At a TIFFCOM seminar on Thursday, there was both a sense of disbelief that Japanese animation “Suzume” could have achieved such widespread international success and a sense of the depth of passionate behind-the-scenes strategising that made it happen.
Suzume, a fantasy drama about a girl who helps avert a natural disaster, has sold more than 47 million tickets worldwide since its release in Japan in late 2022 and international expansion in spring 2023, following a competition slot at the Berlin Film Festival.
“And most of those people don’t even speak Japanese,” said session moderator Sudo Tadashi, a journalist and professor at Japan University of Economics.
Sunami Kazuki, managing director of producer CoMix Wave Films, and Takeda Akihiro, an executive attached to the president’s office at the film’s worldwide distributor Toho, said that “Suzumi’s” success was not a foregone conclusion.
Its success was years in the making, based on the growing success of director Makoto Shinkai’s previous films, as well as a growing international understanding of the Japanese anime genre.
At the start of their collaboration, Shinkai and CoMix had little expectation that Shinkai’s work would appeal to non-Japanese distributors and audiences. But within Asia, at least, fans are tuned in to certain types of content from other countries.
“We also owe this success to the cumulative effect of Studio Ghibli and ‘Demon Slayer 2’,” Sunami said.
Shinkai’s 2013 film ‘The Garden of Words’ was initially a Japan-only release, but was registered in China after its success at the Japanese box office. “Korea also seems to like Shinkai’s films more and more. India is difficult for Japanese animation. Weathering With You’ was our first release in India,” says Sunami.
“But in [Indian film conglomerate] PVR, we found a similar business mix to Toho’s, including their event business. So the affinity was obvious,” says Takeda. “And when Shinkai personally visited India, the Indian audience was so passionate that he needed a security detail!”
Stable business partnerships – sometimes with companies that might appear to be business rivals – have been crucial in giving Japanese companies the confidence to continue their international push. “Media Castle is a very committed partner in Korea,” says Sunami.
“Anime has a different audience from live-action films. Fans can overlap or be completely separate. In China, we had a choice of four partners and used Toei as an intermediary because of the knowledge they gained from [the Chinese release of anime title] ‘My Hero Academia’,” said Sunami.
“When we took the film to Cannes, we had Eurozoom, Wild Bunch and Sony logos on the PR materials. Wild Bunch (Goodfellas) was particularly helpful. And [Sony-owned] Crunchyroll was also involved,” says Takeda.
With experience comes a growing understanding of the differences between local audiences. And their similarities.
“We were worried that the Japanese natural disaster theme would not resonate with overseas audiences. But the German fans enjoyed it as a fantasy. Maybe COVID was a leveller,” says Sunami. “And in India, we were always told that anime was only for children. But we found out that it works with adult audiences too”.
“Success has a lot to do with quality. Shinkai’s films have the power to evoke empathy in international audiences,” says Takeda.
