The Financial Times reports that anime owners are looking to have their content on multiple platforms at once, rather than the exclusivity overseas fans have largely grown used to. Toho Chief of Anime Keiji Ota, whose company’s productions include Jujutsu Kaisen, My Hero Academia, and The Apothecary Diaries, spoke on this and the company’s licensing strategy to date:
“Up until now, we just had a strategy to sell the master licence and that was that. You’d get a big amount of money at the start, and that would be it. We had no idea how much anime and merchandise were being sold in which countries and regions. But going forward, our strategy is to have our overseas team agree licensing deals for each region.” On supplying content to multiple platforms, Ota adds, “Content won’t spread and will only be seen by those subscribers if it’s monopolized by one platform.“
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Toho Takes Increasing Control of Overseas Distribution
In the last few years, Toho has made several moves to better oversee the overseas distribution of its anime and merchandise. It acquired North American film distributor, GKIDS, which just announced the acquisition of the North American rights to Jujutsu Kaisen: Hidden Inventory / Premature Death – The Movie, set to debut on July 16, 2025.
Toho International also took over the North American distribution of My Hero Academia: You’re Next after Crunchyroll had distributed the previous three movies (Crunchyroll did distribute the film in select overseas territories). Merch-wise, it’s increasing its distribution through Toho International’s iiZO store, stocking goods from Toho’s anime productions, sister properties like Godzilla, and third-party IP from Studio Ghibli and Junji Ito. As an aside, Kadokawa is also increasing local bases in overseas territories to control its IP licensing.
Toho’s desire for greater oversight on overseas sales data follows dissatisfaction from several companies with a lack of transparency in licensing sales data, used for revenue-sharing purposes. Crunchyroll was named as a target of ire for this in a 2024 Bloomberg report. The report also revealed tensions between Toho and Crunchyroll over the latter’s explicit decision not to “further lean into the promotion of DAN DA DAN,” per a purported email obtained by Bloomberg. DAN DA DAN is a series co-produced and animated by Toho’s now-subsidiary, Science SARU; fellow subsidiary GKIDS also holds DAN DA DAN‘s rights for theatrical distribution, home video, and digital download. Major rival Netflix streamed the series alongside Crunchyroll.
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Toho is also a member of the Association of Japanese Animations, which, in a submission to Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs, gave the example of global distributors that often don’t disclose sufficient marketing data, and only pay flat fee royalties, meaning licensors couldn’t conduct royalty audits (PDF, Page 16). Netflix is very open about using flat fee royalties (Netflix Q3 Earnings Call, Page 10). On the other hand, Crunchyroll mostly uses revenue share deals according to its former director of audience development, (X, formerly Twitter).
Netflix recently spoke on its anime exclusive distribution strategy at AnimeJapan 2025. It admitted (via Dokidoki):
“Exclusive distribution on Netflix does not necessarily mean that the work will be seen by many viewers. However, exclusive distribution greatly improves the understanding and commitment of the Netflix internal team to the work. Netflix distributes its works to more than 190 countries, but the religions, cultures, and customs of each region are completely different. It is important to understand the context of the work and how to promote it in each country (social media, etc.). If the understanding and commitment to the work within the company deepens, it can be used to promote it.
In some cases, exclusive distribution in Japan and overseas can help a work flourish, but in other cases, it can be a disadvantage. With this in mind, we are carefully discussing with rights holders and studios which scheme is best.“
Japan Takes Increasing Role in International Anime Distribution
The Financial Times also interviewed Minoru Kiuchi, Japan’s Minister of State for “Cool Japan” Strategy, which includes manga and anime expansion. He said, “If we could develop our own [homegrown] platform [for international reach], that’s welcome, but that could be difficult. We want to use and exploit the strength of streaming platforms and then add value through merchandising and events.”
In the meantime, Japan is increasingly testing out anime distribution through YouTube. Kiuchi pointed to the Anime Times YouTube channel, a collaboration between multiple Japanese studios and Amazon Prime. Several major Japanese companies also own shares in the fast growing anime licensor REMOW.
These companies include MBS, Fuji Media Holdings, Shueisha, Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions, TBS, Toei, TV Tokyo, and many more (Company Page). REMOW operates the It’s Anime YouTube channel, which distributes new and recent titles like Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray, Your Forma, and My Deer Friend Nokotan, and regularly adds older titles. It just announced the English streaming releases of KochiKame (also known as Tokyo Beat Cops), REBORN!, and True Cooking Master Boy.
Source: Financial Times
Featured image © Gege Akutami/Shueisha/JUJUTSU KAISEN Project ©K. Horikoshi / Shueisha, My Hero Academia Project
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