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Anime giant Crunchyroll plans to dissect the growing business of anime with its first-ever thought leadership summit to be held as a precursor to New York Comic Con in October.
The Crunchyroll Anime Future Forum will
be held Oct. 7 at New York’s Javits Convention Center, with conference tracks focusing on four key themes: fandom, technology, storytelling and IP protection.
Notables set to speak at the event include director Guillermo del Toro, a longtime proponent of anime, director James Gunn, and Bob Persichetti and Justin K. Thompson, directors of Sony Pictures’ upcoming animated sequel “Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse.” Anime influencers including Amber Glenn, Big Sean and Jordan Howlett will also take part.
Top anime studios will also be showcased, including leaders from Toho (Taichi Ueda, film producer and executive officer), MAPPA (Manabu Otsuka, president and CEO) and Sony Music’s Aniplex (Atsuhiro Iwakami, Group CEO, representative director of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. and chairman of Aniplex Inc.).
Sony Corp.’s top leaders will be out in force to support the event. Crunchyroll has been under the Sony Pictures Entertainment umbrella since 2021, when the studio acquired Crunchyroll and merged it with Sony’s existing Funimation unit. The subscription streaming platform has blossomed into Sony’s biggest footprint in streaming and an engine of distinctive content for the company. Crunchyroll partnered with Sony Pictures for the theatrical rollout of 2025’s “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle,” which set U.S. box office records for an anime feature.
Hiroki Totoki, president and CEO of Sony Group Corp., will be on hand at the forum to deliver remarks, as will Ravi Ahuja, chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment. The event will conclude with observations and news delivered by Rahul Purini, Crunchyroll president.
New York Comic Con runs Oct. 8-10 at the Javits Center.
(Pictured: Crunchyroll’s Rahul Purini and Mitchel Berger at Variety’s screening of “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle” in November 2025.)
