Crunchyroll European Manga Operations Spun Off To HarperCollins

In a surprising development, HarperCollins, one of the world’s largest book publishers has announced that it has acquired Crunchyroll’s European manga publishing business in Germany and France, a business that began life in 1994 as KAZE in France before expanding regionally in the 1990s and 2000s. In the wake of the explosive growth of the publisher, KAZE became an acquisition target by US-based Viz Media in 2009 to form Viz Media Europe, which experienced its own surge of growth to the point that former Crunchyroll parent Otter Media acquired Viz Media Europe to form Crunchyroll Europe in 2018 and rebranded as simply Crunchyroll in 2022 as a result of the change in business entity from the acqusition by Sony and merger of Funimation into Crunchyroll. Crunchyroll still retains the European home video and media publishing business, also branded as Crunchyroll under the deal.

“We are thrilled to expand our manga portfolio in Europe, building on our already successful Japanese business,” said Brian Murray, president and CEO of HarperCollins, in a statement, alluding to HarperCollins Japan’s manga publishing program. “As the only major western publisher operating in Japan, this acquisition strengthens our expertise and capabilities in this fast-growing category. This is a significant step toward broadening the HarperCollins manga program around the world, not only in the Europe, but the English language markets as well.”

The transaction is set to close in the second half of 2025, subject to regulatory approval. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.