A new report claims that Sony is looking to acquire FromSoftware parent company Kadokawa Corporation, but that could actually be disturbing news for manga fans.
Reports emerged earlier today that Sony is apparently in “ongoing” conversations with Kadokawa about the tech company acquiring the owner of FromSoftware. Obviously, consolidation is always bad when it comes to video games, as we've seen with companies like Embracer Group acquiring a ton of studios only to later shut them down. But as some people online have pointed out, there's another concern with Sony's potential acquisition of Kadokawa: anime. Kadokawa Group has a large number of manga and light novel publishing subsidiaries, Kadokawa Shoten is one of them, publishing popular works such as “Death of Summer Light”, “Everyday Life” and the manga adaptation “Neon Genesis Evangelion”.
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In addition to this, it also owns Doga Kobo (most recently known for the popularity of Shinobu Son), and co-owns Western comics publisher Yen Press, among others. Worryingly, Sony already owns Aniplex, a major Japanese entertainment company that produces Fullmetal Alchemist, Madoka Magica, Sword Art Online, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and Tengen Lagann and other large-scale series of works. It also owns Crunchyroll, which merged with Funimation a few years ago.
That in itself was controversial, especially when Funimation's streaming service went down, as it also took everyone's digital library with it. Many Funimation subscribers and users weren't happy when this happened, without even mentioning that it already meant Sony had a huge stake in the entire anime and manga industry. Adding Kadokawa to the mix only expands the reach further, which is always a concern – heard of Monopoly, Sony? This is not a fun board game.
Whether or not the acquisition goes through is still up in the air, but the deal is expected to be finalized “in the coming weeks,” so we'll see if Sony actually ends up having that much control over the manga and anime industry (it probably will).
