CHIKE NWAENIE
Apr 11, 2024
Toho's CEO praises My Hero Academia's effect on the current overseas anime landscape, paving the way for future productions like JJK and Frieren.
A newly released interview again spotlights My Hero Academia's influence on the current anime landscape overseas, with the CEO of Toho crediting it for turning around the fortunes of their now very successful Toho Animation brand. My Hero Academia led to its leaders recognizing the "potential for animation to succeed overseas."
In an April 8 interview with VIPO, Toho CEO Hiroyasu Matsuoka said Toho Animation struggled before My Hero Academia came. He then added, "Around that time, I was in charge of overseas at the time, and overseas distribution companies began to visit me daily for negotiations. They desperately wanted to get their hands on My Hero Academia. We found them raising their offers despite their previous ones still under review, and rival companies were also entering the market, driving up the price further with increasingly exceptional numbers." The Toho Animation brand sees Jujutsu Kaisen, Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, The Apothecary Diaries, Mushoku Tensei, Spy x Family, Haikyu!! and many more listed among its productions.
Matsuoka continued, "This prompted us to recognize the potential for anime to succeed overseas, and we began to focus on expanding our business overseas. Of course, we needed to address the domestic market, but motivated by how we could expand anime overseas, we didn't overlook the rapidly expanding anime boom. We had already built up a network to a certain extent, so we were able to handle works such as Jujutsu Kaisen, Frieren: Beyond Journey's End and The Apothecary Diaries." While the interview was only recently released, the conversation occurred in 2023, with Matsuoka adding, "Of the productions coming out next year, the one I am most excited about is Kaiju No. 8." The series features in CBR's The Most Highly Anticipated Spring 2024 Anime — That Aren't Sequels and popular Japanese outlet Animate Times' top 15 most anticipated Spring 2024 anime.
Matsuoka frequently lavishes praise on My Hero Academia, which he previously credited for its major role in the fight against online piracy. He said in 2023 that the overseas success of My Hero Academia unlocked the viability of anime films. On the ridiculous fees that streaming services offered for MHA, he said: "We began to wonder if we were being deceived. The recent success of anime films is an extension of this trend."
My Hero Academia returns for Season 7 on Crunchyroll, with the mini recap series My Hero Academia: Memories having already begun streaming. Crunchyroll describes the series: "Izuku has dreamt of being a hero all his life—a lofty goal for anyone, but especially challenging for a kid with no superpowers. That’s right, in a world where eighty percent of the population has some kind of super-powered “quirk,” Izuku was unlucky enough to be born completely normal. But that’s not enough to stop him from enrolling in one of the world’s most prestigious hero academies."
Source: VIPO