It’s no secret that Sony has their fingers in all the cookie jars. They deal with video games, anime, movies, music, tech, and more. There have been discussions over the past few years on whether the Sony-owned Crunchyroll has evolved into an anime monopoly. They regularly get all the big hits, remove shows from their lineup often, and basically control the award scene. But Sony’s hold on the anime industry actually goes way deeper.
Personally, I think that within the next five years, Sony will be to anime what Nintendo is to gaming. Most people currently aren’t aware of this. They see Crunchyroll is bad, but they don’t look past to the bigger and scarier picture. It’s one thing when Crunchyroll throws a ton of money at a studio to get streaming rights. But it’s a completely different story when they basically own the anime itself.
That’s right, many of the biggest shows on Crunchyroll are actually made by Sony. But how is that even possible? Let’s look at a popular show from 2022. Spy X Family is produced by Cloverworks, which is a popular studio for slice of life and romance anime. It also happens to be a subsidiary of Sony. One of the most popular shows of the decade is Solo Leveling, which was produced by A-1 Pictures. You guessed it, another Sony subsidiary.
Those two studios produce dozens of anime series and movies under Sony. Their ability to play licensee, producer, and distributor raises multiple questions and concerns. Does this allow Crunchyroll to save millions in licensing fees? Does this have anything to do with why so many shows have been removed from Crunchyroll? Is it possible for things to get even worse in the future?
There are many steps to getting an anime where it needs to be, and it’s very expensive. When a light novel or manga gets popular enough, studios and publishers will figure out who gets to make the anime. Then a Japanese TV station gets to broadcast the show. Next it’s time for international distributors to fight each other for the rights to stream the show. There might also be a smaller fight to see who gets to produce the English dub. Anime News Network wrote a great article on how much streaming giants pay for a series.
They estimate that the licensing fee for a hit anime could range between $250,000 and $400,000 per episode. But that was a few years ago and Solo Leveling isn’t your average hit. It’s possible that Crunchyroll would have had to pay the studio between $10 million and $15 million in licensing fees just for the first 25 episodes, if not more. But does Crunchyroll actually have to pay for those select shows, or do they end up getting them for free?
Sony has a lot of freedom in the anime chain by owning both A-1 Pictures and Crunchyroll. In theory, A-1 and Sony could pay one fee for the original right to produce the anime. Then they could just give it to Crunchyroll for the sake of control, speed, and cost cutting. It’s an easy way to grow their monopoly, and it gets even worse for anime that they don’t own. They can simply remove them from their services whenever they feel like it.
Every time I see that Crunchyroll removed a show, I see people talking about licensing issues. I always see claims that it might have been hard for Crunchyroll to keep up with the licensing fees or there was some issue with the licensor. But it goes both ways. Crunchyroll can refuse to renew a licensing agreement if they don’t deem it to be financially beneficial to them. Crunchyroll removed Akame ga Kill! earlier this week, and I think that’s a great example.
With the amount of control Sony loves imposing, keeping Akame ga Kill! was never going to be sustainable for them. They have no creative control, they have to pay to stream it, and a competitor has the English dub. It’s a very petty thing to do, but it makes sense from a business perspective. I wouldn’t be surprised if they try to buy the original production rights so that A-1 can do a remake à la Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. They way they’d have full control.
Sony can get away with a lot when they own both the studio and the distributor. If that method doesn’t get them what they want, they just have to throw money to get it. To some, that’s a pretty big issue within the industry. That’s an issue that can get even bigger now that Sony opened a third anime studio called Hayate. In case you didn’t know, here are 30 of the biggest anime that Sony owns, made, or helped with production.
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Black Butler
Blue Exorcist
Bocchi the Rock!
Darling in the Franxx
Engage Kiss
Fairy Tail
Fate/Strange Fake
Gate
Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash
Hana-Kimi
Horimiya
Kaguya-sama: Love Is War
Lycoris Recoil
Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Mashle: Magic and Muscles
My Dress-Up Darling
Nier: Automata Ver1.1a
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai
Solo Leveling
Spy × Family
Sword Art Online
The Elusive Samurai
The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity
The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy at All
The Promised Neverland
The Seven Deadly Sins
Too Many Losing Heroines!
Wind Breaker
Wonder Egg Priority