Crunchyroll Launches Anime Future Forum in New York Oct. 7

Crunchyroll launches its inaugural Anime Future Forum at New York's Javits Convention Center on Oct. 7, drawing over 90 companies and more than 500 attendees, including 200 flying in from Japan. The event runs as a precursor to New York Comic Con.

The forum puts top anime studios in the same room. Confirmed leaders include Taichi Ueda, film producer and executive officer at Toho; Manabu Otsuka, president and CEO of MAPPA; and Atsuhiro Iwakami, group CEO, representative director of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. and chairman of Aniplex Inc.

Crunchyroll Chief Operating Officer Gita Rebbapragada traces the event back to the Crunchyroll Anime Awards in Tokyo. "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," she said. "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."

What will the forum cover?

The conference tracks focus on four themes:

• Fandom
• Technology
• Storytelling
• IP protection

Fandom takes a key spotlight. "With growth comes diversity. We don't say it's a genre; it's a medium," Rebbapragada said. "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 forms 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," she said. "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."

Who else is attending?

Director James Gunn joins the lineup, alongside Bob Persichetti and Justin K. Thompson, directors of Sony Pictures' upcoming animated sequel "Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse." Anime influencers Amber Glenn, Big Sean and Jordan Howlett will also attend. Sony's top leaders will support the event in force.

The forum extends a business that has grown sharply under Sony. Sony Pictures Entertainment acquired Crunchyroll in 2021 and merged it with Sony's existing Funimation unit. The platform now holds the largest streaming library of anime and serves as Sony's biggest footprint in streaming.

Crunchyroll partnered with Sony Pictures on the theatrical rollout of 2025's "Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle," which set U.S. box office records for an anime feature.

Rebbapragada frames the forum as part of a deeper mission to connect fans and creators. "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," she said.

Whether the forum becomes an annual fixture alongside the Anime Awards will depend on what emerges from these first conversations between the studios, creators and platforms now shaping anime's global expansion.