Kadokawa Acquires Doga Kobo

Article at a glance:

• Kadokawa acquired Doga Kobo to strengthen its animation division, making it the 6th animation studio under its ownership.
• Founded in 1973, Doga Kobo gained recent fame with “Oshi no Ko” and has produced notable anime like “YuruYuri” and “Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun.”
• Aiming for a 35% growth by March 2028, Kadokawa’s acquisition is part of a broader strategy, alongside recent acquisitions of 8bit by Bandai Namco and Science Saru by Toho.

Ah, Kadokawa. Who hasn’t heard of good old Kadokawa? If there is a piece of Japanese media you like, there is a good chance that it will either be related to Kadokawa or Bandai Namco in some way. One of my favorite game developers of all time, From Software, is also partially owned by Kadokawa. I had no idea about that. Kadokawa has been working to fortify its animation division in recent years and this acquisition of Doga Kobo is another step in that direction.

Doga Kobo will be the 6th animation studio owned by Kadokawa. And if you don’t know, the studio is famous for animes like Oshi no Ko and they’re also making Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian this season. So let’s talk about the acquisition and everything we know about it.

What do we know about the Doga Kobo acquisition?

Kadowkaawa has been moving to fortify its animation division for a while. They established ENGI in Joint investment in 2018. Then they invested in Kinema Citrus in 2019. And more recently, they created Studio KADAN. Kadokawa has been involved in the anime industry for ages, this is just them being more direct. So there is a good chance that going forward, novels published by Kadokawa will also be adapted into anime by Kadokawa. The value or the percentage of the acquisition has not been made public yet.

Also, Doga Kobo is a lot older than you think. It only got really famous recently because of Oshi no Ko. But the studio has been around for 50 years. It was founded back in 1973. Some of their other major anime projects include YuruYuri and Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun.

My Thoughts

Other than the number of projects they undertake, I doubt much will change about the studio. Doga Kobo is a talented studio, known for its incredible animation quality, I hope that Kadokawa understands that and uses it sparingly. Only giving high-profile projects to DK and all. Sure, it will be nice to see more animes from this studio but I don’t want Kadokawa to wring it dry. This is too good of a studio to go down like that.

As for Kadokawa, I don’t really have any thoughts on them growing their animation division. They’re aiming for a 35% growth from March 2024 stats by March 2028, and they are doing what they think is necessary for that goal. 35% is a big number by the way, when the company is as big as Kadokawa. This is the 3rd major studio acquisition in 2024. The first two are 8bit getting acquired by Bandai Namco and Science Saru being acquired by Toho.

That is all for now!

Let me know what you guys think in the comments, that covers everything I had to say on this matter. I will take my leave here, I am going to listen to Eminem’s album again. See ya!

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