For decades, anime in Saudi Arabia meant one thing: dubbed imports from Japan. That’s changing fast, as a new generation of Saudi creators — backed by serious state investment — moves from simply watching anime to producing it.
The Company Leading the Shift
At the center of this push is Manga Productions, a subsidiary of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Misk Foundation. Rather than trying to imitate Japanese animation style, the company’s stated goal is to build high-quality content rooted in Saudi culture, history, and identity. Producer Lamees Alsantely put the motivation plainly: Saudi Arabia already has a large, dedicated anime audience, but most of what that audience consumes reflects other cultures rather than their own.
The shift in strategy is also visible in how the company operates. After years spent licensing and co-producing anime alongside Japanese partners, Manga Productions is now pivoting toward developing its own original intellectual property, including its first in-house series, Henna, announced at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
How Much Is Being Invested
| Initiative | Focus | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| Manga Productions | Original IP, co-productions with Japanese studios, talent training | Trained 4,000+ Saudi creatives; reached 3.5 million students |
| Arena SNK Studios | New anime and gaming IP development | $1 billion reserved by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund |
| AnimeKey / Shahid | Streaming access to Japanese and Saudi-produced anime | Shahid added 200+ hours of anime content |
| Saudi Anime Expo | Annual fan convention in Riyadh | Thousands of attendees each year |
Why Anime, and Why Now
The push connects directly to Saudi Vision 2030, the reform program launched in 2016 to diversify the Saudi economy away from oil and establish the kingdom as a global player across entertainment and other sectors. A report from digital media agency Dentsu MENAT found that around 30% of Saudi anime fans watch content daily, underlining just how large and engaged the existing audience already is. Dentsu MENAT’s CEO has described Vision 2030 as an opportunity for Saudi Arabia to shift from being purely a “consuming” market to one capable of producing its own anime for both regional and global audiences.
Manga Productions CEO Essam Bukhary has compared the moment to Japan’s own entertainment industry in the 1990s, when established players faced pressure to adapt as new competitors and technologies reshaped the market — a dynamic he sees Saudi Arabia positioning itself to take advantage of now.
Building an Industry From the Ground Up
Manga Productions has focused heavily on developing local talent rather than simply importing finished content. Over roughly six years, the company says it has trained more than 4,000 Saudi creatives, while its educational outreach program has introduced anime and animation concepts to 3.5 million high school students. That kind of talent pipeline is a notable investment for a country building an animation industry largely from scratch.
Not Without Its Critics
The scale of state involvement has drawn skepticism from some observers. Critics argue the investment serves two underlying goals beyond artistic merit: accelerating economic diversification away from oil, and building international cultural goodwill — with some suggesting that goodwill is intended, at least in part, to soften global scrutiny of the kingdom’s human rights record. Commentary comparing the strategy to the United States’ 20th-century rise as a global pop-culture exporter has framed Saudi Arabia’s anime push as a similar attempt to win influence through entertainment rather than direct messaging.
The Bigger Picture: Anime as Soft Power
The financial stakes underline why countries are paying attention. Japan’s anime industry generated a record 3.3 trillion yen (roughly $22 billion) in 2023, with overseas revenue surpassing domestic revenue for the first time — a signal of just how valuable, and exportable, the medium has become globally. For Saudi Arabia, building a domestic anime industry isn’t just about local content; it’s a bet on entertainment as a long-term economic and cultural asset, alongside sectors like film, gaming, and live entertainment that Vision 2030 has prioritized.
Final Thoughts
Whether Saudi Arabia’s anime ambitions are read as a genuine creative investment or a calculated soft-power play likely depends on who you ask — but the scale of funding, talent development, and original content now in motion suggests this isn’t a short-term experiment. With Manga Productions moving from co-producer to original-IP creator and billions in state backing flowing into the space, Saudi Arabia looks set to remain a growing presence in the global anime conversation for years to come.
