Licensing Magazine delved into emerging industry trends with Starbright Licensing, the leading player in the Anime and Kidult industry in Italy, while exploring its diverse portfolio of iconic IPs.
Starbright Licensing is a key player in the Anime and Kidult industry in Italy. What is the main important reason that led you to this role?
The Starbright Licensing portfolio is the result of years of collaboration with primarily Japanese and American partners, based on mutual respect and trust: we are focused to build medium and long-term partnerships with our Licensors.
Today, our agency is experiencing a particularly favourable moment thanks to the rich portfolio of titles we represent. We constantly receive proposals to acquire new titles, but we try to avoid ‘overcrowding’, focusing our offerings on segments and targets where we believe there are development prospects: recently, for example, we have turned to the gaming sector and the preschool target.
What are the most representative titles and trends managed by the agency today?
Starbright Licensing represents a lot of IP, such as the viral gaming phenomenon Stumble Guys; Hello Kitty and Sanrio Characters; an evergreen like Dragon Ball; Yu-Gi-Oh!, the very popular manga, trading card game and anime series; Naruto, Attack on Titan and My Hero Academia; and the newest acquisition, Miniheroes of the Forest, in the preschool segment.
Regarding the trends, the Anime world has particular space in our portfolio, with a dual track: the new generation that reads manga, watches anime on platforms, travels to Japan and Asia (with a growing interest in Korea), and is interested in its culture in all aspects, from anime to kawaii.
The second track is represented by the ‘nostalgic’ audience, the adults who rediscover the classics of their childhood but who, alongside nostalgia, develop the desire to discover something new.
This is exemplified by the new Dragon Ball Daima animated series, followed with particular affection by various generations in simulcast, as it is considered a ‘gift’ from Akira Toriyama to fans, created on the occasion of the Dragon Ball anniversary to strengthen the direct link between Japan and Italy. Our portfolio captures these trends and, alongside classic titles like Dragon Ball or Naruto, presents titles that are becoming so thanks to the awareness amplified by Netflix, Crunchyroll, Amazon Prime Video, such as Attack on Titan and My Hero Academia, or Yu-Gi-Oh!, thanks to the famous trading card game.
Which product categories have particularly embraced the Anime trend, opening up to collaborations and licenses?
The Fast Fashion has best captured the Anime trend, creating capsule collections inspired by both new titles and animation classics, dedicated to the Adult or Kidult target, and to the Kids target too, such as Dragon Ball.
We believe that investing in novelties with coherent products, increasing the rotation of titles on the shelves, in line with the successful case histories built by clothing retailers, could lead, in the short term, to further growth in Anime-inspired merchandising.
You mentioned another icon of the Japanese world, Hello Kitty and the Sanrio world. Can you give us an update?
Hello Kitty is returning to the spotlight as a protagonist and, along with her, other characters from the Sanrio world, which will celebrate the anniversary in 2025: My Melody turns 50 and Kuromi turns 20.
Both are already present in many capsule collections of major global retailers, from Primark to Zara, and are destined to increase significantly during 2025, becoming the protagonists of entire dedicated licensing programs in 2026-2027.
The conditions are in place for a significant growth in licensing derived from Sanrio characters in the next two years: what we see today is just the beginning of what is already planned!
Stumble Guys was first presented in 2023 at Bologna Licensing Trade Fair. Can you tell us about its origins and evolution?
Stumble Guys immediately attracted attention, and in a few months, Italy was able to build a complete licensing program in one of the most particular sectors for our market, the gaming. With the support of Diramix, we started with the Collectibles-Kiosk category – cards, stickers, 3D and stretchable items – then expanded to other categories thanks to partnerships with Clementoni, Pon Pon Edizioni, JB License, Rollybrush, ELG Food, Grani & Partners, Zaini…
In a few months, Stumble Guys became the benchmark for its sector, with significant sales results and promising prospects confirmed for 2025 and 2026.
Subsequently, the addition of PMI’s The Master Toy made the license a global success, thanks also to the vision of Scopely, a Licensor with over 200 million fan-players worldwide.
Finally, Miniheroes of the Forest: what can you tell us about this title?
This series immediately captured us with its impactful graphics, its valuable content, and characters, each with their own story. We had been looking for a preschool property for a long time to complete our portfolio. Co-produced by Rai Yoyo, the series has garnered very high audience results from the start of programming, which are still growing, tripling the weekly broadcasting.
In terms of licensing, the series has already captured the interest of major industry players in the Publishing category: we are finalizing the first agreements and we will announce these shortly.
