Nelvana partners with Sumitomo Corporation to create new anime; Miraculous Season 2 on Family; Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V correction
Majin Bone, Bomberman Jetters and Aikatsu! are some of the anime Zeroichi’s president has helped launch.
Corus Entertainment’s Toronto-based Nelvana has announced a partnership with Japanese trading and business investment firm Sumitomo Corporation to “develop and co-produce innovative anime properties with international appeal.” The name likely won’t be familiar to most anime fans, but Sumitomo has invested heavily in animation, including multiple partnerships with Crunchyroll and its parent company.
To support this venture with Nelvana, Sumitomo has enlisted the help of Tokyo’s Zeroichi, Ltd. to help produce an original anime and toy concept for the North American market. Zeroichi’s president, Shigeki Fujiwara, helped create brands Beyblade, B-Daman, Aikatsu and Majin Bone. Stuart Snyder, former President/COO of Time Warner’s Cartoon Network, brought the parties together, spearheaded negotiations, and will consult on the business going forward.
“We look forward to working with Stu and the talented team and creative individuals of Sumitomo through this strategic partnership,” said Scott Dyer, President, Nelvana. “As we continue to expand our presence globally and invest in international talent, we cannot wait to share the fresh ideas and engaging content coming out of Japan.”
“We are thrilled to partner with Nelvana to create world-class anime and exceptional children’s content,” said Mr. Iehisa Nakamura, Executive Officer, General Manager of Media Division in Sumitomo Corporation. “This is a great opportunity to invest in and showcase our country’s outstanding talent and resources to the global kids’ entertainment market.”
This is the third Japanese collaboration Nelvana has made in recent history. The company is partnering up with fellow Toronto-based toy manufacturer Spin Master and Japanese animation studio TMS Entertainment to relaunch the Bakugan franchise. Nelvana’s domestically animated D.N.Ace is being produced with assistance from Japanese ad agency Dentsu and animation studio OLM.
Elsewhere, DHX has announced that the second season of Miraculous: Tales of Lady Bug & Cat Noir will premiere on Family Channel on February 16th at 11 AM ET/PT. The first season of Zag’s once anime series debuted on the channel on October 10, 2016. The series also airs in French Canada on Tele-Quebec.
The second season consists of another 26 episodes that premiered in France last October. The English version started airing in the United Kingdom in December, which is the same month it premiered in French Canada. The show is supposed to launch on Netflix in other international markets, most notably the US, this spring.
The English Canada premiere is part of an all-day Miraculous marathon that kicks off on the 16th at 7:15 a.m. ET/PT and include four brand new episodes airing at 11 a.m., 11:30 a.m., 4 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. ET/PT. Following the event, Miraculous will move to its regular time slot of weekdays at 4 p.m. ET/PT, as part of Family’s newly launched Super Awesome Fun Time programming block. No, that wasn’t one of my jokes.
Outside of Miraculous, DHX appears to be leveraging their own content to fuel their channels. The third season of the company’s CG-animated Inspector Gadget series premiered on Family on January 8th … despite the series having originally been commissioned by Teletoon and the show’s second season still airing on the channel. The same can be said for former Teletoon original Supernoobs, whose second season is now headed to Family. Habitual whiner Caillou can is moving to Family Jr. on February 5th. Even reruns of the earlier Johnny Test episodes are jumping ship. Unsurprisingly, DHX recently submitted their license renewals to the CRTC and requested they be allowed to air more owned content. Though, the company does appear to still want to play nice with others. Earlier today they confirmed the second season of their Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs series will air on YTV.
Crunchyroll launched the dub of Kiznaiver on their website last night. The English language version was produced by Vancouver’s Ocean Productions, primarily using their Alberta talent. Aniplex of America released the series on Blu-Ray in late December.
The series marks the second time the anime streaming service has enlisted the Canadian firm to produce an adaptation for them. Crunchyroll previously partnered with Ocean on an English dub of Gintama’s third season. It’s not known if there will be a future to this relationship. These dubs (alongside a few others produced in Los Angeles) were from a Crunchyroll initiative to enter the world of physical home video. Prior to releasing any product, Crunchyroll partnered with Funimation. The latter has since dubbed the vast majority of Crunchyroll’s newer titles with their crews in Texas.
Lastly, I have to issue a correction to something I previously reported. Last month I claimed the French dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V had been cancelled after its first season. That was an assumption on my part as the dub premiered in France back in 2015 and had been in seemingly perpetual reruns since the initial 49 episodes concluded. As it turns out, the dub’s second season debuted in the country on January 15th. While the show is now on another channel (the first season aired on Gulli while season 2 is on Boing), the Morrorroco-based voice cast appears to have returned.
I guess this means Télétoon may eventually get around to airing the second season in Quebec.
Thanks Greg.
I Miss Bionix 
Something about Nelvana and anime still kinda amuses me somehow, but I guess it shows my age when even I remember their glory years of the late 70’s/early 80’s.