■ Around 6.1 Million Subscribers on the Official YouTube Channel! Globally Beloved Animation IP “Spookiz”

Cula — boastful and mischievous yet lovable Dracula; Frankie — kindhearted Frankenstein obsessed with food; Kebi — energetic and carefree but unpredictable Goblin; Kongkong — slightly devious but cute Chinese Ghost; and Zizi — charming and bright Zombie with a smell. In the 3DCG animation “Spookiz,” these adorable and wacky monsters come to life at an empty elementary school in the middle of the night, living their whimsical daily lives together with Mr. Reaper, their dependable teacher who is a Grim Reaper.

L→R : Cula, Kongkong, Kebi, Zizi, Frankie

“Spookiz” began in 2015 and is animated by Keyring Creative Studio, a South Korea based animation studio. By 2021, Season 1~4 along with the feature film “Spookiz: The Movie” has been released. In Japan, past contents are also available on subscription streaming services. The official YouTube channel “Spookiz – Cartoons for Everyone,” is the main content distribution platform and boasts around 6.1 million subscribers (currently as of June 5). “Spookiz” has leveraged its unique feature as a non-verbal animation series, whereby the characters do not speak, to transcend regional and language barriers, growing into a beloved animation enjoyed by audiences of all ages around the world.

▼Spookiz | 102 – Wiggle Wiggle (Season 1 | Episode 2) | Cartoons for Children

▼Spookiz: The Movie – TRAILER | Cartoons for Kids

After a four-year hiatus, “Spookiz” is making a comeback! Sony Music Labels (SML), a record label known for producing music for many popular artists, has acquired full rights to “Spookiz” and will be releasing a new animation series worldwide this year. We had the opportunity to speak with Manabu Tsujino, Representative Director & President of SML, who is venturing into animation production and character IP business for the first time as a music label within the diverse entertainment offerings of Sony Music Group (Japan). He will also serve as the Executive Producer for “Spookiz” and shared his vision for this project.

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■ Reason Behind SML Acquiring Full Rights of “Spookiz”

──It has now been announced that SML has acquired full rights of “Spookiz,” and will release a new season. SML is a recording company that primarily plans, produces, and promotes commercial music and video products. It supports artists with a comprehensive strategy in finding artists, artist development, management, music production, marketing, and media promotion. So why has the company decided to venture into animation production and character business for the first time?

Manabu Tsujino (hereinafter, Tsujino): At SML, we’ve long been exploring new ways to share music-driven creativity to the world. Over the past three years, we’ve been deeply focused on a new challenge: creating original content under the concept of “Music × Character.” That said, we are a music label. While we have expertise in discovering and developing talented artists, we unfortunately don’t have much experience in creating fictional characters from scratch. That’s why we believed the best approach would be to collaborate with existing characters and contents that align well with SML’s business. It was about a year ago that under this context, we happened to come across “Spookiz.” The creators of “Spookiz” were looking for a partner to help bring their content and IP to a wider global audience, and that aligned perfectly with our goals. What surprised us even more was that despite a four-year hiatus, the official YouTube channel grew by over 300,000 subscribers in just the year we were discussing the acquisition. It was a powerful reminder of how beloved this IP truly is around the world.

■ Strong Affinity Between “Spookiz” and Music

Manabu Tsujino, Representative Director & President of SML

──So it seems that “Spookiz” was an appealing content for SML

Tsujino: That’s exactly it. At SML, we’ve built our business around developing talented artists and creating hit songs together. So, when it comes to realizing the concept of “Music × Character,” we believe it’s essential to start with characters that are compatible with music. Otherwise, we’d be starting from scratch to differentiate them from countless others out there. In that sense, “Spookiz” was a perfect match. If you take a look at the YouTube channel “Spookiz – Cartoons for Everyone,” you’ll see that many of the top-performing videos are actually music video type content known as “Spookiz Songs.” For example, “Travel The World,” which features the characters dancing to O-Zone’s “Dragostea din tei” (many may know as “Numa Numa”), has garnered over 70 million views. Another video using Scatman John’s “SCATMAN (ski-ba-bop-ba-dop-bop)” has surpassed 60 million views. Even a video using an original song created for “Spookiz” has reached nearly 70 million views. Seeing this, we felt a real sense of excitement — that combining “Spookiz” characters with SML’s music could lead to something truly special.

▼Travel The World Song | Spookiz | Cartoons for Kids

▼Spookiz – SCATMAN (ski-ba-bop-ba-dop-bop) MV | Spookiz Songs | Cartoons for Kids

──Aside from the fit with music, what else do you find appealing about “Spookiz”?

Tsujino: First, the characters are based on monsters that are universally recognized around the world. Everyone, including myself, has been fascinated by ghosts and monsters at some point during childhood. While children might be afraid of ghosts, monsters are present in every culture, and their traits are familiar and relatable across the world. Second, the monster characters in “Spookiz” are pure-hearted, just like children. Watching “Spookiz,” I felt the innocent spirit we adults may have forgotten in our childhood days is beautifully portrayed and I believe that purity will continue to resonate with more and more people. On top of that, the characters are also visually adorable. Even the members involved in the “Spookiz” project, as well as their children, say they can’t stop watching once they start!

■ Developing Each “Spookiz” Character as an Artist

──With such adorable characters, we’re very curious to see how SML plans to further develop and expand “Spookiz” as a music label.

Tsujino: First of all, the most important thing for the “Spookiz” project is to differentiate itself from the many other character contents out there. That’s why we are treating each “Spookiz” character as an artist and further developing the “Spookiz” IP as an artist project. This approach enables us to make the best use of our expertise as a music label, and I believe that is exactly where the significance lies in a music label working on character content.

──Could you give us an example of what you mean?

Tsujino: I believe the biggest difference between artists and characters, is whether they can build a real personal history. Artists move audiences through their songs, live performances, and the words they themselves speak. As their stories spread, their career grows. That’s something characters can’t do in the same way — at least not naturally. “Spookiz” is alive within us, and we want to go even further in humanizing them. In other words, we want to give each “Spookiz” character a deeper personality. For instance, even though they don’t speak in the animation, the characters themselves can communicate and engage through social media. We also aim to further develop stories that bring out their human personas in the animation itself. Though “Spookiz” is already popular, it hasn’t yet reached the status of a true “superstar” in the character world. If I were to compare it to a Japanese artist’s career, I’d say it’s like they’ve just sold out a Zepp tour (venue capacity ~2,000ppl) and are about to headline at Nippon Budokan (venue capacity ~10,000ppl). From here, we’re planning to roll out additional developments to further grow the fanbase.

──Could you tell us about the production structure for the series?

Tsujino: Originally, “Spookiz” has been produced by Keyring Creative Studio, an animation studio based in South Korea. Going forward, SML will take the lead in production and marketing to further grow the IP. As for the animation, Keyring Creative Studio will continue to handle this just as they have until now. With this trusted framework, SML will also be providing creative input as the new series is being developed.

■ Possibility of New Music-Themed Characters

──What kind of requests did you make?

Tsujino: There were three main ones. First is that which I’ve mentioned earlier, where we want to develop the “Spookiz” characters as artists. Second, is something we were especially eager to do which is to introduce new characters. Up until now, “Spookiz” has centered around six main characters: Cula the Dracula, Frankie the Frankenstein, Kebi the Goblin, Kongkong the Chinese Ghost, Zizi the Zombie, and Mr. Reaper the Grim Reaper who plays the teacher role. To strengthen the connection with music, we’ve asked to add a few new characters with musical elements. The creative team has been very supportive with this idea of bringing more human-like qualities into the world of “Spookiz”. We have been providing our ideas through weekly meetings with the creatives.

L→R: Frankie, Zizi, Kebi, Cula, Kongkong, Mr. Reaper

──A new character? That sounds exciting. Will the motif still be monsters?

Tsujino: Yes. We hope you’re excited to see what kind of characters we will introduce. We believe that just like Japan with its own local monsters called “yokai”, many countries around the world also have their own local monsters. For example, Indonesia has monsters unique to its folklore, and so does Mexico. These characters often reflect the characteristics of their respective cultures and deeply resonate with their local audiences. By introducing more of these characters tied to the local culture, we believe “Spookiz” can become even more beloved around the world.

──That seems to tie in nicely with the global strategy of “Spookiz.” What’s the third point?

Tsujino: This may sound a bit abstract, but I requested that we incorporate a touch of “human metaphor” into the story. “Spookiz” is already a well-crafted slapstick comedy filled with fun and humor. But by adding aspects of human realism, we can add further depth to the characters. Life isn’t just about fun and laughter, and we want to reflect this. The idea is to bring the tone a little closer to Japanese anime while keeping the charm of American cartoons. By doing so, we hope to age-up the core audience of “Spookiz,” which is currently loved mainly by children, to teens and older viewers. At SML, we’ve long focused our marketing efforts on music fans who are teens and older, and we’re looking forward to also applying such expertise to “Spookiz”.

■ Boosting Recognition and Popularity in Japan Through Music Collaborations with Japanese Artists

──So, what areas are you considering on strengthening through the expected “synergy with music”? The first thing that comes to mind is a collaboration with SML artists, but would that be correct?

Tsujino: Yes, that’s definitely something we’re moving forward with. One of the main reasons SML decided to acquire the globally popular “Spookiz” is to help bring Japanese music to a wider international audience. By leveraging “Spookiz” as a platform to deliver songs, especially J-POP artists in our label, we’re hoping to achieve two things at once: boost sales as an animation and character content property, and to create new hits in Japanese music. I understand that we’re being a bit greedy here, aiming for two birds with one stone. Currently, the majority of “Spookiz” viewership on YouTube comes from North America, followed by countries in Asia such as Philippines, Indonesia, and India, as well as in Latin American such as Brazil and Mexico. Unfortunately, Japan ranks quite low. That’s why we’re also hoping that music collaboration with Japanese artists can raise awareness and popularity of “Spookiz” here in Japan as well. Please look forward to seeing which artists and songs we’ll be collaborating with.

──What kind of future developments are you envisioning? With so many adorable characters, we can’t help but hope for merchandising and other expansions.

Tsujino: I really appreciate you saying that, it’s very encouraging. As for merchandising and/or game adaptations, we feel it’s important to first bridge the gap of the four-year hiatus. So, there’s nothing we can officially announce just yet. That said, within the broader Sony Music Group (Japan) and Sony Group, we have merchandising companies operating globally, and discussions have already begun. So yes, we hope you’ll look forward to merchandising in the near future. Beyond merchandising, animation and character content are naturally well-suited for business collaborations. We’re actively exploring opportunities not only within the group but also with other third-party medias and clients.

■ We hope that “Spookiz” will eventually grow into a mascot that represents SML

──We are also very excited about the new season of “Spookiz” that will have character driven social media content, introduce new characters and storylines, and collaborations with Japanese music. When is it scheduled to release?

Tsujino: We’re aiming for a release within this year. The new season will follow the original “Spookiz” format of short non-verbal episodes which will primarily be distributed on YouTube. Internationally, we’re also engaging with various stakeholders we’ve previously collaborated with to expand the series onto multiple platforms beyond YouTube, with the goal of further enhancing the strength of the content. To be honest, it’s been four years since a new “Spookiz” release, so we’re planning to be very active on social media and in media exposure leading up to the new season release. Especially in Japan, where “Spookiz” is still relatively unknown, we want to focus on raising awareness. “Spookiz” is a fun and lovable animation series, where adorable and wacky characters take center stage. By leveraging the expertise cultivated in the music business, we aim to create a unique “Music × Character” experience that is entirely new in the character content space. Ultimately, we’d be thrilled if “Spookiz” could grow into a mascot that represents SML. We hope that you’re as excited as we are for the new world of “Spookiz.”

TEXT BY Mika Abe
PHOTO BY Nobuyuki Seki
ⒸSony Music Labels Inc.

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