1st Interview with Mr. Ozaki— Anime Producer's Strategy: Building Global IP for Brands

Anime is no longer entertainment created solely for Japan. Streaming platforms, brands, film companies, and marketers around the world are paying close attention to Japanese anime IP, recognizing its emotional impact, expressive power, and potential for long-term business growth.

But anime’s value cannot be fully realized if it is seen merely as a “visual style.”

Successful IP depends on many interconnected elements, including compelling characters, immersive worldbuilding, thoughtful information design, the relationship between a work and its fan community, and the timing of international expansion. Behind every enduring franchise is a carefully developed philosophy for nurturing IP over the long term.

For this interview, we spoke with Mr. Ozaki, who has spent more than 20 years working on a wide range of anime projects following careers in banking, Hollywood film acquisition, and the Sunrise/Bandai Namco Group. Having contributed to globally recognized titles such as the Gundam series, Code Geass, Sgt. Frog, Gintama, TIGER & BUNNY, and Aikatsu!, he shared his insights on anime, branding, and the future potential of global IP.

From banking to Gundam: Why Mr. Ozaki’s perspective matters

Mr. Ozaki’s career path is far from the typical image of an anime producer. He actually began his professional life in banking.

“Originally, I joined a bank about 30 years ago. For around eight years, I worked there in what was essentially the early stage of what is now known as structured finance.”

After joining the bank as a new graduate, he spent nearly a decade working in structured finance before making a major career shift around the age of 30 into the business of acquiring Hollywood films.

“Just before I turned 30, I spent several years acquiring Hollywood films. When I spoke with Hollywood producers, even more than 20 years ago, they would often say things like, ‘You’re Japanese, so why aren’t you working in anime?’ … And when they said that, I realized they had a point.”

Those conversations with Hollywood producers became a turning point in his career.

In 2004, Mr. Ozaki entered the anime industry, not through a conventional recruitment process, but through sheer initiative.

“In 2004, I had absolutely no knowledge of or connections in the anime industry. But I had always loved Gundam, so I thought that if I were going to work in anime, I wanted to make Gundam. I sent a letter, my résumé, and my work history directly to the HR department at Sunrise, the studio that held the rights to Gundam. An executive ended up interviewing me directly. At the time, they weren’t hiring mid-career employees at all, but they found my background interesting and decided to hire me.”

From there, Mr. Ozaki built a career within Sunrise and the Bandai Namco Group, working both as a producer and as part of company management.

“While continuing to serve as a director at Sunrise, I also helped launch a new live entertainment company and a music company. At the core of it all, I was working concurrently as a director at Sunrise and as the representative director of Bandai Namco Pictures. The first project I worked on was the theatrical Z Gundam. After that, I served as an assistant producer on Code Geass, and my producer debut was Sgt. Frog. For adaptations of existing works, there was Gintama. For original projects, TIGER & BUNNY and then Aikatsu! became extremely successful across Asia.”

His work extended far beyond anime production alone. He was involved in launching companies, developing music and live entertainment businesses, and overseeing broader business operations. As a result, Mr. Ozaki’s perspective goes beyond creative theory. It also encompasses the business side of building, managing, and monetizing IP.

In early 2024, Mr. Ozaki became independent and launched a new production company of his own.

“In 2024, about a year and a half ago, I became independent after spending more than 20 years with the Bandai Namco group. At our new production company, we’re not only producing anime but also developing our own original works across multiple media, merchandising them, and handling monetization ourselves.”

At the heart of his decision to go independent was his desire to remain actively involved on the front lines of production.

“Personally, I still want to build my career with anime production at its center. I wanted to continue growing both as a creator and as a manager, so independence became the natural choice.”

Today, Mr. Ozaki is doing far more than simply producing anime. He is directly involved in media development, merchandising, and monetization, embodying a new kind of producer shaped by the era of global IP.

When anime fans became decision-makers

The way companies and platforms view anime has changed dramatically over the past 30 years, and Mr. Ozaki says he has witnessed that shift firsthand.

In the past, anime was not necessarily something familiar to corporate decision-makers.

“Thirty or forty years ago, even if you mentioned Gundam, most department managers or executives in their 40s and 50s would respond with, ‘Gundam? What’s that?’”

Today, the situation is very different. The generation that grew up watching anime has become today’s managers, executives, and producers. In other words, people who genuinely understand anime are now the ones approving budgets and driving projects forward.

“Starting around 20 years ago, even department managers and executives would say things like, ‘Oh, I watched Gundam. I loved it.’ Now that fans themselves are in decision-making positions, conversations move incredibly quickly.”

This shift is not limited to Japan. According to Mr. Ozaki, the same generational change is happening in Hollywood. The people who grew up with Japanese anime and manga are now producers and creators themselves, and many want to adapt Japanese IP into live-action films and television series.

“The number of offers from Hollywood to create live-action adaptations has increased tremendously over the past 10 to 20 years. The generation that grew up with Japanese anime and manga is now becoming producers, and they want to turn Japanese content into live-action films and television themselves.”

The structure of brand collaborations has also changed significantly. In the past, anime studios often had to approach companies with partnership proposals. Today, brands and overseas partners increasingly come to anime creators directly because they already have a personal connection to the works.

“Whether it’s Gundam, Sgt. Frog, or TIGER & BUNNY, companies now come to us and say, ‘We love these series. Please let us collaborate with you.’ That has increased enormously over the past 15 to 20 years.”

Anime, in other words, has evolved from being seen as a niche youth subculture into a cultural asset shared by decision-makers themselves. For marketers, the key point is not simply that anime appeals to younger audiences. Anime is increasingly becoming a shared cultural language that spans generations.

Anime as a highly customizable canvas for complex brands

What makes anime so effective for brand communication? Many people assume its greatest advantage lies in its limitless creativity or its ability to depict worlds that cannot exist in reality.

Mr. Ozaki sees it somewhat differently. In his view, anime’s real strength lies in its ability to remove information.

“I actually see it the opposite way. In live-action commercials, all kinds of unintended information end up appearing in the frame: backgrounds, surroundings, and so on. With anime, if live action contains 100 units of information, you can narrow it down to just the five things a company truly wants to communicate. That kind of precision is one of anime’s greatest strengths.”

In live action, a huge amount of unintended information naturally enters the screen, including the environment, clothing, lighting, atmosphere, the texture of a location, the age and ethnicity of actors, and the overall sense of everyday life. Viewers absorb all of these details subconsciously.

Anime, by contrast, is constructed entirely from scratch. Creators decide exactly what to include and what to leave out. That level of control allows them to focus the audience’s attention on the specific ideas, emotions, or values a brand wants to convey.

“When you’re drawing everything from zero, you naturally want to reduce things to the absolute minimum. In a positive sense, you keep stripping things away, again and again.”

In anime, almost everything that appears on screen carries meaning, whether it is a pattern in the background, an object placed in a scene, or even a subtle facial expression. These details are rarely accidental. Because viewers understand that each element was intentionally designed, they instinctively assume that every visual choice matters.

“For better or worse, when you create something entirely from zero, even a small pattern in the background feels intentional. Viewers unconsciously assume there must be meaning behind it.”

This is precisely why anime can be such a powerful tool for brand communication. Even complex corporate philosophies or abstract brand values can be expressed through character design, color palettes, composition, worldbuilding, and storytelling. Anime allows creators to carefully control not only what information reaches the audience, but also what information does not.

“If live action contains 100 units of information, anime can narrow it down to just the five things a company wants to communicate. That kind of expression is one of anime’s strengths.”

For brands, the value of anime is not simply about making something look “anime-style.” Its real power lies in the ability to carefully design what the audience focuses on and what is intentionally left unsaid.

Characters and worlds that feel personal to viewers everywhere

When building global IP, the design of characters and worlds plays a crucial role. According to Mr. Ozaki, TIGER & BUNNY was developed with international audiences in mind from the very beginning.

“It was a project that was highly conscious of overseas audiences from the start. There are eight heroes, and each one represents a different nationality or background in a balanced way. There’s an American-like character, a Chinese-like character, a Russian-like character, a Black character, a gay character, and so on. The cast was designed so that people from different countries, regions, and backgrounds could all find someone they relate to.”

The key point was not simply adding diversity for its own sake. The goal was to create a structure in which viewers could see themselves reflected in the story through one of the characters. In that sense, the work was never meant to belong to only one type of audience. It was designed so that many different people could feel, “This is my story too.”

At the same time, Mr. Ozaki points out that not every work needs to emphasize nationality or cultural identity. In some cases, intentionally avoiding clear associations with a specific country, religion, or ethnicity can make a character more universally accessible.

“By avoiding associations with things like religion, the expression becomes somewhat neutralized, in a sense. The audience doesn’t need to think about what nationality a character is, whether they’re white, or what country they come from. The character can simply exist as a character, and viewers can connect with the work more naturally.”

One approach is to intentionally design strong cultural and national identities into a cast of characters. Another is to create a deliberately neutral world that allows audiences to project themselves onto the characters more freely. Both can be effective strategies for global expansion. What matters is choosing the approach that best serves the purpose of the work.

Reflecting on TIGER & BUNNY, Mr. Ozaki says he strongly felt the series possessed an inherently global sensibility.

“I saw it as a work with tremendous global market potential. When people talk about product placement, this is the series that immediately comes to mind.”

The series naturally integrated heroes, corporate sponsors, logos, media companies, and urban branding directly into its fictional world. As a result, the setting itself became highly compatible with advertising, sponsorships, and licensing partnerships.

This is one reason anime IP can work so effectively with global brands. The worldbuilding itself can be designed to create a natural connection between storytelling, marketing, and commercial collaboration.

The power of emotional infrastructure and the risk of losing control

Anime and fictional characters have a remarkable ability to move people emotionally. This influence is especially visible in children’s content.

Mr. Ozaki points to educational franchises such as Shimajiro as a clear example.

“Children may not listen to their parents, but if Shimajiro says, ‘Brush your teeth before bed,’ they will listen. In reality, there’s already overwhelming evidence that children who ignore what their parents say will respond to characters instead and that this is an extremely effective approach.”

Messages often become easier to accept when they come from a beloved character rather than from a parent or teacher. And according to Mr. Ozaki, this dynamic is not limited to children. Adults respond in similar ways as well.

“There may be something similar for adults too. Instead of being told something by their boss, if it comes from a character they love, their favorite character, they may actually listen. People may simply find it easier to accept things honestly that way.”

A character, then, is more than just a mascot or marketing tool. It can become a trusted emotional medium, something that makes people more open to listening, empathizing, or even changing their behavior.

Part of the appeal of iconic characters also comes from the fact that they can embody actions and emotions that people themselves cannot easily express in real life.

“When people look at Luffy, there’s admiration, of course. But they also see someone who does the things they themselves cannot do, someone who acts on their behalf, almost as a symbol of extraordinary aspiration.”

This is one of the greatest strengths of anime IP. Through characters, audiences can experience the version of themselves they wish they could become. Characters can express emotions people struggle to say aloud and take actions people may never dare to take themselves.

At the same time, Mr. Ozaki stresses that this emotional power must be handled carefully. Because audiences form deep attachments to characters and fictional worlds, brands cannot treat anime simply as a tool for generating short-term attention. Successful collaborations must be built on trust with fans.

If a brand ignores a character’s personality, the logic of the world they belong to, or the expectations of the fan community, the result can easily provoke backlash.

Anime can function as a kind of emotional infrastructure, a shared emotional framework that audiences genuinely care about. But that infrastructure is not something brands can exploit unilaterally. It exists because of the relationship of trust between fans and the work itself.

Japan-first or world-first? Why there’s no single formula for building recognizable IP

How much should creators think about overseas audiences when developing a new work? This question has become increasingly important not only for the Japanese anime industry, but also for brands, platforms, and entertainment companies worldwide.

TIGER & BUNNY, one of the projects Mr. Ozaki worked on, was created with global expansion in mind from the very beginning.

“With TIGER & BUNNY, I was thinking about international expansion from the start, and I intentionally incorporated a huge number of global elements into the work.”

At the same time, however, some anime succeed internationally precisely because they are not overly designed for overseas markets. Mr. Ozaki points to series such as Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen as examples.

“When you look at works like Demon Slayer, a very Japanese-style fantasy action series that basically doesn’t consider overseas markets at all, and Jujutsu Kaisen as well, the fact that they’ve still been embraced internationally is very interesting.”

In other words, creating something deeply authentic and compelling for Japanese audiences can itself become the reason a work resonates globally. Trying too hard to cater to international tastes can sometimes weaken the identity and originality that make a series appealing in the first place.

Mr. Ozaki does not believe there is a single correct answer to this issue.

“There’s no definitive answer. Some people argue that creators shouldn’t think about overseas markets at all and should focus entirely on making a hit in Japan as Japanese creators. Others believe you should consider overseas audiences to some extent and find a balance. I genuinely think it’s a very difficult question.”

While the creative side may not require a universal formula, Mr. Ozaki believes global timing has become increasingly important when it comes to distribution.

Even if a work is fundamentally Japan-born, delays in translation, localization, subtitles, or dubbing can mean missing the moment when fans around the world could have become excited together.

“For manga as well, it’s probably better to release properly translated and localized versions as quickly as possible. And with anime too, whether through subtitles or dubbing, audiences tend to become much more engaged when releases happen almost simultaneously worldwide.”

In other words, creators and companies now need to think about two separate questions:

• How much should the content itself be designed with overseas audiences in mind?
• How much should distribution, localization, and fan community development operate on a global basis from the start?

According to Mr. Ozaki, the heart of the content can remain distinctly Japanese. But the way that content is delivered increasingly needs to be global, immediate, and shared simultaneously across borders.

A practical playbook for marketers and producers

So what should overseas marketers and producers keep in mind when working with anime?

According to Mr. Ozaki, the first mistake to avoid is treating anime as simply a cheap or easy form of visual expression. As AI tools make it increasingly simple to generate anime-style videos and characters, the barrier to entry is certainly becoming lower, but that does not automatically lead to meaningful content.

“I hope we don’t start seeing more cheaply made content where the visuals are generated casually with AI, without any real thought behind them.”

For Mr. Ozaki, the true value of anime does not lie in its surface-level aesthetic. What matters is the underlying concept: what message the work is trying to communicate and what kind of emotional response it is designed to create.

“At the planning stage, you need to have a very clear idea of what you want to communicate and what kind of emotion you want to evoke.”

Broadly speaking, there are two major ways brands can work with anime.

The first is licensing an existing popular IP. Because the fanbase, characters, and world already exist, this approach can be highly effective for generating short-term buzz, visibility, and promotional impact. However, it also comes with limitations. Brands cannot easily deviate from the established identity of the work or ignore fan expectations, which means creative freedom is often restricted.

The second approach is to co-create original IP from the ground up. This requires significantly more time, investment, and long-term commitment, but it also creates the possibility of building a world and characters deeply connected to a brand’s philosophy, products, worldview, and overall business strategy. For companies thinking beyond short-term campaigns and toward long-term brand equity, this option can be especially valuable.

In either case, Mr. Ozaki believes the most important questions remain the same:

• What exactly are you trying to communicate?
• Whose emotions are you trying to move?
• In which markets do you want the work to resonate, and how?
• Is the character or world meant to function as a short-term advertisement or as long-term IP that can continue to grow over time?

Anime is not merely a visual style. It is a strategic medium capable of controlling information, shaping emotional responses, influencing behavior through characters, and energizing communities across the world simultaneously.

That is why brands and studios should not aim simply to create something that “looks anime.” What truly matters is having a clear design philosophy: what kind of IP to build, who it is meant to reach, and how it will be nurtured over the long term.