Kadokawa purchases stake in Yen Press, enters strategic alliance with Crunchyroll

There's no doubting at this point that we're in a boom period - some might even say a bubble - for the anime and manga/light novel industries in the west, and today has brought news which only serves as further proof of that, with Kadokawa Corporation announcing major moves to solidify their position within those markets outside of Japan.

Let's start with the biggest news which comes from the manga and light novel side of affairs, with the announcement that Kadokawa Corporation has purchased a 51% stake in Yen Press. This move has thus given birth to a new joint venture between the two companies, with Yen Press splitting off from their previous owners, Hachette Book Company, to create a new venture named Yen Press, LLP.

The partnership seems to be largely focus on what is seen as the growing light novel market - the press release announcing this partnership notes the growth in light novel sales since 2014 (when Yen Press began major moves towards publishing more of them them in English), and highlights the partnership between Yen Press' distribution and Kadokawa's leadership as a driver in growing this content market further. Previous vice-president of Yen Press Kurt Hassler will continue in his leadership role under the new guise of Managing Director.

You can read more on this story over at Anime News Network.

Meanwhile in the anime sphere, and deeply linked to the aforementioned joint venture, Kadokawa Corporation have also announced a major partnership with Crunchyroll, with a view towards giving the latter worldwide digital distribution rights to all Kadokawa anime properties for the coming year, while the former looks to get onto the gravy train via an involvement in financing said properties, granting them a seat on the production committee for those shows.

You can find the full press release for this move on the Crunchyroll web site, but here's a choice quote:

"The strategic alliance between Crunchyroll and KADOKAWA involves, among other initiatives, (i) KADOKAWA’s licensing to Crunchyroll exclusive rights for the worldwide distribution (excluding Asia) for KADOKAWA’s slate of upcoming anime titles for the upcoming year, (ii) co-financing by Crunchyroll in KADOKAWA’s anime titles to be produced in the future and (iii) comprehensive marketing collaboration between KADOKAWA’s publishing business and Crunchyroll’s distribution platform business. Both parties regard the alliance as an important first step towards possibly further expanding relations in the future.

To bolster KADOKAWA’s planned formation of a publishing joint venture with the major U.S. publisher Hachette Book Group, specializing in manga and light novels (scheduled for May), Crunchyroll and KADOKAWA will seek to strengthen their relationship through a marketing campaign with the book publishing and anime distribution businesses, as well as joint efforts to expand relevant merchandising businesses, in order to maximize the growth potential of Japanese content in the North American market."

It's another exciting day for the anime industry (at least it is if you're fascinated by the industry processes within the business), and it'll be particularly interesting to see how the "new" Yen Press looks over the coming year as their new venture kicks into gear. As always, we'll certainly be watching this space with interest.