Warner Bros. Discovery is to significantly expand its investment and production of Japanese anime through its existing local studio in Japan.
“We have a Japanese anime studio, which has been producing five or ten anime series per year, over the last few years,” said James Gibbons, WBD president of Asia-Pacific. “We’ve approved expansion to take that to more than ten series per year.”
The studio has been operational since 2011 and delivered over 80 titles in that span, a mix of high-quality anime, live action series and movies. These include “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure,” which was originally serialized in a manga magazine starting in 1987 and became an animated series that launched in 2012, the “Record of Ragnarok” series and a “Batman Ninja” anime movie.
“We’ve sold them to third parties. That has been one of the metrics. And they are doing very well,” said Gibbons. “And, so, because we see the appeal of the category, we are expanding it. Anime is one of the best ways to reach the 18 to 30-year-old audience, which is incredibly elusive. Globally, albeit not in every market, but certainly in the U.S., parts of Europe and Latin America, we’ve got strong anime audiences.”
Popular on Variety
Both “JoJo’s” and “Record of Ragnarok” are currently on Netflix and have ranked strongly, featuring in the streamer’s global weekly top ten.
“There is Japanese anime that comes from original IP. But there’s also anime that comes from elsewhere. And we’ve looked at our DC universe and said, ‘Can we take these characters and reinvent them in world of world of anime,’ which is not straightforward because you have to do it the right way. You have to work with the right studios to make it happen and to build your fan base,” said Gibbons.
The studio is putting the finishing touches to “Suicide Squad ISEKAI,” a new original anime series based on the characters from DC. It is produced by Warner Bros. Japan and WIT Studio, the celebrated Japanese studio behind global hit anime series such as “Attack on Titan” (season 1-3) and “Spy x Family.” Directed by Osada Eri from a screenplay by Nagatsuki Tappei, the series will release in Japan in July, with entry into international markets to follow at an unconfirmed date closer to the year end.
The story sees Amanda Waller, the head of A.R.G.U.S., assemble a group of notorious DC criminals Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Peacemaker, Clayface and King Shark for a mission into an otherworldly realm full of swords and magic and where orcs rampage and dragons rule the skies.
“We see strong growth for the genre, increasing reach and relevance not only for Asian audiences but globally,” said a WBD spokesman.
Gibbons said that the group is also keen to play a part in other content categories in Asia. Aside from anime, its priorities include Japanese scripted “to some extent,” Korean drama series and Chinese-language content.
The executive explained that Korean series are a known quantity with “very well-defined pricing” for the rights. “[Korean content is a very important category, a really important part of streaming in APAC and, increasingly, around the world [..] but it is a mature market. So, the way that we access that will be different compared to, for example, Chinese content, which is a much newer category. [Chinese shows account for] a smaller percentage of consumption in APAC right now. But it certain markets it is growing pretty fast.”
The conglomerate has plans to finally bring its Max streaming product into East Asia, where a stopgap HBO Go service continues to operate. Gibbons says that Max will provide content and operational improvements.
“For Southeast Asia, we will be launching with a much broader content proposition. Even though we have HBO Go now doesn’t mean we’ve made the entire library available. So, first, there’ll be much deeper access to what we already have. In addition, the entire factual side of the business will come online. That’s not there at all [on HBO Go]. We’ll also expand the kids part of it. And in addition, we’re going to take a strategic, defined approach on the Asian content side,” said Gibbons. “So, when you add all that together, plus a dramatically improved tech stack, I think that we’ll have a brand new service.”
Speaking this week at Series Mania in France, WBD’s JB Perette this week announced that Max will launch in 20 European countries on May 21, in time for the Summer Olympic Games.
Watch the trailer for “Suicide Squad ISEKAI” here: