Japanese entertainment monolith Toho and US distributor GKIDS have been working closely together for a while now. Two of the largest exports of the last twelve months — Godzilla Minus One and Studio Ghibli’s The Boy And The Heron — were produced by Toho and sold in the US through GKIDS. Toho must’ve been pleased with GKIDS’ handling of their movies…because they just bought ’em.
As of this week GKIDS becomes a Toho subsidiary with the latter acquiring 100% equity from the former. It’s worth noting Toho also produces some of TV’s most popular anime shows like My Hero Academia and Jujutsu Kaisen, currently distributed through Crunchyroll (as far as we know, that deal is still in place).
When we heard this, our main concern was the fact that GKIDS distributes more than just Toho’s stuff — and they do a really good job of it. They’re doing heaven’s work by selling a physical edition of Netflix’s Arcane (just released this week!). Even though a large part of their existing distribution model is Godzilla and Ghibli, if GKIDS were to become an exclusive distributor for just Toho films and shows, it’d be a huge loss.
Thankfully that doesn’t appear to be what’s happening. A statement from GKIDS suggests the company will remain the same with no shake-ups at the top or forced decisions from even higher. What the acquirement will do is boost GKIDS’ power and resources, allowing for more releases and wider coverage.
“GKIDS will continue to operate as we always have—with the same team, the same passion, and the same mission—but now with the backing of a highly complementary and legendary parent company,” said GKIDS founder Eric Beckman and president David Jesteadt in a joint statement. “This partnership will empower us to bring even more amazing films to North American and global audiences, while we continue to champion animation as a cinematic artform and push the limits of what the medium is capable of. We could not be more excited about the opportunities in front of us. The best is yet to come.”
Back at home, Toho acquired anime studio Science SARU earlier this year, which makes Dandadan. Imagine the spiffy Blu-Ray set GKIDS could create from that show…
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