Anime Expo in Los Angeles Bookends a Boom Year for the Sector and a Growth Spurt for Crunchyroll

The cosplay was typically intense and wildly creative among the tens of thousands of anime fans who turned out over the holiday weekend for the four-day Anime Expo in downtown Los Angeles.

But there was one unmissable trend evident in the sea of characters that stood out like a neon sign to executives at Crunchyroll, Sony Corp.’s subscription streaming anime platform that is the undisputed hub for the growing medium.

The executives couldn’t help but notice the high volume of home-made, tall conical witch hats with tassels that were sported by attendees in a nod to the hit Crunchyroll series “Witch Hat Atelier.” What surprised them was that the show only hit the platform in early April. That means fans quickly committed to delivering a cosplay tribute to the adventures of plucky witch apprentice Coco as they prepared for this weekend’s Anime Expo convention, which is the biggest such gathering for fans in North America.

For many young adults, couples and families, America 250 celebrations took a backseat to the opportunity to meet their anime heroes through the panels, meet-and-greets, sneak peeks and fan giveaways that unfolded over four days at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the Peacock Theater and other downtown L.A. venues.

“We are really just starting to understand how global this phenomenon has become, and how much among Gen Z this really has become their favorite medium and art form,” says Mitchel Berger, Crunchyroll’s executive VP of global commerce. “A lot of people are still surprised at the global nature of it and the mainstream army it has become at this point.”

This year’s Anime Expo, which concludes today, comes as the bookend to an astounding 12-month stretch of growth in business and pop culture prominence for anime. Netflix’s juggernaut “K-Pop Demon Hunters” movie debuted June 20, 2025. It set viewership records for the dominant streamer, and perhaps as important, the film and its music went on a tour of the international awards circuit, which put the spotlight on the artistry and hand-crafted nature of anime production.

In September 2025, Sony Pictures and Crunchyroll scored a box office smash with “Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle.” Perhaps the surest sign of Crunchyroll’s impact in serving a lucrative global niche is the fact that competitors from AMC Networks to Netflix to Tubi to Hulu have been increasing their investment in anime content. With the right property, anime appeals to an audience that loves to binge-watch and regularly engage on social – two measures that are particularly valuable for subscription platforms like Crunchyroll.

Crunchyroll was founded 20 years ago by a group of anime enthusiasts in Berkeley, Calif. Sony Corp. acquired Crunchyroll from AT&T’s Otter Media in 2021 and merged it with the company’s existing Funimation group, which created an anime powerhouse with an enormous vault.

The burst of activity in the anime realm — which is distinct from traditional animation — over the past year has been gratifying for those who have been working to advance the medium for decades. Many of them are Japanese artists, writers, directors, producers, actors and others who have traditionally worked largely in obscurity. But that’s changing. As part of Anime Expo, Crunchyroll hosted an upfront-like new product showcase at the Peacock Theater, which was packed with cheering fans. Anime artisans such as director Yuichiro Hayashi and star voice actors Taihi Kimura (“Kagurabachi”) and Aleks Le (“Solo Leveling: Beyond the System”) were highlighted. So was Raiki Murao, an anime college student creator from Nagoya who won the Crunchyroll Award in March at AnimeJapan’s Emerging Creator Awards.

On stage looking out at a packed 7,000-seat theater, as he received applause for the clip of his creation “One With the City,” Murao said through a translator, “I’m really feeling the unity here.”

The boom has lifted Crunchyroll’s subscriber base to 21 million, a gain of 4 million in a year, as the company disclosed in May. The biggest growth markets for the service in recent months have included Brazil, India, the U.S. and the Middle East. The production and distribution eco-system around the creation of anime content, including manga print and digital graphic novels, is extensive in Japan and other parts of Asia, as evidenced on the Anime Expo exhibition floor.

“The recognition that the [‘Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle’] creators got during their award season — getting a Golden Globe nomination, being shortlisted for BAFTAs and just being in the Oscar conversation — for us being able to finally have those creators and artists and people who have poured their heart and soul into this art form for so long get more mainstream recognition and be in the conversation as a great form of animation was really gratifying,” Berger said. “It was just a great moment for the community.”

Crunchyroll’s own Anime Awards event in Japan hit new heights of engagement in its 10^th year. In a sign of the times, the company opted to live stream the ceremony free via YouTube and TikTok this year. Crunchyroll is working with parent company Sony to executive a 360-degree strategy by tying the streamer’s brand in monthly theatrical releases to bring fans into theaters. An in-person communal experience in a local theater adds another dimension to the experience of streaming at home, which can be isolating. Anime fans crave a blend of opportunities to interact with favorite stories and characters.

“I don’t know of any other medium where people find so much of themselves in it. They don’t just love the stories and the characters — they find identity, they find community, they find belonging,” says Scott Donaton, who is senior VP of global brand and community for Crunchyroll.

The medium, with its strong visual aesthetic and storytelling fundamentals, has expanded to include a wider range of subjects and tones. A number of upcoming titles showcased at Crunchyroll’s Anime Expo showcase was an edgy young adult drama adapted from the manga “The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn’t a Guy At All,” and it has licensed the Nirvana 1991 song “Breed.” None other than Dave Grohl sent a video clip endorsing the deal and enthusiing that “Kurt would have loved this,” in reference to the late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain.

“About 80% of anime fans say that they’ve deepened or made friendships because of anime, and that’s why things like this are so important, because these fans want to be with each other, they want to be sharing that love and that joy,” Donaton says. “The appetite for anime keeps growing, and this is a community that wants to be together in person.”

To that end, Crunchyroll has invested in its in-person activations across the world, with retailers and wide range of fan events from Mumbai to London to São Paulo, as well as eye-catching sponsorship opportunities.

The company had the largest footprint by far at Anime Expo. Its spacious installation on the exhibition floor included an animatronic anime character, hands-on games and the “Dubbing Dojo” booth that allowed attendees dub their voice into an anime scene.

The leaders of Crunchyroll, headed by president Rahul Purini, have worked to understand the nuances of the community of fandom and of artists that are essential to the success of anime properties. Berger and Donaton say they work to engage the community without being exploitive or diminishing of Crunchroll’s carefully cultivated brand.

“We don’t want to be something for everyone — we want to be everything to someone,” says Berger. “That becomes the lens that drives our business goals, as well as what are the places — manga, theatrical, streaming, games, merchandise, live gatherings and real life events – where we can show up. Our whole thing is whatever the anime fans want, wherever they want to be served, we want to help them connect with the stories they love.”