Disney Expands Partnership With Japan’s Kodansha to Release More Anime Originals (Exclusive) - Hollywood Reporter

The deal was unveiled Wednesday in Singapore, where Disney has gathered global media and regional partners for its annual APAC Content Showcase.

At the start of a splashy Asia-Pacific content showcase held in Singapore Wednesday, The Walt Disney Company revealed that it is expanding its long-running partnership with Japanese publishing powerhouse Kodansha to co-produce a growing slate of anime originals for the Disney+ streaming service.

“We are thrilled to deepen our strategic collaboration with our long standing partner Kodansha on such an exciting genre,” said Carol Choi, Disney’s executive vp of original content strategy in APAC.

“Japanese anime fills the white space in our content development plans and we believe this expanded collaboration will be a game changer in Disney’s future animation strategy in Japan.

As with competitors like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, Japanese anime, along with Korean drama content, has been a pillar of Disney’s original content strategy as the company seeks to expand its subscriber reach across the growing Asia-Pacific region.

Over the last year, over 45 new APAC titles have launched on Disney’s streaming service

“We are focusing our content development on what we refer to as our content whitespace,” said Luke Kang, Disney’s president of APAC in his opening remarks in Singapore