In September, dozens of gamers stood patiently in line in a dimly lit area of the Makuhari Messe convention center outside Tokyo, waiting to be summoned into the company of fantasy warriors.
When their turn came, many posed with men and women dressed to look like heroes from the post-apocalyptic role-playing action game Wuthering Waves, complete with wigs in bright shades of pink and blue.
Other visitors to the Tokyo Game Show snapped photos outside the hall with the life-sized sculpture of a demonic and armored lance-bearing fighter astride a red motorcycle with flaming tires in front of a large Wuthering Waves poster.
While the imagery would feel familiar to fans of Japanese manga, anime and games and the bulk of the showgoers were Japanese, Wuthering Waves is not a Japanese creation. The game, released just four months earlier, was developed by China’s Kuro Games.
Touched by the big turnout at the company’s booth, Zhiyu Zhu, Kuro’s Japan marketing manager, said, “Core fans have so much passion and love for the characters.”
Kuro’s success with Wuthering Waves and other titles highlights how the aesthetics of Japanese anime and manga are becoming ubiquitous, even with game developers in China, South Korea, and other parts of Asia.
For Japan, this trend is something of a mixed blessing. Many players overseas who have become fans of anime-style games from other countries have also gotten interested in original Japanese productions, are investing in gaming systems from Nintendo or Sony Group, or are traveling to the country for related events, shopping and sightseeing.
Yet, some observers say Japanese companies are failing to fully capitalize on global interest in anime and have become too reliant on old characters. Others are concerned that the growing omnipresence of anime aesthetics could sow the seeds of their undoing.
“People in their late 20s are used to seeing Japanese animation,” said Hideki Yasuda, a senior analyst at Toyo Securities. “The anime-esque aesthetic is becoming the de facto standard. … In a few years, I think anime will be all over the world.”
In game design, the stylized anime look contrasts with the photorealism that Western developers have ardently pursued.
But the difference between the two extends beyond visual approach. While Western games often make the player themselves effectively the main character, anime-centered games typically feature much more involved character and narrative development.
“US users view the game avatar as themselves whereas Asian users view them as something external,” said Satoshi Murakami, a professor of character design at the Kyoto University of the Arts.
The fantasy-action release Genshin Impact exemplifies Asian gaming’s movement toward the anime aesthetic. Launched in 2020 by Mihoyo, a Shanghai-based company formed by a trio of anime lovers, it was still the top revenue-generating mobile game in 2023 in the role-playing category, the most popular game type, according to market research company Sensor Tower. Video game research service Niko Partners reckons Genshin Impact has generated USD 9 billion in revenue so far.
While Genshin Impact has lost some steam this year, newer anime-style titles like Mihoyo’s Honkai: Star Rail and Legend of Mushroom from Chinese rival Joy Net Games have been climbing Sensor Tower’s revenue rankings in many markets.
The background of Kuro Games is much like that of Mihoyo. Founded by a group of nine in 2014, Kuro’s name is said to reference the 1990s Japanese manga “Cardcaptor Sakura.”
“Most of our employees and developer team members are influenced by and love Japanese anime … myself included,” Zhu said, adding that the company now has 1,300 staff. “We are interested in Japanese [game] titles and anime, and that passion has pushed us to create these games.”
The gaming market in Japan and East Asia is significantly larger and quite distinct from that of the West. In this region, smartphone titles make up three-quarters of consumer spending on video games.
In North America and Europe, console gaming is a big market, accounting for a share of spending more than ten times as large as in East Asia.
“Market size expansion is a plus for the Japanese game industry since it has an edge, as it knows anime inside out,” said Toyo Securities’ Yasuda. “When the market expands and brings in global revenue, it means more money for [game] development.”
Successful anime-style smartphone games from Asian developers also appear to be helping boost sales of Sony and Nintendo consoles. Jefferies analyst Atul Goyal said that mobile games have become a gateway leading some players to want to play on consoles.
Both Sony and Nintendo are leveraging anime aesthetics across their other content offerings and beyond.
For Nintendo, this has included capitalizing on interest in animated characters from its games for big-budget film productions like 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie and for a new area at the Universal Studios Japan theme park in Osaka.
This month, Nintendo opened its own museum near Kyoto. Ahead of the coming introduction of a new flagship console model, it launched a high-tech alarm clock this month that incorporates music, sounds, and scenes from its games.
Sony has also been putting more emphasis on anime-related offerings, as highlighted by its USD 1.18 billion purchase of anime streaming service Crunchyroll in 2021 and its increased investment in anime-related music.
In May, Sony announced it was considering opening a training academy to nurture “anime creators in global markets.” Ahead of the Christmas shopping season, it will begin selling a new version of its flagship PlayStation 5 console next month.
“Content such as games, anime, music, and manga are a major asset that Japan prides itself on,” Masana Ezawa, deputy director-general in the commerce and service industry policy group of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, said at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Game Show. “We recognize that the game industry is … a core Japanese industry.”
Video games accounted for a majority of Japan’s content exports in 2022, well ahead of anime, movies, television, and print publications. The government is aiming to more than quadruple content exports by 2033 to JPY 20 trillion (USD 132.5 billion) from JPY 4.7 trillion (USD 31.1 billion) in 2022. Gaming is also adding fuel to Japan’s visitor flows and tourist spending, which both appear on track to reach new annual highs in 2024.
For example, in its tourism marketing, Nagasaki prefecture has embraced the 2020 game Ghost of Tsushima, created by a Sony-owned studio. Nagasaki, which has jurisdiction over Tsushima, an island in the sea between Fukuoka, Japan and Busan, South Korea, highlights many sites included in the game, which is set against the backdrop of a 13th century Mongol invasion. Sony is now making Ghost of Tsushima into a live-action movie.
Meanwhile, thanks in part to its Super Nintendo World area, which opened in 2021, Universal Studios Japan was the most visited amusement park outside the US last year, according to the California-based Themed Entertainment Association. Super Nintendo World is due to open a new section themed around the Donkey Kong video game character by year-end.
Anime-style games led Brabeeba Wang, a graduate student from Taiwan now based in the US, made his first trip to Japan on his own when he was in college. He visited a number of sites in Saitama prefecture, which abuts Tokyo, because of their role in storylines that had captivated him and he said he “took a bunch of pictures reproducing scenes.”
At the Tokyo Game Show itself, more than half of the exhibiting companies and organizations came from overseas. Among them was South Korea’s OLO-G Games.
Ayami Hamabe was one of the showgoers drawn to OLO-G’s booth, which was promoting a game called Ponpondoodoo. “I thought these characters were cute,” Hamabe said, showing off a handful of stickers depicting cartoonish pastel animals.
“I tried playing the game and it was very healing and super nice,” the 34-year-old said at the show. “I really want to play it once it’s out!”
Global interest in anime and manga has particularly surged since the Covid-19 pandemic, driven in part by video streaming services like Netflix, which is featuring a live-action adaption of the Japanese manga “One Piece.”
Indeed, at this year’s New York Comic Con trade fair, anime-related content far overshadowed superhero offerings linked to Marvel Entertainment and DC Comics, which previously dominated the event, according to attendee Roland Kelts, author of the book “Japanamerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the US” and a lecturer at Waseda University in Tokyo.
In his view, the biggest threat to anime’s global reign is that Japanese companies are largely running on the fumes of characters created decades ago. The latest hit games from the country—including Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and Bandai Namco’s Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero—show the industry’s dependence on franchises launched in the 1980s.
“The appeal of anime is so heavily character-driven,” Kelts said. “It’s actually pretty difficult to create appealing characters. … And there’s not a lot of new talent.
“Just about every studio is suffering a labor shortage,” he said, adding staff “are overworked and underpaid. The companies tend to want to do everything cheaply.”
Kyoto University of the Arts’ Murakami, who was involved in the creation of the Final Fantasy game series, believes game developers have gotten so caught up in the attractive aesthetics of anime that they are losing sight of the importance of narrative.
“If people just want to see characters, there’s no point of that having to be in a game,” he said. “If we don’t think about whether a game is fun to play or of its experiential design, we will actually fall to ruin.”
In pursuit of something new, the Kyoto University of the Arts has joined a project that combines gaming with contemporary art. “Games are not something you can crack with a code,” Murakami said. “That’s the charm and challenge of it.”