DeAPlaneta Entertainment has inked a deal with South Korea’s Cocktail Media to introduce its Bugsbot anime franchise to the rest of the world.

The distributor will sell Cocktail’s 2D/CG-animated series Bugsbot Ignition (26 x 22 minutes, pictured) and short-form spinoff Bugsbot G (15 x five minutes) outside of Asia, managing licensing, media and digital rights for both titles. 

Cocktail Media and Seoul’s CJ ENM co-produce the shows, which target kids ages six to nine. They are set in a world where humans live peacefully with tiny bug-shaped robots, but this harmony is disrupted when a mysterious virus starts attacking the Bugsbots.

Bugspot Ignition is quite popular in both its domestic market and the broader APAC region. Tooniverse launched the series in 2019, and it has gone on to air on local channels MBC, AniOne and Cartoon Network, as well as getting picked up in China (Jinying Cartoon, Toonmax, Yooman Cartoon), Taiwan (YoYo TV), Hong Kong (Viu TV) and Indonesia (rtv). The IP has 24 toy ranges so far, and in 2019, it generated the second-most toy retail sales of the year in South Korea.

This latest distribution deal is part of DeAPlaneta’s strategy to acquire more anime programming that it can bring into Western markets, says Carlos Biern, content and distribution director for the company’s kids & family division. 

Bugspot Ignition‘s deeper themes (environmentalism and the relationship between humans and technology), as well as “a natural licensing potential” stemming from its transforming robot bugs premise, give it a lot of power to travel internationally, according to Biern.