Today, the world’s most popular anime brand Crunchyroll announced its new partnership with VIZ Media Europe Group to distribute content through the group’s network of partners across Europe, The Middle East and Africa. With this new joint venture, John Easum has been appointed as new Head of Crunchyroll EMEA.
Easum’s role will oversee the global expansion of Crunchyroll, including overseeing VIZ Media Europe Group, international events, and discovering growth opportunities. VIZ Media Europe Group’s current President Mr. Kazuyoshi Takeuchi will transition into the role of Advisor.
“I have a deep history with VIZ Media Europe, and I am grateful for the opportunity to again lead a very talented team under a new strategy that I strongly believe will take our company to the next level,” said John Easum, head of Crunchyroll EMEA. “Collectively, we will be in a much stronger position to bring the global anime and manga communities comprehensive 360-degree experiences around the content they love; beyond streaming into broadcast and home video, publishing, consumer products and licensing, events, gaming, and much, much, more.”
With this new deal, Crunchyroll is now the majority owner in VIZ Media Europe Group which includes VIZ Media Switzerland, AV Visionen, KAZÉ, KAZÉ Manga, Anime on Demand, and Anime Digital Network (in partnership with Citel, a subsidiary of Média-Participations).
“This is an important moment in Crunchyroll’s history, indicative of our commitment to growing the global anime and manga communities. Through this acquisition, we now have operations and expertise at scale in EMEA to grow the value and audience of our collective IP across streaming, broadcast, theatrical, home video, manga, games, events, ecomm and more” said Joanne Waage, general manager of Crunchyroll. “As we move into this next chapter, we can think of no person better-suited to guide our strategy and team in EMEA than John Easum, who brings more than 25 years of experience growing the anime and manga industries internationally and who has served in leadership positions previously at VIZ Media Europe and VIZ Media USA.”
Crunchyroll now has offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Chisinau, Paris, Berlin, and Lausanne.
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