Dentsu Enters Partnership with Kodansha – News

Variety reported on Friday that major Japanese advertising firm Dentsu is entering a partnership with Kodansha Ltd. that will give potential clients in North and South America access to several Kodansha intellectual properties (IPs) including Attack on Titan, Ghost in the Shell, and Blue Lock. The partnership makes Dentsu the central point of contact for brand marketers looking for sponsorships, tie-in campaigns, live events, and fan experiences related to the IPs. 

Kodansha‘s popular manga titles include Attack on Titan, Akira, Blue Lock, Cells at Work!, Tokyo Revengers, Initial D, and That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime (which itself adapts a light novel series).

Kodansha announced in November 2025 that it had established Kodansha Studios in Hollywood with award-winning Chinese director Chloé Zhao (Nomadland) and film producer Nicolas Gonda. The company won a lawsuit against American internet infrastructure company Cloudflare in the same month that it had filed along with several other Japanese publishing companies. The company launched its manga distribution service K manga in May 2023.

Dentsu was founded in 1901 in Tokyo. The company is now active in 120 countries and territories. It established a new company called Dentsu Anime Solutions in July 2023. As a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Dentsu Group under Dentsu Japan, the company focuses on selling and licensing anime to broadcasters and distributors locally and overseas.

Source: Variety (Naman Ramachandran)