Amazon MGM Studios Japan To Double Investment In Original Content; ‘One Piece’ & ‘Kingdom’ Producers Talk IP Strategies – TIFFCOM

Buddy Marini, Amazon MGM Studios‘ new head of Japan, says the company has doubled its investment in original Japanese content, including an expanded slate of live-action films and series. Marini was speaking on a panel on the opening day of TIFFCOM, which also featured One Piece showrunner Steven Maeda and Kingdom producer Shinzo Matsuhashi, outlining their strategies for adapting valuable IP from Japan.

While he didn’t put a number on the investment, Marini explained how Amazon MGM is working with partners including Korea’s Studio Dragon and Japan’s Credeus, Toho, TV Tokyo and Wowow to ramp up production of Japanese live-action and anime content. While the slate is primarily made for Japanese audiences, the intention is that it will also travel globally.

“Amazon Prime has been acting as an aggregator for content, and we grew that business very successfully, but going forward we wanted to focus more on original content – not just in Japan but worldwide,” said Marini, a former head of Warner Bros Japan who has been in his new post since March.

“We’re seeking to appeal to a wide audience so we’re producing content across diversified genres, and across different formats including drama, anime and theatrical films.”

Marini also introduced several live-action titles that the studio has been working on, including an adaptation of popular light novel series, The Apothecary Diaries, which will star Mana Ashida as the protagonist Maomao. Co-produced by Amazon MGM Studios and Toho, the series will stream exclusively worldwide on Prime Video in 2028.

“While the anime is popular worldwide, this has been entirely produced in Japan by Japanese staff members and cast. We’re aiming for global audiences, although there are not so many cases like this,” Marini explained.

Amazon MGM Studios also recently teamed with Wowow to produce Chloe And Emma, a live-action adaptation of a manga that has been streaming on Prime Video since June 2026, and with TV Tokyo on Criminal (Hanzaisha), directed by Daishi Matsunaga, which dropped on the streamer in March.

Older titles include a Japanese version of Korean series Marry My Husband, produced with Korea’s Studio Dragon; manga adaptation The Silent Service, produced with Credeus, which was released as a series and theatrical feature, and Japan-U.S. live action crime drama series Like a Dragon: Yakuza, adapted from Sega’s video game series, which was produced with The Fool, Wild Sheep Content and 1212 Entertainment.

“High-quality content is in demand so we’re going to double our investment to reach an international standard and attract global audiences,” Marini said.

“Our long-term goal is to work with Japanese creators to make content that appeals to the world. From this perspective, script is the most important element, and we have creative executives in our team, along with writers and development executives, to help us to come up with scripts that have global appeal. We’re also flexible on whether projects are released through theatrical or streaming.”

The panel Marini was speaking on, ‘Unlocking the Global Potential of Japanese IP’, organized by the Motion Picture Association and UniJapan, also featured fireside chats with Matsuhashi and Maeda, followed by a Q&A session.

Matshashi, CEO of Japanese production outfit Credeus, which has credits including the Sony-backed blockbuster Kingdom franchise and last year’s Oscar submission Kokuho, explained how the company has been working to retain IP on some of its projects.

For the Blue Lock feature, based on a popular manga, Credeus set up a rights holding company, CK Works, as a joint venture with the publisher of the manga, Kodansha.

“It’s rare for production companies to be involved in holding IP rights, but it’s starting to become more standardized and practiced globally,” said Matshashi.

“Production cost very high and this can’t be covered fully by production companies, who are usually seen as contractors who create, deliver and are left with nothing at the end. We were frustrated with this system, so we hope that by retaining rights, we can build structures like those in Hollywood.”

Maeda, showrunner on Netflix’s live action adaptation of Japan’s iconic One Piece manga, talked through the logistics of adapting a long-running manga with hundreds of installments into an eight-episode series, and ensuring it had the budget level to do the original work justice.

“We had a lot of discussions and push and pull on what the budget was going to be. So we wrote three versions of the show,” Maeda explained. “The first version was going to be very expensive and Netflix asked us if we would do a version that was much less expensive.

“The problem with that was, if we did that version, it was not going to be the One Piece show that the fans were going to love, and the first step for One Piece was to make sure that the fans got on board.

“That’s the big battle with global IP: you’re going to have people who love the show, and they want the faithful adaptation, and you’re going to have people who have never heard of the show, and you still need to bring those people in. If you succeed, you can have international success. And if you fail, everyone hates you,” Maeda said.

TIFFCOM is running for three days (October 28-30) at the Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Trade Center in Hamamatsucho.