Hoshi Studios, East-West Manga Incubator, Launched by Through the Lens Entertainment (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Through the Lens Entertainment, the East-West film studio that made a splash at Cannes last year, is expanding into manga.

It has launched Hoshi Studios, a manga development and publishing startup with outposts in Singapore and Japan. The outfit will create teams combining western film and TV talent with established Japanese manga artists to create books and other comic-book properties.

These will be published at the rate of four to five per year with the most successful ones going on to be adapted as anime (TV series) or films.

The new studio is helped by a distribution deal with Shogakukan Asia, the Southeast Asian subsidiary of the Japanese publishing giant Shogakukan, which is behind the Pokémon book series and has bestselling titles including “Komi Can’t Communicate” and “Frieren.” “We are always looking to create alternative ways to build new IP,” company founder Aditya Chand told Variety. “Here, the idea is to have manga creators team up with the directors, first create an IP and later have those directors take the property a step further.” The first project to be launched this way is “Muri,” a sci-fi action-adventure tale about a young, female android who needs to take refuge from forces threatening her family.