Kodansha And Dentsu Open Americas Brand Deals For Three Titles
Kodansha is routing Americas licensing through a single agency contact rather than handling brand inquiries title by title, which puts three separate franchises behind one sales desk.
Key Facts
- Kodansha and Dentsu signed a partnership covering brand use of Kodansha anime and manga properties across the Americas.
- The properties named in the reports are Attack on Titan, Ghost in the Shell, and Blue Lock.
- Dentsu is the primary contact for marketers seeking to use Kodansha-owned intellectual property in the Americas.
- Cartoon Brew reported the agreement on September 24, 2026, and OtakuKart Anime reported it on September 25, 2026.
- The agreement covers sponsorships, promotional campaigns, and fan events, with no partner brands or financial terms named.
Reporting from 2 sources: Cartoon Brew, OtakuKart Anime.
Kodansha and Dentsu have signed a partnership that gives marketers across the Americas access to three of the publisher's anime and manga properties: Attack on Titan, Ghost in the Shell, and Blue Lock. Dentsu is the primary contact for brands that want to use the Kodansha-owned intellectual property in advertising campaigns, sponsorships, promotional work, and fan events across the region. Cartoon Brew reported the agreement on September 24, 2026. OtakuKart Anime followed on September 25, 2026, describing the three franchises as globally recognized and framing the deal as a route to advertising campaigns and fan-focused experiences in the Americas. The arrangement covers promotional use of Kodansha IP. It does not name specific partner brands, campaign dates, or the terms of the agreement. The three titles are the only Kodansha properties the reports name.
Under the deal, Dentsu fields inquiries from marketers who want Kodansha-owned characters and titles in campaigns. Cartoon Brew lists sponsorships, promotional campaigns, and fan events as the routes the agreement opens for advertisers. The three works named in both reports are Attack on Titan, Ghost in the Shell, and Blue Lock, which sit in the publisher's manga catalog and in anime adaptations.
Neither report names a specific advertiser, a launch campaign, or financial terms. The two accounts also frame the announcement differently: Cartoon Brew leads with the access advertisers get, while OtakuKart Anime leads with the Kodansha and Dentsu partnership itself and describes the three franchises as globally recognized. Both point to the same regional scope, the Americas, and the same three properties. Nothing in either report says the agreement is limited to those titles, and no source gives a start date for campaigns.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 2 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.