Sony to boost its anime business as global demand soars 

Sony is set to focus on strengthening the anime side of their business. As announced in their Corporate Strategy Meeting 2024, Sony aim to develop their anime sector so that it can stand alongside their highly profitable game, music and movie divisions (which altogether account for 60% of Sony’s consolidated sales). To make anime a cornerstone of its entertainment business, Sony has several initiatives in the works. 

Sony has already been gradually expanding its anime interests. The group owns Aniplex, the studio responsible for producing the worldwide hit anime Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba), as well as the global anime streaming platform Crunchyroll (which the Sony Corporation acquired in 2021). However, to catch up with increasing global demand for new anime productions, Sony intend to strengthen their existing efforts to promote the creation of new anime IPs. To this end, they aim to improve the efficiency and quality of their output, as well as the creative environment.  

They are encouraging those at Aniplex and its subsidiaries (A-1 Pictures, and Cloverworks of Bocchi the Rock fame) to collaborate with experienced engineers in other areas of the Sony group. In addition, they are also developing the anime production software AnimeCanvas, which they hope to start using on a trial basis sometime this year.

To address labor shortfalls in the industry, Sony are planning to launch an anime academy that will educate future generations of anime creatives from across the globe. It seems that Aniplex and Crunchyroll, as well as collaboration across the anime industry, will be essential to achieving this aim.