In some news to please anime fans, Crunchyroll plan to produce their own anime series.
The popular anime streaming service announced earlier this week that it will co-produce an anime with NBCUniversal Japan, who are best known for serial anime adaptations of Takaya Kagami’s teen action vampire series Seraph of the End and Kentaro Miura’s dark fantasy series, Berserk.
Crunchyroll did not announce further details on series it plans to develop, but it did say that its projects are aimed to appeal to international fans rather than a pure Japanese fanbase. More will no doubt be revealed at a later date.
Given NBCUniversal Japan’s anime portfolio (Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis, Gamers!, Arslan Senki), we wouldn’t be surprised to see something set in a fantasy world or an adaptation of Crunchyroll's bi-monthly manga series, The Daily Life of Crunchyroll-Hime, which tells a slice of life story about Crunchyroll’s mascot, Hime-Chan.
Crunchyroll has a history of partnering with NBCUniversal Japan, having the exclusive rights to Berserk and Gamers!. The streaming service had previously developed a variety of original manga content for the service, including a hyper-colourful webcomic by Hiroyuki Takahashi (The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya) called HYPERSONIC music club, which could also be given an anime adaptation.
Hopefully this results in more healthy competition between Crunchyroll, Netflix, AnimeLab and other anime-related streaming services given how more original content is always a bonus for fans. Netflix recently unveiled plans for twelve new anime series, including a new original anime adaptation of Go Nogai’s Devilman.
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