White Box Marketing Director Malu Arantes Discusses Anime Marketing in the Americas
Malu Arantes, Director of Marketing at White Box, discussed her career and the differences between anime markets in the U.S., Brazil, and Latin America in an interview published by the newsletter Anime By The Numbers on June 13, 2025. Arantes, formerly of Crunchyroll, described building Crunchyroll's Brazilian community from 30,000 to over 4.6 million followers between 2017 and 2023. She highlighted the Rio de Janeiro Chainsaw Man billboard campaign as a standout project. Arantes noted that Brazilian fans have a strong interest in shonen romance titles like Toradora and Rent-A-Girlfriend, and that isekai titles such as That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime and Re:ZERO are fan favorites in Brazil, unlike in the U.S. where they are often seen as guilty pleasures. She also pointed out that Brazil struggles to attract individualized attention from major anime stakeholders after the Crunchyroll-Funimation merger, and that pricing and piracy remain roadblocks.