Anime giant Crunchyroll kicks off its inaugural Anime Future Forum at New York’s Javits Convention Center, on Oct. 7. The event will serve as a precursor to New York’s Comic Con.
Over 90 companies will be represented, with top anime studios showcased. These include 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.). In addition, over 500 people are expected to attend with 200 people flying in from Japan.
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Crunchyroll’s Chief Operating Officer, Gita Rebbapragada, says, “Four years ago, we brought the Crunchyroll Anime Awards to Tokyo so more of the creators behind anime could be in the room as their work was recognized. We were overwhelmed by the energy — not only around the awards, but in the conversations happening between people who care deeply about anime and its future. That stayed with us. The Anime Future Forum grew from a simple idea: create a place for those conversations to happen, ideas to be exchanged and the people shaping anime to imagine what comes next together.”
The conference tracks will focus on four key themes: fandom, technology, storytelling and IP protection. Fandom will be a key spotlight during the forum.
Rebbapragada explains, “With growth comes diversity. We don’t say it’s a genre; it’s a medium. For us, it’s our whole world and we see so much diversity within anime and we’re excited to share some of those learnings.”
Technology will be another fundamental topic. “You can’t ignore that there is a lot of innovation happening in technology, and it is great to hear from people who are using it and just do knowledge sharing on that,” Rebbapragada says. “We want to protect the creative integrity — that’s a big area we want to share information on as well. Storytelling is kind of at the heart of it all. We’ve got some amazing storytellers too, from all different types of content, sharing their stories, what they’ve learned, their successes and mistakes. I think that knowledge sharing is incredibly important.”
Also participating in the forum are director James Gunn plus 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 attend. Sony’s top leaders will be out in force to support the event.
Crunchyroll boasts the largest library of anime for streaming and 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.
Rebbapragada stresses the company’s deep mission, is to connect fans and creators. She adds, “We want to do more with fans. We want to contribute to the anime ecosystem. This is one way where we feel like we have the opportunity to bring a lot of people together, and everyone comes out of it learning something new.”
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