Sony Pictures Entertainment announced the launch of Crunchyroll Storyworks on Wednesday during the Crunchyroll Anime Future Forum in New York [2]. The division adapts global stories into anime while turning Japanese anime into live-action adaptations [1]. Speaking at the forum, Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman and CEO Ravi Ahuja said that the team wants to protect original creative visions while expanding their reach worldwide [2].
How the Crunchyroll Storyworks Division Operates
Sony picked Tohru Iokibe to lead the new outfit after his work directing IP acceleration projects between Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions [2]. He brings twenty-five years of experience within Sony Corp to the role [3]. Iokibe reports to Crunchyroll Chief Content Officer Asa Suehira. His teams will collaborate with creative partners across Japan rather than working solely on distribution pipelines, guiding projects from early pitch meetings through script development [2].
The division sits inside Crunchyroll’s content group, pulling together creative talent from Aniplex, Japanese animation studios, and Sony Pictures, the studio behind Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse [2]. It won’t simply acquire completed television series from outside vendors. Instead, the group wants to get involved earlier in the creative cycle so creators have steady backing from the start [4].
Developing projects in two directions gives the team a double mandate [4]. Global books, games, or comics can turn into Japanese animation, while original manga and anime can transition into live-action films or series produced for international viewers [1]. It’s a setup meant to keep writers and directors tied to their work, avoiding the creative departures that often derail adaptations when foreign studios take control without Japanese input [2].
That arrangement signals a change in how Crunchyroll approaches its catalog. For years, the platform focused on streaming finished shows that had already aired on Japanese television networks [4]. Now, having a designated development team in place lets the company guide stories from the moment an idea gets pitched [8]. It’s a structure built to help Japanese storytellers reach viewers overseas without sacrificing the details that made their stories popular at home [2].
Connecting Hollywood Scripts with Tokyo Creators
Sony has pointed to theatrical successes like Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Infinity Castle to show how anime commands massive ticket sales in theaters outside Japan [2]. Live-action projects from Japanese material have gained huge interest in Hollywood over the past few years. Still, fans often worry about losing the tone of the source material when Western producers take over [4].
Can a Hollywood studio adapt Japanese properties without flattening the creative voices behind them? Crunchyroll Chief Content Officer Asa Suehira said that Storyworks will “build a creative bridge between Japan and storytellers around the world — one that protects what makes these stories distinctive while creating new possibilities for creators and new ways for fans to experience the stories they love”. Ahuja echoed that priority during his forum remarks, saying that anime has grown into an international force because creators, studios, and publishers spent decades shaping unforgettable characters. He said the company has a duty to amplify that legacy while keeping creators’ visions at the center [2].
Iokibe described the work as an opportunity to unite audiences across different cultures without losing sight of original storytelling. “The best adaptations begin with respect for the original work, and it’s a privilege to help these exceptional stories reach even more fans around the world,” Iokibe said [2]. That approach suggests the company won’t push adaptations forward unless the original creative teams stay involved [4].
Crunchyroll Storyworks and the HAYATE Pipeline
The newly created division doesn’t produce animation all by itself. Instead, Crunchyroll Storyworks serves as a development engine built to deliver greenlight-ready projects for HAYATE Inc., a joint venture that Aniplex and Crunchyroll founded in March 2025. Headquartered in Tokyo, HAYATE plans and produces animated content tailored for Crunchyroll’s streaming audience [1].
Leadership at HAYATE brings together executives from both sides of the partnership [5]. Aniplex’s Masanori Miyake serves as Chairman and CEO, while Leo Watanabe leads day-to-day operations as President and COO. Staff members from Aniplex and Crunchyroll fill out the venture, creating a joint group that evaluates incoming proposals from Storyworks before sending them into full production [1].
HAYATE added in-house animation capacity in April when it bought all shares of anime studio Lay-duce, turning the studio into a wholly owned subsidiary. The studio animates television series in Japan [1]. That purchase gives the alliance a working animation house to animate scripts developed by Storyworks [5]. Having studio staff on hand helps avoid the long scheduling delays that independent producers face when booking outside animation teams [8].
Because HAYATE operates in Tokyo, Storyworks can keep its creative development tied close to Japanese production schedules [5]. Writers and producers don’t have to navigate separate corporate layers just to get a storyboard approved. That integration means fewer projects get stuck in development limbo before production begins [8].
Sony Group Unifies Streaming and Studio Roots
Crunchyroll operates as a joint venture between Sony Pictures Entertainment in the United States and Aniplex in Japan. Both units belong to Sony Group. When Funimation Global Group completed its purchase of Crunchyroll from AT&T for US$1.175 billion in August 2021, Sony consolidated its international anime holdings under a single brand, folding older home video releases into the streaming service catalog. The transaction closed in cash [1].
Crunchyroll’s subscriber rolls passed 21 million subscribers earlier this year, showing the scale of its paying user base [3]. To build revenue, the platform raised subscription prices across all tiers in the United States in February, and it halted free ad-supported streaming last December [1]. Those pricing adjustments followed a shift toward subscription revenue as the company funds higher production spending [8].
Rather than relying only on licensing finished shows from rival distributors, Sony wants to shape stories from their earliest stages. Specific adaptation projects remain unannounced for now. The division hasn’t chosen which individual manga or books it will turn into live action first [4]. Keeping development inside the family lets Sony share costs and profits across its film, television, and gaming branches [8].
PlayStation Integrations and Expanding Global Formats
The forum also showed how Sony connects anime to gaming hardware. Sony Interactive Entertainment and Crunchyroll announced that a Crunchyroll hub will launch on the PlayStation 5 home screen in spring 2027. The hub rolls out next spring. Crunchyroll president Rahul Purini linked the feature to upcoming anime like the Ghost of Tsushima: Legends series, saying that “serving fans means meeting them where they already are” [6].
Publishing efforts also grew with the screen offerings. Crunchyroll announced that its manga app now serves readers in eleven English-speaking markets, including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. That rollout builds on the company’s deal for manga platform infrastructure as it gathers print, digital, and streaming formats in one network [6].
The event took place at the North Javits Center in Manhattan on the eve of New York Comic Con, setting up Sony’s broader festival presence. The event ran as an all-day conference [3]. Crunchyroll previously experimented with new release formats through its same-day English dub rollout, and the Storyworks initiative takes that momentum to the writing room [1]. As production gets underway in Tokyo, fans can expect the first slate of adapted titles to emerge over the coming year [4].
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