Sony is quietly rebuilding itself around anime, chasing one prize above all else: a franchise as durable as One Piece that it owns outright.
The strategy is anchored by Demon Slayer. Its 2020 film Mugen Train knocked Spirited Away off the top of Japan's all-time box office chart, and its 2025 sequel Infinity Castle went on to pull in nearly $1 billion worldwide, proving the format can compete with Hollywood blockbusters rather than merely complement them.
What makes anime uniquely valuable inside Sony is that it touches every division at once. Aniplex produces the content, Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures distribute it, PlayStation promotes it to an audience that overlaps heavily with anime fans, and Sony Music profits from theme songs and soundtracks that routinely become streaming hits. No other format connects the company's holdings so tightly.
The spending is already underway. Sony has become one of the largest investors in light novel publisher Kadokawa, and Aniplex chief Atsuhiro Iwakami has left the door open to a stake in manga powerhouse Shueisha if the chance comes. A new studio, Hayate, launched jointly by Aniplex and Crunchyroll, is dedicated to producing original series built for global audiences from the start rather than localized after the fact. A dedicated anime hub is also planned for the PS5 home screen, putting trailers and new releases in front of tens of millions of players.
Netflix and Disney are hunting the same material, and both are pushing hard into a market that has expanded faster than the pipeline of proven franchises. That competition explains the emphasis on originals and full ownership, which lets Sony control merchandise, licensing, games, and sequels without splitting revenue.
For now the company is candid that this is an opening move rather than a finished plan, with the biggest questions still unresolved: whether PlayStation's own studios will turn these properties into games, and whether Sony can protect them or will have to license widely to maximize reach.