Adidas Tries Out a Sports–Anime Crossover
Adidas has unveiled its Mundial apparel and footwear collection using anime‑style imagery, featuring Brazilian forward Raphinha and Colombian winger Luis Díaz. The campaign was co‑created with Hong Kong fashion entrepreneur Edison Chen and animated by California‑based digital artist Annie Choi, who boasts over 600,000 Instagram followers. This marks the latest move by a legacy sports brand to tap the growing global anime audience, a demographic that now rivals traditional sports viewership among younger consumers. The effort reflects a broader shift toward original anime‑inspired content rather than licensing existing Japanese properties.
Access Limits Fuel Manga Piracy Worldwide
The shutdown of Bato.to, the world’s largest manga piracy site, sparked frantic fan searches for replacement platforms, highlighting the deep reliance on illegal sources. Japan’s entertainment industry loses an estimated $36 billion annually to manga piracy, according to a Ministry of...