MENA streamer Shahid expands anime offering via TV Tokyo, Toei & Aniplex deals

Belle

Middle East and North Africa (MENA) media giant MBC Group has struck an expanded deal with a variety of anime studios and production houses in Japan to take more content into the region.

MBC’s streamer Shahid has taken exclusive rights in MENA to TV Tokyo’s Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, which is a 52-episode series based on the Bleach manga series by Tite Kubo and a direct sequel to the Bleach anime series.

Shahid will also offer more episodes of Toei Animation’s show, One Piece, which is based on Eiichiro Oda’s manga series of the same name, as well as programming from Aniplex. More than 200 hours has been acquired, including Fate/Stay Night, Sword Art Online and Gurren Lagann.

The MENA-based streamer already offers anime series including Gin Tama, Hunter x Hunter, Legend of the Galactic Heroes and Belle, as well as the Japanese–Saudi Arabian animated action fantasy film, The Journey.

Tareq Al-Ibrahim, director of content for SVOD at Shahid, said: “Anime is extremely popular in the Middle East region – particularly in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – so needless to say, we are incredibly excited to be making new additions to our ever-expanding anime catalogue on Shahid, bringing new and hit titles that audiences will love exploring.”

All titles will be available on Shahid before the end of 2022.