With the rising success of several anime titles, and the growing understanding of the value of animation in general, 2023 has proven to be a highly significant year. According to TV Insider, anime titles like Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, One Piece, JUJUTSU KAISEN and BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War boasted higher critics' ratings than established IP from DC and Marvel, and anime titles have also enjoyed higher numbers at the box office in recent years.

Unlike the stagnating fandoms and markets of long-standing IP from Marvel, DC and other major players in Hollywood, and the infamous reboot era plaguing cinema and television, sequel seasons in animation note a growth in viewership and fandom, maintaining their significance in a market seeing huge returns. Here's a summary of the year 2023 has been for anime, and a look into some of the most exciting announcements and adaptations to look out for, particularly those coming from VIZ and the result of Naver's acquisition of Wattpad in 2021, Wattpad WEBTOON Studios.

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What's That? Growth

Many IP with huge fandoms are enjoying a new age of adaptation, with the production of titles like Netflix's Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, an anime adaptation of the graphic novels by Scott O'Malley; the upcoming Devil May Cry anime by Castlevania showrunner Adi Shankar; the release of sequel VIZ Media titles like BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War Part 2 – The Separation; Season 2 of JUJUTSU KAISEN and many others; Crunchyroll's work alongside WEBTOON on the upcoming anime adaptation of DUBU, Chugong and REDICE Studio's Solo Leveling; and of course, the highly exciting projects undertaken by Wattpad WEBTOON Studios, which include animated adaptations of novel and WEBTOON titles found on their platform. Some of their biggest projects include the upcoming animation adaptation of Rachel Smythe's Lore Olympus WEBTOON, a cult phenomenon that has won award after award and maintained an overwhelming readership of 6.4 million, boasting over 1.3 billion total views as of August 2023.

With the animation in production 5 years after the webcomic's start date, Wattpad WEBTOON have expressed their commitment to the adaptation of many new exciting stories. From the webnovel side, Mike Booth's hit sci-fi novel HAWK is also getting the animation treatment, this time, with scripts by comic book writer Christopher Yost, who is known for work done in two Thor films in the Marvel cinematic universe and Disney+ hit The Mandalorian; and Wattpad WEBTOON Studios award-winning screenwriter and Co-Head of Animation, Taylor Grant, who was the Business Development Lead on the global hit Crunchyroll and WEBTOON anime adaptations of SIU's Tower of God, as well as The God of High School. With the expansive space opera story that is HAWK, and the level of expertise found in the writing room of that title, it's one of Wattpad WEBTOON Studios' most anticipated works.

VIZ

Various anime from the wealth of manga IP that VIZ Media licensed were released this year, including BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War and the well-received new fan-favourite, Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, an anime adaptation of the manga by Alice in Borderland author Haro Aso and illustrator Kotaro Takata. VIZ has also unleashed their own platform for US-based mangaka to submit their works for review with former Shonen Jump Editor-in-Chief Hisashi Sasaki, who oversaw the serializations of various prominent manga including the run of Shonen Jump's legendary Big Three titles; with the intention being to incubate promising titles as VIZ Originals with potential to be adapted from their original manga.

This shows intent to continue competing with existing franchises, but also to begin unleashing a torrent of original work not yet seen before, similar to the current situation experienced by Wattpad WEBTOONs near-inexhaustible library of both webnovels and webcomics, and extends VIZ's influence in the world of manga from being primarily licensing and distribution, to production. With the market being so hungry for original content, VIZ's iron grip on anime and manga will only be bolstered by this new venture.

Netflix

As the largest streaming site, Netflix's further development of its anime catalogue and acquisition of IP to be turned into Netflix Originals has been very successful in 2023. The production of highly anticipated, well-celebrated stories from other media into Netflix animation has appeared to be kicked up several notches as the streamer announced anime titles like the adaptation of Monster author Naoki Urasawa's PLUTO; the aforementioned Scott Pilgrim Takes Off; and a huge production in the form of an anime adaptation of the Devil May Cry series, which hasn't been adapted into anime since the 12-episode series released in 2007.

Netflix has also seen major success through the Hollywood live-action adaptation of Eiichiro Oda's One Piece, which ranked #1 on the platform in its first week, in over 70 countries. While not exactly an animation adaptation, the live-action One Piece is a case study in the feasibility of anime and related works as a major opportunity. Netflix has been particularly enthusiastic about adapting IP that were originally video games into anime, including a very exciting anime adaptation of Tomb Raider, a franchise that has hardly been given the animation treatment in its history. An upcoming Terminator anime has also been announced, showing Netflix's intent to bring many well-established franchises into the somewhat uncharted territory of animation. Other adaptation projects by Netflix include Keanu Reeves' BRZRKR graphic novel, which is being adapted into an animated series.

Crunchyroll

Crunchyroll has been taking huge strides in increasing the reach of anime cinema as a global phenomenon, with its acquisition of rights to distribute various significant anime titles like Demon Slayer: Mugen Train; Makoto Shinkai's Suzume; Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero (which beat out Creed III), but also facilitated the anime adaptation of WEBTOON titles like Tower of God, which is returning for a second season in 2024. The platform continues to stream various hit anime series, and continues to acquire even more, with some of the more exciting titles being the upcoming Solo Leveling anime adaptation, the anime adaptation of Naoya Matsumoto's Kaiju No. 8 manga, the True Beauty anime adaptation, and the adaptation of Lore Olympus, which has a readership of over 6 million subscribers on Naver's WEBTOON platform.

Disney+

One of the Disney streaming platform's big successes this year was the Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire sci-fi anthology, produced by South African animation studio Triggerfish, which scored 100% Critics Rating on infamous review site Rotten Tomatoes, and garnered positive reviews from various critics. While not an adaptation per se, the success of Kizazi Moto as an animated product under the Disney banner puts it in the conversation as various major companies have begun putting their resources into the realm of animation, and speaks to even more untapped wells of IPs with high potential. Disney+ and Hulu's acquisition of streaming rights to the return of the anime adaptation of Tite Kubo's BLEACH in 2022, and again for its second cours in 2023 is perhaps one of the biggest indicators that big companies in entertainment are looking towards anime in particular as an opportunity to boost their viewership. Disney+ also streamed the second season of Tokyo Revengers, with the currently-airing Tenjiku Arc being streamed on the service as well.

Wattpad WEBTOON

After Naver's acquisition of Wattpad in 2021, Wattpad WEBTOON Studios was established as a means to facilitate the journey from original IP to adaptation of their over 600 million titles, and WEBTOONs huge library of over 1.4 million titles; as well as harnessing the pre-existing fandoms found on both platforms. Rachel Smythe's Lore Olympus, and Mike Brown's HAWK are two highly promising, established titles that are almost guaranteed to be major phenomena once they arrive. Wattpad WEBTOON Studios' Co-Heads of Animation, Sydney Bright and Taylor Grant have expressed immense passion and excitement about their upcoming projects, with Wattpad WEBTOON currently working on over 100 projects adapted from stories posted to both platforms.

Since GameZXC sat down with them to talk about the rise of animation in 2023, the anime adaptation of Yeongyi's True Beauty webcomic, which has a readership of over 6 million, with almost 900 million views, which shows that the floodgates have indeed opened. 2023 will be remembered as the year of the resurgence of not just anime, but animation as a whole. This is the point of no return, and it's an incredibly exciting time to be a fan, especially with the value of not just original stories, but original stories from the fringes being brought to centre-stage through the efforts of entities like Wattpad WEBTOON Studios, who are dedicated to not only bringing fan-favourites to the screen, but also ensuring that they pay attention to the rapidly growing repository of IP to which they have access. With animation growing as a global phenomenon and being seen as a viable vehicle for storytelling, 2023 has been the indicator that while there's much that needs to grow still, the medium will eventually develop the reverence it deserves.

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