by “The strength of Japanese animation lies in its ability to create images,” says Pascal Challou, co-founder and creative director of the French animation studio Fautish. France is the world’s second-largest anime market, after Japan. Japanese anime has been widely popular since 1978, when “UFO Robot Grendizer” (initially created by Go Nagai and Dynamic Productions), a robot battle to protect the Earth, aired in France under the title “Gold Luck.”
In France, people under 40 represent a generation that grew up with Japanese anime and manga. When speaking with leading executives and creators in the French animation industry, the names of directors and works they were passionate about, such as Satoshi Kon, Mamoru Hosoda, and Hayao Miyazaki, spring to mind one after another. Pascal Challou, co-founder and creative director of French animation that has taken the world by storm, was also inspired by the works of these legendary Japanese creators. Fautish, where he serves as creative director, is a leading French animation studio.
The studio’s strength lies in its unique technique, which combines 2D and 3D. Arcane, the series that brought the company worldwide recognition, was a collaborative project between the two companies, based on the beloved video game League of Legends, developed by Riot Games, an American game studio. Arcane follows the story of two sisters whose destinies intersect, set in a wealthy metropolis inhabited by the ruling elite and a corrupt underground slum. Season 1 premiered on Netflix in 2021, followed by Season 2 in 2024, immersing millions of viewers in the show’s world.
The former ranked among Netflix’s top 10 most-watched programs worldwide for three consecutive weeks, and the latter for five. Highly acclaimed by experts, Season 1 was the first streaming service to win an Emmy Award for Best Animated Program (Primetime), often considered the “Oscars of Television.” Including Season 2, Arcane has won a total of 37 awards. “A huge fan of Japanese manga artist Nao Tanizawa,” says Challou, adding, “Arcane was definitely influenced by Japanese anime and manga.”
During the eight-year production period of Arcane, which began in 2016, up to 450 people were involved in the project at one point. In 2020, Fortish opened studios in Montpellier, southern France, and Las Palmas, the Canary Islands, Spain, in addition to its existing Paris studio. According to the French newspaper Le Figaro, Arcane is “the world’s most expensive anime series,” with production costs estimated at 60 to 80 million euros.
In light of this success, Fortish Deputy CEO Hervé Dupont commented, “The reaction from fans and the industry was very positive.” Challou added, “Funding and budgets increased in line with the scale of production, our commitment to quality, and our desire to satisfy our fans. While it’s certainly a costly production, it reached a level that matched the studio’s ambitions.”
