Publisher Kaze disappears after its takeover by Crunchyroll

Kaze will officially bow out. Yesterday, the French manga and anime publisher confirmed its name change, to be closer to Crunchyroll. No real disappearance, the company simply continues its momentum, and merges with its new parent company. A change that should not have jeopardized Kaze’s editorial plans, but which marks the end of an era for the French house founded in 1994.

Crunchyroll continues to rise

For its part, Crunchyroll pursues its ambition to become the world leader in the import of Japanese entertainment. By consolidating its brands under a single name, the group hopes consolidate its image, at a time when it has already merged with Funanimation (a subsidiary of Sony) last year. Soon, the integration of the Wakanim and ADN catalogs could sign the merger of all these SVOD platforms into one, thus creating a choice option for fans of Japanese animation.

What will change?

Starting this fall, manga and anime series distributed by Kaze will now be sold under the Crunchyroll label. A logical decision, explained the company’s new president Rahul Purini recently: “Anime and manga go hand in hand. While we salute the extraordinary work done by Kazé for almost 30 years in France, we are delighted to take Crunchyroll to the next level through these manga and home video activities. We are happy to continue to leverage the long experience of the internal teams that made Kazé successful to take Crunchyroll to new heights.”

First series impacted by this change, Dandadan is expected for October 5 in bookstores. Ongoing series should keep the Kaze logo until the end of their publication, so as not to mismatch the collections. An initiative that should delight readers.