Crunchyroll and Sony Reunite for Makoto Shinkai's Next Anime Film
Sony's Crunchyroll has acquired global distribution rights to Makoto Shinkai's untitled next feature film, the company announced on Tuesday (The Hollywood Reporter).
Crunchyroll will co-distribute the film with Sony Pictures Entertainment across the world excluding Asia, with India grouped alongside the Western territories. The deal mirrors the release path of Shinkai's previous film, Suzume, which Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures handled jointly. The title, plot details, and expected release timing for the new film are all being kept under wraps.
Shinkai is one of the most bankable names in anime, and the distribution blueprint his films now follow is becoming a familiar one. Toho, Japan's largest film studio, handles the domestic release — Japan being the home market where anime films typically open first — while Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures take the rest of the world. For Suzume, that meant a Japanese opening on November 11, 2022, followed by a global rollout across all other major territories beginning in early 2023 (Screen Daily).
Crunchyroll had first announced its worldwide theatrical plans for Suzume in May 2022, months before the film opened in Japan, giving international audiences a clear signal that the film would reach their screens (Crunchyroll News). Wild Bunch International partnered with Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures on that earlier film's global distribution; the new deal makes no mention of a third-party partner, suggesting Sony's infrastructure will carry the full weight of the release outside Asia.
For fans, the news means Shinkai's next work is locked into a theatrical run that will reach cinemas well beyond Japan. No release date has been set, and the silence around the project's title and story leaves little to go on beyond the filmmaker's track record: sweeping landscapes, young protagonists, and emotional stakes that travel across cultures.
What stands out is the consistency of the partnership. Crunchyroll, which Sony acquired in 2021, has positioned itself as the primary pipeline for major anime theatrical releases in the West. Repeating the Suzume formula with Shinkai's next film signals that the studio views the combination — Japanese domestic release through Toho, global theatrical through Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures — as a proven model rather than a one-off experiment.
Shinkai's films have consistently drawn large international audiences. The director is best known for Your Name (2016) and Weathering with You (2019), both of which became breakout hits outside Japan. With distribution now locked, the next question is when audiences will learn what Shinkai has been building.
