Tony Zameczkowski

🇯🇵 Japan Launches Investor-Backed Anime Fund to Reshape Entertainment Financing ◻️Bridging Entertainment & Finance Japan's mega bank, Mizuho, in collaboration with content-focused firm Questory, has announced the launch of "Talent of Talents", a dedicated anime-film funding platform aimed at broadening Japan’s animation production base. This approach seeks to diversify funding sources beyond the traditional production committee model, inviting external investors to participate. ◻️What is the traditional production committee model for Anime film? It is a risk-sharing system where multiple companies—like publishers, broadcasters, merch company, and production studios—jointly invest in a project, each securing rights (e.g. distribution, merch) in return, but often limiting creative control and profit for the actual creators. ◻️Unlocking Global Opportunities With international demand now accounting for roughly 50% of Japan's anime revenue, the fund is designed to enable larger-scale, higher-quality films. By bringing on new financial backers beyond publishing houses, broadcasters, and ad agencies, it hopes to foster more ambitious projects—and support creators more directly. ◻️Structure & Financial Scale Questory leads the creative project selection; Mizuho structures the financial instruments to attract investors. From an initial shortlist of 50 titles, the fund plans to target funding for 2–3 concrete projects. Typical project budgets are projected around ¥700 million (~US$5 million), with Mizuho’s fund underwriting ¥500 million per title. ◻️Transparency & Investor Confidence Past attempts at entertainment investment floundered due to poor transparency around usage of funds and returns. The Talent of Talents fund emphasizes clear, data-driven plans—detailing distribution strategies, theaters, and expected monetization—to give investors confidence in the financial model. (This type of transparecy is needed in the japanese music industry too!) ◻️Long-Term Vision Initially focusing on institutional capital, the team aims to refine and scale the product, eventually opening it to global individual investors who share passion for anime and entertainment. The aim is to create a sustainable, mainstream investment asset class in entertainment. 💡Comment to share your thoughts! What do YOU think the Japanese anime film industry can improve other than this? Source: Mizuho Bank's official website

121

9 Comments

HBO Max continues its push into APAC, with the service coming to Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Macau, Mongolia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and other locations on October 15. WBD is still on track to have HBO Max available in more than 100 markets by the end of the year and also plans to launch in Germany, Italy, and the U.K. in 2026. Press release: https://lnkd.in/eBY7uZfc - #streamingmedia #SVOD #AVOD #hbomax

54