Warner Bros. Doubles Down on Anime, Wants To Make Ten Series a Year

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Anticipation for DC’s Suicide Squad Isekai, releasing this July, is at an all-time high, and Warner Bros. wants to double down on that. The upcoming movie is being produced through a partnership between WB Japan and Wit Studio, and the former will go all in on anime shows in the coming years.

Variety reports that Warner Bros. Discovery wants to expand anime production significantly, with ambitions of over ten shows annually.

“We have a Japanese anime studio, which has been producing five or ten anime series per year, over the last few years,” said James Gibbons, WBD president of Asia-Pacific. “We’ve approved expansion to take that to more than ten series per year.”

WB’s local studio in Japan has been behind big hits such as JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, with Gibbons noting that anime is another avenue for the studio to reach younger audiences.

“We’ve sold them to third parties. That has been one of the metrics. And they are doing very well,” said Gibbons. “And, so, because we see the appeal of the category, we are expanding it. Anime is one of the best ways to reach the 18 to 30-year-old audience, which is incredibly elusive. Globally, albeit not in every market, but certainly in the U.S., parts of Europe and Latin America, we’ve got strong anime audiences.”

Gibbons stated that while traditional anime has originated from IP created in Japan, the studio is open to looking at existing properties to put a local spin on them. Suicide Squad Isekai is a perfect example - it takes existing characters and ideas from the DC universe and puts them in a new environment inspired by traditional anime tropes.

“There is Japanese anime that comes from original IP. But there’s also anime that comes from elsewhere. And we’ve looked at our DC universe and said, ‘Can we take these characters and reinvent them in world of world of anime,’ which is not straightforward because you have to do it the right way. You have to work with the right studios to make it happen and to build your fan base,” Gibbons added.

Suicide Squad Isekai will follow Harley Quinn and the eponymous gang as they are transported to a fantasy realm. Its latest trailer revealed its ending theme song "Another World", performed by Tomoyasu Hotei.

Related: New Suicide Squad Isekai Trailer Reveals Exciting Ending Theme

Suicide Squad Isekai will be released this July and air on Tokyo MX and BS11 in Japan.