As we await an enormous bunch of new anime titles and upcoming seasons for the currently running titles in 2023, a piece of sudden news is certain to receive mixed to negative reactions from the masses.
Multiple anime projects have announced an exclusive partnership with popular streaming platform Disney+, making them streamable only on the platform in the future. So far, only a few of these projects have publicly announced their deal, but we can be sure of many others joining them.
Disney+ has also expanded its deal with Kodansha, thus, acquiring sole rights to stream upcoming anime adaptations based on Kodansha’s published titles, the first being Tokyo Revengers: Christmas Showdown Arc.
As of writing this article, the following titles have revealed that they will stream on Disney+ exclusively:
- Murai in Love, a romantic comedy series based on the manga by Junta Shima.
Anime Junta Shima’s popular manga
A teacher who is seriously in love with an otome game’s “preferred” character,
A non-stop romantic comedy depicting the love pattern of a male student who falls in love with the teacher
Worldwide exclusive distribution on #ディズニープラス
English Translation, Twitter Translate
- Synduality, a sci-fi mixed media project that includes a third-person shooter game and an anime series, both scheduled to release in 2023. The anime will be co-produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks and Eight Bit.
2023 #ディズニープラス World exclusive distribution decision!
” #SYNDUALITY (Sinduality)”
An original sci-fi anime that is attracting attention as part of the new large-scale sci-fi project of the BANDAI NAMCO Group!
With people who survive in a devastated future
The story of an AI-equipped humanoid.
#ディズニーコンテンツショーケース2022
English Translation, Twitter Translate
- Project Bullet/Bullet(Working title), an original story by South Korean director Sunghoo Park(Jujutsu Kaisen and The God of High School). Park’s production studio E&H Production will be working on the series.
Production decision!
#ディズニープラス Original series [Project BULLET/BULLET] (provisional)
E&H production will produce an animation based on the idea of Mr. Park, a noted creator!
Story draft: Park Seiho ( #呪術廻戦 , Jujutsu Kaisen 0, God of High School director)
#ディズニーコンテンツショーケース2022
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The first project to announce the exclusive partnership was Phoenix: EDEN17, a new adaptation of Phoenix by Osamu Tezuka. Another project – Dragons of Wonderhatch, which blends anime and live-action has also recently revealed that they will stream exclusively on the platform.
Moreover, Disney expanded its seventy-year-old partnership with Kodansha on Wednesday at its Asia-Pacific Content Showcase in Singapore.
Not only will they be co-producing original anime series but also acquire licenses to stream upcoming installments and adaptations based on Kodansha’s published titles. Tokyo Revengers: Christmas Showdown Arc comes as the first under this collaboration.
Disney announces expansion of strategic collaboration with Kodansha, including distribution of animation works!
” #東京リベンジャーズ Holy Night Decisive Battle”
January 2023 #ディズニープラス
Flat-rate video distribution (SVOD) Worldwide exclusive distribution
In the future, we plan to distribute animations based on popular manga created by Kodansha on Disney Plus!
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As per Carol Choi, Executive VP of Content Strategy at APAC, Disney, the collaboration allows them to work better on their future content development plans and their animation strategy in Japan. This also allows them to bring anime and Kodansha’s IP to the world.
The popularity of anime and other Asian content like Japanese and Korean dramas has grown twofold in the last two years. According to Parrot Analytics, the demand for anime has grown by 118 percent since 2020.
We are all aware of Kodansha being home to some of the bestselling titles like AKIRA and Attack on Titan. Although it is not clear whether this partnership will affect the previously released content, Disney certainly looks forward to becoming competitive as an anime streaming platform.
About Synduality
Synduality is an upcoming anime and video game project by Bandai Namco Entertainment, Bandai Namco Filmworks, and Bandai Spirits.
Its story is based in the year 2222 in a dystopian reality where almost the entire human race was wiped out by a poisonous rain called ‘Tears of the New Moon.’ The rain gave birth to monstrous creatures that fed on humans, forcing the remaining population to flee and build an underground haven Amasia.
The main plot begins when the protagonists stumble upon an Artificial Intelligence named Magus and try to figure out how things work between humans and AI.
Source: Official Twitter
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