Promotion of anime in Saudi Arabia continues
The first Japanese anime exhibition in Saudi Arabia was held in 2019. Then, while plans to hold a second Saudi Anime Expo were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Saudi anime project continued. The goals were to build on the great success of the 2019 event and promote anime culture in that country.
Dentsu helped set up a committee in Tokyo to hold the expo a second time, in 2022. Also involved were the sponsors, the General Entertainment Authority of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, together with Sela Sport, a Saudi-based major sporting event management company that operates internationally.
Finally, Saudi Anime Expo 2022 was held over three days from Thursday,
October 27, 2022, at the Riyadh Front Exhibitions & Conferences Center in the nation’s capital, Riyadh. Showcasing popular Japanese anime content and anime singers, the event gave Dentsu a chance to create new spaces and events beyond the confines of the exhibition.
Set on being an entertainment center
Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy, and although it is a leading country among the emerging nations of the Global South, its culture and society have long been closed off from much of the world. In recent years, however, the country has been opening up its economy and culture in major ways under its Saudi Vision 2030 strategy, which aims to devise comprehensive solutions for the changing economic situation and generate sustainable economic growth.
Japanese cultural showcase sought
Saudi Anime Expo 2019, a huge success and sold out all 38,000 tickets, garnered high praise from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. When to hold the second expo, however, Dentsu was presented with a request from the Saudi government: to design a replica of a city district to showcase Japanese culture, particularly anime.
The area was to be a Japan subzone of Boulevard World, the massive recreational complex built as part of Riyadh’s urban development to enhance awareness of the world’s cultures among Saudi Arabia’s citizens. The subzone was to cover around 50,000 square meters, about the size of a large baseball stadium, Making it the largest of Boulevard World’s 10 national subzones.
Dentsu assembled a highly capable project team to take on the challenge using innovative approaches; it is keenly aware of how rapidly the anime content industry and market are evolving. We brought together members of Group companies with expertise in their respective fields, specifically Dentsu Live Inc., which oversaw design and construction work, and Dentsu Promotion Plus Inc., which assisted with negotiations concerning intellectual property.
We also collaborated with Sony Music Entertainment Inc., a leader in Japanese anime music culture, to organize concerts at the site. Working together, we solved complex issues and brought our ideas to fruition.
Japan Anime Town offers amazing experience
Our project team’s initial idea was to create the world’s first experience of walking through a Japanese anime-style city. We designed a spacious pedestrian scramble intersection, like that in the Tokyo district of Shibuya, surrounded by large structures standing tens of meters high.
The space doubled as a live concert venue with capacity for some 5,000 people. We set up facilities for selling authentic anime merchandise imported from Japan, as well as interactive exhibits of anime (for which intellectual property rights were secured) that were even more advanced than those at the hosting expo.
Metaverse production proved to be an extremely effective method for realizing the project. Ordinarily, models and blueprints are used to present images of completed event spaces. But, for this project, we created an immersive space on a much larger scale than we had in the past, making it hard to convey all of the details and overall impression of such an immense space.
To overcome this difficulty, a metaverse space was created—presented in high resolution—that allowed users to walk through the project team’s virtual city. The advanced methods used made it possible to intuitively verify the design while moving around in the space, regardless of one’s language.
Through our approach, we were able to overcome language barriers among Japanese, Arabic, and English.
Boulevard World, a media magnet
Besides the coverage that Boulevard World generated around the world, the buzz in Japan was considerable. For example, the CEO of a major entertainment company commented on Twitter that visiting the facility and the Japan subzone reaffirmed his belief that the momentum in Saudi Arabia may well have surpassed that of China. The head of a leading anime production company in Japan also gave the attraction high marks after visiting it.
Unlike in North America and Europe, the anime industry is largely undeveloped in the Global South, in counties such as India and those of the Middle East, South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Yet, on the back of rapid economic growth, there has been a rise in those countries’ consumer demand for genuine anime products and content. We thus can expect Japanese anime to be embraced in many more countries.
By engaging in the production of Japan Anime Town and Saudi Anime Expo 2022, as well as conducting onsite inspections, we were able to strengthen ties with intellectual property holders and production companies. We hope to collaborate with them while becoming ever more involved in the export of Japanese cultural goods. We also hope to expand possibilities in the gaming and Esports industries through anime.
| Event: | Saudi Anime Expo 2022 |
| Dates: | October 27 to 29 (Thursday to Saturday), 2022 |
| Venue: | Riyadh Front Exhibitions & Conferences Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia |
| Sponsors: | General Entertainment Authority of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Sela Sport |
| Organizer: | Saudi Anime Expo 2022 Executive Committee (comprising representatives from the General Entertainment Authority of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Sela Sport, and Dentsu) |
| Event: | Japan Anime Town |
| Dates: | Monday, November 21, 2022, to Wednesday, March 22, 2023 |
| Venue: | Boulevard World in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia |
| Sponsors: | General Entertainment Authority of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Sela Sport |
| Organizer: | Japan Anime Town Executive Committee |
Inquiries
Shingo Kakizaki (Dentsu)
https://www.dentsu.co.jp/en/contactus/
