Rolling Into San Diego Comic-Con, Crunchyroll Evolves Its Brand, Celebrating The Energy, Passion, And Joy Of Fandom As Anime Growth Continues

(Press Release)

Anime Fans to get First Peek at Crunchyroll’s New Look and Feel at SDCCAlong with Crunchyroll Concert Series Featuring LiSA and the One Piece 25th Anniversary: Symphonic Voyage Presented in Collaboration with Toei Animation

Manila, Philippines – Crunchyroll, the ultimate brand for all things anime, is unveiling a new brand identity today. The new look, feel, and sound will reflect the joy that anime brings to fans, tapping into an ethos of fun and celebration.

Crunchyroll continues to bring anime to fans in all the ways they want it across streaming, theatrical, events, games, music, news, consumer products, collectibles and more. Central to Crunchyroll's growth has been a focus on connecting fans and creators in celebration of their shared passions. 

Starting on July 25 with San Diego Comic-Con, the updated and recharged Crunchyroll brand identity will be rolled out across all fan touchpoints of the organization over the next year.

The updated brand identity includes a modernized logo with a balanced eye symbol and revamped wordmark; a new font set called Crunchyroll Atyp that blends classic and modern elements for improved readability; and a vibrant color system featuring orange, black, white, and taupe to reflect anime's dynamic nature. The new glyph system boasts over 139 anime and manga-inspired characters, adding depth and personality. A new seven-second audio-visual mnemonic captures the immersive Crunchyroll experience with anime-inspired sound design and playful elements. Collaboration and co-creation with Japanese artists on new textures and patterns further enhance the brand's authenticity and immersive storytelling.

Fans will first experience the new Crunchyroll look and feel at San Diego Comic-Con, where the brand evolution will be emblazoned across the Rady Shell concert venue in celebration of the Crunchyroll Concert Series. Giving fans even more ways to express and celebrate their love for anime and Japanese pop culture, the two-day event will feature J-Pop sensation LiSA and hyperpop genius Alice Longyu Gao as well as the One Piece 25th Anniversary: Symphonic Voyage concert in collaboration with Toei Animation, celebrating the iconic series’ 25th anniversary.

Additionally, the new brand identity will also be showcased inside and outside the Convention Center. There, fans will get a chance to showcase their passion for anime by picking up a limited and fan-forward streetwear collection inspired by the new and refreshed Crunchyroll – designed by 2024 CFDA Fashion Fund finalist Sebastian Ami! 

“As the number of ‘anime-curious’ people approaches the one billion mark, and anime continues to command a prominent place in popular culture, we wanted to evolve the Crunchyroll brand to appeal to a growing diversity of global fans without losing the core essence of what fans have loved about Crunchyroll along the way,” said Rahul Purini, President of Crunchyroll. “We believe this new brand evolution will encourage and welcome many anime fans to deepen their love for years to come.”

"A lot of attention to detail and meaning was embedded into all the unique elements of our updated look and feel. Whether it be the vibrancy of our new Crunchyroll orange or the audio mark inspired by anime’s unique sounds.,” said Gita Rebbapragada, Chief Operating Officer of Crunchyroll, who also oversees marketing. “Our teams live and breathe anime, and we wanted to pour that passion into designing a brand that is purposely fit for legions of fans around the world – giving them space to deepen their love and further their emotional connection.”

Development of the new brand identity package was led by Crunchyroll’s Markus Gerdemann (Senior Vice President, Marketing) and Norman Rabinovich (Vice President, Creative Services).

Crunchyroll offers fans the ultimate anime experience, pairing the world’s largest dedicated anime streaming library of 50,000 episodes and more than 25,000 hours of anime series, music, and films with experiences across events, theatrical, gaming, ecommerce, and so much more. 

Over the last year, anime – and thus Crunchyroll – has surpassed numerous milestones, achieved increased success and launched new fan-forward initiatives.

Crunchyroll’s Recent Success and Milestones

Streaming

• Streaming continues to be the heartbeat of the brand. Every season, Crunchyroll brings new and returning series to the service, between 45 and 60 in number. From co-productions to acquisitions, many signature series are beloved by fans, including Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba, JUJUTSU KAISEN, One Piece, Chainsaw Man and Solo Leveling. 
• Last year, Crunchyroll partnered with SMEJ (Sony Music Entertainment Japan) to bring anime-related music to the service, including 3,300 music videos and concerts.
• Strong subscriber rates – which recently crossed 14M+ members.

Crunchyroll recently added new dub languages – Tamil and Telugu – to serve fans in India and beyond. We now dub our content in 12 languages.

Distribution

• We took major strides in reaching more anime fans and the “anime curious.” We launched our own linear channel (Crunchyroll Anime Channel) distributed by media brands like Amazon Freevee, LG Channels, The Roku Channel, VIZIO WatchFree+, Sling and more.
• We also partnered with Amazon Prime to launch a Crunchyroll channel on their service in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany, Brazil and Mexico. France and India came on board a few weeks ago.
• We also signed a deal with Netflix for first-season availability of some needle-moving anime, which is good for anime fans.

Theatrical

• Crunchyroll is known for distributing the best anime films around the globe. From more mainstream fare based on IP like Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba and SPY x FAMILY to a masterpiece from Makoto Shinkai like Suzume, Crunchyroll still holds the position as the distributor of half of the Top 20 anime box office hits in the U.S.

Events

• Crunchyroll has a massive footprint at dozens of global fan events, including such ones as Anime Expo, San Diego Comic-Con and New York Comic Con, Anime NYC, Animagic (Germany), CCXP (Brazil), Japan Expo (France) and Anime Festival Asia (Singapore). And of course, for the first time in March 2023, Crunchyroll brought the Anime Awards to Tokyo in a star-studded event celebrating creators. The 2024 edition returned to Tokyo on March 2, 2024. With more than 400 anime industry attendees and global presenters representing passionate anime fans from across entertainment, including superstar and GRAMMY-winning artist Megan Thee Stallion, Japanese singer-songwriter LiSA, award-winning actress Iman Vellani among many others. In 2024, the show reached new heights, with more than 34M votes cast from fans around the world.

Games

• Crunchyroll launched Crunchyroll Game Vault, a value add for our subscribers, with a new, ever-expanding library of premium mobile games, now at 14. The service also launched the Triple A RPG game One Punch Man: World both on Windows PC, Android, and iOS. It was Crunchyroll’s biggest title to date, with cross platform play and progression (meaning fans can start on PC and then continue their game experience on their mobile device, and vice versa).

Retail and ECommerce

• Crunchyroll signed a deal to have prominent product placement in Walmart store pods or “fan shops” across more than 2,400 stores in the United States. These branded retail areas introduced Crunchyroll’s first-ever physical subscription cards, allowing access to 1-month, 3-month, or 12-months subscriptions without the use of a credit card.
• Crunchyroll completed the integration of the RightStuf acquisition and brand merger, now making Crunchyroll Store the premiere destination for anime fans who want to collect their favorite titles, offering more than 30,000 products across manga, home video, apparel and more.
• Crunchyroll has launched many merchandise collaborations with celebrity super fans (Megan Thee Stallion and Lady Gaga) and just announced one with GRAMMY-nominated rapper Logic earlier this month.

Awards

• Headlined by Crunchyroll’s first-ever Golden Globe nomination (for Best Animated Feature for Suzume), the past year was a banner one for accolades. We also were part of garnering seven Annie Award nominations for Suzume and also an ASTRA win from the Hollywood Creative Alliance for Attack on Titan. 

About Crunchyroll

Crunchyroll is the global anime brand that fuels fans’ love of anime. With the ambition to make anime an even bigger part of pop culture and truly irresistible, Crunchyroll offers fans the ultimate anime experience and destination centered around a premium streaming service. It boasts the largest dedicated anime library, an immersive world of events, exciting theatrical releases, unique games, must-have merchandise, timely news, and more. Anime is for everyone and is accessible to stream across territories through Crunchyroll—whether on the go on mobile, through gaming consoles and big-screen devices at home, or on desktops anywhere.

Crunchyroll, LLC is an independently operated joint venture between U.S.-based Sony Pictures Entertainment and Japan’s Aniplex, a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc., both subsidiaries of Tokyo-based Sony Group.