Image courtesy of Crunchyroll
© Crunchyroll
Crunchyroll announced on Friday that it will host its inaugural invite-only industry summit called “Crunchyroll Anime Future Forum” in New York City on October 7. Crunchyroll also announced on Friday that it has crossed 21 million paid subscribers globally.
The summit will invite Japan’s anime sector leaders as well as Hollywood, tech, gaming and music industry leaders. The event will have the theme “Designing for Anime’s Future.”
The event will take place at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on the eve of New York Comic Con. (The convention will take place at the same venue from October 8 through October 11.)
Crunchyroll’s parent company Sony Group reported its fiscal-year earnings later on Friday in Tokyo.
Crunchyroll President Rahul Purini made a statement regarding the launch of the summit:
Over the last several years, it’s been clear that anime’s fandom, its cultural relevance and place within the entertainment industry cannot be underestimated and is a central part of the global entertainment industry fabric. Crunchyroll is honored to host and curate a forum for exciting and innovative discussions from and between industry leaders around the amazing art form of anime. This is the first and only type of industry event outside of Japan where anime is front and center for discussion and everyone attending will push its prominence and success.
HAYATE Inc., the new anime production venture from Aniplex and Crunchyroll, acquired all shares of anime studio Lay-duce last month, making it a wholly owned subsidiary.
Crunchyroll laid off a number of employees in March, after a restructuring and redistribution of roles based on location. The company’s restructuring is also due to a shift in its e-commerce strategy, and not due to cost-cutting measures. Screen Rant’s reporting on March 10 stated the layoffs were “roughly 1/8 to 1/7 the size” of the amount of staff Crunchyroll laid off last August. A former senior product designer at Crunchyroll stated on LinkedIn on March 9 that she was part of what she called “mass layoffs” at Crunchyroll. Other former Crunchyroll employees who posted on LinkedIn about being laid off this week were from HR or e-commerce departments. ANN could not corroborate the size of the layoffs reported by Screen Rant or the former senior product designer.
Crunchyroll is an independently operated joint venture between U.S.-based Sony Pictures Entertainment and Japan’s Aniplex. Sony Pictures Entertainment and Aniplex’s Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) parent are both in turn subsidiaries of Tokyo-based Sony Group.
Sony’s Funimation Global Group completed its acquisition of Crunchyroll from AT&T on August 9, 2021, after the company first announced the acquisition in December 2020. The purchase price was US$1.175 billion, and the proceeds were paid in cash at closing. Funimation’s home video releases are now listed under Crunchyroll.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter (Patrick Brzeski), Press release
