Sony To Make A Concerted Anime Push

As time has gone on, the name "Sony" has come to telegraph a foothold in more and more aspects/areas in entertainment. With music, movies, and video games already established beachheads for the Japanese multinational headquartered in Tokyo, the corporation has been making it increasingly clear that now it intends to branch out into anime as a new, fourth major pillar.

According to a report from Nikkei Asian Review, Sony will be "leveraging the combined strength of group companies to expand its animation business overseas," or to unify its existing entertainment businesses to help an anime-focused initiative land internationally. The tip of the spear of this new strategy has technically already landed: Sony subsidiary Aniplex has already helmed an adaptation of the Demon Slayer manga, which successfully landed and found an audience via Adult Swim's Toonami programming block in 2019. Aniplex will be teaming with Sony Interactive Entertainment to develop videogame adaptations for both PlayStation and mobile platforms. This methodology will also extend to bringing future TV anime projects to the U.S., and supplemented further by Sony Music Entertainment (Japan)'s exclusive record label for anime songs.

Nikkei predicts a future project, Demon Slayer, may help define the mold for how these different subsidiaries will work in concert together: "Aniplex President Atsuhiro Iwakami wants to make the series a showpiece of Aniplex's prowess," according to Nikkei Asian Review. "It has already turned the manga into a successful anime, and will now follow with a movie version due out in theaters this summer. Units of Sony will also morph the anime into games for mobile and PlayStation 4, with the possibility of promoting it abroad."

Aniplex recently hosted an online anime event in July, offering a preview of both Demon Slayer. Anime publisher Aniplex will be working with developer CyberConnect2 for a PlayStation 4 video-game adaptation of Demon Slayer due out in 2021.

This new anime-focused strategy is the latest phase of the "One Sony" concept rolled out by former chairman of Sony Corporation, Kaz Hirai, in 2012: An effort to strengthen core initiatives while also creating new business and innovation opportunities.