Sony Pictures Entertainment has launched Crunchyroll Storyworks to turn stories from around the world into anime and develop live-action versions of Japanese anime.
The company introduced the new division at Crunchyroll's Anime Future Forum in New York, held on the day before New York Comic Con opened.
Storyworks operates within Crunchyroll's content group, adding a dedicated development arm to the anime business as it broadens its activities.
The new unit will be led by Tohru Iokibe, who has spent 25 years at Sony. His latest role involved intellectual-property initiatives that connected Sony Pictures with PlayStation Productions.
Iokibe reports to Asa Suehira, Crunchyroll's chief content officer.
Storyworks will prepare greenlight-ready projects for HAYATE, the joint venture formed by Crunchyroll and Aniplex.
It will also work with Japanese creators during development so that their original vision remains central to each adaptation. The announcement did not name the creators involved.
A single development structure links the initiative's Japanese creative partners with Crunchyroll, Aniplex and Sony Pictures.
Sony completed its $1.2 billion purchase of Crunchyroll in 2021 and combined the service with Funimation.
- 2021Sony completes purchase
Sony closes its $1.2 billion acquisition of Crunchyroll and combines it with Funimation.
- ForumStoryworks unveiled
Sony presents the new division at Crunchyroll's Anime Future Forum in New York.
Crunchyroll has since grown past 21 million subscribers. Its business now covers streaming, theatrical distribution, merchandise and events, while Storyworks adds a separate operation for developing content.
Ravi Ahuja, Sony Pictures Entertainment CEO, said the company wanted to expand anime without losing the qualities that distinguish it.
Anime has become a global cultural force because it has been shaped over decades by the creators, studios and publishers who have nurtured and developed its distinctive storytelling and unforgettable characters. As anime grows, we have a responsibility to protect and amplify what makes it special while always keeping creators’ visions at the center. That’s the goal of Storyworks.
Ahuja said the division formed part of Sony's responsibility to protect and amplify anime's distinctive qualities as the medium grows. He linked that aim to a creator-led approach to expansion.
Suehira said Japanese storytellers' creativity, originality and boldness had drawn fans around the world and described Storyworks as a creative connection between Japan and storytellers elsewhere, designed to preserve the distinctive nature of the stories while giving fans new ways to experience them.
The structure links Sony Pictures and Crunchyroll with Aniplex and Japanese creative partners. HAYATE will be the body that considers the projects for greenlighting.
No specific Storyworks projects or titles have been announced. The sources also give no release dates for adaptations, no figure for the number of projects planned and no timing for when projects will reach HAYATE.
The material contains no reaction from Japanese creators or other industry participants.
Future Storyworks projects are intended to reach HAYATE in greenlight-ready form, but the timing of those submissions has not been given.
