There are only three ways in the world to create IP

I will start with the conclusion.

There are only three ways in the world to create IP.

1. Born from individual madness

2. Taking the top spot on a new media wave

3. Companies with weapons acquire and develop strong IP

Fate, Chiikawa, Gundam, Hololive, and Stardew Valley all originated from one of these three. As far as I know, there are almost no exceptions.

I arrived at this conclusion because, over the past six months, I received the same request from multiple companies: 'We want to create IP.' Even though their industries and scales were completely different, everyone was stumbling over the same thing. Comparing this to my experience working in IP business as a business manager for entertainment companies until 2024, the ways IP is born in the world neatly converge into these three patterns.

However, before we get into the main topic, there is one thing I want to align on: the definition of the word 'IP.' Most people stumble before even reaching the 'how-to' stage, saying they 'want to create' IP while the definition of 'what IP even is' remains vague. It is similar to saying 'I want to cook a delicious meal' without having a definition for what 'delicious' means.

My definition of IP is this:

'Something that can withstand the test of time and make people enthusiastic.'

Something that makes your heart race just by hearing its name. Something that continues to resonate in someone's life even after 10 or 20 years.

With this definition as a premise, I will look at the three patterns in order.

From here on, I will write specifically about why each pattern works, what kind of structure it has, and the 'reasons for success and failure' that I have seen while involved in multiple businesses at entertainment companies.

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Pattern 1: Born from individual madness

It has the most destructive power and the least reproducibility. And—almost all of the strongest IP in the world is born from here.

Enthusiasm. Obsession. Deep love. Madness.

You can describe it however you like, but in short, it refers to IP born from 'something that one continues to do even if others do not understand it.'

Let me list a few examples.

Fate (TYPE-MOON's flagship IP) started as a doujin game. It originated from stories Kinoko Nasu had been writing since he was in junior high and high school, and there was zero commercial calculation at the start. It has now become a franchise with total global revenue exceeding 1 trillion yen. FGO alone is among the top-grossing mobile games in history.

Chiikawa. It started from manga that Nagano posted on Twitter (at the time), and its economic sphere has reached a cumulative 382.2 billion yen (2021-2025). It went from being an SNS manga to becoming one of Japan's representative character IPs.

Attack on Titan. Hajime Isayama submitted his work to Weekly Shonen Jump and was rejected. Even so, he kept drawing, and it reached a cumulative circulation of 140 million copies. The fact that he was "rejected by Jump" actually proves the vitality of this IP.

Recently, the momentum of indie games has been tremendous. "Exit 8" surpassed 2 million copies and even had a movie adaptation decided. As for Stardew Valley, a game developed by just one person has sold 41 million copies. Now, 25% of Steam's total revenue comes from indie games.

Why can indie games create stronger IPs than large corporations with studios of hundreds of people? There are three structural reasons.

First, decision-making is completed by one person.
In a corporation, there are many layers of filters before an IP is born—planning, proposal, approval, budget securing, and personnel assignment—but individual developers do not have that.

Second, running costs are orders of magnitude lower.
Large corporate IP development sees tens of millions of yen disappear every month, but for an individual, it only costs their own living expenses to keep going. In other words, "you can keep going even if it doesn't sell."

Third, the distance to fans is zero. Steam reviews, Discord feedback, SNS reactions—there are no filters between the creator and the recipient, and the passion is transmitted directly. In large corporations, the voices of fans are intercepted by marketing and legal departments before they reach the creators.

IPs of this pattern have the highest durability over time.

Why? Because "someone's life" is included at the beginning. It is born from impulse, not calculation. That is why there are no lies in the story. Fans can smell that lack of falsehood.

However, this is the cruel part: large corporations cannot do this. In a world of KPIs and rationality, "continuing even if not understood" is not allowed. The madness dies the moment it passes through the approval process.

I myself, until recently, as a business manager at an entertainment company, saw many times how projects worth hundreds of millions of yen were wiped out due to personnel transfers or resignations, or were rejected during the internal approval process. Personnel who rotate every few years versus an IP that takes 10 years to grow. This misalignment in time axes and the internal process that filters out madness with rationality are the structural reasons why IPs are not born in conference rooms.

Pattern 2: Taking the top spot on a new media wave

This might be the only way for a corporation to challenge IP creation.

It is a pattern of entering at the timing when a new medium or platform is growing rapidly, with a crazy amount and quality, and becoming the "face" of that medium.

Let's list some examples.

• YouTube dawn era → HIKAKIN

• Niconico Douga / Hatsune Miku → The Vocaloid P culture itself became an IP

• VTuber → Kizuna AI, Hololive

• TikTok → Opanchu Usagi (No. 1 in popularity among Gen Z. Itochu is moving to expand it in Asia)

• Shousetsuka ni Narou (Let's Become a Novelist) → That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Mushoku Tensei (Web novel platforms as a mass-production base for isekai-genre IP)

• Webtoon → Solo Leveling (Vertical-scrolling manga → global IP via anime adaptation)

• Podcast → COTEN RADIO (No. 1 overall on Apple Podcasts. Becoming the 'face' of audio media)

The essence of this pattern is that you can borrow the growth energy of a platform. While a medium is growing, just being there increases your reach. You ride that wave while breaking through the ceiling with the quality of your content.

If a company wants to do this, what is needed is speed in decision-making and a culture that tolerates failure. By the time you decide a new medium is 'the next big thing,' go through the approval process, allocate a budget, and assign personnel, individual creators have already taken the top spot.

Hololive (Cover Corp.) is one of the few successful corporate examples. Originally a VR technology startup, they saw the potential of the VTuber market with the emergence of Kizuna AI and pivoted immediately. In 2023, they listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Growth Market, with a market capitalization of 92.6 billion yen. This is the result of being the fastest and deepest corporate bet on the new media wave of VTubers.

*The first live performance video of Cover Corp.'s first VTuber, 'Tokino Sora'.

And now, podcasts are entering this phase. COTEN RADIO reached No. 1 overall on Apple Podcasts and raised a total of 200 million yen. The 'face' of audio media has not yet been decided. That is precisely why companies, individual influencers, and creators are entering this space one after another.

• COTEN RADIO → Synonymous with history-themed podcasts. Raised 200 million yen in total, incorporated

• Audrey's All Night Nippon → TV talent enters the podcast space and realizes a Tokyo Dome performance

• OVER THE SUN → Jane Su and Mika Horii. A prime example of IP creation where the fan community is self-sustaining

• Yuru Gengogaku Radio (Casual Linguistics Radio) → Individually started educational content. 1 million listeners across both YouTube and Podcast platforms

• Gen Hoshino's All Night Nippon → Artist builds unique IP through radio/podcasts

• Off Topic → Tech and culture focus. A rare example of a corporate media project that fans are enthusiastic about

Pattern 3: Companies with weapons acquire and develop strong IP

The third pattern is not to 'create' IP yourself, but to acquire IP that has already proven its popularity and expand it using your company's strengths.

This can only be done by companies that possess 'weapons.' Conversely, companies that aim for this pattern without having weapons will fail almost 100% of the time.

• Bandai Namco → Develops IP such as Gundam through toys and games. Fiscal 2025 full-year forecast of 230 billion yen

• CyberAgent → Partnering with Nitroplus using ABEMA's distribution power

• Spiral Cute → Promoting product development for Chiikawa through licensing design expertise

• Sony Music/Aniplex → Globally expanding Demon Slayer, Fate, and SPY×FAMILY through vertical integration of anime production, distribution, and merchandise logistics

• KADOKAWA → Taking light novel IPs like Re:Zero and Overlord to the global market through their media mix strategy (the original pioneer) of publishing → anime → games

• Hasbro (US) → Using toy distribution and global retail as weapons to develop Transformers and My Little Pony across multiple layers including movies and games

What they all have in common is not the power to create the IP itself, but the possession of 'weapons to amplify' the IP.

IPs have their lifespans extended by being amplified. The reason Gundam has lasted for over 40 years is that Bandai has continuously created touchpoints across generations through toys and games. I believe that acquiring and developing licenses is the very act of increasing an IP's durability over time.

What is important here is the order.

Seeds are born in Pattern 1, spread in Pattern 2, and amplified in Pattern 3. The moment this sequence breaks, the IP dies. For a company without weapons to suddenly say they 'want to create IP' starting from Pattern 3 is fundamentally the wrong procedure.

What the three patterns have in common

What I realize after organizing this far is that it always starts small.

Pattern 1 starts from an individual. In Pattern 2 as well, even if the platform itself is large, what becomes an IP there is an individual or a very small team. The IP that companies acquire in Pattern 3 also originated from individual passion.

In other words, IP cannot be designed. It is born from individual passion and grows through systems.

Actually, there are entities that have been doing all three of these patterns from the beginning. They are Japanese publishers like Shueisha, Kodansha, and Shogakukan.

Editors discover an individual's 'madness' through submissions or auditions (Pattern 1's eye for talent). They spread it to the world by riding the waves of media like Weekly Shonen Jump or Shonen Magazine (Pattern 2). And then they amplify it through anime adaptations, movies, merchandise, and overseas licensing (Pattern 3). The ONE PIECE economic sphere has exceeded 5 trillion yen, but it all started with a single storyboard that Eiichiro Oda brought to the editorial department.

What publishers have been doing is not creating IP itself, but designing a system to find, nurture, and amplify individual passion. IP cannot be designed. But a system for IP to be born and grow can be designed. Japanese publishers are the entities that have proven this over nearly 100 years.

One more thing. The lower the running costs and the faster the monetization, the longer an IP lasts. IP becomes stronger through the continuation of its story. As the story continues to be spun, fan emotions accumulate, and its durability over time increases. That is why indie games and social media manga are strong. Their production costs are low, they receive direct reactions from fans, and the distance to monetization is short.

Once the number of fans exceeds a certain level, you expand into multimedia. Merchandise, anime adaptations, game adaptations, events. This is where corporate capital and weapons finally become effective. Thanks to Steam, indie games are global from the start, and the same is becoming true for manga via Webtoon. The distance between an IP's initial launch and the global market is definitely shrinking.

So, what should companies and individuals do respectively?

There are only three ways to create it. However, the important thing here is to clarify where you are going to compete.

First, Pattern 1 is essentially the domain of the individual. Honestly, it is quite difficult for a company to try to create IP from scratch. Due to the structural reasons mentioned earlier—approval processes, personnel transfers, and KPIs—madness cannot survive within an organization.

So what should companies do? I believe they should focus entirely on the 'connoisseurship' of Pattern 1.

Find raw gems with potential within small IPs born from individual madness. Invest money and resources into them at an early stage. Do not make them yourselves; find and nurture the shining Pattern 1s. I believe this is the most reproducible IP strategy for companies.

Next, where can individuals and companies compete on the same playing field? That is Pattern 2. When it comes to new media waves, companies and individuals start from the same line. This is the only area where company size does not provide an advantage. In fact, individuals can sometimes win simply through the speed of decision-making.

That said, most companies should have assets built through their existing core businesses. Distribution networks, customer bases, brand power, and technical capabilities. Leveraging those assets to combine the connoisseurship of Pattern 1 with entry into Pattern 2—I think this is a realistic way for companies to enter the IP space.

And even stronger are cases where there are people or organizations within a company that possess the kind of 'passion to keep going even if not understood' seen in Pattern 1. Not only do they find external IP, but they also have sparks of madness inside. Such companies also have vastly improved accuracy in their connoisseurship. This is because only those who possess the same level of passion can discern true fanaticism.

If that is the case, what companies really need is not 'creating IP,' but fostering a culture where madness can survive.

In any case, IP takes a lot of time and money. It is not something that produces results immediately. That is precisely why the first thing to do is to build an organization that can execute 'connoisseurship of Pattern 1' and 'challenges in Pattern 2.' A system that does not kill madness through approval processes, and a decision-making structure that can immediately bet on new media. Before creating the IP itself, you need to design the soil that can produce IP.

And to individuals: you basically only have Pattern 1 to choose from. Posting manga on social media. Making indie games. Writing stories on 'Shousetsuka ni Narou' or note. Uploading videos to YouTube. Talking about your expertise on a podcast. If there is something within those small beginnings that you keep doing even if you are not understood, that is the seed of IP.

Whether the seed will sprout, I do not know. But if you do not sow it, it will never sprout. I hope that one day, your madness will touch someone's life.

I am currently running a one-person AI startup while also working as an individual creator, and I really love the moments when I encounter such 'seeds.' For those in companies who want to create or own IP, and for individuals who want to nurture or spread it—would you like to talk about IP and its seeds together? I plan to publish a business inquiry page soon, so until then, please feel free to contact me via DM on X (@keke_ent) or through comments on note.

In this note, I share information about the entertainment business and IP business structurally, based on my experience as a business manager at an entertainment company. You can get unlimited access by joining the membership 'Awakening Conference.' Please consider it.