36Kr Exclusive | "YouShi YingHua" Secures Tens of Millions in Angel Round Funding, Leveraging AI to Take Animated Comics Overseas

36Kr has learned that the AI anime technology company, "YOOUSI" (hereinafter referred to as YOOUSI), has completed an angel round of financing worth tens of millions of RMB. This round was jointly invested by Yunqi Capital and BAce Capital, with Yuewei Capital serving as the exclusive financial advisor.

The financing will be mainly used to build a top - notch team, upgrade core technologies, and comprehensively promote the layout of overseas markets. Meanwhile, the company is promoting a new round of financing to accelerate international expansion and build a global anime technology ecosystem.

How long does it take for a comic you like to be adapted into an anime?

In Japan, where the anime industry is very mature, it usually takes one to two years for a comic to be adapted into an anime after its release. First, the comic needs to receive positive reviews from readers and show market potential. Then, it has to wait for investors or animation companies to get involved, plan the project, and negotiate with the magazine that owns the comic's copyright. After the cooperation is confirmed, investors, publishers, animation companies, advertisers, etc. will jointly establish a production committee to start the animation production.

One to two years is a rather long time. In the current era when short - video platforms bring new thrills every day, fans' enthusiasm will be quickly fragmented and diluted. If the cycle can be shortened and the production capacity increased, the entire industry will naturally receive a significant boost.

A company called "YOOUSI" is using AI tools to shorten the anime adaptation cycle to 1 - 2 months. This Chinese company, founded in 2017, is a new - type AI anime technology company that integrates "AI creation tools, global distribution, and original anime content". They use self - developed AI tools and real - person voice - overs to make comics "come alive" as video content of 1 - 3 minutes per episode. This type of video, different from traditional anime, is called a "manga drama".

Photo provided by YOOUSI

YOOUSI's CEO, Yuan Ze, introduced that YOOUSI started creating original comic content in 2017 and accumulated a batch of self - owned comic IPs and externally purchased IPs. In 2018, YOOUSI began to develop AI tools, trying to drive content with technology, and built a mature system around 2023.

As of now, YOOUSI has launched nearly a hundred works in total. With the iterative upgrade of AI tools, the quality of the works has also been greatly improved: the recent works are approaching the level of traditional anime production in terms of scene switching, character movement coherence, and storyboard performance, but the cost has more advantages.

A 36Kr author watched YOOUSI's recent and early works and found a significant improvement in content quality. The early works were closer to "motion animation". Although the characters' lip - sync, expressions, and actions changed according to the plot, the background was rather rigid and there were few storyboards, similar to the "PPT anime" in the early days of Japan. However, the recent works are almost on par with traditionally produced anime in terms of scene changes, character movement coherence, and the richness of storyboards.

Photo provided by YOOUSI

The technological upgrade not only brings an improvement in content quality but also keeps the overall production cost efficient. Yuan Ze pointed out that after covering costs such as IP procurement, production, and voice - overs, YOOUSI's content cost is still far lower than the traditional industry standard.

Yuan Ze said that the company has verified good commercial returns in content production. Many of the launched manga dramas have achieved profitability, and some of the works have even performed far beyond expectations in the market, showing an obvious amplification effect.

In terms of business model, YOOUSI initially used long - video platforms as the main distribution channel and then gradually expanded to short - video and emerging traffic platforms. This year, the company's in - depth cooperation with ByteDance and the Douyin platform has successfully created the industry's first batch of representative works with long life cycles and large - scale revenues, further proving the commercial potential of "AI + manga drama" in multi - channel distribution. For example, the work "Forced to Be the Villain's Son - in - Law" became the industry's first manga drama with a traffic investment consumption exceeding one million. Its life cycle exceeded five months, verifying the commercial potential of manga dramas on both long - video and short - video platforms for the industry and bringing considerable revenue sharing and traffic returns to the company.

Photo provided by YOOUSI

However, the domestic market is not YOOUSI's most important market. Considering that the general traffic investment cost in the domestic market is higher while the user ARPU value is lower, YOOUSI is currently mainly targeting the manga drama consumption market in Japan. "The ARPPU value of Japanese anime platforms can reach about 200 RMB, while in China it is only a dozen or so," Yuan Ze said.

YOOUSI is accelerating its internationalization strategy. Japan, as the first key overseas market, is a highly mature and competitive market with extremely high requirements for work quality, narrative rhythm, and audience experience, and a very high entry threshold.

To verify the manga drama model, the company spent two years conducting multiple rounds of trials and iterative tests to optimize content, production processes, and distribution strategies.

Photo source: "Animation Industry Report 2024"

Yuan Ze said that the company has verified the acceptance of manga dramas in the core anime consumption market: the test results show that the performance of its works is approaching that of the top live - action dramas on the platform. At the same time, it has explored single - episode payment in the business model, aligning with the price system of Japan's mature manga industry. This not only proves the commercial potential of manga dramas but also shows the possibility of their growth into a new type of content form.

To support this strategy, YOOUSI has built three major systems:

• Content creation and production system: The company has formed a mechanism for rapid development and batch production capacity, which can significantly improve efficiency while ensuring quality;
• AI - driven anime creation tool system: The self - developed Inkverse toolchain has realized the intelligentization of the drawing and production processes, reducing costs and increasing efficiency, enabling continuous content upgrading under the premise of controllable costs;
• Content overseas expansion and multi - language distribution system: By setting up offices in Changsha, Hangzhou, Tokyo, and Bangkok, the company has built a distribution network covering core markets, with the ability to launch simultaneously in multiple languages and distribute globally.

Currently, YOOUSI's team is basically in place, with the three core teams of technology, content, and distribution operating in coordination. This year, the company will further expand the team size to meet the needs of overseas market expansion and platform construction.

In the future, YOOUSI will build its own manga drama platform in Japan, deeply enter this most important global anime consumption market, and promote a comprehensive upgrade from "content going overseas" to "brand globalization".

In December 2024, the latest "Animation Industry Report 2024" released by the Association of Japanese Animations (AJA) showed that among the TV animations launched in 2023, there were 232 new works and 68 sequels, the lowest number of works in the past decade. On the other hand, in recent years, the average number of episodes per work has decreased. At the same time, the market scale of the Japanese manga industry has been expanding for many years, and there are a large number of IPs that have not been adapted into anime.

Yuan Ze said that in the current industry context, the application of AI tools can effectively help the anime industry stabilize content quality, relieve the pressure on talent, and improve efficiency. "Compared with the domestic market, the overseas market is characterized by: the domestic market focuses more on traffic acquisition and quick returns, while overseas users pay more attention to content quality. As long as the works are excellent enough, users are willing to pay and stay for a long time," Yuan Ze said.

Therefore, YOOUSI hopes to continuously expand overseas markets with a long - term operation mindset, establish a stable content ecosystem, and develop a sustainable business model.

YOOUSI has established a strategic partnership with SB Creative, a subsidiary of SoftBank in Japan, and has formed a joint - venture company with Thailand's T&B Global Media Group and a strategic cooperation relationship with Xingyue Culture (a company in the Yuewen ecosystem). In the future, these companies will cooperate in multiple fields such as IP development, content production, and overseas distribution to jointly promote the development and dissemination of anime short dramas in the global market.

(Source: 36Kr Future Consumption   Author: Wang Yuchan   Editor: Qiao Qian)