokyo-based WWWave Corporation this week quietly launched OceanVeil, a new streaming service in the United States for risqué anime titles. It includes uncensored versions of titles in its catalog in a hidden section of the platform.
Anime’s overseas market evolves over last two decades
“The question of what ‘overseas’ refers to has actually become important in recent years. In the past, it referred to America. Symbolically, Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell topped the Billboard magazine video sales chart, becoming a hot topic. Since Makoto Shinkai came on board, that has changed dramatically. In an interview, Shinkai said that his films are major hits that attract audiences in Asia but are still indies in Europe and America. Europe is somewhat unique, and director [Naoko] Yamada was first recognized at Annecy because her film A Silent Voice dealt with social themes. Of course, her own ‘cinéaste’ side was gradually discovered in the process. I think Yamada will be a regular at Annecy in the future.”
— Nobuaki Doi, animation critic and Hiroshima Animation Season festival producer
Context: Doi, alongside longtime anime industry journalists Tadashi Sudo and Yumiko Watanabe, reflected on artistic and business developments of the last two years of the anime industry. The extensive two-part roundtable discussion was published last week by the Japanese government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs.
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