Sony will launch an academy that will develop talent involved in anime creation, it was announced Thursday.
The initiative was unveiled as part of Japanese electronics and entertainment conglomerate Sony Group Corporation’s annual business strategy presentation.
“The launch of a project to establish an academy [comes] with the aim of nurturing anime creators in global markets, primarily through Aniplex and Crunchyroll with collaboration from across the industry,” said Sony Group Chairman and CEO Yoshida Kenichiro and President, COO and CFO Totoki Hiroki.
Anime is an important and growing part of Sony’s business, although it is spread across several divisions. Aniplex, a creator and distributor of Japanese animation, is currently a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan), which is part of the broader music division. It has had success with anime franchises such as ‘Demon Slayer’.
However, specialist streaming service and anime distributor Crunchyroll falls within Sony’s ‘pictures division’, the business segment that includes Sony Pictures Entertainment’s US-based content production and distribution business and Sony’s TV channels business.
It was revealed earlier this year and confirmed during Thursday’s strategy presentation that Crunchyroll now has around 13 million paying subscribers. That’s a significant increase since the Crunchyroll business was acquired from AT&T in 2021 and merged with Sony’s Funimation. At the time the deal was announced, most estimates put the two platforms’ total subscribers at around five million – with Crunchyroll having 4 million and Funimation between one and three million (before duplication). Sony opted to use Crunchyroll as the brand name of the merged platform, and the separate access to Funimation was eventually phased out earlier in 2024.
Sony says it will develop anime in other ways as well. These include improving the production environment, efficiency and improving output quality through “AnimeCanvas”, a new animation production software currently in development.
That points toward more computer graphics and AI use in the Japanese industry, which has remained significantly reliant on traditional hand-drawn techniques but is also reportedly running at full capacity.
Sony said A-1 Pictures and CloverWorks, production studios that are both subsidiaries of Aniplex, are central to this initiative, working with engineers from SMEJ and across Sony Group.
Sony is also putting more emphasis on the Crunchyroll Anime Awards, which promote anime IP and culture among fans and celebrate anime creators. The awards received a record 34 million user votes in the 2024 edition.
Calling the genre a “dynamic art form,” Crunchyroll president Rahul Purini said earlier this year, “Anime is a powerful force that drives pop culture and connects global fans.”
