Entertainment Company Disney, Publisher Kodansha Expand Strategic Partnership

by Vindstot
Nov 30, 2022 12:11 AM | 34 Comments

The Walt Disney Company announced at the Asia-Pacific content showcase in Singapore on Wednesday that it is expanding its partnership with Japanese publishing company Kodansha.

The company intends to co-produce and distribute an expanding slate of original titles for its Disney+ platform. The partnership also includes licensing exclusive anime titles based on manga published by Kodansha.

Marking the launch of their strategic collaboration, Disney+ and Disney+ Hotstar will exclusively stream Tokyo Revengers: Seiya Kessen-hen (Tokyo Revengers: Christmas Showdown)—the second season of Tokyo Revengers—beginning January 2023.

Japanese anime, along with Korean drama, has been a cornerstone of Disney's original content strategy as the company seeks to expand its subscriber reach across the expanding Asia-Pacific region, similar to competitors such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. During the event, Disney also revealed that the total number of hours of locally-produced Asian content streamed on Disney+ has increased eightfold from the previous year.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

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20 of 34 Comments Recent Comments

Wow, these responses are funny. Guys this is just a deal, Disney isn't going to OWN any companies or any anime, they're just getting the streaming rights. You people really want Sony to have a monopoly here, Disney is a good competitor for them to have, yes Disney owns most western media, but most Japanese media is currently being distrbuted worldwide by Sony, let Disney step in. And also Disney has so much money that they should be pouring some of that into the starving anime industry, these are all good things.

Yes 'Disney bad" but if you use your brain for a few seconds and remember that things are more complicated.

Jan 13, 2023 3:36 AM by Eira_99

Disney!!! Go away!!!

Keep this evil empire from Anime.

Dec 5, 2022 11:02 AM by simonitro

Not the best news, given Disney's ever-increasing "honor before reason" development strategy.

Dec 1, 2022 6:45 AM by RobertBobert

Someone needs to stop the americanization of anime...the industry is already way worse quality and more stale compared to what it was 10 years ago. Japanese people need to step up and stop buying these trash made to pander to "western taste" (so the taste of western mainstream media in truth...).

Dec 1, 2022 6:30 AM by removed-user

Dunno why some are surprised when there were obvious red flags with Bleach last arc and Tatami Time Machine Blues' streaming rights.

anyway "oh yea our fans and audiences only put on our animated movies for when kids are going to bed, cuz nobody other than kids would watch them at all, adults totally don't tune into animated movies cuz they don't give a shit since animation is only for kids, we shouldn't be bothered to give proper promotion into our animation department which we shut down years ago and yet still are kinda trying to hire some 2D experts lately since kids don't really give a shit and will watch anything so let's just shit out a bunch of stuff it'll all be okay... ah our new animated movies are failing so yea stick with what i said and just don't give a shit into trying anymore... ooooh but hey hey hey, we see that this anime thing is pretty hot with the hip n youngster kids now more than ever, so let's invest in that, that'll save us" seriously what the hell is wrong with you Disney folks?????

...I guess it could be a bit bearable if they acknowledge that Kilala☆Princess exists though. *wink wink*

Nov 30, 2022 4:06 PM by Fario-P

Genoard said:
inb4 Kodansha introduces it's first openly gay teen character.

ColourWheel said:
Disney has become the Yakuza of the entertainment industry grabbing up anything and everything these day just to monopolize on brands and franchises. They can't come up with their own original successful ideas anymore so they just stick their hand in or buy out something that is already successful. It's not far fetched to think one day Disney will branch out beyond just an entertainment conglomerate and start dipping their hands in food production, pharmaceuticals, electronics, and military. Eventually get into Nano and bio technologies and try to weaponize them. One day Disney will literally become the Umbrella Corporation.

I can see it now in the distant future... Disney made high powered assault rifles with AI targeting system and smart bullets with a big ass Mickey Mouse logo on the side of it with "Disney Weapon Industries" written on the bottom.

Go out driving in your brand new Disney Chevrolet Corvette to go to your local Disney McDonald's drive through service with Disney Robotics serving you their signature Disney Big Mac made with real Disney Velveeta American Cheese and 100% Disney angus beef. Everything stamped with a big tacky Mickey Mouse logo on them.

Reminder that Disney has their own Global Intelligence and Threat Analysis department.

Who is that character? And how does it link that Disney have such agency with the news that Disney expand their partnership?

Nov 30, 2022 9:33 AM by Memore

inb4 Kodansha introduces it's first openly gay teen character.

Reminder that Disney has their own Global Intelligence and Threat Analysis department.

Nov 30, 2022 9:25 AM by Genoard

Disney Money is unstoppable 😂

Nov 30, 2022 9:14 AM by davidyodo24

NiraVancopoulos said:
Please, stop Disney from licensing anime they will not stream simultaneously everywhere in the world. First Bleach and now Tokyo Revengers. Please just stop!! >8C

Indeed, that is exactly my thought. First Summer Time Render, now Tokyo Revengers. What is next from them?

Nov 30, 2022 8:40 AM by Memore

Please, stop Disney from licensing anime they will not stream simultaneously everywhere in the world. First Bleach and now Tokyo Revengers. Please just stop!! >8C

Nov 30, 2022 8:33 AM by NiraVancopoulos

Great analogy! I agree with you!

Zen98 said:
Disney owns too much now. Someone needs to break them up.

Another similar conglomerate maybe.

Ramkec said:
Disney being mentioned anywhere these days is bad news for everybody involved.

Sadly, you are right.

Nov 30, 2022 6:49 AM by Memore

Disney being mentioned anywhere these days is bad news for everybody involved.

Nov 30, 2022 6:36 AM by Ramkec

Disney owns too much now. Someone needs to break them up.

Nov 30, 2022 6:33 AM by Zen98

Disney has become the Yakuza of the entertainment industry grabbing up anything and everything these day just to monopolize on brands and franchises. They can't come up with their own original successful ideas anymore so they just stick their hand in or buy out something that is already successful. It's not far fetched to think one day Disney will branch out beyond just an entertainment conglomerate and start dipping their hands in food production, pharmaceuticals, electronics, and military. Eventually get into Nano and bio technologies and try to weaponize them. One day Disney will literally become the Umbrella Corporation.

I can see it now in the distant future... Disney made high powered assault rifles with AI targeting system and smart bullets with a big ass Mickey Mouse logo on the side of it with "Disney Weapon Industries" written on the bottom.

Go out driving in your brand new Disney Chevrolet Corvette to go to your local Disney McDonald's drive through service with Disney Robotics serving you their signature Disney Big Mac made with real Disney Velveeta American Cheese and 100% Disney angus beef. Everything stamped with a big tacky Mickey Mouse logo on them.

Nov 30, 2022 5:59 AM by ColourWheel

kenfra said:
Why does the rat wanna stick it's nose in anime?

I think for more money outcome.

Nov 30, 2022 4:54 AM by Memore

Why does the rat wanna stick it's nose in anime?

Nov 30, 2022 4:53 AM by kenfra

davidyodo24 said:
Summer Time Rendering already available in my Disney+ Hotstar, i live in SEA and right now Spx x Family is simulcast weekly.
It's kinda sad that it's not available in USA yet.

And thanks to Disney+ Crunchyroll didn't acquire it so no subs were available at the airing time of each episode. I am against it.

anime-prime said:

Kumiveneella said:
Maybe this will pump more money into the industry so that they can actually consider fixing issues like animator wages, doesn't seem like a realistic outcome though.

The problem isn't lack of money in the industry. Crunchyroll pays them plenty per license already. The problem is where all the money goes to.

Kumiveneella said:
Maybe this will pump more money into the industry so that they can actually consider fixing issues like animator wages, doesn't seem like a realistic outcome though.

Seemed to me like even Disney didn't care about the movie, considering how little the movie was advertised.

Considering how badly Lightyear did, they might have thought promoting it would make it worse. That being said, as everyone knows, any publicity is good publicity.

Speaking of, perhaps Disney knows it's creatively bankrupt and thus hopes that having relatively creative anime on their platform will make it look like it isn't.

Kumiveneella said:

anime-prime said:
The problem isn't lack of money in the industry. Crunchyroll pays them plenty per license already. The problem is where all the money goes to.

Yeah, that's what I meant. I guess, I was being a bit vague in my original post.

anime-prime said:
Considering how badly Lightyear did, they might have thought promoting it would make it worse. That being said, as everyone knows, any publicity is good publicity.

Speaking of, perhaps Disney knows it's creatively bankrupt and thus hopes that having relatively creative anime on their platform will make it look like it isn't.

I suppose what you'd consider a flop has also changed, every movie needs to be a tent-pole movie nowadays, with the boom being around big IP's.

I mean wouldn't really consider the newer movies creatively bankrupt myself, however most people probably don't share the sentiment. Although similarly you could say that the anime industry is also somewhat creatively bankrupt. Although, I don't really know if Disney cares about the quality of the products in the first place, considering how the things that actually sell aren't really the best things ever made.

Yes, they try to acquire licenses thinking that it might help their sales profit.

Nov 30, 2022 4:47 AM by Memore

anime-prime said:
The problem isn't lack of money in the industry. Crunchyroll pays them plenty per license already. The problem is where all the money goes to.

Yeah, that's what I meant. I guess, I was being a bit vague in my original post.

I suppose what you'd consider a flop has also changed, every movie needs to be a tent-pole movie nowadays, with the boom being around big IP's.

I mean wouldn't really consider the newer movies creatively bankrupt myself, however most people probably don't share that sentiment. Although similarly you could say that the anime industry is also somewhat creatively bankrupt. I don't really know if Disney cares about the quality of the products in the first place, considering how the things that actually sell aren't really the best things ever made.

Nov 30, 2022 4:41 AM by Kumiveneella

Memore said:

seahealth said:
Is it because of the new disney ceo?

Maybe. Who knows.

yamiyugi101 said:
I guess I'm going back to piracy

I always do this. Don't know why you stopped. Many works haven't released officially.

i wanted to watch stuff on my roku but i will just make do with my ipad

Nov 30, 2022 4:17 AM by yamiyugi101

Kumiveneella said:
Maybe this will pump more money into the industry so that they can actually consider fixing issues like animator wages, doesn't seem like a realistic outcome though.

The problem isn't lack of money in the industry. Crunchyroll pays them plenty per license already. The problem is where all the money goes to.

Kumiveneella said:
Maybe this will pump more money into the industry so that they can actually consider fixing issues like animator wages, doesn't seem like a realistic outcome though.

Swagernator said:
But i mean, no wonder Disney's coming for anime, their own latest animated ventures were an absolute failures after all, lmao.
https://screenrant.com/why-strange-world-box-office-bombed/

Seemed to me like even Disney didn't care about the movie, considering how little the movie was advertised.

Nov 30, 2022 4:17 AM by anime-prime

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