Entertainment

ASIA

Asian content for kids

By Andrea De Amicis

Across Asia, many companies work tirelessly to produce successful content for children. Here are some established Asian brands and their news.

In 2020 Asia is still the fastest growing market for children’s content and products, offering animated series, books, toys, streaming services and apps. We caught up some key companies throughout the continent, and found out about their news. Young Toys is a 40-year-old South Korean company currently worth $127 million. It has created established children’s toys and brands such as Tobot, Secret Jouju and Kungsuni. Having successfully established itself in the Korean market as the first real Korean toy company, the business has supported its toys with the development of animated series, independently and in collaboration with large Asian animation studios.

One of Young Toys’ biggest hits is Tobot, an animated series born from a collaboration with Retrobot in 2010. Building on the popular properties for older children, such as Transformers and Power Rangers,

Tobot Monster by Young Toys

Secret Jouju animated series

Young Toys created similar heroes suitable for a younger audience. After eight years, the English version of the series was born, thanks to Canadian Ocean Production and Blue Water: In September 2020 new episodes from the second season launched on Amazon Prime Video. There has been a great response to both the animation and the toy range, which has recently seen the addition of the Tobot Shuttle, the Tobot speed and the Tobot Monster.

Secret Jouju is the story of a fairy princess and her adventures. Jouju and her fairy friends are different to traditional princesses and express an independent and ambitious spirit. As they strongly pursue their own dreams and hopes, they create a positive role model for girls. After the first launch of the 3D animated series in 2012, Secret Jouju has so far amassed 14 seasons: through the combined production of animation and games, a solid and beloved character has been established. Among the brand’s new toys are the Secret Card Constellation Album and the Dancing Secret Party Palace.

Tobot Speed by Young Toys

Kongsuni was born in 1999 as a doll, and today, it is the most popular doll in Korea. At an educational level, it was designed to promote creativity, communication, emotional and motor development, taking into account the seven phases of the relationship with children’s play (motor sense play, symbolic play, etc.). In 2014, the 3D animated series Kongsuni & Friends aired for the first time. Kongsuni is a five year-old girl who faces life with determination, creativity and curiosity. Both on TV and YouTube, it has become a huge hit with both preschoolers and their

Kongsuni & friends animated series

parents. Musicals and live entertainment have also been produced, which has further boosted its popularity. The new toys include the Sing & Learn piano and the Popcorn Shop.

Dimsum Entertainment is a Malaysian streaming service which brings together Asian entertainment programmes from China, Thailand, Japan, Korea. It continuously updates its proposals with anime, variety shows and TV series and offers an interesting choice of entertaining and educational content for children. Healthy Doing Yoga is a Taiwanese programme which teaches yoga to two and three year-olds and their families. In addition to transmitting the basic principles of this exercise, it encourages children to explore their emotions and to better understand how their bodies work.

Silly Wolf and his Little Buddies is an animated series which conveys important educational principles about relating

to yourself and others. In a distant and beautiful city in the forest, all animals live in harmony. However Silly Wolf is quite accident-prone and gets into trouble despite his good intentions, sometimes even causing harm to others. Fortunately, with the help of his friends, Silly Wolf manages to learn and grow, becoming a positive role model for all around him.

Rainbow Ruby doll

Egg Car is an animation based on the values of friendship and collaboration. Dash, an imperfect egg-shaped car, has three friends: the mysterious Aera, a hedgehog called Click and a giraffe named Girara. Together they must save their village and their families from a powerful villain known as Dragon Bozo.

South Korean animated series Rainbow Ruby tells the adventures of Ruby, a brave little girl who is teleported to a whimsical land inhabited by her toys. In this magical world, she performs different jobs and roles to save the day. Rainbow Ruby is also a successful toy brand.

Polite Kids is a Taiwanese show that aims to teach children good manners, kindness and respect for the rules. Thanks to its fun approach, it helps children to develop empathy and to value the best aspects of their character.

firecrackers and barbecues. In many areas of Asia, oil lamps and paper lanterns are also very common. For this reason, it’s important for children to learn fire safety, and in the animated series Fire Safety with Roy, firefighter Roy, also with his Robocar Poli Rescue Team, helps children understand how to be safe in an emergency or during a fire.

Illustrated book A Cat in a Fish by Froebel-Kan

Japanese publishing house Froebel – Kan takes its name from the German educator Friedrich Wilhelm A. Froebel (1782-1852), famous for having founded the first nursery in the world. Frobel-Kan began selling books in 1961 and has published books of illustrated short stories and fairy tales which have received great acclaim and awards both in Japan and internationally.

The Anpanman series launched in 1976 and was transformed into an animated TV program in 1988 and a film in 1989, and has remained popular over the years with over 80 million books sold to date. The 32nd film is ready for release this year -

Soreike! Anpanman: Fuwa Fuwa Fuwarii to Kumo no Kuni

Soreike! Anpanman: Fuwa Fuwa Fuwarii

to Kumo no Kuni. The story is set in the Land of Clouds, an enchanting place where soft clouds create rainbows and rain to help the flowers and vegetables grow large and healthy. A cloud child named Fuwarii meets the evil Baikingman, who creates a huge black cloud in an attempt to conquer the Cloud Country. Anpanman and Fuwarii will have to join forces to thwart his evil intentions.

Big Umi and Little Marvey - inside

Harmonica of Koguma and Star by Froebel-Kan

Among the latest news from Froebel – Kan is the book Harmonica of Koguma and Star, by Junko Akahane, with illustrations by Amigo Koike. It’s about the sweet friendship between a child and a mysterious little bear that only he can see. Another wonderful new book is Big Umi and Little Marvey, the story of a whale called Marvey, who daydreams about everything she can become when she grows up. The character was created to describe the infinite opportunities for children, supported by detailed illustrations.

In India and South Asia, a key agency for the management of brands and licences for children is Dream Theater Pvt. Ltd. Among the Indian licenses there is Little Singham, an animated series produced by Rohit Shetty Picturez, in collaboration with Discovery Kids and Reliance

Animation. The animation follows the life of the well-known policeman Singham as a child, as he fights criminals, monsters and dangerous mutants to save his city. The third animated film inspired by the saga, Little Singham: Kaal Ka Badla, was recently released on Netflix India, where the Indian policeman once again faces his worst enemy, the demon Kaal.

ChuChu TV continues to be the most popular children’s channel in the world on YouTube, with billions of views and over 10 million subscribers. It showcases nursery rhymes, stories and educational videos for babies and toddlers, made in its signature style with an entire family of characters. Dream Theater holds the global rights and represents the property in all licensing and merchandising categories. Remaining in the field of children’s digital content a range of apps have also been created over recent years in India. For example, VOOT Kids, an exclusive OTT edutainment platform for children, by Viacom18. The platform offers an engaging and fun learning experience with a large library of content, roughly spread over 13,000 hours of video, 500 e-books, 150 audio stories and 5000 quizzes. The app has already partnered with iconic brands including Oxford University Press whereby it has acquired the licenses of 175 children’s fiction and non-fiction titles.

Another very interesting app is Kiddopia. Launched in 2017 by spouses Anupam and Anshu Dhanuka, Kiddopia has been downloaded by over five million parents around the world and currently has over 300,000 active subscribers. It offers interactive edutainment games and activities, which promote cognitive development, self-expression and socioemotional learning in children aged two to seven. Whether it’s language or emotional skills, maths problems, or

general knowledge, children can find ways to practice every topic on this extensive app. Its developer, Paper Boat Apps, was recently acquired 51 per cent by Nazara Technologies. Anupam Dhanuka, Co-Founder and CEO of Kiddopia, said Nazara’s investment has already allowed them to focus on product improvement and marketing, leading to subscriber rates tripling.