Nintendo has had some major success with anime in the past, and the president behind the company isn’t ruling out any anime projects in the future either. When looking at the landscape for anime in general, it’s surprising to see that there aren’t more widely available Nintendo anime releases considering how big the few of their franchises have become in the medium. Pokemon has been a mega hit with multiple sequels and iterations across the decades, but wildly enough it really is the only one to hit that kind of worldwide level of recognition.
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Nintendo franchises rarely make the jump to anime anymore, but Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa recently revealed in an interview (as detailed by VGC) about the company’s desire to expand their franchise efforts outside of video game releases. Speaking about the now in the works The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and the live-action The Legend of Zelda movie, Furukawa also teased an interest in potential anime releases too.
Nintendo President Talks New Movies and Future Projects
“Through this consistent approach, we gradually earn customer trust, which ultimately leads not just to awareness of our characters, but ultimately turns them into fans,” Furukawa began when explaining how deeply involved Nintendo is at every stage of production for its new feature film projects. “While we certainly don’t ignore short-term profits, our main focus is increasing character exposure beyond our games. Films allow us to reach people even in regions where game consoles are not yet widespread. If possible, we’d like to build a structure that allows us to continue making films beyond these two.”
With the intent of expanding more with feature film releases in the future, Nintendo is also looking to expand its video content in general, “Games inevitably face constraints over time, such as previous software no longer becoming playable when hardware generations change,” Furukawa stated. “One advantage of video content, however, is that if it’s good it can be enjoyed for a long time across various platforms.” This also includes potential anime releases for more of its franchises too like seen with Kirby and F-Zero. But there’s a hurdle to this happening.
Nintendo Anime Are Considered “Challenging”
Unfortunately when asked about a potential new anime release, Furukawa did reveal it was possible but that he also believed “it would be quite challenging to get to that point.” The executive didn’t rule it out, however, as through anime it was possible to “create distinctive works that are unique to Nintendo.” This might not be great news to hear for those Nintendo fans hoping to see an anime, but it seems there’s still something unsaid about that transition.
Nintendo is prioritizing its feature film franchise expansions for now with experiments in short form animated releases, so it’s not like anime is off the table completely. It won’t be happening any time soon from the sounds of it, but it might happen someday. With franchises like Pokemon finding that success and other animated hits not reaching that level, it’s also clearly something that Nintendo is not approaching lightly.
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