The May 19 issue of the Japanese government’s Kanpo gazette reported that the Japanese branch of Crunchyroll‘s net profits for the fiscal period ending in December 2025 were 453 million yen (about US$2.85 million), a drop of 63% from the previously reported 1.239 billion yen (about US$7.79 million) in 2024.

Crunchyroll announced on May 8 that it has crossed 21 million paid subscribers globally. 

Crunchyroll laid off a number of employees in March, after a restructuring and redistribution of roles based on location. The company’s restructuring was also due to a shift in its e-commerce strategy, and not due to cost-cutting measures.

Crunchyroll is an independently operated joint venture between U.S.-based Sony Pictures Entertainment and Japan’s Aniplex. Sony Pictures Entertainment and Aniplex‘s Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) parent are both in turn subsidiaries of Tokyo-based Sony Group.

Sony‘s Funimation Global Group completed its acquisition of Crunchyroll from AT&T on August 9, 2021, after the company first announced the acquisition in December 2020. The purchase price was US$1.175 billion, and the proceeds were paid in cash at closing. Funimation‘s home video releases are now listed under Crunchyroll.

Update: Clarified Crunchyroll branch. Thanks, Kan2Screm.

Sources: Gamebiz, Kanpo Gazette

The staff of the live-action mini-series of Tsunami Umino‘s Kuroema: Chole et Emma manga unveiled a new trailer and visual on Wednesday. The trailer announces and previews the theme song “sign,” which the band LAUSBUB created for the series.

The manga’s story begins when Emma, a 30-year-old woman, loses her love life, job, and home in one fell swoop, as the boyfriend she was living with breaks up with her on the same day the company she was working for goes bankrupt. She wanders into a mansion, and is soon found by its owner Chloe, an eccentric rich heiress who lives alone. While Chloe initially accepts Emma staying at her mansion for a night, an unfortunate fire at Chloe’s home that night forces them to find a living situation together. Later, a customer arrives at Chloe’s fortune telling shop and brings mysterious circumstances that the two get drawn into.

The series stars::

Guest cast also includes: Asami Usuda, Yūta Hayashi, Renn Kiriyama, and Yōhei Hayashida.

The series will debut streaming worldwide exclusively on Amazon Prime Video on June 12, and will have five episodes. Rikiya Imaizumi (live-action Teasing Master Takagi-san, 1122: For a Happy Marriage) is directing the series, and is also penning scripts alongside his wife Kaori Imaizumi.

Umino launched the manga in Kodansha‘s Kiss magazine in August 2022. Kodansha published the manga’s fourth compiled book volume on March 13.

Umino began the The Full-Time Wife Escapist (Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu) manga in November 2012, and ended the manga in February 2020. Kodansha shipped the 11th and final compiled book volume in April 2020. The manga won the shojo category of the 39th Kodansha Awards.

A live-action television series adaptation aired in Japan in fall 2016. A live-action special aired in December 2020.

Kodansha USA Publishing publishes the manga digitally in English.

Sources: Amazon Prime Video Japan’s YouTube channel and X/Twitter account, Comic Natalie

The Chukyo TV channel announced a live-action television series adaptation of Keiko Suenobu‘s Ochitara Owari manga on Wednesday. The series will premiere in the “Suiyō Platinight” (Wednesday Platinum Night) timeslot on Chukyo TV, NTV, and their affiliated channels nationwide on July 1.

Former AKB-48 group member Mariko Shinoda (Terra Formars, Kaiji: Final Game) stars as Kumiko Mamiya.

Television program announcer Misato Ugaki stars as Asumi Tsukishima.

Taeko Asano (live-action Marmalade Boy, More Than Words) is writing the scripts.

The story follows the difficult relationships of housewife Asumi Tsukishima, who, after five years of married life, has achieved her dream of moving into a new high-rise apartment building with her family of three. She makes friends with mothers of her daughter’s friends, but also living there is Asumi’s old classmate Kumiko Mamiya.

The manga debuted in Be Love in June 2019. Suenobu ended the series in September 2023. Kodansha shipped the tenth and final volume in October 2023.

Suenobu launched the Addict manga in Kodansha‘s Be Love magazine on April 1.

Suenobu launched the Life 2: Giver/Taker manga in Kodansha‘s Afternoon magazine in June 2016, and ended it in October 2018. Kodansha published six compiled book volumes for the manga. The manga inspired a live-action show adaptation in January.

The 20-volume Life manga ran in Kodansha‘s Bessatsu Friend magazine from 2002-2009, and it won the Kodansha Manga Award in the shōjo category in 2006. Tokyopop published nine volumes of the series before it shut down its North American publishing division in 2011. The manga inspired a live-action television series in 2007.

Kodansha USA Publishing licensed both Life and Life 2: Giver/Taker.

Vertical published all six volumes of Suenobu’s Limit manga in 2012-2013. Limit also received a live-action television series in 2013.

Sources: Chukyo TV‘s website, Comic Natalie