Creator economies, such as those in anime and manga, bring together IP copyright holders, creators of derivative content from these IPs, and money that circulates as a result of fandom.
The creators that actually benefit financially from derivative content have long been enclosed to networks of trusted influencers, companies with weight to throw around, and entities with big money to secure official licenses, leaving grey areas and an otherwise disincentivising culture where it’s unclear for most when a company will pursue fans for copyright infringement for making review videos, watchalongs, or edits. This leaves large amounts of money and opportunities to expand fandom on the table.
However, companies in numerous industries see the role that derivative content has to play in the future, expanding fandoms in a potentially much faster, explosive, and unpredictable way than their in-house strategies alone allow.
This has led to licensing deals with platforms like TikTok and suites of tools for rightsholders on YouTube to effectively seize derivative content videos, leaving the videos up (in tacit acknowledgment of their usefulness) while reaping the revenue. New and growing initiatives at companies like Kodansha and KADOKAWA seek to facilitate and guide waves of fandom rather than remain on the outside, selectively stamping it out altogether.
KODANSHA x ROBLOX
In early July, Roblox revealed the first companies comprising its new licensing platform: Lionsgate, Netflix, Sega, and manga publishing giant Kodansha. This was followed by the announcement on July 31 that Roblox‘s daily active users had surpassed 100 million (Reuters), up 30 million from May 2024, with continued growth due to the numerous games and experiences available on the platform. Many include experiences that derive from copyrighted material.
The new Roblox Licensing Platform will allow license holders to issue licenses to their IP at scale by specifying terms of use, tracking IP usage, offering licenses directly to creators, evaluating proposals, and automatically collecting revenue. As Roblox puts it, “Not only did rights holders struggle to discover interested creators, but the nature of the process meant that only a select group of larger studios were able to benefit.“
The Roblox Licensing Platform aims to create new opportunities for licensing revenue, while creators can understand the room they have to manoeuvre, profiting from global IPs. Roblox confirmed that Kodansha will license two of their most popular IP, Blue Lock and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime. This follows Kodansha’s Attack on Titan Roblox competition last year.
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In 2022, 62% of Roblox‘s daily active users were under 17 years old, and the 17–24 demographic is the fastest-growing on Roblox (as of Q1 2023). Meanwhile, Gen Z holds one of the largest shares of anime watchers globally. There are overlaps in behaviors, such as modes of self-expression:
Roblox‘s 2023 report, Digital Expression, Fashion & Beauty Trends, revealed that 52% of Gen Z users of platforms like Roblox (US, UK) were comfortable with budgeting up to $10 each month for digital fashion (18% of Gen Z were willing to spend between $50-$100); Polygon’s 2024 anime report reports that over 50% of Gen Z anime watchers (US, over 18) say anime influences their style, color palette, and identity.
Dentsu’s survey of viewing habits from 10 countries revealed that at least 13% of people surveyed (anime watchers and non-anime watchers) spent over $200 on anime-related products in the last 12 months* (see the end of the article for working). For Gen Z respondents who specifically watch anime on a regular basis, 30% spent over $200, and 12% spent over $500.
Anime also has a unique hold on viewers compared to other forms of TV and movies. An estimate of Crunchyroll’s viewing data suggests that per head, Crunchyroll users may be watching several times more content on the platform compared to a user on Netflix, which offers a largely live-action catalog.
Both anime and Roblox have incredibly strong grips on young people, meaning their combination creates an easily targetable and sticky ecosystem for IP holders to discover and develop new fans.
In other words, anime derivative content, Roblox, anime—particularly, short anime, and memetic culture generally, all of which are united by their grips on younger audiences and the fact that fans are largely the factor in making an IP attractive, are increasingly becoming tactics for companies to launch businesses, IPs, and contribute to the fandom of a medium more broadly. Ahead of the release of Toei Animation’s new, original film, Hypergalactic, later this year, it specifically identified Roblox as a means to develop a fandom first (Toei Animation Briefing Material, FY2025 – Page 24).
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KADOKAWA x YouTube
Dentsu’s report also found that as much as a third of anime viewers globally watch and read secondary content of anime movies and TV shows, such as podcasts, live streams, and reviews. Against that backdrop of the fan demand for secondary anime video content, KADOKAWA announced new rules that let YouTube creators use clips from its anime titles, with up to 2 minutes allowed per video for New Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, and four minutes allowed for The Rising of the Shield Hero Season 4, Detectives These Days Are Crazy!, and a personal favorite, See You Tomorrow at the Food Court.
Permission to do so is granted through KADOKAWA’s Creator’s Support Program (CSP), which handles the distribution of a portion of revenues back to the production committee. You can see the detailed terms here. Permitted content types include (in the case of Food Court, for example):
- Clips of content
- Explanatory videos using footage from the anime
- English translation videos of content, etc.
With the following IP usage permitted:
- The main footage from the anime
- Relevant anime content published on the KADOKAWAanime YouTube channel
- Anime key visuals, character illustrations, and logos
Rightsholders are embracing word of mouth, and are doing so through free mediums (including FAST). With YouTube among the highest market share of where people consume media (SEE: There’s a Lot of Free Anime for Casual Fans, but It’s Just Another Ploy for Your Subscription Dollars!), here influencers can profit from better-produced videos by using anime clips, while production committees benefit from the cheap spread of their anime while making some money on the side.
This latest move follows KADOKAWA’s previous Creator Support Program agreements, such as that for Sakai Takahiro’s Himari and Bear short anime. Takahiro built a fandom through his original anime shorts on X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube. Takahiro later partnered with KADOKAWA to roll out CSP guidelines enabling Himari and Bear derivative content and a revenue sharing process in 2023. Leveraging the massive fandom developed from the Himari and Bear shorts and derivative content, KADOKAWA picked up the series as a manga adaptation on its Comic Alunna platform earlier this year (which mainly publishes titles by online influencers).
Crunchyroll x TikTok?
Following Kodansha and KADOKAWA’s new creator economy initiatives, Crunchyroll may be next up. In 2024, Crunchyroll president Rahul Purini and COO Gita Rebbapragada spoke to Nikkei XTrend about changing trends in anime consumption. When asked how trends will evolve in the future, Rebbapragada said, “TikTok is a clear example, but the younger generation is spending a lot of time creating their own content, and platforms are providing the tools to do so. It’s not going to be right now, but we’ll need to think about how to engage with this generation that creates its own content.“
TikTok was also the focus of Purini’s answer, suggesting that shorter anime production may become a focus:
“Most anime is 21-24 minutes long. Meanwhile, younger generations are used to watching short, 2-4 minute videos one after the other (on TikTok, for example). We need to think about different ways of telling anime stories. The anime ecosystem itself needs to continue to evolve.”
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In both of these areas, the Japanese short anime production company, Plott, may be one to watch. Short anime lends itself to the creator economy through typically lower production costs, due to the primary aim often being to spin off into other forms of business. Therefore, derivative use from a younger, tech-savvy audience that can create and share the anime on social media is desirable.
Plott has raised 1 billion yen ($6.8 million) for a short anime distribution platform (which was supposed to be released in H1 2025), of which its CEO says aims to be like Crunchyroll for short anime. Total views exceed 15 billion for all of Plott’s IPs on social media (AdverTimes), with monthly views over 800 million. It also has a policy for derivative content creation, which you can check out here. Among Plott’s shareholders are Bandai Namco Entertainment.
Source: Comic Natalie, Roblox
Featured image © Homura Kawamoto, Toru Naomura / Square Enix, Kakegurui Production Committee
*Dentsu’s report surveyed 8,600 people, comprising non-anime watchers and anime watchers alike (Dentsu doesn’t actually define what it means by anime, though). For the anime merchandise statistics (Page 21), Dentsu focuses on global consumers “who watch anime at least a couple times x year.” On Page 6, Dentsu shares how often consumers watch (or don’t watch) anime, breaking it down into daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and not at all. Please forgive me if *watching anime on a monthly basis (12 times!!)* doesn’t meet the threshold of a “couple times x year,” but my assumption here was that it does.
I discounted those who don’t watch at all (naturally) and yearly viewers (sad emoji), only considering the consumers who watch anime on a monthly, weekly, and daily basis, which totaled 48% of all consumers. 8,600 * 0.48 = 4,128. Of this amount, 28% spent more than $200, which is around 1,156 respondents, or 13.4% of the total 8,600. Given that someone may be able to watch anime fewer times than a monthly basis but more times than a “couple per year,” this may be an undercount.
Thanks for attending my TED Talk.
This stat feels a little hazy to me, considering my own behaviour. I’d consider myself a hardcore anime watcher, but I don’t think I spend $200 on anime-related merch. Granted, I don’t own many physical goods generally. Are they counting light novel/manga volumes? I don’t think they should. If Blu-rays count, then someone should ask Sentai to work something out with its international partners to release How I Attended an All-Guy’s Mixer in the UK. I’d buy that.
If you’re interested in more interesting assumptions, please see how I concluded that Crunchyroll users may be watching at least 5x more content than users on Netflix. I think it holds.