AnimEigo Announces Episode 18 of Documentary Series - The Anime Business
ANIMEIGO ANNOUNCES EPISODE 18 OF THE DOCUMENTARY SERIES – THE ANIME BUSINESS
Crunchyroll co-founder Kun Gao offers insights into a career as an anime entrepreneur, seizing opportunities, managing risk, and reaping rewards
Los Angeles, CA - Anime distributor AnimEigo and parent company MediaOCD have released the latest episode of The Anime Business on YouTube featuring an in-depth interview with Crunchyroll co-founder Kun Gao, who recounts his incredible journey building the streaming platform that has transformed the anime industry and its fans.
The Anime Business Episode 18: Kun Gao is available on the official AnimEigo YouTube Channel.
Gao candidly recounts how his fandom for anime led him to combine some keen business savvy with an entrepreneurial passion and skill as a computer engineer to forever change how the world engages anime and fandom.
The interview is filled with anecdotes on the origins of Crunchyroll, which initially operated in the gray area between illegal piracy and semi-legitimacy and navigating the mystical world of Japanese licensing. He recounts the impacts and trade-offs for securing outside financial investment and later corporate acquisition and cautions on of the widening embrace of AI.
The Crunchyroll brand is synonymous with anime and Gao's contributions continue to reverberate across the anime industry and beyond. He helped to pioneer many technical aspects of running a massively scalable streaming platform and developed a business framework to streamline streaming licensing rights.
Gao departed Crunchyroll in 2021 when it was acquired by Sony Pictures Entertainment and the Funimation Global Group. It currently has over 21 million paid subscribers worldwide and operates as a joint venture under Sony's entertainment divisions, specifically managed by Sony Pictures Entertainment and Aniplex (a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan).
In June 2026, Gao's anime-focused media company Nakama launched a first-of-its-kind B2B marketplace platform called AniBiz.com that aims to streamline anime licensing and build an even wider and more integrated global market.
The Anime Business is a first-of-its-kind series featuring a wide range of entrepreneurs and visionaries that helped to pioneer and shape the North American anime and manga industries. It is produced and hosted by industry veteran and MediaOCD founder and AnimEigo CEO Justin Sevakis. Episodes 1-17 of The Anime Business and bonus clips are also now available to stream on the AnimeEigo YouTube channel. All episodes of The Anime Business are available in English. Japanese subtitles are also available via a special grant from the Kleckner Foundation.
About AnimEigo:
AnimEigo is a division of MediaOCD and was founded in 1989 as one the first distributors to focus on anime and an array of acclaimed Japanese live-action films in the United States and Canada. Over the last 35 years, AnimEigo consistently broadened the market for Japanese content by cultivating audiences for new genres of film.
Renowned for high quality translations, subtitles, and dubbing, AnimEigo has released a wide variety of classic anime titles. For more information, please visit: MediaOCD.com.
Crunchyroll co-founder Kun Gao offers insights into a career as an anime entrepreneur, seizing opportunities, managing risk, and reaping rewards
Los Angeles, CA - Anime distributor AnimEigo and parent company MediaOCD have released the latest episode of The Anime Business on YouTube featuring an in-depth interview with Crunchyroll co-founder Kun Gao, who recounts his incredible journey building the streaming platform that has transformed the anime industry and its fans.
The Anime Business Episode 18: Kun Gao is available on the official AnimEigo YouTube Channel.
Gao candidly recounts how his fandom for anime led him to combine some keen business savvy with an entrepreneurial passion and skill as a computer engineer to forever change how the world engages anime and fandom.
The interview is filled with anecdotes on the origins of Crunchyroll, which initially operated in the gray area between illegal piracy and semi-legitimacy and navigating the mystical world of Japanese licensing. He recounts the impacts and trade-offs for securing outside financial investment and later corporate acquisition and cautions on of the widening embrace of AI.
The Crunchyroll brand is synonymous with anime and Gao's contributions continue to reverberate across the anime industry and beyond. He helped to pioneer many technical aspects of running a massively scalable streaming platform and developed a business framework to streamline streaming licensing rights.
Gao departed Crunchyroll in 2021 when it was acquired by Sony Pictures Entertainment and the Funimation Global Group. It currently has over 21 million paid subscribers worldwide and operates as a joint venture under Sony's entertainment divisions, specifically managed by Sony Pictures Entertainment and Aniplex (a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan).
In June 2026, Gao's anime-focused media company Nakama launched a first-of-its-kind B2B marketplace platform called AniBiz.com that aims to streamline anime licensing and build an even wider and more integrated global market.
The Anime Business is a first-of-its-kind series featuring a wide range of entrepreneurs and visionaries that helped to pioneer and shape the North American anime and manga industries. It is produced and hosted by industry veteran and MediaOCD founder and AnimEigo CEO Justin Sevakis. Episodes 1-17 of The Anime Business and bonus clips are also now available to stream on the AnimeEigo YouTube channel. All episodes of The Anime Business are available in English. Japanese subtitles are also available via a special grant from the Kleckner Foundation.
About AnimEigo:
AnimEigo is a division of MediaOCD and was founded in 1989 as one the first distributors to focus on anime and an array of acclaimed Japanese live-action films in the United States and Canada. Over the last 35 years, AnimEigo consistently broadened the market for Japanese content by cultivating audiences for new genres of film.
Renowned for high quality translations, subtitles, and dubbing, AnimEigo has released a wide variety of classic anime titles. For more information, please visit: MediaOCD.com.
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