Sony Pictures Entertainment Launches Crunchyroll Storyworks Division for Anime, Live-Action Adaptations
Crunchyroll Storyworks is seeking to provide projects that can be greenlit for HAYATE Inc., the new anime production venture from Aniplex and Crunchyroll.
HAYATE Inc. was founded in March 2025 and is headquartered in Tokyo. Aniplex's Masanori Miyake leads the venture as Chairman and CEO along with President and COO Leo Watanabe. The staff is composed of Aniplex and Crunchyroll employees. HAYATE is focusing specifically on planning, developing, and producing anime content for Crunchyroll's streaming platform worldwide. In April, HAYATE acquired all shares of anime studio Lay-duce, making it a wholly owned subsidiary.
Crunchyroll increased the prices for all of its subscription tiers in the U.S. in February, and Crunchyroll halted free ad-supported streaming on its service last December.
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: Deadline (Dade Hayes)
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