Buddy Marini, the new head of Amazon MGM Studios 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 at a panel on TIFFCOM’s opening day, which also included a piece showrunner steven maida and Empire Producer Shinzo Matsuhashi is outlining his strategies for adopting valuable IP from Japan.
Although he did not reveal any numbers on the investment, Marini described how Amazon MGM is working with partners including Korea’s Studio Dragon and Japan’s Credius, Toho, TV Tokyo and Wowow to increase production of Japanese live-action and anime content. While the slate is primarily intended for a Japanese audience, the intention is that it will travel globally as well.
“Amazon Prime has been serving as an aggregator for content, and we have grown that business very successfully, but moving forward we want to focus more on original content – not just in Japan but around the world,” said Marini, the former head of Warner Bros. Japan, who has been in his new position since March.
“We want to attract a broad audience, so we’re creating content in diverse genres and formats including drama, anime and theatrical films.”
Marini also introduced several live-action titles the studio is working on, including an adaptation of the popular light novel series, The Apothecary Diaries, In which Mana Ashida will play the role of the main character Maomao. Co-produced by Amazon MGM Studios and Toho, the series will stream exclusively worldwide on Prime Video in 2028.
“Although the anime is popular worldwide, it is produced entirely in Japan by Japanese staff members and artists. We are aiming for a global audience, although there are not a lot of such cases,” Marini explained.
Amazon MGM Studios also recently teamed up with Wowow to produce chloe and emmaLive-action adaptation of a manga streaming on Prime Video and TV Tokyo from June 2026 criminal (hanjaisha), directed by Daishi Matsunaga, released on the streamer in March.
Older titles include the Japanese version of the Korean series marry my husbandProduced with Korea’s Studio Dragon; manga adaptation silent serviceProduced with Credius, which was released as a series and theatrical feature, and the Japan-US live action crime drama series Like a Dragon: YakuzaAdapted from Sega’s video game series, which was produced in conjunction with The Fool, Wild Sheep Content, and 1212 Entertainment.
“There is a demand for high-quality content so we are going to double our investment to reach international standard and attract a global audience,” Marini said.
“Our long-term goal is to work with Japanese creators to create content that appeals to the world. From this perspective, the script is the most important element, and our team consists of writers and development executives, as well as creative executives, who help us come up with scripts that have global appeal. We are also flexible on whether projects are released theatrically or via streaming.”
The panel Marini was speaking on ‘Unlocking the Global Potential of Japanese IP’, organized by the Motion Picture Association and UniJapan, included a fireside chat with Matsuhashi and Maeda, followed by a question-and-answer session.
Masatashi is the CEO of Japanese production outfit Credius, which also owns Sony-backed Blockbuster. Empire The franchise and last year’s Oscar submission kokuhoExplained how the company is working to retain IP on some of its projects.
For blue lock feature, based on a popular manga, Credius established a rights holding company, CK Works, as a joint venture with the manga’s publisher, Kodansha.
“It is rare for production companies to be involved in owning IP rights, but it is starting to become more standardized and prevalent globally,” Mtshishi said.
“Production costs are very high and cannot be fully covered by production companies, who are usually seen as contractors who produce, distribute and are left with nothing in the end. We were frustrated with this system, so we hope that by retaining the rights, we can build structures like Hollywood.”
Maeda, showrunner of Netflix’s iconic live-action adaptation of Japan a piece Manga talked through the logistics of adapting a long-running manga with hundreds of installments into an eight-episode series and ensuring that the budget is at the level to do justice to the original work.
Maeda explained, “We discussed and pushed a lot about what the budget would be. So we wrote three versions of the show.” “The first version was going to be very expensive and Netflix asked us if we would make a version that was much less expensive.
“The problem with it was that if we did that version, it wasn’t going to be the same a piece Show that fans were going to like it, and the first step to a piece This was to ensure that fans got on board.
“That’s the big battle with global IP: You’ll have people who love the show, and they want a faithful adaptation, and you’ll 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.
TIFCOM runs for three days (28-30 October) at the Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Trade Center in Hamamatsucho.