Japanese entertainment company Toho revealed its expansion strategy for the anime business as part of its financial results presentation for the fiscal year ending February 2026, published on April 14. As reported by GameBiz, the company is looking to increase and accelerate its output while further strengthening its TOHO animation brand and other in-house studios, aiming to build a supply system that would be able to deliver 30 anime seasons (or cours, meaning about 12 episodes broadcast continuously over a 3-month period) per year.
According to the presentation, Toho will be shifting its anime production towards a “full-blown mass production phase.” By February 2029, the company expects to reach a quota of about 20 anime seasons released per year, aiming to achieve a production scope of 30 anime seasons per year by 2032. While this means Toho and its studios will be pumping out an increasing number of anime titles, the final goal of the strategy is to strengthen the revenue base for its IPs through multi-faceted monetization. This will also include long-term revenue from IP serialization, streaming, overseas expansion, and merchandise.
Simultaneously, in order to support the scale of their mass-production phase, Toho will be looking to strengthen their production framework through both internal and external investment. While enhancing the capabilities of their in-house TOHO animation STUDIO and Science SARU, the company will also be actively collaborating with external studios. One part of this strategy is their recent investment in Beastars studio Orange.
As the company describes, this new strategy comes as their anime business evolves from being a secondary revenue source, overtaking the film business to become the new “pillar” of the company. Going forward, Toho will be aiming to move away from over-reliance on existing popular IPs and create a system that can consistently produce new hit IPs.
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