Sony is going all in on the popularity of anime. They’ve already acquired Crunchyroll and Funimation to grow their slate of anime projects. Now, they’ve announced that they’ll be launching an anime academy.
The academy will focus on “developing talent” to help in the production of anime. Sony will be helping with encouraging and fostering new creators to the medium as it will employ A-1 Pictures and CloverWorks as central parts of this new initiative.
Both of those companies are subsidiaries of Aniplex, which is a division of Sony Music Entertainment Japan.
Sony Group’s Chairman and CEO, Yoshida Kenichiro, and President, COO, and CFO Totoki Hiroki shared in a statement: “The launch of a project to establish an academy [comes] with the aim of nurturing anime creators in global markets, mainly by Aniplex and Crunchyroll with collaboration from across the industry.”
A-1 Pictures has developed projects including Solo Leveling, Sword Art Online, Mashle: Magic & Muscles, and Lycoris Recoil. CloverWorks is best known for Spy x Family, The Promised Neverland, and Bocchi The Rock.
Sony has revealed several anime projects that are coming to theaters in North America including Spy x Family: CODE White, Haikyu: The Dumpster Battle, Blue Lock: Episode Nagi, and Overlord: The Sacred Kingdom.
Crunchyroll’s Senior Vice President of Global Commerce, Mitchel Burger talking about anime, saying: “Anime is red hot right now. Everyone else is catching up and realizing it is a cultural and economic force to be reckoned with.”
