Sony Lays Out How Its Anime Businesses Fit Together
Sony's own description of the setup shows the Aniplex and Crunchyroll relationship as one production-and-distribution chain rather than two separate businesses that happen to share a parent.
Reporting from 1 source: Cartoon Brew.
A corporate blog post from Sony describes a structure that joins production in Japan with distribution and merchandising abroad. Aniplex, under Sony Music Entertainment Japan, develops and produces anime and expands properties into games, music, merchandise, and events. Crunchyroll, a joint venture between Aniplex and Sony Pictures Entertainment, handles international streaming, theatrical distribution, and localization. The post also places the studios A-1 Pictures, CloverWorks, and Hayate within that structure.
The post puts numbers on Crunchyroll: more than 21 million paid subscribers as of March 2026, service in more than 200 countries and territories, localization in more than 17 languages, and participation in more than 100 events worldwide. It also lays out the studio layer, with A-1 Pictures founded by Aniplex in 2005, CloverWorks set up as a separate studio in 2018 after originating within A-1 Pictures, and Hayate established by Aniplex and Crunchyroll in 2025 to develop anime for international audiences.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.