With the popularity of anime, graphic novels and Nintendo front of mind, Nelvana is looking to bring Japanese IPs to a global audience.

The Corus Entertainment-owned prodco has signed a new development deal with Japanese studio Polygon Pictures (Star Wars: Resistance, Pingu in the City) to deliver original animated content for kids, according to a news release.

Animation and licensing consultant Rika Sasaki, who has extensive experience managing Japanese IP for global export, will help the companies collaborate. She has worked in the past as a senior producer at ADK Emotions (Yu-Gi-Oh!) and also served as GM at company d-rights (Beyblade, pictured).

Nelvana has had success distributing Japanese IPs such as Bakugan, Beyblade and Cardcaptor Sakura in the global marketplace. The goal with this new deal is to discover the “next big global hit,” said Colin Bohm, Corus’s EVP of content and corporate strategy, in a statement.

The companies will focus on Japanese properties aimed at younger audiences, looking at both existing legacy content and new perspectives such as lifestyle, publishing, and design, said the release.

Shuzo Shiota, president of Polygon Pictures, said the deal comes more than a decade after he started having discussions with Bohm and Doug Murphy, president and CEO of Corus Entertainment, about collaborating.

Japanese-made content for kids has been in hot demand for the last few years, with the global anime market on an upward trajectory and audiences hungry for its unique animation styles and storytelling.

The story originally appeared in Kidscreen

With files from Playback

Photo courtesy of Corus