The Indian animation industry has for long been considered a hub for outsourcing Hollywood projects, but it seems Japan is looking for an ally in India for co-production of animated/live action/other formats of content.
Following the success of the Japan Content Showcase (JCS) seminar and business matching event for Japan-India animation industry, which was conducted at Tokyo Odaiba in last October, UNIJAPAN conducted a seminar and business matching event in Mumbai on 4 and 5 March at Sun-n-Sand Hotel, Mumbai.
There were some of the leading animation and production houses that had come down from Japan for this special event to speak as well as educate the Indian players on how things work in Japan.
Some of the companies that had flown in were: Jumonji, Nikkatsu, Nippon Television Network, Tatsunoko Production and Tezuka Productions.
On the first day there were presentations made by the Japanese companies to the Indian contingent that included a diverse spectrum of individuals from the animation and broadcast space, apart from a few other independent producers, IP owners and distributors.
Kicking-off the proceedings was Hiroaki Takeaki from Nikkatsu; who spoke about how co-production is a key driver for creating fresh and engaging content globally. Nikkatsu is one of the oldest studios in Japan and has over 5,000 film titles in its library. The company has a focus on international activities and in 2014 established Kantana japan, a JV with a Thai production house and is currently on the lookout for partners across the globe.
Next up was Yuji Hori from Jumonji, the studio that was established in 2010 and produced successful ventures like Brave Story, Afro Samurai: Resurrection. It has also co-produced an Indo-Japan animated show called Batu Gaiden in 2013, which was broadcast on Cartoon Network. Yuji mentioned that he wanted to do a lot more work with Indian studios and also explore other opportunities in the future.
Tezuka Production’s Yoshimi Suzuki took to the stage next as she spoke about the animation and character business, focusing a lot on the company’s poster boy – Astro Boy. She spoke about how Osamu Tezuka, also called the father of Manga, was an inspiration to the world and also helped many animators find their path along the way.
Yoshimi also revealed that the Astro Boy IP is soon going to be brought to life with a live action movie that will have VFX provided by Australian VFX house Animal Logic. She also mentioned of plans to re-boot the Astro Boy franchise in the animated form in two new series; one ideally called Astro Boy Re-boot that will cater to the 8-13 year old age group and the other called Little Astro that will target young kids between 2 and 6 ages.
Tezuka Production is currently looking for partners in the Indian eco-system to help it in the execution of the new animated shows for it’s over 50 year old franchise.
Mikiko Nishiyama from Nippon Television and Hiroshi Kumada from Tatsunoko Production shared similar thoughts as their other friends from the island nation in East Asia. While Mikiko spoke in general about the television ecosystem in Japan and how there are primarily only seven channels in the country as against the many hundreds that exist in the Indian television space. She also explained a little about the TV viewing habits in Japan and stressed on the fact that there is scope for animation for teens and adults to be even telecast at the post midnight slot on channels.
Mikiko also pointed out that Indian audience is younger in comparison to the Japanese TV viewing audience, which has much to do with the segmentation of the population at large as well.
Hiroshi on the other hand was very eager to rekindle his relationship with India with his world famous shows that he would like to bring to Indian TV screens. He was excited on the fact that ‘The Genie Family’ would be coming on air on one of the leading networks in India soon. Tatsunoko Production is behind some of the biggest animation series that include: Speed Racer, Timebokan and Gatchaman.
Among the Indian producers, distributors, IP owners and broadcasters were some big names like Ashish Kulkarni, Nishith Takia, Devika Prabhu, Shambhoo Phalke, Ashutosh Parekh, Anish Mulani and many others. Post the presentations each of the Japanese companies got a chance to mingle around with the Indian representatives of the different segments of the media and entertainment industry, to talk some business and also potential collaborations in the near future.
The purpose of this event was to further advance the development of Japanese animation in India and facilitate more cross border collaborations. This event has helped deepen the mutual understanding of the animation business in India as well as Japan.
