Bandai Namco Partners With Plott on Short Anime IP Tengutosen
The partnership marks a major publisher's first attempt to build an entertainment property from a short-form vertical anime rather than adapting an existing manga.
Reporting from 1 sources: Animenomics.
Bandai Namco Entertainment is partnering with short anime maker Plott to develop Tengutosen, a new intellectual property debuting in July. The project tests whether vertical-screen short anime can replicate the commercial energy of traditional action manga adaptations, leveraging Bandai Namco's merchandise strengths.
Bandai Namco Entertainment invested in Plott, the Tokyo-based startup behind YouTube short anime that have drawn 12 million subscribers and 15 billion views, about 18 months ago. Now the two companies are putting that investment to work on a single original property. Tengutosen, a sword-fighting action series about characters battling demons, will debut on YouTube in July. Plott line producer Kosuke Hori said the partnership aims to expand the IP beyond the screen through Bandai Namco's merchandise channels, including Gashapon capsule toys and Ichiban Kuji lotteries. Short anime typically have fewer frames than television anime, Hori noted, which forces the creative team to find other ways to make action storytelling land. The project is a test of whether a format that grew popular with Japan's Generation Z on vertical phone screens can sustain the kind of cross-media business that traditional boys' action manga have long supported.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.
Sources
- Animenomics Bandai Namco ventures into short anime IPs