Manga Productions has also announced a new partnership with Crunchyroll following the US premiere of 'The Journey'.
The Journey, a Saudi-Japanese anime, has become the first Arab film to screen at the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, a movie palace on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The film by Manga Production Company, a subsidiary under Saudi Arabia’s MiSK Foundation, was made in cooperation with Japanese Toei Animation. Actors Toru Furiya, Hiroshi Kamiya and Takaya Kuroda, who dubbed the film in Japanese, joined director Kobun Shizuno and executive producer Shinji Shimizu at the premier. Several Japanese MPs and company heads also attended the event, along with a large media presence.
Directed by Shizuno Kobun, The Journey was shot using anime-style animation and took two-and-a-half years to make.
Inspired by Arabian folklore, The Journey tells the story of Aws, a potter with a secret past, who is caught up in an epic battle to defend his city. Japanese dubbing artists include well-renowned names in the Japanese region such as Toru Furuya, Takaya Kuroda and Hiroshi Kimiya, while the Arabic version has been dubbed by artists such as Abdu Shaheen, Rasha Rizq and Nassar AlNassar.
Following the US premiere of The Journey, Manga Productions also announced a new partnership with Crunchyroll, a distributor of anime, manga and dorama in the Americas. The deal, Manga Productions said, will help the company expand its viewership and compete on a global level.
Crunchyroll has already begun distributing The Journey to more than 50 streaming platforms across North and South America, giving an audience of more than 125 million access to the film.
Essam Bukhari, chief executive of Manga Production Company, said: “We are thrilled that through The Journey, Arab and Saudi cinema established itself in Hollywood, the capital of filmmaking. We screened at the historic Chinese Theatre, and it is merely the beginning for films coming out of Manga Productions and other Saudi films. We are proud of this partnership with Crunchyroll, which is one of the largest animation platforms in the world. We are going to work with them to connect Saudi art and creativity with the world.”
Eng. Abdulaziz Naghmoush, Director of Marketing, Distribution and Business Development Department at Manga Productions, added: “The Journey movie is now shown on 20 platforms in Japan, and we have previously signed distribution contracts in the Arab world, Japan, Asia and Europe, where the movie obtained a high evaluation compared to other animation films that were shown at the same time.”
The film was originally planned to premiere at the Cannes in 2020, but was cancelled during the pandemic.
Manga and Toei have previously collaborated on The Woodcutter’s Treasure, a 20-minute animation based on Saudi Arabian folklore. The team is also producing a 13-episode animated TV series.
