– ‘ Bongbong Guardian ’, a creative animation set in Jeju Island, to be aired on TV and OTT in the middle of next year
– We are also promoting the development of Jeju Island Metaverse tourism service using animation IP.
Animation production company Youneed Character Co., Ltd. (CEO Song Min-soo), which is attracting attention by completing a Series A investment worth 2.7 billion won, which is rare in the animation industry last month, is releasing a creative animation based on Jeju Island called ‘Bongbong’ as a follow-up to its first work ‘Cricket Pang’. It was announced that ‘Guardian’ is being produced and will begin airing on domestic and international TV and OTT channels in the middle of next year.
Youneed Character Co., Ltd. is a character creation and animation production company founded in 2017 by CEO Song Min-soo, who has know-how in the character business and theme park business through his work at Iconix, famous for Pororo, and Samsung Everland. The first work, ‘Cricket Pang’, is a work planned with India, a population of 1.4 billion, as the main market, and is being aired on TV and OTT channels at home and abroad, starting with India. The Cricket Pang story will be released in India through HarperCollins, a global publishing group, at the end of this month. We are strategically pursuing character branding in overseas markets by developing various additional businesses such as publishing books.
‘Bongbong Guardian’ is Youneed Character’s second animation for TV broadcasting. The characters were developed using various materials from Jeju Island, and each character is a comic animation with fun episodes that apply the concept of a hero with unique abilities so that children can enjoy it. am.
In particular, for the first time in the animation industry, we are developing our own ‘Jeju Metaverse Tourism Service’ using ‘Bongbong Guardian’ animation content, and are accelerating development so that the service can be launched along with the animation broadcast.
Song Min-soo, CEO of Youneed Character Co., Ltd., said, “Jeju Island is a representative landmark in Korea with its natural scenery and a variety of interesting materials. “We are investing resources,” he said. In addition, “We have secured our own technology development personnel and are developing a Jeju Metaverse tourism service that applies the Metaverse method, a recent issue, by utilizing the Bongbong Guardian character. After launching the service, we plan to develop a unique additional business incorporating character IP.” revealed.
It is headquartered in Metaverse Hub (located in Pangyo, Gyeonggi-do), operated by the National IT Industry Promotion Agency, and was selected through fierce competition for the Route330 ICT Accelerator Program, Jeju’s representative startup support program, early this year and operates a branch in Jeju as well. Youneed Character has promoted this ‘Bongbong Guardian’ project by utilizing the full support of each center and its own content production infrastructure, and is expanding its business scope through new attempts combining animation content and metaverse services, and improving its previous work. They announced that they will actively pursue global services by utilizing the content business know-how and overseas networks accumulated while developing the Cricket Pang business.
Meanwhile, Youneed Character Co., Ltd. is conducting detailed business discussions with leading organizations and affiliates in Jeju Island to begin full-scale one-source multi-use business (OSMU) such as brand products, F&B business, and indoor theme park using the ‘BongBong Guardian’ IP, and plans to launch within the next year. We plan to simultaneously develop various additional businesses along with animation broadcasting and metaverse tourism services.
What will the comic hero animation ‘Bongbong Guardian’ based on Jeju, Korea’s representative tourist destination and UNESCO-designated World Natural Heritage, and the ‘Jeju Metaverse Tourism Service’ using it be done by Youneed Character, a global convergence content producer? Expectations are high to see if it will be drawn and commercialized.
Source: Pangyo Techno Valley Official Newsroom
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