KADOKAWA has announced its acquisition of the stocks of animation production studio Doga Kobo, which will become a subsidiary of the entertainment giant.
The background for the move is KADOKAWA’s medium-term plan, which will last until March 2028 and involves the core strategy of steadily creating IP and advancing its Global, Media Mix with Technology initiative, which is centered around global expansion. KADOKAWA’s press release also mentions its animation business strategy of expanding production lines and strengthening production capabilities to enable the continuous creation of anime, with the aim of maximizing the value of IP that are centered around the medium.
KADOKAWA added that Doga Kobo has a good track record, as well as good relations with KADOKAWA that began around 10 years ago with the Monthly Girl’s Nozaki-kun and New Game! anime. It also pointed out the popularity of the OSHI NO KO adaptation both domestically and abroad.
KADOKAWA plans to have cooperation between Doga Kobo and its other KADOKAWA Group anime studios — the subsidiaries ENGI, Studio KADAN, Raging Bull, and Bellnox Films, as well as the affiliated Kinema Citrus — to strengthen its anime production structure.
Doga Kobo was founded in 1973 by Hideo Furusawa, a comic artist and animator who’d participated in the establishment of studios like Shin Nippon Doga and Toei Doga, with Megumu Ishiguro as president. It spent its first few decades as a support studio, with the studio’s website listing its involvement in titles like Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Spirited Away, and Dragon Ball. The first anime that it produced as the main contractor was the 2005 movie Kahe no Umi, while its first TV anime was 2007’s Myself;Yourself.
Over the years, Doga Kobo has produced shows like Koihime Musou, 11eyes, Yuru Yuri Season 1 and 2, Natsuyuki Rendezvous, Love Lab, GJ-bu, Himouto! Umaru–chan, Aria the Scarlet Ammo AA, Gabriel Dropout, Tada Never Falls in Love, UzaMaid!, How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift?, The Helpful Fox Senko-san, and Wataten!: An Angel Flew Down to Me.
Doga Kobo’s 2020s output includes Sing Yesterday for Me, Asteroid in Love, Selection Project, My Senpai Is Annoying, Osamake: Romcom Where The Childhood Friend Won’t Lose, Touken Ranbu: Hanamaru, Shikimori’s Not Just A Cutie, RPG Real Estate, OSHI NO KO, Saint Cecilia and Pastor Lawrence, Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night, and Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian.
The current Doga Kobo president, Ryo Ishiguro, assumed the position in 2006.
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Source: @KADOKAWA_corp