CATDOLL:UP2016: Tencent will invest in in-depth cooperation with the Japanese animation industry

Today (March 25), Tencent Interactive Entertainment's UP Annual Conference was officially held. Now Tencent's UP Annual Conference can be said to be an important weathervane in the industry. And what kind of introduction and cooperation Tencent will carry out in the animation sector this year is also of great concern to everyone.

Zou Zhengyu, general manager of Tencent Interactive Entertainment's animation business department, first announced the cooperation with the famous barrage video website Bilibili (Bilibili for short). In the next two years, Tencent Animation and Bilibili will jointly produce at least 20 animations. The first batch includes key IPs such as "Silver Guardian" and "Shanhe Shejitu". The two parties will jointly operate copyrights and deepen cooperation in publicity and operation, derivative product development, offline activities, and game joint operations.

In terms of the introduction of Japanese comics, Tencent will introduce the comic resources of Japan's Kodansha for the first time. The first batch of comics introduced include "Fairy Tail", "Kindaichi Case Files" and the 20th anniversary series, "Initial D", "Space Brothers" and other 12 works that are widely loved by anime users. Kodansha also hopes to have a deeper cooperation with Tencent in the future. In order to celebrate this cooperation, "Fairy Tail" also specially drew a celebration picture.

In the field of pan-entertainment, Tencent Animation will cooperate with Caesars Entertainment to grant 10 heavyweight IPs such as "Once Upon a Time There Was a Spirit Sword Mountain", "Silver Gravekeeper", and "Shanhe Shejitu" to Caesars Entertainment to realize the big IP development strategy. Caesars Entertainment will pool high-quality resources and work with Tencent Animation to carry out in-depth cooperation on the commercialization of mobile games, web games, online dramas and TV series, laying a solid foundation for the pan-entertainment strategic cooperation between the two parties.

Next, Tencent Comics will continue to release heavyweight international cooperation. First, Tencent Comics will exclusively introduce Shueisha's "Jump+" comic magazine in China to provide users with better content. "Jump+" is an online serialized magazine created by Shueisha's top creators and editorial team. After the introduction, Chinese readers can watch it on the Tencent Comics APP as soon as possible and keep up with the updates in Japan.

At the same time, Tencent Animation will form a production committee with Shueisha, Studio Pierrot, the animation producer of "Naruto", and Yomiuri TV in Japan to jointly produce the animated version of the Japanese manga "Space Detective". "Space Detective" is the top work of "Jump+" magazine and the latest full-color masterpiece of Mr. Amano Akira, the author of Shueisha's ace work "Katekyo Hitman Reborn".

Afterwards, Tencent made public its plans for domestic animation. In terms of animation culture and IP adaptation, Tencent Animation's star IP "My Name is Bai Xiaofei" will be adapted into a stage play in cooperation with the best domestic drama team Happy Twist, and is expected to premiere in Shanghai in July this year. The web drama and the movie of the same name will also start shooting this year; Tencent Animation's exclusive super cute animation IP "Fox Spirit Matchmaker" will cooperate with Wanhe Tianyi, which has produced web dramas such as "Never Expected", to jointly launch a live-action web drama of the same name; Tencent Animation's other original science fiction adventure comic "Star Explorer" will also be adapted into a movie, directed by young director Zhang Xiaobei. This is also Zhang Xiaobei's directorial debut; in addition to adapting the platform's endogenous IP, Tencent Pictures will also join the movie "One Hundred Thousand Bad Jokes 2", hoping to work with Wanda and Youyaoqi to create a Tucao culture series brand.

Tencent Animation's new trailer for the first half of 2016: