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TBS Holdings, the parent company of Japan's TBS Television, is accelerating its global expansion on two fronts: an ambitious international content strategy revealed at TIFFCOM and a newly announced game development partnership with Square Enix to produce an entirely original IP targeting both domestic and international players.
Key developments
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Format licensing: TBS Holdings entered a deal granting Banijay Entertainment international sales rights to Ninja Warrior — one of Japan's most recognizable entertainment formats — covering markets outside the U.S., Asia, France, Germany, and Poland.
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The Seven studio: TBS Holdings' Tokyo-based production arm, The Seven, produced all three seasons of Netflix's Alice in Borderland and recently completed its debut feature film, Baka's Identity, which won the Best Actor Award at the Busan International Film Festival. An upcoming live-action samurai drama, Chiruran: Shinsengumi Requiem, is currently in production with Go Ayano recently added to the cast.
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Vietnam alliance: TBS expanded a long-running partnership with Vietnam Television (VTV) by rebooting Sasuke Vietnam (known locally as Khong Gioi Han), a sports entertainment series that has previously sold to 25 territories internationally.
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Square Enix collaboration: TBS Television and Square Enix announced a joint collaboration on May 14 to develop a completely new original IP game for both domestic and global markets. The partnership brings together TBS's dedicated game division "TBS GAMES" — launched in July 2023 — and Square Enix's push for new IP under its mid-term business plan introduced in 2024.
What to watch
No genre, platform, or release window details for the TBS–Square Enix game have been disclosed; both companies described the project as still in early development. Further specifics are expected as the collaboration advances.
On the content side, the rebooted Sasuke Vietnam series and the samurai drama Chiruran represent the next concrete milestones to track, along with any additional Ninja Warrior format adaptations that may emerge from TBS's arrangement with Banijay in currently unlicensed markets.
Sources
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