How Dr. Essam Bukhary Turned Manga Productions into a Cross-Border Success Story

Some founders obsess over products. Dr. Essam Bukhary obsesses over capability. As the founding CEO of Manga Productions (a subsidiary of the Mohammed bin Salman Foundation, MiSK) since 2017, he stated one line that explains his entire playbook:

“Our talents are not the most important asset… they are the only assets we have.”

That conviction powers a simple, disciplined model "Made in Saudi, with Japan", that has taken Saudi stories from concept papers to Japanese cinemas, global platforms, award stages, and retail shelves. Along the way, the studio has trained hundreds of Saudis, promoted graduates into leadership, and proven that cultural fidelity can be a quality system, not a constraint.

Backstory & Spark

Dr. Essam Bukhary’s bridge between Riyadh and Tokyo was built long before Manga Productions. He earned his BA, MA, and PhD in Japan (Waseda University), then served in Tokyo as Saudi Cultural Attaché, interpreter to senior leaders, and a connector across universities and technology firms. That period shaped his two operating beliefs:

1. Culture is infrastructure. It builds trust, markets, and talent pathways.
2. Talent is destiny: Industries scale when people get real credits on real projects.

So when MiSK created Manga Productions to catalyze a new creative economy, Essam Bukhary brought a founder’s mandate to the CEO seat: co-produce with the best and move Saudi creatives from “assisting” to “leading” as fast as quality allows.

“I believe the true leader is having team members who are exceeding him in all aspects.” – Essam Bukhary

Building the Basics

The Saudi animation team started small to build their skills before attempting a full-length feature. They co-produced a short anime, The Woodcutter’s Treasure, with Japan to learn the behind-the-scenes mechanics such as how to pass files, track edits, manage notes, and deliver on time. They also created Future’s Folktales Season 1, a 13-episode series on MBC1, proving that Saudi stories could appeal to mainstream audiences and giving the team experience with a longer production schedule. This phase was all about practicing the fundamentals and getting comfortable with the animation pipeline, versioning, and proper delivery standards.

Raising the Bar

Their first full-length movie, The Journey, marked a major step up. Working with Toei Animation, the Saudi team requested 1,300 retake notes to ensure accuracy in clothing, sword fighting, and body language. Local artists handled key backgrounds, like carpets, and produced reference videos to guide Japanese animators on authentic Arab gestures and movement. The result? A film that hit multiple firsts: Japanese theaters, 4DX in Saudi Arabia, multi-region distribution, and even an award, demonstrating that careful attention to detail and cultural authenticity pays off on the global stage.

Expanding the Universe

After proving the model works, the team expanded the IP with Future’s Folktales Season 2, moving the story to NEOM and partnering with sponsors to tell national stories in a relatable, character-driven way. They also extended the universe into mobile games to keep fans engaged and tested merchandise through Virgin Megastore to gauge local demand. Additionally, placing the show on Chinese platforms showed that authentic Saudi content could travel internationally when executed thoughtfully, turning one success into a repeatable and scalable model.

Leadership Style & Culture

Dr. Essam Bukhary’s leadership stance is explicit: empowerment beats heroics. He argues that trust is what unlocks creative performance.

“The era of the ‘super manager’ is over. The excellence of a true manager is to empower the team.” – Essam Bukhary

Inside Manga Productions, that view shows up as structure, not slogans:

Talent as Strategy

The studio reports 500+ Saudis trained through Manga programs. A large majority of current staff are alumni of these pipelines, and the Tokyo office operates with >50% Saudization, a rare level of localization in Japan.

Performance Through Environment

Recognition as a “best place to work” is treated as operating hygiene for creative industries.

Mission with Teeth

The internal purpose “inspiring the heroes of tomorrow” guides content choices (family-viewing windows, values-aligned characters) and partner selection.

Recognition & Global Relevance

The global milestones matter, but the pattern matters more. Partnerships in Japan have shifted from novelty to normal. International premieres and platform deals are recurring, not one-off. In parallel, Dr. Essam Bukhary’s roles beyond the studio as a jury member for WIPO Global Awards; co-chair of a science and technology executive committee at the University of Tokyo; editor-in-chief of Manga Arabia, signal that Manga Productions is not only shipping content; it’s building IP literacy and cross-institutional bridges that outlast single titles.

“We are not producing animations… We are developing, inspiring the next generations.” – Essam Bukhary

بدأت السعودية في تصدير صناعتها الترفيهية والثقافية إلى العالم كما في فعاليات موسم الرياض التي أقيمت في أمريكا وبريطانيا ونجاح المملكة في استقطاب ملايين السياح والمشاهدين للمنتجات الترفيهية. السعودية يوم تخلق فرص استثنائية وفريدة على مستوى العالم لكبرى الشركات في القطاع الترفيهي… pic.twitter.com/9YQJLcJioP

— د. عصام أمان الله بخاري .Essam Bukhary, Dr (@essambukhary) October 25, 2025

What He Actually Built: A Founder’s Lens

Stripping away the headlines, Dr. Essam Bukhary created four lasting assets that other founders can learn from and adapt.

1. A Cross-Border Production Stack
   He established clear processes for producing locally while collaborating globally, ensuring knowledge and skills flow into the local team without sending value out.
2. A Multi-Format Portfolio
   Starting with shorts, moving to series, then feature films, games, and merchandise, each format builds new capabilities and opens fresh revenue opportunities.
3. A Talent Escalator
   The team structure moves people from internship to hire, then to credited work and leadership roles. This transparent and fast progression helps attract and retain top talent.
4. A Distribution Learning Loop
   By experimenting across TV slots, cinema releases, and streaming platforms, the team learned how to make stories travel, creating a repeatable model for reaching audiences globally.

Preserving Authenticity for Future Generations

Dr. Essam Bukhary played a key role in reshaping how Arab culture is represented in global animation. Previous Japanese productions often portrayed Arab characters inaccurately. He mentioned how even details like the shemagh were wrong. Bukhary and his Saudi team worked closely with Toei Animation to ensure character and background designs reflected true cultural precision.

Scenes were developed locally, and the team supplied extensive cultural reference material to guide performance and movement. Most revisions focused on elevating animation quality to achieve greater realism and cultural accuracy, building a lasting sense of pride and authenticity.

Vision Forward

The first era was proof: could a Saudi studio co-produce at world-class quality and travel? The answer is yes. The second era is durability: own franchises that grow with Gulf audiences and translate abroad without losing their soul. Expect more Saudi showrunners, deeper rights control, and transmedia worlds that move from screen to shelves to gamepads. Future’s Folktales Season 2 (set in NEOM) is a signal; so is the planned game and the talk of long-form projects that visualize Saudi history through manga and animation.

Dr. Essam Bukhary often says the hardest distance is from zero to one. That distance is crossed. The work now is compounding: protecting the talent engine, raising the craft bar, and keeping the Saudi-Japan bridge wide open so the next generation doesn’t just watch global stories. They help write them.

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