February 20, 2024 • 42 mins
Crunchyroll President Rahul Purini explains how the Sony-owned, Japanese anime-focused streaming service has found success through serving a so-called niche market and its plans for further expansion.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to Strictly Business, Variety's weekly podcast featuring conversations about
the business of media and entertainment. I'm Tyler Aquilina, a
media analyst for Variety Intelligence Platform. Anime or Japanese animation
has come a long way in the past few decades.
Fans who once had little recourse but bootlegs and piracy
to watch their favorite shows are now part of a
global community and a twenty billion dollar market that's even
(00:31):
more robust internationally than it is in Japan. Perhaps no
company better exemplifies that transformation than Crunchy Role. The Sony
owned an anime focused subscription streaming platform which has long
been a go to destination for watching Japanese animation stateside.
Since launching is essentially an anime piracy site in the
mid two thousands, Crunchy Role has grown into a legitimate
(00:51):
anime powerhouse, with streaming, theatrical and live events businesses under
its umbrella. Sony acquired the company for one point two
billion dollars in twenty twenty one, and since then, Crunchy
Role has continued to grow under the leadership of its president,
Rahul Parini, who has overseen robust expansion of Crunchy Role
into new markets and opportunities. Parini is passionate about the
(01:11):
anime business, as you'll see, and has even bigger plans
in store for what was once a tiny platform where
users would catch fans subtitled episodes of Naruto and Dragon Ball.
Our wide ranging conversation is coming up after the break,
(01:31):
we are back with Rahul Parini, the president of Crunchy Role.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Welcome, Thank you, dyler, thank you for me having me here.
Looking forward to.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
This, Yeah, me too. So, just to start off, can
you tell us a little bit about Crunchy Role and
your role there.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, Cunchyroll is a media and entertainment company focused on
Japanese anime. Anime is a dynamic storytelling format. It's a
medium that comes out of Japan and fans globally love it.
And we are part of Sony Pictures Entertainment and I'm
(02:07):
president of Country Roll. I've been part of this organization
for about nine years. And yeah, it's a amazing medium
and fan base that we get to serve. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Now, a big part of your business is bringing over
these anime series from Japan to the United States market.
For those who may not know, can you tell us
a little bit about what does that process look like
from a business perspective.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah, like you said, most of anime is conceived and
created in Japan, and what we are focused on is
taking those amazing stories from Japanese creators and bringing them
to global audiences. So County Role currently operates in about
two hundred countries and territory. So what we do is
work with our partners in Japan. We take shows that
(02:50):
they create and try to bring them to fans as
soon as they are available in Japan. So majority of
our content we work we license from our partners, but
we are also working closely with our creative partners in
Japan to produce some of the shows. So when those
shows get released in Japan, we take them and we
subtitled them into ten plus languages, We dub them into
(03:13):
ten plus languages, and we try to make them available
for our fans globally within an hour of broadcast in Japan.
So it is it is a fast process. There's about
fifty to sixty shows that we are bringing to audience
every quarter, about two hundred to two hundred and twenty
shows a year.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Wow, and has the Sony acquisition made it any easier
to do business in Japan. Has that affected how you
guys do business over there at all?
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Look as Crunchy Role and some of the other companies
that are part of Crunchy Role, like Funimation, We've been
doing this for about twenty five to twenty eight years now.
Funimation was set up originally in the mid nineties and
was focused on bringing anime to the So we have
(04:02):
very long and deep relationships in Japan that we've fostered
and nature for a long time. But yeah, we Fundimation
was acquired by Sony Pictures in twenty seventeen, and then
we acquired County Role in twenty twenty one. Sony, as
a Japanese company, has a deep, long relationship with the
(04:24):
anime community, and so us being part of Sony definitely helps.
It gives us a level of credibility. Being being owned
by a Japanese company that has been in the anime
ecosystem and has supported the ecosystem for a long time
gives us a level of credibility. But our relationships are
also a long, long term relationship, so both of those help.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
I'm curious.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Could you talk a little more about how the anime
business has changed in the time that you've been involved
with it. Obviously you were at Fundamation, you were heavily
involved with that before taking over as president of Country.
You know, how has the business of anime and also
the culture around anime changed, you know, since you've been
involved with it.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Yeah. Look, I think both the business of anime and
the impact of anime on the culture itself has been
has been massive over the last nine years I've been
part of this business. So the popularity of anime has
been growing really fast globally, and that combined with the
(05:28):
adoption of streaming and the accessibility of anime globally, has
made anime reach a huge number of fans. That combined
with if you think about who defines culture in our world, artists, taste,
(05:49):
makers of fashion, celebrity sports, personalities and all of a
lot of them talk about the impact of anime on
who they are and how they approach their craft or
who they are as a person. So in that sense,
anime has had a huge impact on the culture and
(06:10):
continues to have a huge impact on the culture.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Yeah, and also obviously it's expanded a lot. You know,
it was very much this looked at as this kind
of niche market for such a long time. You know,
what has it been like to see anime grow into
such a huge international business? I believe now like the
international market is bigger than the market for it in Japan, right.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Yeah, for the first time about a year ago, the
business done outside of Japan is larger than the anime
business within Japan. So absolutely, all right, it's seen a
huge growth internationally. Like Look, as you would probably expect
me to say, we don't consider anime to be a niche,
and if it is a niche, it is a gigantic niche.
(06:52):
We have data and research that shows that there's about
eight hundred million anime interested fans globe outside of Japan
and China, we have over close to two hundred million
people watching anime on official sources in those regions. Netflix
released a couple of years ago that at least half
(07:14):
of their subscription base washed anime during that period, so
that's more than one hundred million plus, So it is
it is huge in numbers. There's it's a big community.
Like Polygon just released some data from their research that
showed that forty two percent of gen Z watches anime weekly,
(07:36):
which is more than some juggernauts in media like NFL.
It's only twenty five percent of gen z watch, right,
So all of that to say, it's no longer a niche.
It is a its mainstream, it's really popular and it
continues to grow, right Like, so we're excited. I think
(07:58):
we expected to grow to be much bigger.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Yeah, yeah, for sure. I'm curious about how you're expanding,
you know, both Crunchy roles as a subscription streaming platform,
but also kind of as a broader flywheel. Can you
talk about some of the areas where you're growing the business.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah. So internally we say we don't want to be
something for everyone. We want to be everything for someone,
and that someone for us, is the anime fan. So
our mission is to surround the anime fan and service
them across their fandom. So we want to create amazing
experience where however they want to exhibit their fandom. And
(08:38):
so obviously streaming and our subscription service is a huge
touch point for us with our fans, and it is
it makes anime accessible for fans worldwide, and so it's
a really important piece in our connection with the fans.
Theatrical is another important piece of anime fans love to
(09:00):
watch movies on the big screen with their friends and family,
see these amazing visuals on a big screen, and we
are we continue to lean into bringing more movies for
our fans globally. At the same time, we also have
games that are based on anime anime IP anime shows
(09:21):
and that's something that we are continuing to invest in
and lean into. E Commerce is another channel, so fans
as they want to collect figures or other memorabilia from
their favorite shows or buy apparel to where to demonstrate
their fandom, we give them opportunity to do that on
our store, on our e commerce shop and similar lyric
(09:45):
whether it's consumer product, goods or events. We try to
serve the fans however they want to exhibit their fandom,
and look, we are seeing growth across all of those channels.
Fans truly want to demonstrate their fandom. However, they can
essentially literally where their fandom on their sleeve. So it's
(10:07):
amazing to see these fans connect with those characters and
show their fandom how they do.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah, now do you think kind of all those different
revenue streams and opportunities to kind of bring people into
the ecosystem. Do you think that has helped you guys
kind of avoid some of the pitfalls that the broader
streaming landscape has seen over the last couple of years.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Look, look, I think the flywheel strategy, as you say,
having these mix of touch points with fans has definitely
been a differentiator for us. It's been a strategic priority.
We know it has helped us connect with fans and
have a longer term connection and relationship with our fans
(10:51):
because of that approach, it has helped us address some
of our retention and churn churned goals, which are major
factors for most of streaming platforms. So yes, that the
approach has definitely been a differentiator for us and continues
to allow us to expand or reach with fans. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah, tell us a little bit more about your audience
maybe from the streaming perspective. You know, how do you
describe your subscribers in terms of their viewing habits, their
behavior in terms of churn and other patterns.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Like I said, anime is a very dynamic medium and
there is something for every fan In anime, there's multiple
genres and so there is something for everyone. Our research
shows that there is everybody from gen Z and Gen
Alpha two boomers who are watching anime. But in general,
anime fans tend to be young. Like I said, forty
(11:50):
two percent of gen Z watch weekly. There's another twenty
five percent of millennials that watch weekly, So the anime
fans tend to be younger. They are also very diverse.
African American, Hispanic and Asian American fans tend to over
index then general population within the fan community anime fan community,
so they are very diverse. There again to the question
(12:15):
around their watch patterns and behavior, highly engaged, very passionate.
They like to watch shows as soon as they're available,
so it's not surprising for us to see a large
spike in fans streaming at two am in the morning
when their favorite show just launches. That's very typical. Again,
(12:37):
like I said, they're very engaged. So on average we
see thousand minutes a month, and that's the average across
the globe. And you know there are fans that are
watching twenty plus hours every week, so it is a
very engaged fan base in terms of patterns and viewing behaviors.
(12:58):
There's a lot of similarity in fans across the globe
and how they watch and what they watch. But there's
also a lot of differences, right. For example, fans in
India love to watch action and adventure and fantasy shows,
whereas fans in France are more open to art house
and experimental shows.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
So that happens in France often.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
I think they're definitely more open to that kind of thing.
And we see similar things across the world, whether it
is Latin America or the US, and that's what makes
this fun, right, Like, we we get to serve a
very similar but audience that has very unique tastes across
the world.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, you mentioned India. I know you. You personally have
really spearheaded a big expansion for country role in India.
He tells about why that market specifically and what those
expansion plans look like over there.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah. So India is the second largest anime market in
terms of anime interest and anime watching outside of Japan
and China. Only US has more anime interested fans in
terms of true numbers absolute numbers outside of India, And
(14:13):
for US it was a white space. We weren't there.
There weren't many players serving that audience, so there was
a real demand for anime in that community. There were
there fans were eager to get an official service to
UH serve them, serve them, and so we took that
opportunity to be there and serve that audience in India.
(14:35):
Like you said, we announced a big push about a
year and a half ago, we launched our service with
a catalog focused on that. We announced localization efforts where
we started not only sub subtitling into several languages in India,
but also dubbing our shows into Hindi, Telugu and Tamil
(14:57):
and all of those have been very well received in
the market, and I think our plans continue to do
more things like that, like we are making more content
available for our fans simultaneously with other across the global
our global service, we are trying to localize more content
(15:19):
to that to different parts of India. As you know,
there's a lot of multiple languages in India and fans
like to watch dubbed shows dubbed into their own language,
so we're trying to localize more content. We also have
announced a partnership with a couple of fairly popular Bollywood
(15:41):
celebrities that are really big anime fans. Tiger schaff and
Rushimi Kamandana, who who are really big advocates and big
fans of anime, and we've partnered with them to bring
Crunchy Role and more anime to fans in India. Very cool.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
You know you mentioned piracy, which I think is so
tied up in the history of anime's global expansion. You know,
like US fans used to have to had basically no
recourse but piracy to find some of these shows. What
strategies I think? You also mentioned the statistic that like,
there's eight hundred million anime fans worldwide, but only two
hundred million are watching on legitimate sources. Obviously, it's it's
(16:22):
one thing to expand into a place like India where
there is no legal avenue to watch these shows, but
how are you combating and fighting piracy in markets where
the legitimate sources is already available.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Yeah. Look, piracy and an official sources of anime is
a big component of anime watching for fans globally. Anime
has been popular for a long time, but fans weren't
able to access it until recently when streaming became a
really viable option for fans. So piracy was the way
(17:01):
where fans were watching these shows. For a long time.
From our perspective, what we are focused on is convenience
for fans. We want to make a service that is convenient,
that gives the fans the ability to watch their favorite
shows as soon as they watch however they want to
watch it, whether it is subtitled into their favorite language,
(17:22):
dubbed into their favorite language, on their favorite device, whether
it is mobile or gaming console or a smart TV,
and however they want to structure the experience. So our
focus is on making this content available as soon as
possible in whatever language they want, and as convenient as
(17:43):
possible at a very comparative price. And we believe that
is the strategy that is going to allow us to
make this much more compelling and attractive to fans. To
switch to an official source rather than using an official
sources is.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Kind of expanding ways to kind of funnel people into
that also part of that, I know last year you
guys expanded into the fast space, which is to say,
free ad supported streaming. What are some of the opportunities there,
and is that you know, another way to kind of
reel people in who might not other way otherwise be there.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Yeah, last year we announced that we were launching a
twenty four seven ADS supported linear channel. It's available on
most Fast platforms in the US now. Recently it also
was made available on Pluto TV, and our strategy and
(18:37):
approach with that is to make this content and anime
available to casual anime fans where they are. As you know,
Fast is a really emerging sizeable distribution channel to reach audience,
and so we want to tap into that distribution mechanism
to be able to put anime in front of fans
(18:58):
in a curated way that we can introduce it to them,
allow them to experience it in a quick, easy way,
and if then they want a deeper connection or deeper experience,
they can come to Country Roll for that deeper experience.
And that's the that's the strategy. So we're seeing we're
seeing fans engage with our Fast channel really really well
(19:22):
on those platforms, and we're excited to see what we
can do more and how we can attract them into
our ecosystem. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Yeah, it's maybe easier to just catch an episode of
Cowboy Bebop or something and be like, oh, that looks cool.
What is that rather than just seeing this huge array
of you know, posters in front of you, it'd be like,
which one do I pick?
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah? Like, look, I think like with any streaming service,
there is so much content. Consumers have a hard time
with discovery, right, and it's the same thing with anime.
We have a lot of shows, a lot of different genres,
and I think our idea is with a fast channel,
(20:01):
we can curate an experience that makes it easy and
convenient for fans to get in and try this, and
if they like it, they can go have a deeper
experience within our subscription service.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, to talk a little bit more
about that subscription business. You know, I'm curious, you know,
as you said, obviously, if anime is a niche, it's
a very large niche. But how do you view the
position of streamers like crunchy Role that serve a particular
specific interest in this media landscape where you know, companies
(20:33):
only seem to get bigger and business modelsers seem to
be more about offering all things to all people. You know,
how do you see you know, platforms like crunchy Roll
kind of fitting into the landscape like that.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Like I said earlier, we're trying to be everything for someone, right,
and that focus gives us an advantage. We know we're
not going to be the first subscription service for a
consumer or a household. What we are trying to be
is that second or third subscription service. So if you're
(21:04):
an anime fan, we want to add so much value
that we would be that second subscription service or third
subscription service. So from that perspective, we're not really competing
with a general entertainment service because we know our fans
will have a general entertainment service as an option because
where they get their entertainment, but they come to us
(21:28):
for their anime connection, right, And so that that focus
and that clarity in terms of where we fit in
our fans entertainment ecosystem gives tells us that we're not
we're not really competing for the same thing as a
general entertainment services.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Yeah, it's interesting though, like those general entertainment services are
starting to move more into the anime space. I mean,
Netflix has for a long time been putting more animations
on this platform. It feels like as that market continues
to expand, you'll see more companies like Disney trying to
get into that. You know, how do you see that
is there an opportunity there with general entertainment services getting
(22:12):
more into anime, is there an opportunity for you guys
or is that just going to create more competition for titles.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Yeah, look, there is definitely an interest to serve this
fan base. As this fan base gross, general entertainment companies
have worked hard to find content to serve them. So, yes,
we compete for content with all of those players, but
we think it is good for anime and anime community
(22:42):
that these large services have anime content and make them
available to large sets of audience. Right because if somebody
gets introduced to anime and they want a deeper or
a broader experience, then they come to a CERT's like
crunch Role for that broader experience. So we believe it
(23:03):
is actually good for anime and anime community that these
services offer some anime and are introducing anime to fans.
I think overall it is good and I think those
fans that want that deeper experience will then come to crunturrole.
We work with some of these general entertainment services. We've
(23:25):
had we've licensed content to some of them. We've licensed
content to linear channels like Cartoon Network because we know
our fans are there, and if we can get them
to experience a show or experience anime, then some of
them will become anime fans and come to Crunch role. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
I was going to ask about that because licensing TV
shows is really back in vogue now. You know, you're
seeing all these companies loan out more titles to Netflix. Obviously,
Sony County Rule's parent never really stopped playing in that space.
There's been a lot written about them as a kind
of a content arms dealer. Do you see you guys
expanding that strategy or how robust is that strategy for
(24:05):
you guys already?
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Yeah, Like, like you said, it is back in work,
but it is something that we've been doing for a
long time, right. We want to we want to attract fans,
meet fans where they are, and attract them into our
ecosystem from that touch point. So we've been doing this
for a while. Like I mentioned, we've licensed content to
streaming services and OTT platforms as well as linear networks
(24:29):
as well, because if as fans experience that anime, we
know that they will come to us for a deeper experience.
It continues to be a very strategic and intentional approach
for us, We do look at how much content at
what window and when to license and how that would
(24:50):
then allow us to connect with a new group of
fans and how to bring them back into our ecosystem.
So it is a priority, is something that we do
very intentionally in a strategic way.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Yeah, what do you think of this trend of these
live action adaptations of anime? I mean Netflix is really
leaning into this. Their Cowboy Bebop adaptation was, shall we say,
not a great success, but One Piece has really taken
off for them.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
You know.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Is is that another opportunity to just draw in more, more,
more people into the anime tent. What do you think
about that?
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Yeah, Like, look, anime has great, great stories, and I
think live action is another great medium to bring those
stories and to a much wider audience. So yeah, we
think it's great that broader fan bases get to enjoy
(25:46):
these stories in whatever format and so and it also
helps anime. So we saw like when like you mentioned,
Netflix released their One Piece live action, a lot of
fans came to Country Roll to watch the One Piece anime. Right,
and we know the popular the original series, the merchandise
(26:08):
up One Piece all had a halo effect from that.
So I think it's good for the IP, it's good
for the ecosystem that these live action shows are made
and not successful and enjoyed by fans.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
More from Corunchry Role President Rahul Parini. After this break,
and we're back with Crunchy Role President Rahul Parini. We've
touched on this a bit, but I'd just like to
get a little bit more of your thoughts about you know,
(26:42):
obviously it's a very challenging environment for streaming right now
and for the media business at large. But you know,
you guys have really had a big success story of
the last couple of years. You know, you've expanded your
subscriber base, you've expanded to different businesses. A Goldman Sachs
analyst last year estimated that I believe by twenty twenty eight,
crunchy Roll will account for thirty six percent of all
(27:02):
profit at Sony's Picture segment, which is very impressive. You know,
what do you attribute that success to and can you
talk at all about you know, how profitable the business.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Is As you said, like there's been the entertainment business
has been going through a disruption for a while now.
Between that and the pandemic, there have been a lot
of external pressures. But one thing about anime is while
we saw some disruption during the pandemic to the production
side of anime, given that most of this production happens
(27:38):
in Japan, the disruption wasn't for a long time and
it wasn't very impactful, right Like, so shows continue to
get produced, and on our side, we very quickly figured
out how to continue to localize and dub shows even
during the pandemic, So I think that was helpful. So
we had content coming through even those through the pandemic
(28:01):
period that we were able to make available to our fans.
And during that time there was also adoption and move
towards streaming a lot within within the audience and within consumers,
and so those all all have helped the growth of
anime in general, right But at the same time, I
(28:25):
think to our discussion earlier, our approach or flywheel approach
has helped us stay focused on this or serving this
audience and continue to build deep, long relationships with them,
and that has also helped helped our growth. So we
just announced that we crossed thirteen million paying subscribers globally,
(28:46):
and that has only that's been a strong growth for
us last year. We are part of Sunny Pictures Entertainment.
We don't release our financials separately, but I can tell
tell you that we've been profitable and continue to be profitable.
So and all of that is I think all based
(29:07):
on our singular focus on serving this fan base and
our differentiated flywheel strategy. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
So speaking of that flywheel strategy, we focused a lot
on streaming. But I don't want to neglect your theatrical business.
You know, anime films have really formed one of the
few consistent bright spots in the post COVID theatrical landscape.
I know, his Funnimation was behind the Demon Slayer Moogan
Train film, which was a big success story in twenty
twenty one. You know, Boy and the Heron, which you
(29:37):
guys didn't release, but that was, you know, a pretty
big success story recently. Did you guys been for that film.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
By the way, Yeah, So The Boy and Hearn is
a Jibili studios. It's a Miyazaki film film. We did
actually release the movie in Australia because we had a relation.
We have had a long relationship with Jibli Studios in Australia.
But they have partner in other world, in other parts
of the world that they work with and have worked
(30:03):
with for a long time, so they continue to work
with those partners in other regions.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Yeah, yeah, I was just curious. But you know, I
think we've talked a lot about how passionate the fan
base is. Are there any other factors that you think
you can attribute the success of anime films at the
box office too?
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Yeah. Like I said earlier, fans love to watch their
favorite shows and favorite characters on a big screen with
their friends and with their family. It's an experience, it's
an event for them. Anime it just looks. Those visuals
look amazing on a big screen, and so I think
that's a big part of it. The other part of
(30:42):
it is, like you mentioned, there have been some amazing
movies that have come out recently, whether it be from
whether it be originals from Masters like Shinkai's Suzume or
Mayazaki Is The Boy and the Hern but also from
theatrical releases from major ip like Demon Slayer and so
great movies an amazing experience on a big screen. Also,
(31:07):
with our priority has been making these experiences, making them
actually an experience and an event for fans, not just
another movie at the theaters. Right has also made these
something that are very attractive to fans. And finally, I
would say like, look, we have long relationship with fans
(31:32):
around the world. We have over one hundred and sixty
million fans in our community that we have a very
close relationship that we are talking to every day in
social media and other various channels. So when we have
these movies, we get to tell them directly that these
movies are coming to theaters and encourage them to go
(31:52):
watch these movies. That gives us an advantage, that gives
the medium an advantage because we are able to tell
a lot of people about these movies and help them
go to the theaters and watch these movies. So all
of those factors I think have helped in making anime
movies as success at theaters. Like we have ten out
of the top twenty anime releases in the U from
(32:14):
a box office perspective our country, all releases, and I
think all of those factors into why anime movies have
been successful at theaters.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Yeah, I know that with those theatrical releases, you guys
have spearheaded releases in different territories different markets. Obviously, you've
talked about the kind of infrastructure that you guys have
in place to get shows subtitled and dubbed very quickly.
Can you talk a little bit about what is that
process of release, rolling out these films on a global basis?
(32:45):
What does that look like. Do you guys oversee all
that subtitling and dubbing.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Yeah, so similar to what we do with TV shows.
When we bring movies to theaters, we get our assets
from our Japanese creators and we actually localize them, so
we are subtitling them, we are dubbing them into all
the different languages we have to we want to release,
and getting the assets ready for a theatrical release. The
(33:10):
other thing, as I mentioned, we are part of the
Sony Pictures Entertainment. Sony Pictures, a major Hollywood studio, has
been bringing movies to theaters for hundred plus years, so
we have access to that experience, expertise, and infrastructure. So
we are we partner with our Sony Pictures Entertainment colleagues
(33:30):
to distribute these movies domestically and internationally, So we are
leveraging the experience and the expertise they have to bring
these movies to theaters, so that's an advantage. So that
allows us to take these movies on a wider theatrical release,
bring them to more theaters globally, bring them to a
lot more large format screens globally, and a lot more
(33:53):
countries than we can ourselves. So all of those are
a priority for us, and we are leaning into bring
more movies to more countries and more fans globally.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
Yeah. Yeah, we spoke earlier about, you know, disruption in
the industry. Another big disruptor that you know everybody seems
to be talking about constantly is AI. I'm curious to
get your thoughts on what the potential impact of AI
might be on the anime industry. I think, you know,
it's easy to see applications for stuff like subtitling and
(34:26):
dubbing and that kind of thing. Can you talk about
what the impact of that might look like.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Yeah, Like, like you said, AI is going to be
a huge impact across the various industries. Our partners in
Japan are experimenting and looking into what that means for
anime production. But anime is a very is hand drawn still,
and it's a very age old traditional creative process. So
(34:56):
I'm sure there will be impact, but it is early
days to understand what the impact would be on the
production side of anime. Like you said, we are also
looking to see what role AI could play in a
lot of different worthless within our organization. Subtitling is an
area where we've been experimenting and we think that there
(35:17):
is a role for AI to play as we look
at speech speech to text, so we think it could
help us bring shows to fans quicker, bring in more languages. Again,
like I said, we are in early experimentation. On the
other side, on the dubbing side, I think that the
(35:40):
AI technology, we don't believe the air technology is there
yet in terms of being able to put into dubbing,
because the dubbing process itself is a very creative process.
Given that it is we're not just translating and dubbing,
we're adapting the script because you have to localize for
(36:01):
the local culture, local humor, you have to synchronize the
lip laps to the language because we don't get to
go back and reanimate the shows. So again, we don't
think the technology is there yet, but we're also experimenting
with AI in other ways. As I mentioned earlier. Discovery
(36:22):
is a big issue, just as much in anime as
it is in other general entertainment shows. There is a
lot of content and trying to connect audience with the
right content that they would like to watch at the
right time is a big is an important priority for us,
and we believe AI and generative AI could play a role,
so we're testing and experimenting there as well.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
Yeah, just quickly, I'd like to talk just a little
bit more about and again this is something we've kind
of touched on, but just other expansion opportunities that you
see for the larger Crunchy Roll Flywheel.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Yeah, like I said, sword and theatrical our big touch
points with our fans and they continue to grow for us.
But we are serving fans in various other ways that
they like to exhibit their anime fandom. An example would
be games. There's anime fans love to play games. There
is a huge overlap between the gaming audience and the
(37:18):
anime audience, so we are bringing anime games to our
fans globally. We just launched our new free to play
game one punch Man World, last week, but we also
announced late last year launching a new subscription benefit for
our subscribers called Crunchy Role Game Volt where we make
(37:43):
free to play games available for our subscribers of our
Mega and Ultimate here. So that's another important priority. We
want to make sure that we are bringing amazing games
for our fans across the board. We also, like I said,
e commerce is a priority. Uh. Fans love to show
(38:03):
their fandom by collecting memorabilia, figures, or apparel that they
can wear and show off their fandom, and so we're
continuing to grow our e commerce reach both here in
US and also internationally. Events is another big thing. Fans
(38:24):
like to gather in a place and celebrate their fandom,
meet other fans, learn about new shows coming, meet creators
from Japan. So we are going to be attending and
meeting fans at more events globally. We are also bringing
(38:45):
an Countyl Anime Award to Tokyo again this year that
will be on March second. That is a way for
us to be able to connect anime fans globally with
creators in Japan. And I love anime fans to recognize
and celebrate their favorite shows from the past year. So yeah, again,
(39:07):
various touch points across the Flywheel that we believe are
going to be important for fans, and we're continuing to
invest and grow those channels.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
Yeah, I know, Studio Ghibli opened a theme park in
Japan a few years ago. Is that our theme parks
anything you guys are thinking about at all?
Speaker 2 (39:22):
We don't have theme parks, but some of our IP
are at theme parks, So we're always looking at opportunities
where we can take some of the IP that's popular
at country Hall and make them available for fans to
enjoy at theme parks worldwide. Cool.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
One final fun question for any of our listeners who
may be looking to get into anime, can you recommend
maybe two or three titles that they might enjoy just
as a starting point.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
Yeah. Like I said, there is a show for every fan.
If you like certain shows in general entertainment, I'm sure
there are shows that you will enjoy in an anime
that are similar or similar of genres. Just to suggest
(40:11):
a show, for example, there is a show that I'm
watching right now that is really popular with fans that
is started in January. It's a show called Solo Leveling.
It's based on a Korean manva that we are actually
producing with our Sonique colleagues and a production company an Applex.
(40:33):
It's a it's a really it's a really well made show.
It's really cool. It's about five episodes, and I would
highly recommend that show for anybody that wants to get
into anime. Great visuals, great stories. But again, there are
a lot of other shows you mentioned. Demon Slayer, Demonslayer
is a is an amazing show. In new season from
(40:54):
Demon Slayer is going to be out soon, so I
would highly recommend fans go catch up on the previous shows,
previous seasons of Demon's Layer. Yeah, and a lot of
some classics, so your Dragonball, dragon Ball Z, One Piece,
Cowboy Bebop or some of the classics that I watched
(41:18):
when I was young and getting into anime originally and
still are some of my favorite shows.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
Great. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
Thank you Tyler again, thank you for having time. I
really enjoyed this.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
Thanks for listening. Be sure to leave us a review
at Apple Podcasts or Amazon Music. We love to hear
from listeners. Please go to Variety dot com and sign
up for our free weekly strictly business newsletter, and don't
forget to tune in next week. For another episode of
Strictly Business
Welcome to Strictly Business, Variety's weekly podcast featuring conversations about
the business of media and entertainment. I'm Tyler Aquilina, a
media analyst for Variety Intelligence Platform. Anime or Japanese animation
has come a long way in the past few decades.
Fans who once had little recourse but bootlegs and piracy
to watch their favorite shows are now part of a
global community and a twenty billion dollar market that's even
(00:31):
more robust internationally than it is in Japan. Perhaps no
company better exemplifies that transformation than Crunchy Role. The Sony
owned an anime focused subscription streaming platform which has long
been a go to destination for watching Japanese animation stateside.
Since launching is essentially an anime piracy site in the
mid two thousands, Crunchy Role has grown into a legitimate
(00:51):
anime powerhouse, with streaming, theatrical and live events businesses under
its umbrella. Sony acquired the company for one point two
billion dollars in twenty twenty one, and since then, Crunchy
Role has continued to grow under the leadership of its president,
Rahul Parini, who has overseen robust expansion of Crunchy Role
into new markets and opportunities. Parini is passionate about the
(01:11):
anime business, as you'll see, and has even bigger plans
in store for what was once a tiny platform where
users would catch fans subtitled episodes of Naruto and Dragon Ball.
Our wide ranging conversation is coming up after the break,
(01:31):
we are back with Rahul Parini, the president of Crunchy Role.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Welcome, Thank you, dyler, thank you for me having me here.
Looking forward to.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
This, Yeah, me too. So, just to start off, can
you tell us a little bit about Crunchy Role and
your role there.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, Cunchyroll is a media and entertainment company focused on
Japanese anime. Anime is a dynamic storytelling format. It's a
medium that comes out of Japan and fans globally love it.
And we are part of Sony Pictures Entertainment and I'm
(02:07):
president of Country Roll. I've been part of this organization
for about nine years. And yeah, it's a amazing medium
and fan base that we get to serve. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Now, a big part of your business is bringing over
these anime series from Japan to the United States market.
For those who may not know, can you tell us
a little bit about what does that process look like
from a business perspective.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah, like you said, most of anime is conceived and
created in Japan, and what we are focused on is
taking those amazing stories from Japanese creators and bringing them
to global audiences. So County Role currently operates in about
two hundred countries and territory. So what we do is
work with our partners in Japan. We take shows that
(02:50):
they create and try to bring them to fans as
soon as they are available in Japan. So majority of
our content we work we license from our partners, but
we are also working closely with our creative partners in
Japan to produce some of the shows. So when those
shows get released in Japan, we take them and we
subtitled them into ten plus languages, We dub them into
(03:13):
ten plus languages, and we try to make them available
for our fans globally within an hour of broadcast in Japan.
So it is it is a fast process. There's about
fifty to sixty shows that we are bringing to audience
every quarter, about two hundred to two hundred and twenty
shows a year.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Wow, and has the Sony acquisition made it any easier
to do business in Japan. Has that affected how you
guys do business over there at all?
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Look as Crunchy Role and some of the other companies
that are part of Crunchy Role, like Funimation, We've been
doing this for about twenty five to twenty eight years now.
Funimation was set up originally in the mid nineties and
was focused on bringing anime to the So we have
(04:02):
very long and deep relationships in Japan that we've fostered
and nature for a long time. But yeah, we Fundimation
was acquired by Sony Pictures in twenty seventeen, and then
we acquired County Role in twenty twenty one. Sony, as
a Japanese company, has a deep, long relationship with the
(04:24):
anime community, and so us being part of Sony definitely helps.
It gives us a level of credibility. Being being owned
by a Japanese company that has been in the anime
ecosystem and has supported the ecosystem for a long time
gives us a level of credibility. But our relationships are
also a long, long term relationship, so both of those help.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
I'm curious.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Could you talk a little more about how the anime
business has changed in the time that you've been involved
with it. Obviously you were at Fundamation, you were heavily
involved with that before taking over as president of Country.
You know, how has the business of anime and also
the culture around anime changed, you know, since you've been
involved with it.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Yeah. Look, I think both the business of anime and
the impact of anime on the culture itself has been
has been massive over the last nine years I've been
part of this business. So the popularity of anime has
been growing really fast globally, and that combined with the
(05:28):
adoption of streaming and the accessibility of anime globally, has
made anime reach a huge number of fans. That combined
with if you think about who defines culture in our world, artists, taste,
(05:49):
makers of fashion, celebrity sports, personalities and all of a
lot of them talk about the impact of anime on
who they are and how they approach their craft or
who they are as a person. So in that sense,
anime has had a huge impact on the culture and
(06:10):
continues to have a huge impact on the culture.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Yeah, and also obviously it's expanded a lot. You know,
it was very much this looked at as this kind
of niche market for such a long time. You know,
what has it been like to see anime grow into
such a huge international business? I believe now like the
international market is bigger than the market for it in Japan, right.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Yeah, for the first time about a year ago, the
business done outside of Japan is larger than the anime
business within Japan. So absolutely, all right, it's seen a
huge growth internationally. Like Look, as you would probably expect
me to say, we don't consider anime to be a niche,
and if it is a niche, it is a gigantic niche.
(06:52):
We have data and research that shows that there's about
eight hundred million anime interested fans globe outside of Japan
and China, we have over close to two hundred million
people watching anime on official sources in those regions. Netflix
released a couple of years ago that at least half
(07:14):
of their subscription base washed anime during that period, so
that's more than one hundred million plus, So it is
it is huge in numbers. There's it's a big community.
Like Polygon just released some data from their research that
showed that forty two percent of gen Z watches anime weekly,
(07:36):
which is more than some juggernauts in media like NFL.
It's only twenty five percent of gen z watch, right,
So all of that to say, it's no longer a niche.
It is a its mainstream, it's really popular and it
continues to grow, right Like, so we're excited. I think
(07:58):
we expected to grow to be much bigger.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Yeah, yeah, for sure. I'm curious about how you're expanding,
you know, both Crunchy roles as a subscription streaming platform,
but also kind of as a broader flywheel. Can you
talk about some of the areas where you're growing the business.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah. So internally we say we don't want to be
something for everyone. We want to be everything for someone,
and that someone for us, is the anime fan. So
our mission is to surround the anime fan and service
them across their fandom. So we want to create amazing
experience where however they want to exhibit their fandom. And
(08:38):
so obviously streaming and our subscription service is a huge
touch point for us with our fans, and it is
it makes anime accessible for fans worldwide, and so it's
a really important piece in our connection with the fans.
Theatrical is another important piece of anime fans love to
(09:00):
watch movies on the big screen with their friends and family,
see these amazing visuals on a big screen, and we
are we continue to lean into bringing more movies for
our fans globally. At the same time, we also have
games that are based on anime anime IP anime shows
(09:21):
and that's something that we are continuing to invest in
and lean into. E Commerce is another channel, so fans
as they want to collect figures or other memorabilia from
their favorite shows or buy apparel to where to demonstrate
their fandom, we give them opportunity to do that on
our store, on our e commerce shop and similar lyric
(09:45):
whether it's consumer product, goods or events. We try to
serve the fans however they want to exhibit their fandom,
and look, we are seeing growth across all of those channels.
Fans truly want to demonstrate their fandom. However, they can
essentially literally where their fandom on their sleeve. So it's
(10:07):
amazing to see these fans connect with those characters and
show their fandom how they do.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah, now do you think kind of all those different
revenue streams and opportunities to kind of bring people into
the ecosystem. Do you think that has helped you guys
kind of avoid some of the pitfalls that the broader
streaming landscape has seen over the last couple of years.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Look, look, I think the flywheel strategy, as you say,
having these mix of touch points with fans has definitely
been a differentiator for us. It's been a strategic priority.
We know it has helped us connect with fans and
have a longer term connection and relationship with our fans
(10:51):
because of that approach, it has helped us address some
of our retention and churn churned goals, which are major
factors for most of streaming platforms. So yes, that the
approach has definitely been a differentiator for us and continues
to allow us to expand or reach with fans. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Yeah, tell us a little bit more about your audience
maybe from the streaming perspective. You know, how do you
describe your subscribers in terms of their viewing habits, their
behavior in terms of churn and other patterns.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Like I said, anime is a very dynamic medium and
there is something for every fan In anime, there's multiple
genres and so there is something for everyone. Our research
shows that there is everybody from gen Z and Gen
Alpha two boomers who are watching anime. But in general,
anime fans tend to be young. Like I said, forty
(11:50):
two percent of gen Z watch weekly. There's another twenty
five percent of millennials that watch weekly, So the anime
fans tend to be younger. They are also very diverse.
African American, Hispanic and Asian American fans tend to over
index then general population within the fan community anime fan community,
so they are very diverse. There again to the question
(12:15):
around their watch patterns and behavior, highly engaged, very passionate.
They like to watch shows as soon as they're available,
so it's not surprising for us to see a large
spike in fans streaming at two am in the morning
when their favorite show just launches. That's very typical. Again,
(12:37):
like I said, they're very engaged. So on average we
see thousand minutes a month, and that's the average across
the globe. And you know there are fans that are
watching twenty plus hours every week, so it is a
very engaged fan base in terms of patterns and viewing behaviors.
(12:58):
There's a lot of similarity in fans across the globe
and how they watch and what they watch. But there's
also a lot of differences, right. For example, fans in
India love to watch action and adventure and fantasy shows,
whereas fans in France are more open to art house
and experimental shows.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
So that happens in France often.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
I think they're definitely more open to that kind of thing.
And we see similar things across the world, whether it
is Latin America or the US, and that's what makes
this fun, right, Like, we we get to serve a
very similar but audience that has very unique tastes across
the world.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Yeah, you mentioned India. I know you. You personally have
really spearheaded a big expansion for country role in India.
He tells about why that market specifically and what those
expansion plans look like over there.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah. So India is the second largest anime market in
terms of anime interest and anime watching outside of Japan
and China. Only US has more anime interested fans in
terms of true numbers absolute numbers outside of India, And
(14:13):
for US it was a white space. We weren't there.
There weren't many players serving that audience, so there was
a real demand for anime in that community. There were
there fans were eager to get an official service to
UH serve them, serve them, and so we took that
opportunity to be there and serve that audience in India.
(14:35):
Like you said, we announced a big push about a
year and a half ago, we launched our service with
a catalog focused on that. We announced localization efforts where
we started not only sub subtitling into several languages in India,
but also dubbing our shows into Hindi, Telugu and Tamil
(14:57):
and all of those have been very well received in
the market, and I think our plans continue to do
more things like that, like we are making more content
available for our fans simultaneously with other across the global
our global service, we are trying to localize more content
(15:19):
to that to different parts of India. As you know,
there's a lot of multiple languages in India and fans
like to watch dubbed shows dubbed into their own language,
so we're trying to localize more content. We also have
announced a partnership with a couple of fairly popular Bollywood
(15:41):
celebrities that are really big anime fans. Tiger schaff and
Rushimi Kamandana, who who are really big advocates and big
fans of anime, and we've partnered with them to bring
Crunchy Role and more anime to fans in India. Very cool.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
You know you mentioned piracy, which I think is so
tied up in the history of anime's global expansion. You know,
like US fans used to have to had basically no
recourse but piracy to find some of these shows. What
strategies I think? You also mentioned the statistic that like,
there's eight hundred million anime fans worldwide, but only two
hundred million are watching on legitimate sources. Obviously, it's it's
(16:22):
one thing to expand into a place like India where
there is no legal avenue to watch these shows, but
how are you combating and fighting piracy in markets where
the legitimate sources is already available.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Yeah. Look, piracy and an official sources of anime is
a big component of anime watching for fans globally. Anime
has been popular for a long time, but fans weren't
able to access it until recently when streaming became a
really viable option for fans. So piracy was the way
(17:01):
where fans were watching these shows. For a long time.
From our perspective, what we are focused on is convenience
for fans. We want to make a service that is convenient,
that gives the fans the ability to watch their favorite
shows as soon as they watch however they want to
watch it, whether it is subtitled into their favorite language,
(17:22):
dubbed into their favorite language, on their favorite device, whether
it is mobile or gaming console or a smart TV,
and however they want to structure the experience. So our
focus is on making this content available as soon as
possible in whatever language they want, and as convenient as
(17:43):
possible at a very comparative price. And we believe that
is the strategy that is going to allow us to
make this much more compelling and attractive to fans. To
switch to an official source rather than using an official
sources is.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Kind of expanding ways to kind of funnel people into
that also part of that, I know last year you
guys expanded into the fast space, which is to say,
free ad supported streaming. What are some of the opportunities there,
and is that you know, another way to kind of
reel people in who might not other way otherwise be there.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Yeah, last year we announced that we were launching a
twenty four seven ADS supported linear channel. It's available on
most Fast platforms in the US now. Recently it also
was made available on Pluto TV, and our strategy and
(18:37):
approach with that is to make this content and anime
available to casual anime fans where they are. As you know,
Fast is a really emerging sizeable distribution channel to reach audience,
and so we want to tap into that distribution mechanism
to be able to put anime in front of fans
(18:58):
in a curated way that we can introduce it to them,
allow them to experience it in a quick, easy way,
and if then they want a deeper connection or deeper experience,
they can come to Country Roll for that deeper experience.
And that's the that's the strategy. So we're seeing we're
seeing fans engage with our Fast channel really really well
(19:22):
on those platforms, and we're excited to see what we
can do more and how we can attract them into
our ecosystem. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Yeah, it's maybe easier to just catch an episode of
Cowboy Bebop or something and be like, oh, that looks cool.
What is that rather than just seeing this huge array
of you know, posters in front of you, it'd be like,
which one do I pick?
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah? Like, look, I think like with any streaming service,
there is so much content. Consumers have a hard time
with discovery, right, and it's the same thing with anime.
We have a lot of shows, a lot of different genres,
and I think our idea is with a fast channel,
(20:01):
we can curate an experience that makes it easy and
convenient for fans to get in and try this, and
if they like it, they can go have a deeper
experience within our subscription service.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, to talk a little bit more
about that subscription business. You know, I'm curious, you know,
as you said, obviously, if anime is a niche, it's
a very large niche. But how do you view the
position of streamers like crunchy Role that serve a particular
specific interest in this media landscape where you know, companies
(20:33):
only seem to get bigger and business modelsers seem to
be more about offering all things to all people. You know,
how do you see you know, platforms like crunchy Roll
kind of fitting into the landscape like that.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Like I said earlier, we're trying to be everything for someone, right,
and that focus gives us an advantage. We know we're
not going to be the first subscription service for a
consumer or a household. What we are trying to be
is that second or third subscription service. So if you're
(21:04):
an anime fan, we want to add so much value
that we would be that second subscription service or third
subscription service. So from that perspective, we're not really competing
with a general entertainment service because we know our fans
will have a general entertainment service as an option because
where they get their entertainment, but they come to us
(21:28):
for their anime connection, right, And so that that focus
and that clarity in terms of where we fit in
our fans entertainment ecosystem gives tells us that we're not
we're not really competing for the same thing as a
general entertainment services.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Yeah, it's interesting though, like those general entertainment services are
starting to move more into the anime space. I mean,
Netflix has for a long time been putting more animations
on this platform. It feels like as that market continues
to expand, you'll see more companies like Disney trying to
get into that. You know, how do you see that
is there an opportunity there with general entertainment services getting
(22:12):
more into anime, is there an opportunity for you guys
or is that just going to create more competition for titles.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
Yeah, look, there is definitely an interest to serve this
fan base. As this fan base gross, general entertainment companies
have worked hard to find content to serve them. So, yes,
we compete for content with all of those players, but
we think it is good for anime and anime community
(22:42):
that these large services have anime content and make them
available to large sets of audience. Right because if somebody
gets introduced to anime and they want a deeper or
a broader experience, then they come to a CERT's like
crunch Role for that broader experience. So we believe it
(23:03):
is actually good for anime and anime community that these
services offer some anime and are introducing anime to fans.
I think overall it is good and I think those
fans that want that deeper experience will then come to crunturrole.
We work with some of these general entertainment services. We've
(23:25):
had we've licensed content to some of them. We've licensed
content to linear channels like Cartoon Network because we know
our fans are there, and if we can get them
to experience a show or experience anime, then some of
them will become anime fans and come to Crunch role. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
I was going to ask about that because licensing TV
shows is really back in vogue now. You know, you're
seeing all these companies loan out more titles to Netflix. Obviously,
Sony County Rule's parent never really stopped playing in that space.
There's been a lot written about them as a kind
of a content arms dealer. Do you see you guys
expanding that strategy or how robust is that strategy for
(24:05):
you guys already?
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Yeah, Like, like you said, it is back in work,
but it is something that we've been doing for a
long time, right. We want to we want to attract fans,
meet fans where they are, and attract them into our
ecosystem from that touch point. So we've been doing this
for a while. Like I mentioned, we've licensed content to
streaming services and OTT platforms as well as linear networks
(24:29):
as well, because if as fans experience that anime, we
know that they will come to us for a deeper experience.
It continues to be a very strategic and intentional approach
for us, We do look at how much content at
what window and when to license and how that would
(24:50):
then allow us to connect with a new group of
fans and how to bring them back into our ecosystem.
So it is a priority, is something that we do
very intentionally in a strategic way.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
Yeah, what do you think of this trend of these
live action adaptations of anime? I mean Netflix is really
leaning into this. Their Cowboy Bebop adaptation was, shall we say,
not a great success, but One Piece has really taken
off for them.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
You know.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Is is that another opportunity to just draw in more, more,
more people into the anime tent. What do you think
about that?
Speaker 2 (25:25):
Yeah, Like, look, anime has great, great stories, and I
think live action is another great medium to bring those
stories and to a much wider audience. So yeah, we
think it's great that broader fan bases get to enjoy
(25:46):
these stories in whatever format and so and it also
helps anime. So we saw like when like you mentioned,
Netflix released their One Piece live action, a lot of
fans came to Country Roll to watch the One Piece anime. Right,
and we know the popular the original series, the merchandise
(26:08):
up One Piece all had a halo effect from that.
So I think it's good for the IP, it's good
for the ecosystem that these live action shows are made
and not successful and enjoyed by fans.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
More from Corunchry Role President Rahul Parini. After this break,
and we're back with Crunchy Role President Rahul Parini. We've
touched on this a bit, but I'd just like to
get a little bit more of your thoughts about you know,
(26:42):
obviously it's a very challenging environment for streaming right now
and for the media business at large. But you know,
you guys have really had a big success story of
the last couple of years. You know, you've expanded your
subscriber base, you've expanded to different businesses. A Goldman Sachs
analyst last year estimated that I believe by twenty twenty eight,
crunchy Roll will account for thirty six percent of all
(27:02):
profit at Sony's Picture segment, which is very impressive. You know,
what do you attribute that success to and can you
talk at all about you know, how profitable the business.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Is As you said, like there's been the entertainment business
has been going through a disruption for a while now.
Between that and the pandemic, there have been a lot
of external pressures. But one thing about anime is while
we saw some disruption during the pandemic to the production
side of anime, given that most of this production happens
(27:38):
in Japan, the disruption wasn't for a long time and
it wasn't very impactful, right Like, so shows continue to
get produced, and on our side, we very quickly figured
out how to continue to localize and dub shows even
during the pandemic, So I think that was helpful. So
we had content coming through even those through the pandemic
(28:01):
period that we were able to make available to our fans.
And during that time there was also adoption and move
towards streaming a lot within within the audience and within consumers,
and so those all all have helped the growth of
anime in general, right But at the same time, I
(28:25):
think to our discussion earlier, our approach or flywheel approach
has helped us stay focused on this or serving this
audience and continue to build deep, long relationships with them,
and that has also helped helped our growth. So we
just announced that we crossed thirteen million paying subscribers globally,
(28:46):
and that has only that's been a strong growth for
us last year. We are part of Sunny Pictures Entertainment.
We don't release our financials separately, but I can tell
tell you that we've been profitable and continue to be profitable.
So and all of that is I think all based
(29:07):
on our singular focus on serving this fan base and
our differentiated flywheel strategy. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
So speaking of that flywheel strategy, we focused a lot
on streaming. But I don't want to neglect your theatrical business.
You know, anime films have really formed one of the
few consistent bright spots in the post COVID theatrical landscape.
I know, his Funnimation was behind the Demon Slayer Moogan
Train film, which was a big success story in twenty
twenty one. You know, Boy and the Heron, which you
(29:37):
guys didn't release, but that was, you know, a pretty
big success story recently. Did you guys been for that film.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
By the way, Yeah, So The Boy and Hearn is
a Jibili studios. It's a Miyazaki film film. We did
actually release the movie in Australia because we had a relation.
We have had a long relationship with Jibli Studios in Australia.
But they have partner in other world, in other parts
of the world that they work with and have worked
(30:03):
with for a long time, so they continue to work
with those partners in other regions.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Yeah, yeah, I was just curious. But you know, I
think we've talked a lot about how passionate the fan
base is. Are there any other factors that you think
you can attribute the success of anime films at the
box office too?
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Yeah. Like I said earlier, fans love to watch their
favorite shows and favorite characters on a big screen with
their friends and with their family. It's an experience, it's
an event for them. Anime it just looks. Those visuals
look amazing on a big screen, and so I think
that's a big part of it. The other part of
(30:42):
it is, like you mentioned, there have been some amazing
movies that have come out recently, whether it be from
whether it be originals from Masters like Shinkai's Suzume or
Mayazaki Is The Boy and the Hern but also from
theatrical releases from major ip like Demon Slayer and so
great movies an amazing experience on a big screen. Also,
(31:07):
with our priority has been making these experiences, making them
actually an experience and an event for fans, not just
another movie at the theaters. Right has also made these
something that are very attractive to fans. And finally, I
would say like, look, we have long relationship with fans
(31:32):
around the world. We have over one hundred and sixty
million fans in our community that we have a very
close relationship that we are talking to every day in
social media and other various channels. So when we have
these movies, we get to tell them directly that these
movies are coming to theaters and encourage them to go
(31:52):
watch these movies. That gives us an advantage, that gives
the medium an advantage because we are able to tell
a lot of people about these movies and help them
go to the theaters and watch these movies. So all
of those factors I think have helped in making anime
movies as success at theaters. Like we have ten out
of the top twenty anime releases in the U from
(32:14):
a box office perspective our country, all releases, and I
think all of those factors into why anime movies have
been successful at theaters.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Yeah, I know that with those theatrical releases, you guys
have spearheaded releases in different territories different markets. Obviously, you've
talked about the kind of infrastructure that you guys have
in place to get shows subtitled and dubbed very quickly.
Can you talk a little bit about what is that
process of release, rolling out these films on a global basis?
(32:45):
What does that look like. Do you guys oversee all
that subtitling and dubbing.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Yeah, so similar to what we do with TV shows.
When we bring movies to theaters, we get our assets
from our Japanese creators and we actually localize them, so
we are subtitling them, we are dubbing them into all
the different languages we have to we want to release,
and getting the assets ready for a theatrical release. The
(33:10):
other thing, as I mentioned, we are part of the
Sony Pictures Entertainment. Sony Pictures, a major Hollywood studio, has
been bringing movies to theaters for hundred plus years, so
we have access to that experience, expertise, and infrastructure. So
we are we partner with our Sony Pictures Entertainment colleagues
(33:30):
to distribute these movies domestically and internationally, So we are
leveraging the experience and the expertise they have to bring
these movies to theaters, so that's an advantage. So that
allows us to take these movies on a wider theatrical release,
bring them to more theaters globally, bring them to a
lot more large format screens globally, and a lot more
(33:53):
countries than we can ourselves. So all of those are
a priority for us, and we are leaning into bring
more movies to more countries and more fans globally.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
Yeah. Yeah, we spoke earlier about, you know, disruption in
the industry. Another big disruptor that you know everybody seems
to be talking about constantly is AI. I'm curious to
get your thoughts on what the potential impact of AI
might be on the anime industry. I think, you know,
it's easy to see applications for stuff like subtitling and
(34:26):
dubbing and that kind of thing. Can you talk about
what the impact of that might look like.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
Yeah, Like, like you said, AI is going to be
a huge impact across the various industries. Our partners in
Japan are experimenting and looking into what that means for
anime production. But anime is a very is hand drawn still,
and it's a very age old traditional creative process. So
(34:56):
I'm sure there will be impact, but it is early
days to understand what the impact would be on the
production side of anime. Like you said, we are also
looking to see what role AI could play in a
lot of different worthless within our organization. Subtitling is an
area where we've been experimenting and we think that there
(35:17):
is a role for AI to play as we look
at speech speech to text, so we think it could
help us bring shows to fans quicker, bring in more languages. Again,
like I said, we are in early experimentation. On the
other side, on the dubbing side, I think that the
(35:40):
AI technology, we don't believe the air technology is there
yet in terms of being able to put into dubbing,
because the dubbing process itself is a very creative process.
Given that it is we're not just translating and dubbing,
we're adapting the script because you have to localize for
(36:01):
the local culture, local humor, you have to synchronize the
lip laps to the language because we don't get to
go back and reanimate the shows. So again, we don't
think the technology is there yet, but we're also experimenting
with AI in other ways. As I mentioned earlier. Discovery
(36:22):
is a big issue, just as much in anime as
it is in other general entertainment shows. There is a
lot of content and trying to connect audience with the
right content that they would like to watch at the
right time is a big is an important priority for us,
and we believe AI and generative AI could play a role,
so we're testing and experimenting there as well.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
Yeah, just quickly, I'd like to talk just a little
bit more about and again this is something we've kind
of touched on, but just other expansion opportunities that you
see for the larger Crunchy Roll Flywheel.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Yeah, like I said, sword and theatrical our big touch
points with our fans and they continue to grow for us.
But we are serving fans in various other ways that
they like to exhibit their anime fandom. An example would
be games. There's anime fans love to play games. There
is a huge overlap between the gaming audience and the
(37:18):
anime audience, so we are bringing anime games to our
fans globally. We just launched our new free to play
game one punch Man World, last week, but we also
announced late last year launching a new subscription benefit for
our subscribers called Crunchy Role Game Volt where we make
(37:43):
free to play games available for our subscribers of our
Mega and Ultimate here. So that's another important priority. We
want to make sure that we are bringing amazing games
for our fans across the board. We also, like I said,
e commerce is a priority. Uh. Fans love to show
(38:03):
their fandom by collecting memorabilia, figures, or apparel that they
can wear and show off their fandom, and so we're
continuing to grow our e commerce reach both here in
US and also internationally. Events is another big thing. Fans
(38:24):
like to gather in a place and celebrate their fandom,
meet other fans, learn about new shows coming, meet creators
from Japan. So we are going to be attending and
meeting fans at more events globally. We are also bringing
(38:45):
an Countyl Anime Award to Tokyo again this year that
will be on March second. That is a way for
us to be able to connect anime fans globally with
creators in Japan. And I love anime fans to recognize
and celebrate their favorite shows from the past year. So yeah, again,
(39:07):
various touch points across the Flywheel that we believe are
going to be important for fans, and we're continuing to
invest and grow those channels.
Speaker 1 (39:15):
Yeah, I know, Studio Ghibli opened a theme park in
Japan a few years ago. Is that our theme parks
anything you guys are thinking about at all?
Speaker 2 (39:22):
We don't have theme parks, but some of our IP
are at theme parks, So we're always looking at opportunities
where we can take some of the IP that's popular
at country Hall and make them available for fans to
enjoy at theme parks worldwide. Cool.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
One final fun question for any of our listeners who
may be looking to get into anime, can you recommend
maybe two or three titles that they might enjoy just
as a starting point.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
Yeah. Like I said, there is a show for every fan.
If you like certain shows in general entertainment, I'm sure
there are shows that you will enjoy in an anime
that are similar or similar of genres. Just to suggest
(40:11):
a show, for example, there is a show that I'm
watching right now that is really popular with fans that
is started in January. It's a show called Solo Leveling.
It's based on a Korean manva that we are actually
producing with our Sonique colleagues and a production company an Applex.
(40:33):
It's a it's a really it's a really well made show.
It's really cool. It's about five episodes, and I would
highly recommend that show for anybody that wants to get
into anime. Great visuals, great stories. But again, there are
a lot of other shows you mentioned. Demon Slayer, Demonslayer
is a is an amazing show. In new season from
(40:54):
Demon Slayer is going to be out soon, so I
would highly recommend fans go catch up on the previous shows,
previous seasons of Demon's Layer. Yeah, and a lot of
some classics, so your Dragonball, dragon Ball Z, One Piece,
Cowboy Bebop or some of the classics that I watched
(41:18):
when I was young and getting into anime originally and
still are some of my favorite shows.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
Great. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 2 (41:28):
Thank you Tyler again, thank you for having time. I
really enjoyed this.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
Thanks for listening. Be sure to leave us a review
at Apple Podcasts or Amazon Music. We love to hear
from listeners. Please go to Variety dot com and sign
up for our free weekly strictly business newsletter, and don't
forget to tune in next week. For another episode of
Strictly Business
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.