TOHO Eyes 30 Anime Cours Per Year By 2032

TOHO‘s Mid-Term Plan for 2028 is out (PDF), revealing its future targets and its assessment of its 2025 Mid-Term Plan.

When it comes to its IP and Anime Business, one of those targets is an uptick in production. This will partly manifest as an increase in anime broadcasts, from 14 “seasons” in FY2 2025 to 30 by 2032. TOHO says that one of these seasons lasts for three months, so they can be viewed as single cours. 

Along with this, it aims to increase TOHO animation‘s employee count from 60 (the number is inclusive of three TOHO CO., LTD employees) in FY2 2025 to 120 for 2032.

“We will reinforce our organizational framework and expand our talent base, enhancing production studio capabilities to develop and distribute high-quality content and IP worldwide,” says TOHO, adding that it “will increase operating profit of the IP and Anime business by 200% or more” from its FY2 2025 numbers by upping its overseas business and games revenue.

In addition to increasing its yearly anime broadcasts and staff, TOHO wants to expand its overseas offices and “enhancing licensing functions in each region,” while also improving its e-commerce platform and bringing “IP-themed cafes inspired by popular anime and characters.”

The “development and release of digital games based on GODZILLA and our hit anime series” is another thing that’s brought up. While not confirmed to be the targets of this initiative, the “hit” titles that are featured in the report include Haikyu!!, My Hero Academia, Dr. STONE, Jujutsu Kaisen, Spy x Family, Kaiju No.8, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, and The Apothecary Diaries.

These titles were notably highlighted in TOHO’s financial report (consolidated version here, both PDF) for the fiscal year ended February 28, 2025 (which, like the 2028 mid-term plan, was published on April 14, 2025), where it was mentioned that they made a “significant contribution to business performance” through distribution rights and merchandising rights royalties. 

Some additional snippets from both reports:

• TOHO is turning IP business and Anime into its own segment from FY2 2026, separate from the Film business segment.

• TOHO’s list of highlighted key subsidiaries and affiliates that it acquired during its Mid-Term Plan 2025 includes animation studio Science SARU, TOHO animation (it became a subsidiary and changed its name from TIA Inc. to TOHO animation STUDIO Inc.), and anime distributor GKIDS. 

• It also listed some companies that it had acquired a partial equity stake in, including CoMix Wave Films,
Bandai Namco Holdings, and Orange.

• In Home Entertainment, “sales grew” for anime like Haikyu!!: The Dumpster Battle, Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, and Umamusume: Pretty Derby.

• Haikyu!!: The Dumpster Battle, Detective Conan: The Million-dollar Pentagram, and My Hero Academia: You’re Next were noted as having “favorable” sales when it came to “souvenir programs” and character goods. Meanwhile, the character goods sales of anime like Haikyu!! and Jujutsu Kaisen “grew
significantly.”

• TOHO is expecting “operating revenue of ¥40,900 million in the Production and Distribution business” from productions that it’s collaborating on and distributing, as part of its fiscal year (ending February 28, 2026) forecast. Some of the titles that are expected to contribute to this amount include:

 Doraemon the Movie: Nobita’s Art World Tales
 A Girl & Her Guard Dog
 Detective Conan: One-eyed Flashback
 Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle
 Crayon Shinchan the Movie: Super Hot! The Spicy Kasukabe Dancers
 Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc
 5 Centimeters Per Second 
 Kaiju No. 8 Season 1 Compilation / Hoshina’s Day Off
 Demon Slayer: Compilation Film
 Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train Revival
Screening
 Jujutsu Kaisen Hidden Inventory / Premature Death
 Lupin the IIIrd The Movie: The Immortal Bloodline

• Jujutsu Kaisen, My Hero Academia, and Haikyu!! are TOHO’s main weapons when it comes to increasing revenue for its IP and Anime business, specifically “through broad use” of these titles.

• TOHO animation will “invest” in titles like Dr. Stone Science Future, The Apothecary Diaries, My Hero Academia: Vigilantes, Kaiju No.8, My Hero Academia Final Season, Spy x Family Season 3, and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End.

• Operating revenue from TOHO’s anime business “and its share of consolidated operating revenue” rose from 24.2 billion yen (~US$169.69 million) in the 2023 financial year (a growth of 9.9%) to 55.4 billion yen (~US$388.4 milion) in the 2025 financial year (17.7&). In the 2024 financial year, the number was 46.5 billion yen.

• Haikyu!!: The Dumpster Battle and Spy x Family Code White were such hits during TOHO’s previous fiscal year that it recorded a loss of 23% in theatrical release revenue.

Source: TOHO