IP, LICENSE, AND OTHER PUZZLING RULES

WHEN ESCAPE ROOMS TEAM UP WITH ANIME CHARACTERS

BY SCRAP Global Team

Welcome back to the SCRAP Blog!

In this post, we are going to discover a bit more about the intricate world of licensing and collaborations with popular brands, and we are going to talk about one of our most recent products where we collaborate with a well-known Japanese Anime.

Before we dive deep into the content, let’s take a quick moment to clarify some of the terminologies you will encounter in this post. They will be useful from now on.

Also, please note that the following terms and notions may not be universal and they refer to Japanese regulations and business customs, which are quite unique.

• IP: stands for “Intellectual Property” and it refers to any intangible asset created by the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; symbols, names, and images used in commerce. For example, brand logos are IP, as well as some product’s distinctive shapes, and most of our beloved fictional characters.
• IP License: an agreement between the owner of specific IP and a third party, in which the IP owner (licensor) provides the third party (licensee) with the right to use its IP rights for a limited time, for certain products, in an often restricted geographic area. 
• Production Committee (or the Committee): the combination of various companies joining with the goal of producing a form of entertainment. For example, if the central product is an anime, everything connected with it, its distribution channels, the music, the merchandise, etc., falls under the committee scope. The advantages of using different companies are multiple, but the main ones are: each company can focus on a different aspect of the production and count on the others to cover the field that they don’t know, and also, with many companies, the potential losses will be shared and the risk is lower. 

 

If you are somewhat familiar with Japanese pop culture you have probably already guessed that Japan is a wonderland for IP content. It is not unusual to spot popular anime characters everywhere, for example advertising some new product on the streets’ billboard signs, or popping out the shelves while shopping at the local minimarket. The merchandise that comes out as a result of these collaborations is not limited to toys for children, and more often than not, it is targeted at money-spending adults. 

In fact, if you live in Japan, you can decide to decorate your entire kitchen with a complete set of cutlery featuring your favorite anime, you can have your high-end curtains decorated with a beloved video game’s character motif, and even your bathroom can be the perfect location for a toothbrush holder with some cute character design.

What has all of this to do with Escape Rooms? 

Well, now that we explained the cultural background a little bit, it shouldn’t be a surprise to learn that, in Japan, escape rooms and puzzle games are perfect products to pair with IP content. The result can create a unique experience for fans to immerse themselves in their favorite fictional universe and interact with it in new and surprising ways.

At SCRAP we have experience collaborating with IPs, and more than half of our annual new projects are the result of a partnership with licensed content. 

The challenge is creating each time a custom-made experience that can satisfy both Real Escape Game enthusiasts and the IP fanbase. The puzzle aspect of those games keeps the high-quality standards that we are always striving to achieve, while the story and the atmosphere are faithful to the ones of the original content. 

When our Content Team decides to work with licensed products, we aim to assign the project to people that are fans of that IP. This is how we try to create a product that will match the fans’ expectations and that knows how to highlight all of the original content’s strong points. 

It is quite difficult to explain the workflow in the production process that happens when we collaborate with IP contents because it changes with each IP.

But one thing that remains constant, is that the key point for these collaborations is knowing how to create a product that can meet the production committee’s high expectations.

The ingredients that we provide to create a successful partnership are experience and capability. We believe we know how to create satisfactory products that can match the original content mood while keeping the players entertained, and we have accumulated many years of experience in this field.

However, things can get even more complicated when talking about overseas expansion. The production committee is always trying to guarantee the best quality for the products where its IP will be used. It can be challenging to judge if a specific content could be a good experience for people outside of Japan, but with SCRAP, we believe we can trust our experience with oversea customers and the fact that we have a deep understanding of the IP world and the escape room market.

This is why we are incredibly excited when we are given a chance to create content with an IP that can be expanded outside our borders.

Our latest achievement was partnering with the popular world of ‘Jujutsu Kaisen’! Born as a manga, then adapted into a successful anime and a hit movie, this universe and its characters have quickly found their place in the hearts of millions of people around the world that are now following the suspenseful story set in a Tokyo full of mysticism and monsters.

Escape From the Cursed Spirit of The Abandoned School Main Visual

When we created the game, we wanted to be true to the atmosphere of the anime and have the players feel like they were part of the Jujutsu Kaisen world. The best part about this unique experience is that it takes place in your house, you don’t need to travel to Tokyo to enjoy it! All you need is the game kit and a device with an internet connection and you can start helping Yuji, Nobara, Megumi, and Gojo-sensei on a brand new original adventure. The game even features the original Japanese voice actors from the anime series, and we hope you’ll truly feel like a new student at Tokyo Jujutsu High.

Even if you are not familiar with this universe, the game is still very much enjoyable, presenting satisfying and challenging puzzles, and it could be an interesting way to see what the hype for this franchise is all about.

If you are curious about this rare opportunity to see licensed content making its way outside the borders of Japan, you can find the game kit on Amazon*, and you can visit the official website for more info.

If you want to learn more about it, you can read some reviews our test players wrote after they played for the first time.