Warner Bros. will Discovery significantly expands its investment and production of Japanese animation through its local studio in Japan.
“We have a Japanese animation studio, which has been producing five or 10 anime series a year, for the past few years,” said James Gibbons, WBD’s president for Asia Pacific. “We have agreed to expand to more than ten chains per year.”
The studio has been operating since 2011 and has delivered over 80 titles in that time, a mix of high-quality anime, live-action series, and films. These include “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure”, which was originally serialized in a manga magazine starting in 1987 and became an anime series launched in 2012, the “Record of Ragnarok” series and the “Batman Ninja” anime film.
“We’ve been selling them to third parties. That’s been one of the metrics. They’re doing very well,” Gibbons said. “So, because we see the appeal of this category, we’re expanding it. Anime is one of the best ways to reach the 18-30 year old audience, which is incredibly elusive. Globally, though not in every market, but certainly in the US and parts of Europe and Latin America, we have a strong audience for anime.
Both “JoJo’s” and “Record of Ragnarok” are currently streaming on Netflix and are ranking strongly, appearing in the top 10 weekly globally.
“There are Japanese anime that come from the original IP. But there are also anime that come from elsewhere. And we looked at our DC universe and said, ‘Can we take these characters and reinvent them in the world of the anime universe,’ which is not an easy thing to do because You have to do it the right way. “You have to work with the right studios to make it happen and build your fan base,” Gibbons said.
The studio is putting the finishing touches on “Suicide Squad ISEKAI,” a new original anime series inspired by DC characters. Produced by Warner Bros. Japan and WIT Studio, the famous Japanese studio behind global anime series such as “Attack on Titan” (Season 1-3) and “Spy x Family”. Directed by Osada Eri from a script by Nagatsuki Tappei, the series will be released in Japan in July, with an entry into international markets at an unconfirmed date near the end of the year.
The story revolves around Amanda Waller, the head of ARGUS, assembling a group of notorious DC criminals like Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Peacemaker, Clayface and King Shark for a mission in another world full of swords and magic and where orcs run rampant and dragons rule the skies. .
“We see strong growth for the genre, increasing its reach and importance not only to Asian audiences but globally,” a WBD spokesperson said.
Gibbons said the group is also keen to play a role in other content categories in Asia. Aside from anime, its priorities include Japanese scripted series “to some extent,” Korean drama series and Chinese-language content.
The executive explained that K-dramas are a known quantity and have “well-defined prices” for the rights. “Korean content is a very important category, a really important part of streaming in the Asia-Pacific region and, increasingly, around the world (..) but it is a mature market. So, the way we get there will be different compared to, “For example, Chinese content, which is a much newer category. (Chinese shows represent) a smaller percentage of consumption in the Asia-Pacific region right now. But it is growing very quickly in certain markets.”
The group plans to finally bring its Max streaming product to East Asia, where its temporary HBO Go service continues to operate. Gibbons says Max will provide content and operational improvements.
“For Southeast Asia, we will launch with a much broader content offering. Even though we have HBO Go now, that doesn’t mean we’ve made the entire library available. So, firstly, there will be much deeper access to what we already have. In addition to that, The entire reality side of the business will be shown online. That’s not there at all (on HBO Go). We’ll also be expanding the children’s part of it. “In addition to that, we’ll be taking a specific strategic approach in terms of Asian content,” Gibbons said. “So, “When you add all that together, plus a significantly improved technology stack, I think we will have a completely new service.”
Speaking this week at Series Mania in France, WBD’s JB Perette announced this week that the Max will launch in 20 European countries on May 21, in time for the Summer Olympics.
Watch the trailer for “Suicide Squad ISEKAI” here: