What the Nikkei Report Was Talking About: Theater Wii

Humberto Saabedra

theaterwiiYou may have read a report circulating around the blogosphere about Nintendo preparing a new video service with Dentsu in Japan.

The service that Nintendo is planning is actually being developed by Fujisankei’s FujiSoft division and is known as TheaterWii, which is being designed as a VOD service with many different types of programming and not just live-action product as alluded to in the Nikkei report. Dentsu is actually negotiating with Nintendo to provide live-action content for the service, and is not developing a separate service as was reported.

The show list includes World Masterpiece Theater specials, adapted Tezuka properties such as Astroboy, Gatchaman, Hajime no Ippo, MachGoGoGo, and various other older shows from the 70’s up to Aria the Animation from 2006.  The service will debut on the Japanese WiiWare service on January 27th 2009 as a client download and cost 500 WiiPoints, with each episode costing an average of 300 WiiPoints .

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Journalist since 2006, initially covering the retail wireless sector before pivoting to anime and manga trade reporting in 2008. Founder and publisher of AnimeNews.biz (2008–2017), followed by a 13-year tenure at Crunchyroll News (2011–2024) and launching K-Comics Beat with Comics Beat in 2024. Now stripping away consumer noise to build independent, data-backed intelligence desks focused on cross-border licensing telemetry, production committee balance sheets, and industrial supply-chain forensics.

Date Updated Category Anime

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