The red-clad Nezha has sparked a craze for figurines. Can they capitalize on the huge fortune brought by just one face?
The world has verified for the ten - thousandth time that good looks still translate into purchasing power.
In the anime "Senior Brother, Oh Senior Brother", a minor supporting character, but a well - known mythological figure - the young Nezha - made an appearance. In the show, the young man in red stands on one foot on the bow, stretching out his right arm, ready to draw the arrow. Just a fleeting glimpse of this shot received millions of likes on Douyin. Moreover, it made a host of new fans cry and shout to spend money:
A still shot of drawing the bow precisely hit the aesthetic sweet spot of anime lovers, unexpectedly becoming the most explosive character breakout event in the Chinese animation field in 2026.
After the image of Nezha broke through the circle, the long - tepid anime "Senior Brother, Oh Senior Brother" quickly gained momentum. It surpassed "Cangyuan Tu" on Youku's Chinese animation popularity list and climbed to the top of the platform, reaching the peak of its popularity in the past month.
A sensational character is itself a traffic entry point
Good looks mean justice and are a traffic entry point.
Nezha, who first appeared on April 22nd, drew the bow on May 22nd and became an instant hit that day. There were a deluge of mixed - cuts and second - creations.
The most widely spread was a less - than - 5 - second video of him drawing the bow. It received over a million likes and more than 100,000 reposts on Douyin, and the popularity is still rising. On Xiaohongshu, there were easily over ten thousand related notes, and the most straightforward ones were asking for merchandise. On Bilibili, the single - video playback volume reached over 300,000. While liking and reposting, users also opened VIP memberships, and the three platforms were all set ablaze. Even netizens couldn't help but joke: "Our 'Senior Brother' has worked hard for half a lifetime, but it's a few seconds of Nezha that made it popular."
People chased an entire anime for a face. Xuanji and Youku should be overjoyed.
Why does Nezha always break through the circle? When we analyze the core assets of this breakout, we'll find that it's the result of multiple buffs:
First of all, who doesn't know Nezha? As the most well - known young hero IP in the Chinese mythology system, he and the Monkey King are the two top - tier figures in Chinese mythology and become popular every few years. From "Nezha Conquers the Dragon King" in 1979 to "The Legend of Nezha" in 2003, and then to "Ne Zha: Birth of the Demon Child" in 2019/2025, each generation has its own Nezha. The commercial foundation of this character is at the national - level S+++.
And once the character image hits the aesthetic gap of different generations of audiences, it successfully ignites the fuse of public enthusiasm. After the popular demon child in "Ne Zha: Birth of the Demon Child", this version of Nezha has a feminine appearance on a male body and is extremely handsome, precisely hitting the aesthetic elements of this generation of anime audiences for "paper - like characters": light - colored pupils, expressionless face, a jawline with the golden ratio, and a combination of delicacy and cuteness. Moreover, his posture of drawing the bow is incredibly cool!
Moreover, Xuanji Technology, which has long been deeply involved in the anime field, must have invested obvious resource inclination in the modeling. Even fans can't help but joke: "Three models in one episode. Xuanji, you must have had some personal preference when creating Nezha."
In addition, the foundation accumulated by "Senior Brother, Oh Senior Brother" is also the basic foundation for the breakout. As of now, "Senior Brother, Oh Senior Brother" has been updated to 143 episodes, maintaining a rhythm of a year - long anime without interruption for more than two years. Although the popularity has never been the highest, the number of users who paid for additional episodes has exceeded 3 million, providing a thick enough audience pool for Nezha's breakout this time.
So, the re - explosion of Nezha's image is not a cold start from scratch. Instead, it's like suddenly lighting a fire on a content engine that has been running for two years, opening a huge traffic entry point for the year - long anime content.
How far is it from "wishing for merchandise" to "wild consumption"?
However, when fans on Xiaohongshu held up their phones and repeatedly screamed for "merchandise" of the "red - clothed Nezha", the matching official "merchandise" never appeared. Instead, pirated products on Taobao shops quickly took action and put up Nezha's trading cards and keychains. Handicraft bloggers also followed suit and made the same - style earrings of Nezha.
For the Nezha IP image, "Ne Zha: The Demon Reborn" learned from the lessons of the first film. During the release of the movie, it quickly arranged more than 30 categories and over 200 products such as blind boxes, figurines, and badges. The turnover of authorized merchandise on Taobao exceeded 300 million yuan. The "Fated Bond" blind box of Pop Mart had sales of over 10 million yuan in 8 days, and the sales volume in the Tmall flagship store exceeded 100,000 pieces. The weekly sales volume of Nezha figurines/dolls on the entire Tmall platform reached 100,000 pieces.
In contrast, for the stunning red - clothed look of Nezha in "Senior Brother", Youku, which is closely connected with Taobao, has not released a specific merchandise plan so far. We can only speculate that perhaps Youku, as a large platform, is not quick enough to react, or perhaps Xuanji, as a company mainly invested by Tencent, has unclear copyright authorization for IP derivatives.
Anyway, this phenomenon of "content leading the way while merchandise is absent" exposes the "rear - end collision" dilemma of domestic IP in linkage - the anime has strong explosive power, but the development cycle lags behind. When fans' enthusiasm of "Here's the money, hurry up and release the merchandise" has nowhere to go, the mismatch between the peak of the topic and the launch of derivatives is infinitely magnified.
When audiences actively ask to buy derivatives, it's not just an ordinary shout, but a pre - signed demand letter. However, this demand letter has a time limit - the essence of merchandise consumption is emotional consumption. Therefore, the time limit of this "demand letter" is the "moment of heart - flutter".
When a character that detonates emotions meets a set of accessible merchandise, it will trigger an immediate wild consumption. As the material carrier of emotions, the price is not determined by the production cost, but by the emotional premium. Once the time is prolonged, the audience's enthusiasm fades, and the value of the merchandise will be greatly reduced. Therefore, for the group - consumption impulse triggered by a character's breakout, the best time to sell merchandise is always now.
If we expand our view from a single anime work to a broader cultural consumption market, we'll find that the market potential driven by a popular character cannot be underestimated. In the film and television field, especially in the anime track, the success of a character often directly determines the value ceiling of an IP and drives up the enthusiasm for anime consumption. For example, in "Immortal Path to Heaven", the "modeled face" of the male protagonist Wang Lin was the initial motivation for many audiences to follow the anime.
And every new model of the protagonist after transformation in the plot can successfully arouse the consumption impulse of the audience. The pre - sale of the limited - edition merchandise of Wang Lin's "Searching for the Path in the Demon Abyss" theme in "Immortal Path to Heaven" by Dream - Cast Animation has currently exceeded 100,000 in popularity, and four of the products have sold out first. It can only be said that Dream - Cast Animation has much more experience in the realization of derivatives.
In contrast, Nezha, who has zero copyright barriers, a national - level cognitive base, and strong space for second - creations, missed a good opportunity. However, the characters in the Chinese mythology series can still precisely match the key elements for creating a popular IP in the current "merchandise economy". As the Z - generation's recognition of Chinese - style culture deepens, the "mythological character matrix" represented by Nezha, Sun Wukong, Yang Jian, etc. will have a more stable, efficient, and explosive market prospect than original anime IPs.
However, when a character becomes popular overnight, does the platform or the production company have the short - chain execution ability to "put up the pre - sale link within 48 hours"? Nezha's unexpected breakout this time certainly proves that the platform has the ability to create high - heat characters. However, the commercial closed - loop from "the character is popular" to "users can buy the merchandise" still needs to be truly established.
The second half of the commercialization of genuine Chinese anime - from "OEM factory" to "IP factory"
Xuanji Technology, the production company of "Senior Brother, Oh Senior Brother", is a pioneer in the Chinese anime field: it was the first to produce Chinese anime, the first to have a group of Chinese anime fans, and the first to receive investment from Tencent.
After Tencent's investment, Xuanji got a steady stream of contract - manufacturing business. Relying on a large number of IPs from Yuewen Group, the Chinese - animation adaptation of top - notch novels such as "Douluo Dalu" became Xuanji's main business: receiving novels from Tencent, undertaking the production, and then putting them on Tencent Video for playback. Against this background, even when the Chinese anime industry has been tepid for a long time, Xuanji's revenue has continued to grow. However, original IPs such as "Qin's Moon", which once made Xuanji well - known, have been overshadowed by the continuous contract - manufacturing business and are hard to make a comeback.
By checking the financial data disclosed by Xuanji, we can find that in 2025, the digital content production service (animation contract - manufacturing) accounted for 95.04%; while the proportion of self - owned IP creation authorization and derivative sales was only 2.84% and 2.07% respectively, and the total was less than 5%.
This data fully shows that Xuanji Technology has long been weak in IP commercialization and derivative realization. With "Qin's Moon", which is regarded as the "white moonlight" by countless audiences, and the popular "Douluo Dalu" that set a playback miracle, Xuanji Technology has repeatedly proved its outstanding talent in the field of modeling with its works. However, Xuanji, with such talent, has almost wasted this talent in IP operation.
In contrast, since "Falling in Love with the Mermaid" under Kuaikan Comics started its merchandise business in 2022, it has launched more than 30 series with over 3,000 SKUs, and the cumulative sales have exceeded 100 million yuan.
But looking at the entire Chinese anime market, Xuanji Technology is not an exception. It can only be said that there is no shortage of popular animes in the current Chinese anime market, but there are few "ever - green IPs". The life cycle of IPs is generally short, and there is a lack of long - term operation ability. There are only a few national - level IPs like "Boonie Bears" that can last for more than ten years. Most IPs fade into obscurity after being popular for one or two years. Compared with Japanese anime, which can easily develop derivatives, it's like a child. For example, the income related to IP authorization and merchandise of Toei Animation in Japan accounts for nearly 60% at the same period. Compared with production, derivative sales are the big business.
Therefore, Nezha's unexpected breakout this time is also a major test for Xuanji Technology. Is it possible to take this opportunity to gradually shift from the OEM factory model of "working for big companies" to the brand factory model of "self - owned IP operation"?
This question is worth all Chinese anime production companies quickly assessing themselves.
This article is from the WeChat official account "Guduo Network Film and Television" (ID: guduowlj), author: Luoluo, published by 36Kr with authorization.