Manga Productions Pivots to In-House Anime IPs
The shift to original IP changes how Manga Productions negotiates with Japanese rightsholders, since the company now understands the difficulty of producing and protecting anime.
Reporting from 1 source: Animenomics.
Saudi anime studio Manga Productions is shifting toward producing its own intellectual properties after years of co-creating and importing anime with Japanese companies. CEO Essam Bukhary discussed the pivot, the company's in-house project Henna, AI adoption resistance, and a growing domestic market at AnimeJapan.
Manga Productions announced Henna at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival earlier this summer. The project is the studio's first in-house anime, a departure from its prior work co-creating and importing anime into Saudi Arabia.
Chief executive officer Essam Bukhary said the move to producing original IP has built rapport with Japanese rightsholders when the company acquires titles for Middle East distribution. Being an IP producer means understanding how difficult production is and why protecting IP matters, he said.
The company intends to introduce artificial intelligence into production processes where possible, though Bukhary acknowledged some employees resist the change. He compared Japan's content industry today to its electronics industry of the 1990s, under pressure to transform as competitors and new technologies arrive.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.
Sources
- Animenomics Manga Productions launches Saudi anime IPs