A year into the CJ ENM-Toei Animation partnership, the two companies have announced a slate of projects in development at an event in Busan discussing Korea-Japan co-production.
At the Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM) on Saturday (October 8), executives from both sides spoke about working together and included Yi Jongmin, head of CJ ENM’s IP development centre, Takashi Washio, executive director and chief producer of Toei Animation’s production planning department, and Blaad Studio CEO Ho Jin Seo.
“Korean content astonishes the world with its storytelling and worldview, while Japanese content immerses viewers with the process of growth in protagonists that are amateurs,” said Washio. ”If we combine the characteristics of the two countries, we will be able to present hitherto non-existent interesting content.”
CJ ENM will be investing, co-producing and planning with its partners on a raft of projects based on Toei Animation IP, including three that are in development at Blaad Studio. All three will be aimed at global audiences.
The first on the Blaad slate is fantasy action-adventure series Myth Chasers (working title). The IP series will be developed both as a live-action and animated version, combining the production capabilities of both. It will follow warriors secretly fighting to capture goblins causing trouble in the human world.
The second is Super Girls (working title), a live action series based on the PreCure (also known as Pretty Cure) magical girl animation franchise which Seo said was chosen because it denotes “emotional and physical strength that transcends gender”.
The fantasy action drama follows a group of young women working in the K-pop entertainment industry that acquired superpowers overnight in an accident. Together, they use their superpowers to fight extreme villains in the workplace. Seo described it as an “office series”.
The last is Crystal (working title), a fantasy adventure drama animation series with further details yet to be released.
“We anticipate showing you Myth Chasers - the live action version, first - at the end of 2023 and the animation version will probably come out in 2024. After 2024, we are planning to have one live action title and one animation come out every year,” said Seo, explaining it is too early to work on budgets as yet. “We are just now planning and settling stories.”
The CEO said they will be aiming to launch the projects on global OTT platforms.
Korean hit-making production house JK Film (Ode To My Father) will also be taking a Toei Animation IP and making a live action film out of it, although their represntative said it was too early to give further other details on the project.
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