A recent securities report from anime production company IG Port, parent of Production I.G (Kaiju No. 8) and WIT Studio (Attack on Titan S1-3), revealed that Netflix paid the company 3.573 billion yen ($24.3 million) in the fiscal year ending May 2025.
Of this, 1.53 billion yen ($10.4 million)—paid by Netflix Global, LLC.—was listed under IG Port’s “copyright business” segment, which includes income gained from Netflix licensing streaming rights of IG Port’s titles. Kimi ni Todoke Season 3 (animation production by Production I.G) was a major contributor, with Netflix paying the copyright license fee in one lump sum. Netflix accounted for nearly 40% of Production I.G’s copyright sales (total: 3.956 billion yen).
Moreover, Netflix Studios, LLC., paid IG Port 2.04 billion yen ($13.9 million) for “video production,” which raises the opportunity to discuss the, at times, opaqueness of anime production, copyrights, and Netflix’s involvement in the industry. Like fellow anime streamers Crunchyroll and HIDIVE (Sentai Filmworks), Netflix licenses the distribution rights for third-party first-run and back catalog titles, while also often sublicensing from streamers like Crunchyroll. However, unlike its fellow streamers, it doesn’t participate in formal production committees.
Netflix, Production I.G, Kimi ni Todoke Season 3, and Production Committees
Production committees are where investors (typically more than one) jointly invest in the development of an anime IP, dividing the profits according to the shares in which the parties invested (broadly speaking, and after certain fees are deducted). Most anime are produced under the production committee method, and most anime reference a production committee in the copyright, in addition to the original author & publisher of the work (if the anime is an adaptation).
In the early stages of any anime’s existence, e.g., the creation of an anime plan, concept art, etc., Japanese anime copyrights indicate the authors in an audiovisual sense. This would include the studio, which naturally exercises large amounts of creative input and thus authorship.
At some point in the anime’s production, long before it’s displayed publicly in teasers and other forms of marketing, studios are often no longer listed in the copyright. Instead, it’s usually just the original publisher/author and the name of the production committee. This indicates that agreements were signed for the studio to transfer the copyright to the production committee, and not to exercise moral rights over how the production committee uses the anime.
The existence of an anime production committee also typically suggests that the companies forming the committee primarily funded the anime. In that sense, copyrights can prove informative about the source of video production fees, compared to Kimi ni Todoke Season 3’s copyright, for example, which reads “© Karuho Shiina / SHUEISHA, Production I.G” (—was this a Shueisha and Production I.G co-production!? (Spoiler: No.)). Committee members are often publicly stated as such in the anime’s credits or, can be inferred to some extent from the other parts of the credits.
As an aside, IG Port’s next biggest contributor after Netflix was Toho (1.05 billion yen ($7.1 million). This payment was filed under “video production,” “copyright,” and “other” business.
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If Netflix is to produce a title, instead of formal production committee participation, it takes the less common approach of contracting directly with anime studios like Production I.G. Unlike production committees, which have the studio transfer ownership of the anime copyright, it’s been reported that Netflix may at times only acquire/license the distribution/streaming rights, leaving the authors of the audiovisual work (publisher, anime studio) with the rest. Of course, Netflix may also acquire the entire copyright, as in the case of Moonrise (animation production by WIT Studio, © Netflix).
While a production committee being listed in the copyright tends to indicate the source of funding and control, Netflix, unlisted in the copyright in these cases, funds and asserts its rights and control in an arguably more opaque manner—through contracts which go unseen. Likewise, even in a traditional production committee, it may be the case that for aspects of the anime’s copyright, certain members have no control. It ultimately still comes down to specific, unseen contracts signed between all the members.
At the very least, the presence of a production committee in an anime’s copyright gives a decent indication of how the anime was funded.
IG Port’s report (Page 8) suggests Kimi ni Todoke Season 3 may be one of the examples where Netflix only licenses the streaming rights; the anime was spotlighted under “consignment work,” and IG Port indicated that it nor its subsidiaries invested in this series.
As Production I.G didn’t fund the anime, with nothing else to go on, its presence in the copyright may have simply indicated authorship, rather than any ability to exercise control or exploit the copyright for revenue (After all, some companies may not accept a studio having copyright ownership despite not putting up any funds). Fortunately, as stated before, I.G Port’s report revealed that it received copyright revenue from Netflix for the anime, indicating some actual ownership. I.G Port also sells Kimi ni Todoke Season 3 merch through company-owned websites (which still may not necessarily mean that it owns rights to merchandising, but a license).
All in all, the lesson is that copyrights can reveal very little about the funding or control of an IP. After all, it’s still not even clear if Shueisha contributed any funds for Kimi ni Todoke Season 3.
Recent examples of where streamers acquire copyrights entirely include Adult Swim’s Lazarus (animation production by MAPPA, © 2024 The Cartoon Network, Inc.), and the Netflix titles Rising Impact (animation production by Lay-duce, © Netflix), Moonrise (animation production by WIT Studio, © Netflix), and Leviathan (animation production by Orange, production by Qubic Pictures, © Netflix). Mildly unrelated, but Qubic Pictures founder Justin Leach discussed this week how Netflix owning the copyright to Leviathan prevented him from independently marketing the anime. He lamented the limited marketing efforts for the series.
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Copyright Transfers – Why? Why Not?
Netflix is said to pay significantly higher video production fees than average, particularly for series where it acquires the entire copyright. Nevertheless, veteran animation director and advocate for anime creator rights, Terumi Nishii, told ITmedia in 2021 that while Netflix budgets are “around twice as much” as regular budgets, it hasn’t led to the animators’ pay on those productions increasing at the same rate. She described it as money that “rained in the desert, but was absorbed into the sand,” because the money was going to studios covering their own deficits and operational needs rather than trickling down to animators, particularly freelancers, speaking to industry-wide issues.
Anime producer and consultant Jerome Mazandarani (Cannon Busters) said recently, “The studios themselves ringfence a portion of the production budget for their own margin. Before they even start work. This money does not go to animators.” You can also read Teitoku Databank’s report (August 2025) on anime studios’ conditions, financial issues, and trends here.
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Copyright transfers may be beneficial for studio creatives who have no other way of funding an anime, or in cases where the studio doubts its ability to leverage the IP in the long term. Naturally, streamers also employ anime producers, who seek projects to develop and offer work to studios. So there’s money to be made by accepting. However, copyright transfers may also speak to the power dynamic between Netflix/production committees and studios, desperate for short-term funds to stay afloat, even if a transfer represents a large opportunity cost down the line.
Nishii added, “Works that Netflix pays for entirely become Netflix’s IP, but for works that a production company makes on its own and then brings to Netflix later, the production company can own the IP.”
“For works that are fully funded by Netflix, the production costs can be doubled or tripled. But at the same time, they [the studio] cannot own the IP themselves, and cannot produce goods or DVDs. Many companies would rather make the work themselves, distribute it on Netflix, and receive only the money for that. If you want to develop a work in the medium to long term, it would be pointless if Netflix took it. In any case, for us, subcontracted animators and [subcontracted] production studios, we don’t get to own the IP anyway.”
Jitsugyo no Nihon Sha’s Research Institute published an article in December 2024 about streamers asking for copyright transfers and pushing to increase distribution licensing periods from 5 years to 10 years, among other trends. The piece warns of these risks amid the rise in popularity of Japanese anime and character goods overseas. It adds that streamers do not adequately disclose specific viewership data, which risks leaving Japanese companies unaware of anime’s true popularity, and money being hoarded overseas.
Bloomberg also reported concerns about a lack of transparent data, purporting in 2024 that some Japanese industry employees distrust Crunchyroll’s sales figures for revenue-sharing purposes.
Production Committees
More on production committees — the system, while good for spreading risk and bringing aboard companies with unique skills to market an IP in their area of expertise, has also been said to play a role at times in keeping animator pay low.
Gainax co-founder Toshio Okada described in February 2023 a system of “collusion“ instigated by some lead managers of anime production committees (this role refers to the company that organizes the production committee, makes up financial deficits, handles the distribution of copyright licensing revenue to other parties over a long-term period, etc.).
For example, the lead manager of an anime production committee sees a lucrative business opportunity for an anime IP and wants the highest share of the copyright for the most returns. Okada says that such a company would seek out partners willing to invest low enough so that it retains this ideal share of the copyright. This caps production budgets, and thus the pay of the anime staff. Regarding foreign investment in anime, which could also see pay increases for staff, Okada claims that production committees use the money not to dramatically increase production budgets, but to split the investment across multiple titles to mitigate their own risk, at little benefit to creators on the ground.
Anime creators’ rights association NAFCA, which Nishii supports as an advisor, has advocated for a mandatory minimum share of the copyright for studios.
Source: IG Port (Investor Relations), Gamebiz
©JAKDF 3rd Division ©Naoya Matsumoto/SHUEISHA © Karuho Shiina / SHUEISHA, Production I.G
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