A blue-eyed ninja with spiky blond hair and whisker marks is leading Tencent Holdings Ltd.¡¯s campaign to capture the eyes and wallets of China¡¯s anime fans.
The hero, Naruto, a keystone of manga, isn¡¯t fighting alone. He¡¯s in a stable of characters assembled by Tencent that includes a Chinese teen on a quest for immortality and a hugely popular gang of treasure-seeking pirates. Their mission: to help Asia¡¯s biggest Internet company lure more customers to its messaging and video sites.
Tencent bought the rights to more than 300 Japanese anime franchises and cultivated others at home with a plan to parlay them into multimedia juggernauts.
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