Comisma, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank Establish Anime Production Fund

IP platform company COMISMA (ComicSmart, Inc.) announced on Wednesday it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank to establish an anime production fund. While COMISMA's announcement did not state how large the fund would be, the financial newspaper Nikkei reported on Wednesday the fund is aiming for an operating scale of 10 billion yen (about US$63.5 million) by the end of fiscal year 2027.

COMISMA stated the fund will enhance financial support for creators and "offer new investment opportunities to investors who have previously had little access to the anime production business." COMISMA and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank will jointly establish and operate the fund.

COMISMA is the parent company of both the manga app GANMA! and the anime studio Qzil.la. The fund aims to combine COMISMA and Qzil.la's ability to acquire popular IPs and anime production expertise with the bank's investor network. The fund will offer new investment opportunities to companies that have been interested in entering the anime production business but have found it difficult to access.

COMISMA stated production capacity has not kept pace with strong demand, with many established and major studios being booked to capacity years in advance.

The announcement referenced the Japanese government's recently announced goal to roughly triple the anime industry's overseas market in less than 10 years, with a 6 trillion yen (about US$37 billion) goal for 2033. The Association of Japanese Animations (AJA) had announced on Thursday the overseas anime market in 2025 was 2.54 trillion yen (about US$16.1 billion).

Sources: COMISMA's website, Nikkei