Manga Productions is a leading entertainment company in Saudi Arabia and the broader Middle East, specializing in animations, video games, and comics. Their first animated feature film, The Journey (2021), achieved global exposure.
During MIFA 2025, we had the opportunity to interview Dr. Essam Bukhary, the CEO of Manga Productions, to gain insights into the current landscape and future outlook of the animation industry in the Middle East.
Interview with Essam Bukhary
Hideki Nagaishi (HN): Could you please introduce us your company?
Essam Bukhary: Manga Productions is a subsidiary of MiSK Foundation, a non-profit investment organization empowering Saudi Arabian young talents mainly in education, creative arts, science and technology, and entrepreneurship. We focus on developing anime, video games, and comics targeting both domestic and international audiences to inspire the heroes of tomorrow. We also handle IP management such as animation distribution, game publishing, and IP licensing.
HN: Could you please let us know about the current situation of animation in Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries from your point of view?
Essam Bukhary: The Middle East is the most promising market for anime and entertainment due to big opportunities and the great growth rate of the anime market in the upcoming years. Over the past five years, anime consumption in the region has increased by more than 300%, with Saudi Arabia leading this growth. In fact, the anime streaming market in Saudi Arabia is expected to exceed $500 million by 2030, supported by increasing demand on platforms like Netflix, Crunchyroll, and Shahid.
You may have heard about the Qiddiya city project, which includes major entertainment developments such as the ‘Dragon Ball Theme Park.’ Also, other big events like ‘Riyadh Season’ are adding to the growing entertainment scene in the region. In addition, there is noticeable growth in anime distribution and game publishing across the region.
For example, next month we will have ‘Esports World Cup,’ while major global events such as ‘Riyadh Expo 2030’ and the ‘Saudi Arabia World Cup 2034’ are on the horizon, which make Saudi Arabia more attractive for anime and game studios.
HN: I would also like to hear your opinion about the current situation of Western animation in the Middle East.
Essam Bukhary: It depends on the definition of animation. Historically, in Saudi Arabia and some Middle Eastern countries, people grow up watching anime – Japanese animation. Since the 90s, we started to watch American animation, including Disney and Pixar films. From time to time, we also see animated films coming from Europe and other regions. However, at the moment, I can say the majority of the market is geared towards anime, and people are paying more attention to animation coming from Korea and China.
Historically, people in the Middle East had been consuming content that we imported. I think now, from Saudi Arabia, it’s our time to produce content and export our stories to the world. We’re creating animation not only for audiences in the Middle East but also for the global market.
HN: The next question is about your studio’s international co-production with Japanese studios. How did you start collaborations with Japan?
Essam Bukhary: Okay, let me share the story of The Journey (2021), our first animated feature film, because I think it’s the easiest way to explain it. In 2017, when I started in my role as CEO at Manga Productions, I visited Toei Animation, a leading animation studio Known for One Piece, Dragon Ball, ;SLAM DUNK, Sailor Moon, Grendizer, and so on. I initiated discussions with them on co-producing The Journey, and they accepted our offer.
We had location scouting for Japanese animation experts, and they were able to understand the culturedepicted in the film by experiencing it themselves in Saudi Arabia. As we had a lot of differences in language and culture, our team participated in every detail of the film project, such as story development, character design, historical review, and background design. We even made 52 videos to explain the Arab body language for the Japanese creators. When you see The Journey, you will find that the character design and the body language in the film are different from other Japanese anime. We also had a big generational gap: our team was mostly in their 20s and 30s, while Toei Animation’s team was mainly made up of people in their 40s to 60s. But we could overcome all those differences, and the result was amazing.
The Journey was the first Arab animated feature film to premiere in the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. It was the first Arab IP to be featured on the Chinese platforms. It also became the first Arab film to win Best Experimental Film at Septimius Awards in the Netherlands. The Journey is now available on more than 58 platforms globally and in six languages. By the way, for the Chinese version of The Journey, we had Jackie Chan as a voice actor.
HN: Could you please let us know the possibility of international co-production animation between Western countries and the Middle East, especially between Europe and Saudi Arabia? What kind of future do you see?
Essam Bukhary: In terms of international co-production on comics, we at Manga Productions say yes to that opportunity. Regarding to games, we’re already doing very good collaborations with French and Spanish studios, localizing their games for the Arabic market and doing the promotions. For example, Grendizer, a video game by Microids, a French company. In fact, we unveiled the world’s largest Grendizer statue, standing 33.7 meters tall during ‘Riyadh Season,’ which earned a Guinness World Record.
When it comes to animation, now we are focusing more on anime co-production with Japan. We have our office in Tokyo, Japan. But, of course, we are generally open to all kinds of international collaboration.
For us, international collaboration is a tool to deliver something new to the market and something new to the work. So, it can be beneficial for us and our international collaboration partners.
HN: I’ve heard a bit about your studio’s project collaborating with Japan for training your young artists, and I’m curious about that. Could you please let us know about that in detail?
Essam Bukhary: Manga Productions is a young company with young employees who have a big love for anime, manga, and games. Unfortunately, we still do not have official courses to teach or practice those arts at universities or institutions. So, one of the first things we did when I started my role as CEO at Manga Productions was to negotiate with our partners in Japan to provide our talents with internship and training opportunities. We sent a big number of them to Toei animation, Square Enix, and Digital Hollywood University in Japan. We also had a good collaboration with KADOKAWA’s branch in Malaysia to study manga creation.
Now the talented artists who learned anime from Japan are leading our projects. They are now directing several episodes for our new TV series. I believe it’s great for business to invest in your talents, your people.
There is another part: we are not limiting our creator development programme to only our talents at our company. We have a great partnership with the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia to provide free online classes to teach manga to 3.5 million students in Saudi Arabia. In this age of AI, we believe in the importance of investing in the creativity of people.
HN: The last question is about your impression and experiments in your first MIFA so far.
Essam Bukhary: My team attended MIFA previous years and reached some very good agreements through productive discussions. So, they told me that I must attend. Unfortunately, in previous years, I was occupied with other business trips during the MIFA event period. But this year I was able to come and have had fruitful conversations with many people from around the world. It’s a promising event. I hope that I will be able to be here with my team from Manga Productions every year and perhaps even showcase our projects.
