Now, THIS may be an interesting indicator on the state of the Japanese anime industry…

This is actually a Chinese animated adaptation of a Korean manhwa, that’s getting a Japanese dub.

Are the Chinese studios going to start buying up rights to adapt good IPs, leaving Japanese-backed productions out in the cold?

Remember that article about the Japanese yen being devalued so much that they can’t afford to outsource their animation work to overseas studios?

That also applies to buying rights to non-Japanese sources, such as Korean manhwa, which are becoming more important as source material that appeals to an international, not just a Japanese, audience.

If other nations’ animation studios grab good IPs, and release them on the Japanese market, the anime profits go overseas, then Japanese studios may start going bankrupt because they can’t compete on a production pricing level.

Specifically, the more Chinese studios get involved in high-level production decisions, that may subtly affect the social attitudes that get the funding to become animated, i.e. no anti-authoritarianism, government is always right, Westerners are baka imperialists, etc.

edit: Not that there aren’t subtle things in anime either, e.g. missing discussion about the role of Japan’s Imperial government in WW2.