Toei forms standalone anime IP department
Plus: France pulls back on manga buying; Good Smile Company pauses U.S. merchandise pre-orders; Surveys investigate pirated manga readers; and more
This is your weekly Animenomics briefing, covering the business of anime and manga. Today is Wednesday, April 30, 2025.
In case you missed it: Director Mamoru Hosoda’s upcoming anime film Scarlet will open in theaters in Japan in November with Toho as domestic distributor, followed by a December release in the United States by Sony Pictures.
A previous film of Hosoda’s, Mirai, received a Best Animated Feature nomination at the 91st Academy Awards.
Toei seeks to boost market value with anime production
Toei has elevated its anime development office into a full-fledged department for IP and anime development, the film production and distribution giant said earlier this month.
Why it matters: Toei’s move to establish an anime department independent from its live-action film departments sends a signal that it’s seeking to invest in more anime productions outside of ones made by subsidiary Toei Animation.
Catch up quick: Toei established the anime development office three years ago in order to grow the audience of the company’s anime productions by targeting older viewers, its late CEO told the Nikkei financial newspaper in 2022.
Since the office was formed, Toei has led or joined the production committees of several anime films not made by Toei Animation.
They include Farewell, My Dear Cramer: First Touch, Blue Thermal, To Every You I’ve Loved Before, and To Me, the One Who Loved You.
Between the lines: Thanks to the current global anime boom, Toei Animation has a larger market capitalization than its parent, which creates a dilemma for Toei.
“Toei has been seeking to increase its corporate value, and the company is now finally making a serious commitment to anime and the IP that is generated from it,” anime industry journalist Atsushi Matsumoto wrote in a recent column.
The bigger picture: Toei isn’t the only film production company that is seeking new IPs to drive growth.
As previously reported by Animenomics, rival Toho is turning anime production and licensing into a new business pillar, and Shochiku established a video game business in 2023.
France manga market collapse forces bookstore closures
France is experiencing a wave of bookstore closures around the country as customers pull back from manga purchases after buying them at record levels during the COVID-19 pandemic, national newspaper Le Figaro reports.
Why it matters: One out of every two comic books sold in France is manga, so its decline impacts the rest of the country’s comic book industry, but professionals are struggling to explain why the manga market has collapsed.
By the numbers: Manga sales have fallen by more than 25 percent since its peak of 48 million units and €381 million (US$434 million) in 2022, according to Le Figaro.
Sales in the first quarter of 2025 are already down 14.5 percent year-over-year.
What’s happening: “I see bankruptcies accelerating all around me. Bankruptcy filings have been piling up since 2024, and 2025 could be even worse,” Edmond Tourriol, a comic book author and founder of the comic book studio Makma, wrote on LinkedIn.
Inoku Manga Store, which opened in 2021 in Brive-la-Gaillarde in central France, closed in February after manga sales fell 46 percent and figurine sales fell 78 percent over a year.
Bruno Fermier, delegate general of the comic book shop cooperative Canal BD, told Le Figaro that many stores that opened a second branch over the pandemic specifically to sell manga are now closing.
Zoom out: As previously reported by Animenomics, a pandemic-era stipend for youth spending on cultural activities led to a manga buying boom, but the government has now cut back its funding.
Inoku Manga Store’s manager, Grégory Huau, believes the overproduction of manga—some 150 publications a week—is no longer sustainable as consumers’ purchasing power declines, he told France Télévisions.
What we’re watching: Le Figaro also cites an increase in piracy and the recent end of multiple popular manga titles as contributing factors to falling manga sales in France, but details are light.
Clippings: Good Smile Company pauses U.S. pre-orders
Good Smile Company has suspended anime figurine and merchandise pre-orders on its online store in the United States, operated by Los Angeles-based subsidiary Good Smile Connect, in response the country’s new import tariffs. (Anime Trending)
The company’s international online store based in Japan continues to ship to the United States but is warning customers of potential tariffs for products made in China beginning in May.
South Korea’s government is investing in the country’s animation industry with the establishment of a ₩20 billion (US$14.1 million) production fund, to increase by 2029 to ₩150 billion (US$106 million). (Anime News Network)
Zoom out: South Korean animation is making headlines this month with The King of Kings becoming the highest-grossing South Korean film ever released in North America and Netflix set to distribute its first South Korean animated film.
Continuing trade war between the United States and China could force Chinese firms like anime-focused streaming service Bilibili and video game giant NetEase to delist from U.S. stock exchanges. (Reuters)
Japan’s video streaming market grew 6 percent last year to reach an estimated ¥571 billion (US$4.01 billion), according to the Digital Content Association of Japan’s latest annual streaming market report. (Animation Business Journal)
Japan’s virtual YouTuber revenues in merchandise, live streaming, advertising and copyright licensing, and events grew 31 percent last year to reach an estimated ¥105 billion (US$740 million), according to a new survey. (Yano Research Institute)
Shochiku’s stage theater business will present new kabuki productions based on Touken Ranbu and Lupin III this year in an effort to draw new audiences and restore profit using anime and entertainment IPs. (The Nikkei)
Umamusume: Pretty Derby pre-registrations have opened for the mobile game’s English-language edition release in June. Cygames’s mobile game, also adapted into anime, has earned more than US$2.5 billion in Japan. (PocketGamer.biz)
Surveys investigate attitudes of pirated manga readers
Indonesians have overwhelmingly negative impressions of manga readers who use pirate websites, while Americans have slightly more positive impressions of pirated manga readers, according to a new survey by ABJ and Mobile Marketing Data Labo.
Why it matters: The findings present a challenge for the manga industry as English-language pirated manga websites continue to proliferate.
Nearly 40 percent of the more than 1,200 pirated manga websites identified by anti-piracy organization ABJ in February 2024 hosted content in English.
Zoom in: While Indonesians indicated the ability to read manga in Indonesian as a benefit of pirated manga, about two-thirds are also proficient enough to read manga in English, the survey found.
Indonesian respondents believe better pricing offerings and improved official manga reading services are needed to suppress piracy.
Readers in the United States, while also seeking better pricing, believe publishers need to offer more reading samples and free manga content.
One big thing: A separate qualitative survey done at the end of last year found there is a clear desire to support manga creators, but many readers aren’t aware that manga creators don’t receive payment from pirated manga websites.
Nearly half of U.S. respondents believe manga creators are paid when their works are read on pirated sites. Among Indonesians, the share is around 40 percent.
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Oh, to educate US consumers that they are consuming pirated product where the creator gets nothing. Name and shame?
Or maybe an awareness campaign (by registered providers) that consuming pirated stuff is mean when there are actually ways to compensate creators for their work.