The Walt Disney Company Asia Pacific has announced an expansion of its 70-year collaboration with publishing house Kodansha to include Japanese animation. Disney and Kodansha worked together in publishing, and will now venture into the world of animation.
The expanded collaboration will include licensing of exclusive SVOD anime titles based on manga produced by Kodansha. This will start with “Tokyo Revengers: Christmas Showdown Arc” which will launch exclusively on Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar in January 2023.
“The special relationship between Kodansha and Disney spans more than 70 years, and has brought us to life in many licensed Disney publications,” said Yoshinobu Numa, Representative and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kodansha Corporation. “With today’s announcement, we are pleased to be able to diversify and elevate the relationship between the two companies.” and sharing more of our beloved anime titles with the world on Disney+ and its streaming platforms.”
Carol Choi, Executive Vice President of Original Content Strategy, The Walt Disney Company APAC added: “We are pleased to deepen our strategic collaboration with our long-term partner Kodansha in such an exciting genre. Japanese animation fills the white space in our content development plans and we believe this expanded collaboration It will be a game-changer in Disney’s future animation strategy in Japan. We look forward to bringing Kodansha’s prized anime titles and intellectual property to the world stage.”
Meanwhile, at an event at the Marina Bay Sands Convention Center in Singapore on Wednesday, Disney revealed a host of titles, with around 50 shows from its 2023 slate of theatrical and streaming content presented to more than 400 press and international partners. The new projects revealed are part of Disney’s ambition to greenlight more than 50 Asia Pacific originals by 2023.
Among those in attendance were Japanese director Miek Takashi and Korean stars Jung Hae, Ko Kyungpyo and Kim Hye Joon from the crime fantasy film “Connect”. Lee Donghwi, Heo Sungtae, and acclaimed director Kang Yunsung from “Big Bet”; Yuya Yajira, Riho Yoshioka, and director Katayama Shinzo from the Japanese drama series “Gannibal”; and Chelsea Islan from the upcoming Indonesian superhero series “Tira.” Animation artist and sound director Peter Sohn, director of the feature film Elemental, will also attend the ceremony.
“Last October, at the premiere of APAC Content, we took our first step into local content production with an ambitious long-term plan to uncover the world’s best stories from this region, and to highlight creative excellence that can shine on the global stage,” said Luke Kang, president of APAC. Walt Disney Company Asia Pacific in his opening remarks.”This year, it was important for us to showcase the breadth of our global brand content from award-winning studios and popular franchises, as well as our 2023 APAC content slate.”
Over the past year, more than 45 new Asia Pacific titles have debuted on Disney’s streaming service. The company said the total hours of locally produced Asian content being streamed on Disney+ is eight times what it was a year ago.
“We focus our content development on what we refer to as our content white space,” said Kang. “Investing in areas that require more of a local specificity – either because of the huge popularity in specific markets, such as Japanese animation, Korean dramas, or Indonesian horror and horror, or the need to tell local stories with talents familiar to our local audience. We want to serve our viewers in every way.” A marketplace with globally branded content like Disney, Marvel, Star Wars and Pixar, as well as locally produced stories that resonate with them – while also leveraging the best of them globally.”
Disney’s streaming services now reach more than 235 million subscribers across 154 markets worldwide.
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