At Tokyo Game Show 2026, South Korean publisher Netmarble made a deliberate turn away from console spectacle toward mobile gaming, staking its presence in Japan on the deep cultural currents of anime and manga fandom. Three titles anchored the booth — each chosen for its resonance with Japanese IP sensibilities — while costumed staff and life-sized statues transformed a commercial exhibition into something closer to a fan pilgrimage site. It is a reminder that in certain markets, belonging to a culture matters more than any technical achievement, and that the most strategic moves are sometimes
Netmarble Doubles Down on Japan with Anime IP, Cosplay at TGS 2026
Turn the booth into a place where fans could stand beside the characters they already knew
Mark
So Netmarble went back to TGS this year. What changed from last time?
Mimi
The whole approach. Last year was console-focused. This year they went all-in on mobile, which is a pretty significant shift in how they're thinking about Japan.
Luke
Why mobile specifically? Is that because mobile dominates in Japan, or because that's where Netmarble's strength is?
Mimi
Both, probably. Japan's a massive mobile gaming market, and Netmarble has real expertise there. But it also signals they're not trying to compete on console hardware—they're competing on IP and character appeal.
Mark
The cosplay element seems central. Staff dressed as characters from the games?
Mimi
Exactly. Shangri-La Frontier staff as Emul, Solo Leveling staff as Cha Hae-In. And for Pearl in Blue, the four companion knights rotated through for photo ops.
Luke
That's a specific choice. How much of the booth's success do we actually know came from that versus just the games themselves?
Mimi
The article notes that last year's "well-received elements" were built on this year, which suggests it worked. But you're right—we don't have numbers on booth traffic or conversion or anything concrete.
Mark
What about the games themselves? Are these all based on existing IP?
Mimi
Two of them are. Shangri-La Frontier and Solo Leveling both come from anime and webtoons. Pearl in Blue is original, but designed specifically for the Japanese market.
Luke
So they're hedging. Two proven IPs with existing fanbases, one original swing. That makes sense strategically.
Mark
And this is part of a longer play? They're not just showing up once?
Mimi
Right. They had releases last year—The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin, MONSTER Taming: STAR DIVE—and now they're back with more. It reads like a sustained push into Japan, not a test run.
Le Pouls
- Netmarble arrived at Makuhari Messe having quietly abandoned last year's console-first approach, placing its entire bet on mobile titles tuned for Japan's anime and manga devotees.
- The stakes are real: Japan's gaming market rewards cultural fluency above almost everything else, and a misstep in IP selection or fan engagement can render even a well-funded booth invisible.
- To close that gap, the company engineered immersion — life-sized character statues, cosplaying staff embodying fan-favorite characters, and photo opportunities designed to make visitors feel inside the worlds they already loved.
- The three chosen titles — Shangri-La Frontier, Solo Leveling RPG, and the original Pearl in Blue — each represent a distinct wager on what Japanese players will embrace, from adapted web novels to wholly new IP.
- With a foothold established through last year's releases, Netmarble is now signaling not an experiment but a sustained campaign to become a culturally embedded player in one of the world's most discerning gaming markets.
At Tokyo Game Show 2026, South Korean publisher Netmarble made a deliberate turn away from console spectacle toward mobile gaming, staking its presence in Japan on the deep cultural currents of anime and manga fandom. Three titles anchored the booth — each chosen for its resonance with Japanese IP sensibilities — while costumed staff and life-sized statues transformed a commercial exhibition into something closer to a fan pilgrimage site. It is a reminder that in certain markets, belonging to a culture matters more than any technical achievement, and that the most strategic moves are sometimes the ones that feel the most human.
Netmarble returned to Tokyo Game Show this September at Makuhari Messe with a strategy fundamentally redrawn from the year before. Gone was the console focus; in its place, a mobile-first approach built around Japan's most powerful cultural forces — anime, manga, and the fan communities that form around them.
Three games anchored the booth. Shangri-La Frontier: The Seven Colossi draws from a beloved Japanese web novel and its anime adaptation. Solo Leveling, a roguelite RPG, extends the webtoon and anime phenomenon of the same name. Pearl in Blue, entirely original, was conceived from the ground up with Japanese players as its intended audience. Each title reflected a different calculation about what earns loyalty in a market where IP and character design carry outsized weight.
The booth was engineered to feel less like a sales floor than an extension of fan culture itself. Life-sized statues recreated pivotal moments from each game's source material. Staff dressed as recognizable characters — Emul from Shangri-La Frontier, Cha Hae-In from Solo Leveling, four armored knights from Pearl in Blue — rotating through demo stations and posing for photographs. These weren't novelties; they were deliberate infrastructure, turning visitor attention into genuine emotional connection.
The move built on lessons from the previous year, when Netmarble had introduced Japanese audiences to titles like The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin and MONSTER Taming: STAR DIVE. That groundwork established credibility. Now, with three new or newly localized games and a cohesive cultural strategy, the company was making clear that its Japanese ambitions are neither experimental nor temporary — but a sustained effort to earn a place in a market where belonging, not just product quality, determines who endures.
Netmarble returned to Tokyo Game Show this September at Makuhari Messe with a fundamentally different strategy than the year before. Where last year's booth had centered on console experiences, this time the South Korean publisher was betting everything on mobile—a deliberate pivot toward Japan's particular obsessions: anime, manga, and the devoted fan cultures that orbit them.
Three games anchored the booth. Shangri-La Frontier: The Seven Colossi draws from a Japanese web novel and its anime adaptation. Solo Leveling, a roguelite RPG, pulls from the webtoon and anime of the same name. And Pearl in Blue, entirely original, was built from the ground up with Japanese players in mind. Each represented a different bet on what would resonate in a market where IP and character design carry enormous weight.
The booth itself was engineered for immersion. Life-sized statues recreated pivotal moments from each game's source material, anchoring visitors in the worlds Netmarble wanted them to inhabit. But the real draw was the staff. In the Shangri-La Frontier zone, employees dressed as Emul, a character from the property. In the Solo Leveling section, they wore the outfit of Cha Hae-In, a fan-favorite from the webtoon. For Pearl in Blue, four knights—the protagonist's companions—rotated through the demo stations in costume, posing for photographs with anyone who wanted one. It was a calculated move: turn the booth into a place where fans could stand beside the characters they already knew and loved.
This wasn't theater for its own sake. Netmarble had tested elements of this approach the previous year and found them working. The costumed staff, the statues, the photo opportunities—these weren't novelties. They were infrastructure for engagement, designed to make the booth feel less like a sales floor and more like an extension of the fan experience itself.
The company's timing mattered. It had spent the previous year introducing Japanese audiences to titles like The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin and MONSTER Taming: STAR DIVE, establishing a foothold. Now, with three new or newly localized games, Netmarble was signaling that this wasn't a one-off experiment. The shift from console to mobile, the emphasis on anime and manga IP, the deliberate cosplay and character integration—all of it pointed toward a sustained effort to become a meaningful player in Japan's gaming ecosystem, a market where cultural fit and fan connection often determine success more than raw technical prowess.
Citations marquantes
Netmarble took a mobile-centric approach to make a targeted push into Japan, the home of subculture and a powerhouse of anime and manga— invenglobal reporting
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