Why Saudi Arabia is muscling in on the world of anime

“As anime rises in the box office ranks, Middle Eastern and American investors are circling the industry like sharks,” said The Telegraph.

With a sizeable Gen Z and Gen Alpha following, as well as booming merchandise opportunities, anime is an increasingly lucrative market for countries like Saudi Arabia, who are looking to invest in cultural soft power.

‘Strip-mining’ IP

Much of the interest in the industry stems from the Saudi Vision 2030 programme. Launched in 2016, the programme aims to build economic growth through means other than oil and establish the kingdom as a global leader in multiple sectors, including entertainment.

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Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s sovereign wealth fund has “set aside $1 billion” to launch Arena SNK Studios, the main purpose of which is “strip-mining the worlds of anime and video games” for new intellectual property. Meanwhile, state-backed studio Manga Productions has gone from licensing to “co-producing original content” with “major Japanese partners”, said Variety.

Anime is particularly loved in Saudi Arabia, where it “has been a significant part of Saudi youth culture since the 1980s”, said Arab News. A report by digital media agency Dentsu MENAT in October found that around 30% of Saudi anime fans “watch content daily”. The agency’s CEO, Tarek Daouk, said that Vision 2030 was a chance to turn Saudi Arabia from a “consuming community” into one with the “opportunity to produce” anime of its own.

‘Cultural asset and soft power’

Despite the Crown Prince reportedly being a “keen fan of anime” himself, many are cynical of the Saudi programme, said The Telegraph. Critics point to two main objectives of the kingdom's investment in anime (“and ‘making great art’ is neither”): to “speed-diversify a national economy”, and to “win over all the international ‘feel-good industries’” in the hope that regime’s human rights abuses will be “politely forgotten”. “What the Saudis are doing now isn’t that different from what the US did exactly a century ago: win over the world by becoming its pop culture crucible”.

The numbers support anime’s value as a “cultural asset and soft power”, said The Diplomat. The industry reached a significant milestone in 2023, generating a “record-high” 3.3 trillion yen (£15.4 billion) in revenue, with “overseas revenue surpassing domestic revenue for the first time”. That explosion in global popularity means Japanese studios “need to take into account not only domestic but also overseas audiences”, as they “face challenges from both domestic and international competitors”.

Japan, however, is welcoming investment from the Middle East, said The Japan Times. Specifically “mentioning the popularity of Japanese manga and anime”, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi told a Saudi Arabia-led international financial conference in December that she was “accelerating efforts to promote supply chain cooperation between Japanese and Saudi enterprises”. Takaichi then quoted a famous line from the manga series “Attack on Titan”: “Just shut your mouths. Invest everything in me!”