The magical dimension of the Italian animated saga produced by Rainbow will feature at Expo Osaka 2025. Born from the creativity of Iginio Straffi, founder and president of Rainbow Group, the iconic Winx Club will meet the Japanese audience for the first time with an event dedicated to animation as a bridge between cultures. Rainbow Group, born from the production studio of the same name established in 1995 by Iginio Straffi and a pioneer of Italian animation worldwide, will bring to Japan for the first time the creative excellence of Made in Marche, which has won over millions of viewers around the world thanks to original stories rich in positive values.
Thirty years after its foundation, Rainbow is now Europe’s leading animation studio, with a portfolio distributed in over 150 countries. Its most famous success is Winx Club, an animated fantasy saga centered on six teenage fairies navigating friendships, challenges, and magical adventures in a universe that blends style, action, and positive messages. Since 2004, the Winx have been true global ambassadors of Italian animation.
On the occasion of the week dedicated to the Marche region, “ARS: Made in Marche Genius and Talent,” Rainbow will host an event at Expo Osaka on June 2 that will transport the audience between past, present, and future. At 2:00 p.m., at the Auditorium of Palazzo Italia, Iginio Straffi will lead the audience in a talk that will retrace the history of the studio and the global phenomenon that is Winx Club, revealing trivia and creative visions that have made this brand a cult for millions of children and teenagers around the world.
This will be followed by the award ceremony for the winners of the international art contest dedicated to Italian and Japanese artists specializing in comics and design, who interpreted the Winx, integrating visual elements of Japanese culture, from Kawaii to Manga.
The project aims to celebrate Italian and Japanese culture through a process of hybridization between artistic vision and contemporary visual languages.
The two winning illustrations, one from each country, will be awarded by Straffi with a unique opportunity: the Japanese winner will fly to Italy to visit Rainbow Studios and join Rimini Comics, while the Italian winner will be a guest in Japan with a visit to the Osamu Tezuka Manga Museum.
Another highlight of the day will be the presentation of the first Japanese Winx Cosplay Club and an in-depth look at the global Winx cosplay community, led by Daniela Aiko.
The Winx Cosplay Club is the global community that brings together all cosplayers of the saga with contests, gatherings, and activities at major pop culture festivals.
Cosplay, a cultural phenomenon that originated in Japan and is now widespread throughout the world, thus finds a new meeting place for two cultures that have always been linked by a passion for animation.
The event will conclude with the unveiling of the first exclusive preview images of the new reboot season of Winx Club, coming to Netflix in October 2025 worldwide, including Japan.
A high-quality series that reimagines the origins of the saga to offer new adventures and an iconic style to loyal fans and a new generation who will soon be able to dream in the Magical Dimension of the Winx.
