Anime has given Japan a prominent status in the field of animation. But what potential does the production of anime-style content have outside of Asia, particularly in Europe?

The anime style of animation has earned Japan a great reputation as a leading country in the production of animated content, from classic 1990s series like Sailor Moon and Pokémon to the wonderful world of Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli, the maker of Oscar winner Spirited Away and an array of other beautifully animated films.

Anime was once exclusively synonymous with Japan. But over the years, animators in countries like Korea, the US and France have begun to experiment with the style. In Europe, where Japanese anime has seen huge success, more and more producers are exploring the medium in their own productions as regional demand for it increases.

Amit Devani, insights director at Parrot Analytics, highlights a 35% year-on-year increase in demand for anime globally in 2020-21. This was made up by an 18% rise in demand for new anime content, like Tokyo Revengers, and a 17% rise in demand for existing anime content, such as Attack on Titan, Dragon Ball Z and My Hero Academia.

“We’ve noticed the demand for anime content soaring; this has been a five-year trend and it’s clear to see it isn’t slowing down. There is continued room for growth, ushered along by increased attention from OTT platforms. Anime is borderless; there are no schedules or timings you have to adhere to. The discovery has become astronomical,” Devani says, noting that OTT services have been instrumental in bringing anime to a wider audience.

While the Japanese networks that have traditionally commissioned anime series are key growth drivers for the medium, the global streamers are now upping their game in the field, particularly Netflix.

Netflix added a collection of Studio Ghibli films to its catalogue in 2020 and revealed plans earlier this year to launch 40 new and returning anime projects in 2022. In late August, the streamer acquired 13 anime productions from Japanese broadcaster Nippon TV under a non-exclusive licensing pact that includes series Death Note, Hunter x Hunter, Ouran High School Host Club and Claymore.

Anime is one of the cornerstones of Netflix’s investment in Japan and, according to the streamer, more than half of its members around the world watched anime in 2021. One of the most popular productions was series The Seven Deadly Sins, which has become one of the top 10 titles among all series and films on Netflix in more than 75 countries since its launch. Another anime series hit for Netflix is Baki, which has become one of the top 10 titles among all series and films in almost 50 countries since its launch, while film A Whisker Away became one of the top 10 movies in 30-plus countries.

One of Netflix’s most recent anime launches is Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, a Japan-Europe copro from Japanese prodco Studio Trigger and CD Projekt Red in Poland. The 10-episode series premiered in September and is set in a dystopian world riddled with corruption and ‘cybernetic implants,’ where a talented but reckless street kid strives to become a mercenary outlaw, otherwise known as an ‘edgerunner.’

Japan is, naturally, the primary producer of anime content, with the US producing around 4% of the total and other countries combined making up 1%, according to Devani, who says this demonstrates “huge room for growth” in anime production outside of Japan.

“Europe could start to play its hand in this space. France is the top European market when it comes to demand for anime content. Japan leads the way globally, followed by the US and China, then France is at number four,” he says.

Germany and Russia take fifth and sixth place respectively, while the Netherlands is also in the top 10, along with Brazil, the Philippines and Canada. The UK takes the 11th spot.

“So you’ve got your core markets that have been watching anime for a long time, but you’ve also got new markets that are now discovering anime, and that’s contributing to the rise,” Devani says.

France has been dabbling in anime-style content for some years, with kids’ series like action-comedy Totally Spies! in the early 2000s. Raphaël Séjourné, producer and deputy head of television at Mediawan Kids & Family’s label Method Animation, says this has been increasing recently in response to a gap in the market for anime content that is suitable for children.

“For the past, I would say, five years, there’s been a huge trend in animation that looks like what the Japanese have been doing in terms of the narrative and visuals. It’s a trend that broadcasters, both in Europe and internationally, are looking to explore more,” he says.

“There’s a huge gap in the market that needs to be filled because the type of anime the platforms and streamers are producing is not suitable for kids. Kids are watching shows like Attack on Titan, Demon Slayer and Castlevania, but it’s not suitable for them, so the trend in the market is focusing on bringing suitable anime-style content to kids.”

To help fill this gap, Method Animation is producing an anime-style series for six- to 10-year-olds called Ki & Hi. Based on a manga series created by French YouTuber Kevin Tran, Ki & Hi depict­s the dai­ly life of two reck­less but endear­ing broth­ers. According to Séjourné, the show will represent a new style that bridges Japanese anime with classic European animation.

Also in France, Raphaël Catheland, CEO of Cosmic Productions, says that while French producers have always experimented with anime-style content, this has been encouraged further by the influx of streamers in Europe and an increase in the popularity of manga in France.

“The arrival of the streaming services, especially since lockdown, has created a new attraction for anime. It is becoming more and more popular, just like mangas are, and the room for growth looks huge,” Catheland says, noting that Japanese studio Toei Animation’s manga-based movie One Piece Film: Red, was ranked number one at the French Box Office one day after its release in August.

Cosmic Productions is currently coproducing anime-style series Biguden, aimed at 6-9s, with fellow French prodcos Apaches and Mr Loyal. Based on the comic of the same name by Stan Silas, Biguden centres on a mysterious little girl in a small village by the sea, whose arrival suddenly awakens all the mythical creatures that everyone believed had been hibernating for eons.

At Paris-based Ellipse Animation, MD Caroline Audebert seconds Catheland’s observation of a rising demand for manga in France, which she says is fuelling an increase in production of anime-style content. Ellipse’s parent company, Média-Participations, also operates anime-focused platform Anime Digital Network, which Audebert notes is seeing a continued increase in subscribers.

The exec puts the popularity of anime down to her belief that the stories traditionally told in that medium more accurately reflect the lives of real people than other types of animation, particularly since the serialised nature of traditional anime series allows for character evolution.

The rise of the streaming services has also helped this demand, according to Audebert, as VoD platforms are more likely than broadcasters to pick up serialised animations, with broadcasters typically preferring closed-ended episodes for animated and children’s content.

Ellipse is in coproduction with La Chouette Compagnie on young-adult anime-style series Dreamland. Based on a French manga of the same name, the series follows a teenager who travels into another dimension in his dreams.

La Chouette Compagnie is also currently in production on Dragon Striker for Disney EMEA. Coproduced with Cyber Group Studios, it focuses on a 12-year-old boy who discovers he may be the legendary ‘dragon striker’ and joins a team of underdogs to take on the school football champions, while fighting to prevent an ancient evil from resurfacing.

Cyber Group has a number of other anime-style projects on its development slate, including film Nanami & the Quest for Atlantis, which is being coproduced with Japan’s Nippon Animation and is based on 90s anime series Tico & Friends.

The prodco is also producing The Tern, an anime-style family series that centres on the survivors of a planet devastated by toxic cloud and mists, following them as they travel across the skies under the strict laws of their captain.

“There are anime channels in Europe that have been in existence for the past 10 or 15 years on cable and satellite, but anime has become more prominent today and is probably poised to increase,” says Cyber Group president Pierre Sissmann. “We’ve been working on the anime style for at least the past three or four years, if not five years. I was fascinated by the anime style and it sort of coincided with a rise in anime productions in the world and with more platforms picking up anime.”

Elsewhere in France, Ili­ade et Films is producing an anime-style TV special for young adults called Keiko & the Floating World. Set in Fukushi­ma in 2011, the film follows the titular character whose life is turned upside down when her friends are swal­lowed by a tsuna­mi.

But the anime style is not just taking off in France. Belgian prodco Squarefish is coproducing a teen series with French studio Dada! Animation called Mekka Nikki, about a rebellious teenager who lives on a moon and whose village is struck by a mysterious disease.

And in Romania, Aparte Film is in production on a young-adult series called Karma, which centres on an 11-year-old soldier who has to punish people for their mistakes using a magic toy.

Noting that the demographic of anime viewers is getting younger, Sissmann argues that creating more anime content could be a good way to attract older kids – who tend to ditch animation in favour of live action – back into the animated world.

Cosmic Productions’ Catheland agrees, pointing out that “if the upper target of the kids’ market has preferred live action in recent years, it is also because [animation] producers have focused on a younger audience, offering stories less suited to a pre-teen and teen audience.

“However, this potential audience [of older children for animation] exists and they really want to explore the incredible worlds that only animation can offer. The adult audience is ready too. We are living in a moment of strong renewal in the way we think about animation.”

Method Animation’s Séjourné refers back to the gap he sees in the market for anime that is suitable for children, arguing there has been a lack of anime content for kids since Pokémon took the world by storm more than two decades ago.

“The age group of 6-10s is craving anime. There hasn’t been any anime for international [children’s] audiences since Pokémon. Twenty-five years ago, all the 6-10s were crazy about Pokémon; today, there are only vintage nostalgia series like Dragon Ball Z,” he says.

“In Japan, there is a lot of anime content for kids, but internationally there’s no anime content right now. So kids aged 6-10 internationally, not only in Europe, are looking for anime content that has been lacking in the market since the rise of Pokémon.”

Anime has given Japan a prominent status in the field of animation. But what potential does the production of anime-style content have outside of Asia, particularly in Europe?

The anime style of animation has earned Japan a great reputation as a leading country in the production of animated content, from classic 1990s series like Sailor Moon and Pokémon to the wonderful world of Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli, the maker of Oscar winner Spirited Away and an array of other beautifully animated films.

Anime was once exclusively synonymous with Japan. But over the years, animators in countries like Korea, the US and France have begun to experiment with the style. In Europe, where Japanese anime has seen huge success, more and more producers are exploring the medium in their own productions as regional demand for it increases.

Amit Devani, insights director at Parrot Analytics, highlights a 35% year-on-year increase in demand for anime globally in 2020-21. This was made up by an 18% rise in demand for new anime content, like Tokyo Revengers, and a 17% rise in demand for existing anime content, such as Attack on Titan, Dragon Ball Z and My Hero Academia.
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