It looks like Aniplex is planning to expand more into the Chinese market. In fact, Nikkei has reported that the Sony-owned anime subsidiary has established its own Shanghai-based subsidiary. They plan on doing “full-scale Chinese animation production”, and also sell merchandise as well.

The Shanghai subsidiary won’t start with producing anime though, but with merchandise sales. This includes selling the merchandise for their many titles, from Fate/Grand Order and Fate/Apocrypha to Madoka Magica and Sword Art Online.

© Yuuichirou Higashide・TYPE-MOON / A-1 Pictures / Aniplex / Fate/Apocrypha Production Committee

The Shanghai subsidiary will reportedly begin operations later in May 2019. Nikkei also reported that the Chinese animation market is projected to exceed 3 trillion yen in 2019, so the country is very alluring to the anime industry as a whole.

Source: Nikkei