Mar 22, 2024

Warner Bros. Japan to expand animation production to more than 10 films per year.

Warner Bros. Discovery has authorized Warner Bros. Japan to significantly increase the number of animated series it produces each year.

Speaking to Variety, James Gibbons, WBD's president for the Asia-Pacific region, said that the company's animation studio will increase its annual production to more than 10 shows. Previously, the studio produced between five and ten shows each year. [Warner Bros. Japan's animation division has produced more than 80 titles for hit franchises such as "Jojo's Bizarre Adventure," "RWBY," "Tom & Jerry," and "DC Universe" since it opened in 2011.

Despite having its own streaming platform, Warner Bros. Discovery regularly sells animated titles to other broadcasters and streamers.

According to Gibbons, the success of the Japanese studio's series on third-party platforms provides a path to an audience that Warner Bros. has struggled to capture:

"We are attracted to this category, so we are expanding it . Animation is one of the best ways to reach the 18- to 30-year-old audience. Globally, in the U.S., parts of Europe, and Latin America, if not in all markets, the audience for anime is steadily growing.

Gibbons said that Warner Bros. sees the DC catalog as fertile ground for film adaptations, but that it must be careful when merging Western IP with Japanese anime. He told Variety:

We looked at the DC Universe and said, "Can we re-create these characters in the anime world? We have to work with the right studios to make that happen and build a fan base.

Warner Bros. Japan is currently working with WIT Studios, the studio behind "Marching Giants" and "Spy x Family," to produce the "Suicide Squad ISEKAI" series.

It was also recently announced that a production of "Fist of the North Star" is underway: "Fist of the North Star" is a new series adaptation of the hugely popular manga created by Takeru Takemono and Tetsuo Hara. The original "Fist of the North Star" was first serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump in 1983 and ran for five years, eventually selling over 100 million copies. Toei Animation produced the first animated series of "Fist of the North Star," which ran from 1984 to 1988. Since then, the franchise has added several animated feature films, live-action movies, video games, OVAs, and several spin-offs.