There are collaborations, and then there are moments that reframe what an entire industry thought was possible.
On September 10, 2026, Toei Animation the Japanese studio responsible for Dragon Ball, One Piece, Sailor Moon, and Saint Seiya officially announced a co-production partnership with CR Motion+, the animation division of Nigeria’s Comic Republic.
The project is an animated short film tentatively titled The Storyteller: The Dawn of Legend, based on the Trials of the Spear webtoon from the Comic Republic Universe.
This is Toei Animation’s first-ever co-production with an African animation studio. In a global animation industry where African studios are still fighting for recognition, that sentence lands like a statement of arrival.
What Is CR Motion+ and How Did This Happen?
Comic Republic has been building Africa’s most expansive superhero universe since 2013, founded in Lagos by Jide Martin, growing from a digital comics platform to a franchise with a CAA global representation deal and a multi-title IP development deal with Universal Content Productions.
Characters like Guardian Prime, Ireti Bidemi, and Trials of the Spear weren’t just comics they were IP being built for adaptation at scale.
CR Motion+ is the animation and gaming arm of that infrastructure, founded in 2024 specifically to produce original animated content from the Comic Republic Universe. Based in Lagos, the studio has already built credits in 2D and 3D short animation before landing the project that changes everything: a formal co-production with the studio that made anime a global language.
The partnership came together through JETRO (Japan’s trade and investment promotion agency) which has been actively building creative bridges between Japanese studios and emerging market partners.
BusinessDay Nigeria reported that the collaboration signals a new era of creative co-production between Japan and Africa, with JETRO facilitating the connection that brought both studios to the table.
The Storyteller: The Dawn of Legend is a spin-off of Trials of the Spear one of the most beloved titles in the Comic Republic catalogue, following a protagonist bound by ancestral legacy, trial by combat, and the weight of inherited destiny.
The spin-off format is smart, it lets the project introduce the Comic Republic world to a global audience that doesn’t need to have read the source material to follow the story.
The film will run approximately 20 minutes and is targeted for completion by spring 2027. The production split reflects both studios’ strengths.
Toei handles pre-production and production management, the pipeline architecture, quality control, and technical oversight that has produced some of the most enduring animation in history.
CR Motion+ handles main production the actual animation, bringing the visual world of the Comic Republic Universe to life with the cultural specificity that only a Lagos-based studio can authentically deliver.
That division of labour is not incidental. It’s the model. Toei brings the technical mastery and global distribution network.
CR Motion+ brings the IP, the cultural authenticity, and the creative vision. Neither studio is subordinate to the other in the storytelling they are building something neither could make alone.
The Market Logic Behind the Partnership
Toei Animation has a specific strategic reason for wanting this deal, and it goes beyond goodwill toward African creators.
Toei Animation is dealing with a labour shortage in the Japanese animation industry, a documented, publicly acknowledged problem that has led the company to open a second domestic studio in Osaka specifically to recruit from outside Tokyo.
Internationally, they’ve been building co-production partnerships as a deliberate expansion strategy, a 2021 strategic partnership with South Korean conglomerate CJ ENM, and now the first African co-production through JETRO.
Africa’s angle in this equation is also specific. Nigeria has a population of approximately 200 million people the largest in Africa with a film and television industry that Toei explicitly cited as evidence of a mature market with deep visual storytelling culture. Anime already has a massive, passionate fanbase across the African continent.
Japan has been watching that fanbase grow for years. A co-production with a Lagos studio doesn’t just produce one 20-minute short film it opens a distribution conversation with a continent of 1.4 billion potential viewers who grew up on Dragon Ball and One Piece and are ready to see something that feels like home inside a genre they already love.
Toei put it plainly in their announcement: they hope this co-production with CR Motion+ will “open access to emerging markets and expand the global reach of Japanese animation.” This is not charity. This is strategy and the fact that Comic Republic’s IP is strong enough to be the entry point for that strategy says everything about what Jide Martin has been building for the last thirteen years.
The announcement didn’t stay in Nigeria. It moved.
Punch Nigeria covered the Nigerian angle the boost to the local animation economy, the jobs, the skills transfer embedded in a production that puts Lagos artists inside Toei’s professional pipeline.
BusinessDay framed it as the beginning of a creative co-production era between Japan and Africa. In Japan, Gamebiz and JawaPos covered it as Toei’s first African co-production a notable first for a studio that has been making anime for over 60 years. French gaming media and European animation outlets picked it up within hours.
The African Comics Empire asked the sharpest question who gets to call it African anime? It’s a genuine editorial question when a Nigerian studio and a Japanese studio co-produce an animated short based on Nigerian IP, the resulting work sits in a category that didn’t have language before this announcement. Is it anime? Is it African animation? Is it something new that needs its own name?
The answer is probably: yes to all of it. And the fact that we’re now having that conversation is itself the story.
Project: The Storyteller: The Dawn of Legend (working title)
Based on: Trials of the Spear — Comic Republic webtoon
Co-producers: Toei Animation (Japan) + CR Motion+ (Lagos, Nigeria)
Announced: September 10, 2026 (official Toei Animation press release)
Format: 20-minute animated short film
Target completion: Spring 2027
Production split: Toei pre-production & production management | CR Motion+ main production
Historic significance: Toei Animation’s first-ever co-production with an African studio
Facilitated by: JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization)
Thirteen years ago, Comic Republic was a digital comics platform in Lagos. Today, the studio behind Dragon Ball is co-producing their IP. The storyteller is telling their own story now and the world is listening.
What do you think about the Comic Republic x Toei Animation collaboration? Are you excited to see Lagos and Tokyo build something together?
Drop your thoughts in the comments and share this with every anime fan who needs to know African IP just entered the conversation at the highest level.