Date: 2022 October 23 00:12
Posted by Eeeper
Anime Limited have announced they've joined the PLAION group.
UK and French divisions of anime label purchased by division of Embracer Group for an undisclosed sum.
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Details as follows:
Anime Ltd joins the PLAION group
It's official! Today PLAION group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Embracer Group AB, announced that they've entered into an agreement to acquire Anime Ltd. We believe both PLAION and Embracer Group represent an entrepreneur-led and content-driven future that aligns perfectly with our own vision of where we want to take our company.
This is a huge step forwards for the whole Anime Ltd team as it allows us to deliver the highest quality works in Japan across Japanese animation and music to the rest of the European market in addition to the UK, France and USA as we do at present. Ultimately it allows us to bring more to both existing and new fans so we can't wait to get cracking!
"We are looking forward to joining the team of PLAION, with whom we have already successfully collaborated via both our French and Scottish offices. Together, we are in a unique position to deliver a bespoke and streamlined approach for our business in each of the core territories in Europe. I am excited about the opportunities for growth that this deal represents."
- Andrew Partridge, MD and co-founder of Anime Ltd
"I am happy to see that Anime Ltd. takes the next step in its development and becomes part of a strong entertainment group with a clear vision and a promising strategy. I look forward to being able to further build up our business and unfold Anime Ltd.'s full potential to make Japanese pop culture content even more popular in Europe and the world."
- Cedric Littardi, co-founder and chairman of the board at Anime Ltd
Anime Ltd will operate as an independent company within PLAION PICTURES (Film Publishing Arm of PLAION), the current Management will continue to run the company. The company will maintain its present release schedule currently, with even more to look forward to on the horizon We'll be sure to keep fans updated as more news is available too.
We'd like to thank all of our dedicated customers for their support of Anime Ltd and we can't wait as we start our second decade to many more years of creating the best possible Japanese animation releases in the market and connecting creators to the audiences we ourselves care about deeply.
Editorial comment:
Ten years is a pretty good run for a label like AL, and while the team is staying put, it's sad to see them end their indie streak.
With Plaion buying out Anime Limited (and Manga UK being bought by Funimation, followed by Sony's acquisition of Crunchyroll), there now remains a single independent anime label in the UK and Ireland. While consolidation is the name of the game, eventually (as evidenced by Crunchy and FUNI merging) you end up with one or two players and that's never good for choice. We can only hope that Anime Limited's new owners allow them to remain the same maverick label they've always been.