Over the last decade, Crunchyroll has established itself as one of the preeminent anime streaming services, with over one million subscribers and numerous animated programs from around the world. Now, Crunchyroll has revealed its plans to become more than just a distributor of content. The company plans to begin making its own anime series in the near future.
Via ComicBook.com, Crunchyroll has announced its new partnership with NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan to create and co-develop new anime series. There were no specifics given other than the goal to create shows that will appeal to international fans. Anime fans may be more familiar with NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan’s previous name, Geneon Entertainment. That company is best known for many popular shows, including Berserk, Seven Mortal Sins, and Drifters.
The easy comparison to make is that Crunchyroll is following the Netflix and Amazon Prime models to become an even bigger player in the online streaming business. That’s entirely possible, but it would be a massive undertaking to immediately produce several new shows. If we had to guess, we suspect that the Crunchyroll original anime series are at least a few years away from debuting.
As for the shows themselves, Crunchyroll and NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan could create new concepts and characters, or license manga series for their collaboration. But given their stated goal of finding shows with “international appeal,” the source material may not be limited to manga.
In the meantime, Crunchyroll will continue to add new titles to its service, with popular shows like Black Clover slated to debut this fall.
Are you excited to see Crunchyroll become an anime producer? Let’s discuss in the comment section below!
Images:Â Pierrot/NBCUniversal Entertainment Japan
