Sony’s Purchase Of Crunchyroll Reportedly Delayed, Facing Uncertainty

Warnermedia and Sony have reportedly told the DOJ that there are several other competitors in the global anime streaming market, including Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu. They have also argued that anime is not a self-contained market, but competes with other kinds of adult animation.

This last idea has also been floated by the Association of Japanese Animations (AJA), the Japanese trade body. In its 2019 report, the AJA wrote of Sony Pictures Animation’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: “Hollywood has finally advanced into the realm overlapping with the adult animation market that had been Japan’s monopoly. If this trend shifts into high gear, the existence of Japanese animation may be questioned again.”

Sony and its anime subsidiary Aniplex have spent the last five years on an anime acquisition spree, snapping up France’s Wakanim, Australia’s Madman Anime, then Funimation itself (buying a 95% stake in the company for $143 million). In 2019, all three were merged under the Funimation name.

The anime market in the U.S. is booming, fueled by considerable investment from streaming platforms. In recent years, mass-market players — especially Netflix — have muscled into the market. The AJA recently calculated that the anime industry as a whole grew to a record 2.5112 trillion yen (around USD$24 billion) in 2019.