Kadokawa acquires Italian manga publisher
Plus: Blockchain-based anime fund planned; Crunchyroll hits 17 million paying subs; Netflix adds 'Grave of the Fireflies' in Japan; and more
This is your weekly Animenomics briefing, covering the business of anime and manga. Today is Wednesday, May 21, 2025.
In case you missed it: Crunchyroll has surpassed 17 million paying subscribers, Sony announced in a corporate strategy presentation last week.
Sony in February began allowing PlayStation Network users to subscribe to paid Crunchyroll accounts in an effort to continue to boost membership.
Kadokawa grows Europe manga biz with Italian partner
Kadokawa will acquire a controlling stake in Italian comics, manga, and light novel publisher Edizioni BD, the Japanese publishing giant announced on Monday after the companies’ chief executives met in Milan to sign an agreement last week.
Why it matters: Italy is Europe’s second-largest manga market after France, and the investment in Edizioni BD will accelerate Kadokawa’s expansion in the continent after a joint venture in France was announced last year.
By the numbers: Founded in 2005, Edizioni BD has 21 employees and brought in €14 million (US$15.8 million) in revenue last year, Milan’s Corriere della Sera newspaper reports.
The company publishes nearly 500 manga and light novels, translated into Italian under the J-POP Manga label, and also has a growing label for domestic comics, or fumetti.
“We saw in [Kadokawa] an older friend, who doesn’t put constraints on us but can help us overcome difficulties and achieve our goals,” chief executive officer Marco Schiavone tells the newspaper about the companies’ early discussions a year ago.
Zoom out: Italy’s comics and manga market recently rose to prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, with manga sales surpassing 60 million units in 2022, Publishing Perspectives reports.
Prior to the acquisition by Kadokawa, Edizioni BD was the only one out of the country’s three most prominent manga publishers that remained independent.
Today, manga accounts for almost 54 percent of comic book sales in Italy, the PromoComix marketing agency tells Publishing Perspectives.
What’s next: Edizioni BD will continue publishing its manga catalog, including titles from other Japanese publishers, grow its slate of translated light novels, and enter into distribution of anime merchandise, a growth priority for Kadokawa.
“We will also explore the development of works for the global market through Italian authors, including entrusting them with original Japanese characters,” Kadokawa chief executive officer Takeshi Natsuno tells Corriere della Sera.
What we’re watching: At Kadokawa’s year-end earnings presentation earlier this month, Natsuno told reporters that the company’s French operations have gotten off to a sluggish start, so it remains to be seen how quickly it can ramp up in Italy.
Investment firm launches blockchain-based anime fund
Phillip Securities Japan is partnering with Tokyo-based IP production company Studio Outrigger to establish an anime content fund with money raised through the sale of blockchain-based digital tokens to the public.
Why it matters: With anime gaining the attention of global investment firms, anime content funds are reemerging as an alternative funding model for anime productions, Animenomics reported last year.
Raising money through security token offerings give anime creators the ability to seek financial backing from retail investors.
What they’re saying: Studio Outrigger representative executive officer Ray Kamiya believes the initiative will help create an environment where anime creators can focus on creating unique animation IPs without being bound by trends in business.
“There are fewer opportunities for creators to challenge themselves with original or highly artistic projects, and anime studios tend to become factories for mass production and tend to run on a shoestring budget,” Kamiya says in a statement.
The other side: Phillip Securities Japan chief executive officer Makoto Nagahori says the global growth of Japanese popular culture will help deliver financial benefits to investors in the fund.
“[Investors] will be able to enjoy a unique experience by participating in projects directly or indirectly through various investor benefits,” Nagahori says.
Between the lines: Because security token offerings are regulated in many countries, they are often considered more transparent and secure than other blockchain-based investments like initial coin offerings.
Phillip Securities has already applied the funding model to Toei and Sony Pictures’ upcoming live-action film Hero’s Island, of which 25 percent of the funding came from sales of digital securities.
Clippings: Broadcaster TBS increases anime investments
Private broadcaster TBS will invest ¥30 billion (US$208 million) to establish an anime-focused IP planning company, tentatively named CIP, in collaboration with Mainichi Broadcasting. (Animation Business Journal)
TBS also acquired a majority stake in Tokyo-based IP production studio Kcontents, which operates YouTube channels of its short anime properties with millions of subscribers.
French animation company ZAG, best known for Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir, has established a Japanese subsidiary and named Kanji Kazahaya, a former Toei Animation international licensing head, as local chief operating officer. (Press release)
Cool Japan Fund has accumulated ¥39.7 billion (US$276 million) in investment losses since its inception in 2013 through March 2024, according to a report published by the Board of Audit of Japan. (Animation Business Journal)
Kochi Prefecture’s Anime Creator Festival attendance more than doubled last year’s in its second edition, expanding in scale and reaching 24,000 attendees as part of an effort by Kochi Shinkin Banak to revitalize the region’s economy. (Press release)
Netflix Japan lands ‘Grave of the Fireflies’ for streaming
Netflix will stream Isao Takahata’s award-winning anime film Grave of the Fireflies for the first time in Japan in July, ahead of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the streaming service provider said last week.
Why it matters: Grave of the Fireflies will be the first film animated by Studio Ghibli to be available on streaming in Japan.
It was last broadcast on a terrestrial television network in 2018 and on a satellite network on 2021.
Catch up quick: While Studio Ghibli usually owns the rights to the films it animates, the rights to Grave of the Fireflies belong to Shinchosha, which publishes a paperback edition of the book the film is based upon.
After Takahata died in 2018, Shinchosha planned a new effort to promote the film as his magnum opus, but it first needed to let all of the film’s licenses expire.
“Since last year and the year before, we have started from a clean slate, with no one owning the rights, either in Japan or overseas,” Shinichiro Yashiro, head of the publisher’s content business office, tells Japan Business Press.
How it happened: Netflix first approached Shinchosha about distributing Grave of the Fireflies after the publisher promoted the film at last year’s Cannes Film Festival along with Toho Global’s Godzilla Minus One.
Grave of the Fireflies arrived on the platform outside Japan last September and received at least 3.1 million views through December, according to Netflix data.
“We were hoping to [stream] it in some form in Japan in the summer of 2025 when Netflix approached us,” Yashiro says. “Because we had a good response from around the world, we thought it was good timing to continue.”
The bigger picture: As previously reported by Animenomics, Studio Ghibli films are finding newfound popularity abroad.
Theatrical screenings of Grave of the Fireflies in Vietnam in October drew 85,000 moviegoers. The film was also screened throughout Latin America in January.
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