Nickelodeon, the exceedingly popular set of cable channels for kids, has kept its preeminent position in the U.S. market without actually running any modern anime series, although certain popular Nick offerings such as Avatar: The Last Airbender are heavily influenced by anime. Now it has finally signed agreements with Japanese studios that will result in the appearance of real anime series on the Nickelodeon channels.
Nickelodeon has announced a deal with the Domo Production Committee to co-develop and produce 26 two-minute episodes of a series featuring the popular Domo-Kun character (the mascot of NHK, Japan's leading broadcaster). The American cable giant has also inked a pact with Polygon Pictures, a leading Japanese 3-D animation house to co-develop a new animated series based on Ira Ishida's manga, Akihabara@Deep.
Domo-Kun, who has been NHK's mascot since 1998, is a cultural phenomenon in
Domo is probably best known outside
Ira Ishida's Akihabara@Deep is an edgy, fast-paced cyber-detective comedy/drama set in Akihabara, the electronics district (and otaku heaven) of
Ishida also wrote a manga based on the popular dorama, Ikebukuro West Gate Park, which Digital Manga has published here in the U.S.
Nickelodeon's Akihabara@Deep anime co-production with Polygon Pictures should skew toward an older demographic than the Domo-Kun shorts.