One of the largest international anime distributors is Crunchyroll. Although it has a considerable catalog of titles that grows season after season and even offers dubbing in several languages, the company’s executives believe that women should watch more anime. Therefore, the vice president has given an interview in which she explains the platform’s intentions to reach female audiences.
Crunchyroll to serve its female audience through anime
We know that anime has an endless number of stories that manage to catch us with its plot and that sometimes we have our favorites and even give a chance to others that catch our attention for some aspect such as the studio that develops it, the musical themes, the seiyuus, the design, etc. But apparently women are not giving the same importance and attention to anime on platforms as is expected in numbers.
Recently, Crunchyroll’s VP of Global Consumer Products, Anna Songco Adamian, gave an interview to McKenna Morgan, a correspondent for License Global media. The interview took place during License Expo 2024, where they talked about the upcoming goals and strategies that the platform will pursue to reach out to women as an audience interested in its extensive content on an international level.
First of all, Crunchyroll’s VP pointed out that the platform has always had a good anime fan base, including women. However, for a long time not enough attention has been paid to this sector, and it is time to do something to bring them closer. In this regard, he said, “We are focusing on anime that speaks to female audiences.”
Adamian commented, “I think the female fandom has always been present in anime, but it’s growing in numbers, and I think it’s a community that we really want to reach out to. They’ve been underserved, and I think they’ll be really excited about what we have in store.” This has sparked interest and curiosity about what they have planned for the female audience, although they have already revealed a bit of what their strategy is all about.
He said that they have licensed titles that they believe may appeal to women: “For this, we are focusing on series such as Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun and Bananya, which is literally about a cat that lives in a banana”. However, he did not forget to also make clear the priorities Crunchyroll has such as boosting popular titles like Kaiju No. 8 and Solo Leveling, in addition to the upcoming Tokyo Ghoul project for its tenth anniversary, as they have tried to give more visibility to isekai and shonen.
In the case of Kaiju No. 8, Crunchyroll saw great potential in this adaptation as it was an anime that gained quite a lot of fame and also featured YUNGBLUD in the opening theme. In addition, the isekai genre is a favorite among the public and is so popular that it is a trend that they also want to give more attention to.
The interview continued with several Crunchyroll announcements for Ani-May 2024, revealing new merchandise and promotional videos of famous franchises such as Demon Slayer: Kymetsu no Yaiba and Jujutsu Kaisen, a great collaboration with Hot Topic, options to watch anime for free and the chance to win VIP access to the Japan Expo in Paris this summer 2024.
Finally, with all these strategies, collaborations and new merchandise, Crunchyroll not only wants to expand its subscriber base, but also seeks to offer content that responds to the tastes and demands of each sector, focusing on the female audience in the world of anime.