Right now has been abusy time for upcoming animeannouncements, building hype for all genres of anime with project after project. Among them is something entirely out of left field, and quite original - an anime based on the social media platformLINE, which is incredibly popular in Japan. The announcement of a LINE anime came from the social media company itself last week, with only a few details for now to get everyone curious and talking.
LINE is one of the number one social media companies in Japan, and one that nearly every person and company has. While most of the world uses WhatsApp to text, or simply their phone numbers, most people in Japan use LINE to stay in touch with their friends. It is even used by businesses to share promotional campaigns, ads, coupons, and more. And like many things in Japan, LINE has its own original characters as well.
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Another huge part of LINE is the use of stickers. These stickers can be created by anyone to download on the app, usually for a small fee, and there are thousands available. Theupcoming animeis specifically using these sticker characters, made by creators from the 4th generation of LINE Creators Support Program. The featured artists will be ukauka, Saki Kawashima, Taiga15, Chima-suke, toco, and Noshi.
The LINE Creators Support Program helps creators have a platform to monetize their original characters, which they design into stickers for the social media platform. While anyone can design stickers, only accepted applicants are able to join the program, which gives them support for their designs to be seen (and hopefully purchased) by many people. Over 3,000 creators applied to be in the program last year.
The LINE character stickers becoming an anime is a huge deal for these creators, who likely thought their original characters would never go beyond just being digital stickers. The anime is actually the second project that the creator platform MECRE’s project X-Anime has done, which turns thework of artists and illustrators into anime.
There is no shortage of anime released every season, and among the dozens of anime that air every year, it’s hard for an anime to really stand out. When an anime has atruly original concept, that helps to set it apart from any number of other anime that seem to be telling the same story and the same tropes over and over again in different ways. When an anime comes out that really is something new and creative, it has great potential - at a great risk.
Only time will tell if the upcoming LINE sticker character anime will be a success or a flop. Most anime stick to the old ideas because they are safe - people don’t seem to get tired of romantic comedies,isekai with impossibly long names, and “chosen one” heroes. This has the potential to be something entirely new, which is not without risk since no one is sure how it will be received. But one thing is certain, it is going to be cute! If it’s entertaining, too, the LINE anime can show that with risk comes reward.
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TheLINEcharacter sticker anime will launch in 2024 on Nagoya’s CBC TV channel.
