Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon MGM Studios, and Kelly Day, VP of international for Prime Video, revealed new plans to ramp up its global anime content strategy in a new interview with Variety. Regarding licensing original anime, Salke said that Prime Video is “committed to a growing slate,” adding, “One of the most exciting things we’re doing here in Japan is talking about our plans for ramping up that content strategy for the next several years.“

Amazon’s global anime footprint has historically been smaller than Crunchyroll’s and Netflix overseas; data analytics firm Parrot Analytics estimated it earned more anime streaming revenue than Disney+, Max, and HIDIVE, but less than Hulu and the aforementioned streamers.

Nevertheless, it’s licensed massive titles like the Rebuild of Evangelion film tetralogy, recent seasonals like Ubel Blatt and Tomb!and Look Backthe newly-announced winner of the 48th Japan Academy Awards for Best Animation and Creative Contribution. Amazon also recently announced the worldwide license of Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuXwhich has grossed over 2.96 billion yen (around $20 million).

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“We have a big commitment to an anime slate that we’re pulling together, and the teams are all working on it,” Salke adds. “There’s a lot of exciting stuff in the works that we’re looking forward to sharing, and that’s an ongoing commitment.” Fans may see more live-action adaptations of popular IPs following Oshi no Ko‘s success, at least on streaming. The live-action drama broke the 30-day record for the most views in Japan of any Amazon original series.

Salke also cited her pride for titles like the live-action adaptation of Kaiji Kawaguchi’s The Silent Service manga, which premiered on the service in 2023. In addition to anime, Amazon is bullish on K-dramas, of which Day added, “we’ve started sourcing more of both, and are starting to distribute those more around the world.“

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Salke mentioned her bullishness on AI for empowering creativity, a sentiment recently shared by OLM Digital, which has worked on 3DCG production on popular titles like The Apothecary Diaries. “We’re very excited about the technology and what it can do for our business and in all of our lives,” Salke said, “but for the studio (MGM) specifically, we see it as a absolute tool to put in the hands of creative people and creators to be able to enhance storytelling.“

It’s worth noting that Amazon recently announced a pilot program to dub licensed movies and TV series that ‘would not have been dubbed otherwise.’ This began with 12 licensed movies and series, including titles such as El Cid: The legend, My mother Loraand Long Lost (per About Amazon). It’s unclear whether this will extend to anime.

Source: Variety
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