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Recently,Bloombergreported about Sony trying to acquire Kadokawa, which already confirmed there have been talks, but did not confirm any closed deals. This would put franchises likeSword Art Online, Mushoku Tensei, and many others (really, so many it’s hard to count) under the hands of Sony. So what exactly does it mean for the anime industry if this deal is done?
Well, first, it’s important to emphasize thatthe deal is not done, at least not yet. It could happen and, if it indeed happens, it would need to go under Japanese regulatory mechanisms to be completed. It would unlikely be considered an oligopoly formation, but it would go under governmental auditing.
Kadokawa is one of thebiggest publishing houses in Japan, but they have been diversifying their business, investing on games and anime. But after the deal is completed (if it ever happens), what changes for anime fans? Well, for fans themselves, changes might not be so clear, but they could have ahuge impact on the industry.
The Rising of the Biggest Anime Complex
Sony could own all parts of the production system
Well, the first impact would be the most obvious one. In 2021, Kadokawa stated it aimed to produce40 anime titles per year by 2023. If they have not yet reached it, they have surely been able toincrease anime production in the last three years.
The rise in anime production, which is not only due to Kadokawa, also comes with a cost. A lot of series are delayed while broadcasting, because the teams are not able to meet the schedule, which tends to be very tight for weekly anime production — for this reason, a lot of companies are trying pre-made animation (finishing it before broadcast starts).
Apart from Kadokawa, Sony’s Aniplex is also currently one of the biggest anime producers (Aniplex owns studios like A-1 Picutres, in charge of many hits). But so far, Sony owns studios, distributors and original content, but does not usually have the property of manga or light novels. The deal would change that.
Aniplex have actually been workingwith Kadokawa lately. They even held a collaborative event in August. In this sense, a merge would not be anything new to the public, but it would make thisprobably the biggest complex in anime production,with a single conglomerate owning the original manga/novel material, the studio and the streaming/distributor of those series. Of course, if the deal is Sony acquiring Kadokawa, and not simply buying some shares. And considering Sony also owns big video game properties, it would be a massively huge deal, no wonderKadokawa’s share surgedafter the news came out.
For a long time, the biggest anime production complex was Shueisha(Shonen Jump)-Toei-Bandai Namco, the model that madeDragon BallandOne Pieceinternational hits. However, these companies do not always work together, Shonen Jump titles get anime adaptations by different studios (Aniplex nowadays handles a portion of them). Bandai Namco is usually involved in those adaptation, but also owns some big franchises, likeGundam.
What About the Other Players in the Industry?
They will likely make their moves too
Another consequence is the other players' reactions to it. And this is harder to picture. Will they think it’s good? Or will they be wary of it? It could be that other big companies, such as Shueisha, would also want to be part of their own production complexes and join forces with other companies.
So this could mean other players would want to be away from Sony, and approach other studios/production companies. In this sense, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video could attempt to benefit from it, portraying themselves asCrunchyrollalternatives. But that hasn’t worked before, so it’s likely most Japanese production companies know Crunchyroll is their best option to reach the international target audience. It’s also hard to predict what kind of impact this all would have on smallerstreaming serviceslike Hidive or Remow LATAM’s Anime Onegai.
Theindustry is unlikely to just sit and watch the deal, but it’s hard to be sure what exactly they will do, if it will make them avoid making deals with Sony or if they will join forces with this new production complex. Companies usually don’t like to feel they don’t have many other options, but if the option seems too good, they might be satisfied with it. Since foreign companies are also investing in anime production now, maybe this could also impact the way international companies will behave in this industry.
Anyway, for the deal to be completed, first Kadokawa would need towant itand believe Sony’s proposal is good.And that’s something we still don’t know about. It could be that the company is having trouble managing anime production, and decides that the deal is the better option. It could also end up in a partial merge between the companies. And it could end up not happening at all.
