Dentsu Entertainment and LEVEL-5 appoint leading licensing and merchandising agency to bring hugely popular multimedia franchises to the U.S. and Canadian markets.
‘LBX’ (a.k.a. ‘Little Battlers eXperience’)
Dentsu Entertainment USA, INC. and LEVEL-5, Inc. have appointed leading licensing and merchandising agency Evolution USA, LLC to bring the hugely popular multimedia franchises Yo-Kai Watch and LBX (a.k.a Little Battlers eXperience) to the USA and Canadian markets. Evolution will premiere the Yo-Kai Watch property to key licensees and retailers at the upcoming Licensing Expo in Las Vegas (June 9-11th) at booth F155 and will be licensing and managing the franchises as the full service licensing and promotions agency, with products and retail promotions premiering on store shelves beginning in Fall 2016.
Hasbro has been previously announced as the Yo-Kai Watch master toy licensee for the USA, Canada, Europe, New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, Central and South America and will introduce an innovative line of toys for the franchise beginning in Spring 2016. VIZ Media, LLC has been granted the publishing rights for Manga (Graphic Novels) under the Perfect Square imprint. Nintendo of America is launching a North American version of the best selling Nintendo 3DS handheld game in 2015.
“As leaders in the licensing industry, Evolution is the perfect partner to license and manage these amazing properties in the North American market as we expand the franchises globally”, said Mr. Marc Harrington, Sr. Vice President, Global Strategy & Development.
“Yo-Kai Watch has taken the Japanese retail market by storm selling in excess of $1.0 billion of toys and other merchandise in Japan, not counting games, music or publishing, since its introduction in January 2014 on TV TOKYO," says Travis J. Rutherford, President Licensing & Retail, Evolution. “Plans are well underway for a major rollout of this sensational franchise across North American market and our team looks forward to working closely with Dentsu and Level-5 and supporting all the efforts of Hasbro, Nintendo and VIZ Media to maximize this opportunity across all retail channels”.
Yo-Kai Watch is an original concept created by renowned Japanese game company LEVEL-5, Inc. and the Nintendo 3DS video games have sold 7.2 million units in Japan. With an imaginative plot, great characters, comedy and adventure, Yo-Kai Watch has become one of the most popular franchises of all time in Japan. The story centers around a young boy who gets a special watch empowering him to discover and summon mysterious Yo-kai that help him solve problems in his daily life usually caused by other trouble-making Yo-kai. The Yo-Kai Watch animated series, a joint production effort of LEVEL-5, Inc., Dentsu Inc., and TV TOKYO Corporation, is the top-rated show for kids 4-12 across all genres on TV TOKYO and has the highest average household ratings among all regularly scheduled animated programs on the network. A major broadcast partnership in the USA is in work but has yet to be formally announced.
LBX – also an original concept created by LEVEL-5, Inc. – is based on an extremely popular Japanese animated television series and franchise. LBX has been renewed by Nicktoons for a second season and will add an additional 26 episodes, slated to begin running in fall, 2015. Bandai America will continue as the master toy licensee, and additional merchandising and licensing opportunities are now being sought.
Source: Dentsu Entertainment USA
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
