JISOGI: Anime Studio Tycoon Strategy Board Game

About this product

Great anime needs more than a great idea, it needs a studio that can survive making it.

Build your team, develop original anime, follow changing trends and keep your studio financially alive.

A strategic worker-placement game where you run an anime studio, manage staff and debt, build original stories and release productions that can turn your struggling business around.

Product Description

Take charge of your own anime studio in JISOGI: Anime Studio Tycoon, a worker-placement strategy game inspired by the creative ambition and business pressures behind anime production.

Across four rounds, you'll manage your studio's staff, budget and productions while competing for shared opportunities. Your Staff perform actions such as writing, researching, animating, networking, staffing and strategizing, but crowded action spaces can become more expensive, forcing you to think carefully about timing and priorities.

Every anime begins with three Script Parts: a Setting, Plot and Twist. Combine these with your studio's Animation Level to prepare a release, then watch the market. Matching your anime's genres to changing Trend cards can boost its popularity and improve the rewards your studio earns.

Success also comes with pressure. Staff need salaries, business decisions cost money and running short of cash can force your studio into debt. Loans may keep production moving, but unpaid debt and rising interest can damage your final Reputation.

Hire and promote stronger staff, develop smarter production strategies, seize limited opportunities and decide when your next anime is ready for release. At the end of the fourth round, the studio with the strongest Reputation wins.

Solo players can also take on dedicated challenges designed both to teach the game and provide increasingly demanding objectives.

View the JISOGI: Anime Studio Tycoon Rulebook (PDF)

Why You'll Love It

• Run an anime studio through staffing, production, budgeting and release decisions

• Worker-placement actions create competition for valuable spaces and resources

• Build every anime from Setting, Plot and Twist Script Parts

• Match genres to changing market trends to improve each release's popularity

• Hire and promote Staff with different roles, abilities and preferred genres

• Balance salaries, investment and debt while keeping your studio moving

• Engine-building elements reward long-term improvements to your team and production

• Opportunities create another race for valuable Reputation points

• Dedicated solo challenges offer a full single-player experience

• Edition 1.5 refines the interface, balance and gameplay flow

Quick Details

• Publisher: Esper Game Studio

• Game & Art Direction: Rodrigo Esper

• Lead Artists: Eisuke Gou and Senkawa Teien

• Edition: 1.5

• Players: 1–4

• Multiplayer: 2–4 players

• Solo mode: Yes

• Recommended age: 14+

• Play time: 60–90 minutes

• Game type: Strategy / tycoon-style worker-placement board game

• Core gameplay: Worker placement, engine building, shared market decisions and risk management

• Game length: 4 rounds

• Primary goal: Finish with the most Reputation points

Edition 1.5 Contents Include:

• 1 Action Board

• 4 Studio Boards

• 1 Trend Board

• 20 Trend Cards

• 12 Opportunity Cards

• 20 Networking Cards

• 18 Debt Cards

• 16 Dead-Inside Staff Cards

• 52 Genki Staff Cards

• 20 Setting Script Parts

• 20 Plot Script Parts

• 20 Twist Script Parts

• 4 Player Aid Cards

• 2 Solo Challenge Cards

• Studio Action, Animation Level, Hype, Merchandise Deal, Money, Point, Lock and Popularity Bonus tokens

Good to Know

• Each anime requires one Setting, one Plot and one Twist Script Part before it can be released

• Script Parts cover five genres: Action, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror and Slice of Life

• Players can release up to one anime per round

• Better genre matches and higher Animation Levels can increase a release's Popularity Score

• Staff fall into Writer, Artist, Producer and Director roles, with different action restrictions

• Genki Staff can provide stronger actions, abilities and genre bonuses

• Salaries are paid during Upkeep, so expanding your team also increases your running costs

• If you cannot afford a required payment, Debt cards provide additional money but can reduce your final Reputation if left unpaid

• The solo mode includes multiple challenges, with introductory options for learning the game and harder challenges for experienced players

• The Edition 1.5 rulebook also includes JISOGI: Pitch Room, an alternative narrative mode centred on pitching Setting, Plot and Twist ideas