Japan's Akatsuki eyes JV partner in India, plans to set up local office

The company is actively looking for a local partner for its animation vertical

by Javed Farooqui
Published: Feb 2, 2021 1:53 PM | 4 min read

Japanese entertainment company Akatsuki Inc has ambitious plans for the Indian market. The company is scouting for an India joint venture (JV) partner besides looking to set up a local office with a full-fledged team.

Akatsuki Head of Global IP Expansion Yuki Kawamura said that the company is actively looking for a local partner for its animation vertical. He also revealed that the company wanted to set up a dedicated team and office in India but that is on hold for now due to the Covid-19 situation.

"In the future, we are looking to set up a local office in India. We are eyeing partners for Akatsuki Inc animation vertical. We may establish a joint venture with a local partner," Kawamura said.

The company has already introduced its maiden offering targeted at preschoolers called Kumarba. The edutainment channel is designed to engage kids in the age-group of 2-5 years old through a series of upbeat nursery rhymes and educational songs with colorful animation.

Akatsuki aims to make animation more interactive with the power of storytelling to convey meaningful messages to the Indian kids. The channel features two main characters, a young bear boy named Kumarba and his squirrel-tablet friend, Tabris.

With Kumarba, the company aims to gather consumer insights by developing 3-5 animation properties across different themes, each with 10-13 episodes on OTT platforms and YouTube. "We will also focus on the establishment of the animation localisation process through production of subtitles and dubbing for each language," he stated.

Kawamura said that Covid-19 derailed the company's original content plans. "We had aggressive plans to create original content for India in collaboration with local artists and production houses in 2021. However, with the current pandemic, they have been pushed as traveling to India remains unsafe for all parties. For now, we are only focusing on dubbing and subbing the Japanese content but we will be bringing original content dedicated to India in the near future."

The company will bring dubbed and subbed content in Indian languages like Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, and Punjabi. Going forward, it will add more Indian languages. It is also in talks with local studios for dubbing content in Indian languages. "Right now, we are not working with any local players but in the future, we’ll be partnering with local localisation studios for dubbing in different languages and dialects; the discussions are in progress," Kawamura stated.

For 2021, Akatsuki's primary focus is to build a community following for the content IPs that it plans to introduce in India and build on them further basis the consumer insights and adoption. It will monetise these properties through merchandising offerings.

Akatsuki has entered India since it has the largest kids population in the world and there is a huge gap in the supply of quality content targeted at kids. "This gap has become even wider with wider access to the internet and smartphones across Tier III & IV India and in the light of the current pandemic. The need for kids' content in vernacular languages as their social distance is more significant than ever," Kawamura pointed out.

He also mentioned that Akatsuki Entertainment Technology (AET) Fund, a venture capital fund established by Akatsuki Inc, has relationships in India through its investments in gaming, entertainment, and ed-tech startups.

"With Akatsuki Inc coming in, we are expanding our commitment to India and solving for the untapped market for original kids’ animation content. We are looking to begin by bringing Japan’s fascinating characters and stories to Indian kids in a language they can relate to," he asserted.

Kawamura feels that there is very limited content in India targeting the lower primary school grades and below while the demand for such content is on the rise. He is also gung-ho about the fact that there’s already a proven appetite and affinity for Japanese characters in India as reflected in the popularity of animated shows like Doraemon, Ninja-Hattori, and Shinchan.

"Japanese animation has historically been ahead of the curve when it comes to setting consumer consumption trends. With Kumarba, it’s the beginning of us bringing that wealth of animation innovation to India, customising it to make it relatable for local audiences. There are some great players in India already in the animation space, but as I mentioned earlier, there is still a huge dearth of kids-focused content relative to very high demand," he stated.