Crunchyroll has acquired worldwide distribution rights to the next feature film from Makoto Shinkai, the director behind Your Name and Suzume. The deal covers all territories outside of Asia, with the exception of India, according to Deadline.
The title, plot details, and release date for the film have not been disclosed. It will be Shinkai's eighth feature project.
Crunchyroll and Sony Pictures previously partnered on the global release of Suzume in 2023, which grossed more than $300 million worldwide. The film earned Shinkai a Golden Globe nomination and became the first anime film since Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away to premiere in competition at the Berlin Film Festival, according to The Wrap.
Shinkai's international breakthrough came in 2016 with Your Name, a romantic fantasy about a teenage boy in Tokyo and a teenage girl in the countryside who inexplicably switch bodies. The film grossed $400 million worldwide and set a then-record as the highest-grossing Japanese film of all time, a title it held until Demon Slayer: Mugen Train surpassed it in 2020.
Your Name launched what became known as Shinkai's Disaster Trilogy. His follow-up, Weathering with You in 2019, served as Japan's official submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Suzume completed the trilogy, continuing the theme of Japan's relationship with natural disasters told through young protagonists.
Shinkai was born in Nagano Prefecture in 1973. He first drew attention in 2002 with the self-produced short film Voices of a Distant Star, which won several awards. His first full-length feature, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, premiered in 2004 and won Best Animated Film at the 59th Mainichi Film Concours.
Crunchyroll has grown significantly as a theatrical distributor in recent years. Last year, the company handled distribution for Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle in territories where it partnered with Sony, accounting for $543.5 million of the film's $793 million global gross, a new record for an anime film.
Suzume won Best Film at the eighth annual Crunchyroll Anime Awards. No timeline has been announced for when details about Shinkai's next project will be made public.
