Image courtesy of 8 Lions
©FUJIKO A/SHIN-EI, SHOGAKUKAN, TV Asahi
London-based company 8 Lions Entertainment announced on Tuesday a new partnership with TV Asahi for digital distribution of the Ninja Hattori franchise for video-on-demand (VOD) platforms globally, excluding Japan. The company will launch a network of localized Ninja Hattori YouTube channels, with the first wave of releases available in Spanish, Arabic, Thai and Vietnamese.
8 Lions is a kids and teens entertainment company based in London focused on “digital audience development, global distribution, licensing, and consumer products.” The company plans to establish a Japan base later this year timed with the relocation of Lovely Chavez, Vice President of Digital Commercial Partnerships. This is part of its initiative “to push to rethink how Japanese catalogues travel globally, unlocking audiences at scale.”
Netflix previously streamed the fifth season (53 episodes) of the Indian English dub of the Ninja Hattori (Ninja-Hattori-kun) anime in 2018, along with the first two 26-episode seasons of the 2012 Indian/Japanese reboot series Ninja Hattori-kun Returns with the English dub.
The 1981-1987 Ninja Hattori-kun anime adapted Doraemon co-creator Motoo Abiko’s manga of the same name.
Shinei Animation has been producing new episodes of Ninja Hattori specifically for India since 2012, though episodes have also aired in Japan. Shin-ei previously collaborated with India’s Reliance MediaWorks.
The original show began airing in India in 2006. Each episode of the Indian dub combines three Japanese episodes.
Source: Press release
