With Japan ‘s animation industry recording its highest-ever market value — JPY3.8 trillion ($23.7 billion), according to the Assn. of Japanese Animations — Toei Animation is in Cannes this week to make the case that the next chapter of anime’s global story is one of co-creation, not just export. The timing is not incidental: Japan’s government Intellectual Property Promotion Plan, released by the Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters, sets an explicit target of growing content-related overseas revenue from JPY4.7 trillion ($29.3 billion) in 2022 to JPY20 trillion ($124.9 billion) by 2033, with anime at the center of that ambition. The studio established a Global Strategy and Content Creation department last year, a formal expression of a direction it had been moving toward for some time. “The era when anime was something made only by Japanese people is over,” says Asama Yosuke, general manager at Toei Animation.…