Crunchyroll, Aniplex launch Hayate anime production company

Modified Mar 17, 2025 19:43 GMT

Crunchyroll, Aniplex launch Hayate anime production company (Image via Hayate, Crunchyroll, Aniplex)

Monday, March 17, 2025 saw Aniplex and Crunchyroll announce their joint investment in and establishment of a new anime production company called Hayate. Both companies are under the Sony Group Umbrella, with Aniplex notably also owning the highly prestigious CloverWorks and A-1 Pictures animation studios.

The Hayate joint venture is said to be involved in developing and producing anime content for Crunchyroll’s international anime streaming platform. The joint venture aims to merge the platform’s development, marketing, and distribution capabilities with Aniplex’s production expertise and partnerships with many creators and studios.

Crunchyroll and Aniplex announce formation of Hayate and key leadership and staff details for company

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The Hayate joint venture will be headed by Chairman and CEO Masanori Miyake, and President and COO Leo Watanabe, both of whom are from Aniplex. Miyake has extensive production credits in the anime industry to his name, while Watanabe’s accomplishments in the industry come from its business aspects. The staff of Hayate will comprise employees from both parent companies per the latest available information.

Hayate Inc. will be based in Tokyo, with no other significant information on the joint venture available as of this article’s writing beyond what’s mentioned above. However, many are speculating that several new anime series will soon be announced as in production by Hayate. It’s unlikely that any such series will premiere prior to the 2026 calendar year, but fans can at least expect the announcement of these new productions in the coming months.

There’s also heavy speculation that this may lead to the revival of the Crunchyroll Originals slate, with the last series produced under the label being Meiji Gekken: 1874. The anime aired from January 2024 to March 2024, meaning no series under the label has been announced or released for roughly a year since the series’ conclusion. However, this is purely speculative as of this article’s writing, with nothing confirmed by Hayate or any other companies involved.

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As mentioned above, Aniplex’s most notable subsidiaries include the CloverWorks and A-1 Pictures animation studios. Fans can expect the Hayate studio to be of a similar tier to these two subsidiaries given Aniplex’s involvement in the joint venture. While Hayate will also likely collaborate with and pull talent from other animation studios, fans can expect the company’s quality to match the standards set by these subsidiaries.

Crunchyroll is owned by Sony Group Corporation, acquired by them from AT&T’s WarnerMedia in 2021. After purchasing the service, Sony merged it and its library with competitor and previous partner Funimation, shutting down the Funimation service in April 2024. The service offers over one thousand anime series and over 200 East Asian dramas, but the exact availability of the total library differs depending on regional licensing restrictions.