About Kadokawa's Investment in ANN

Anime News Network has agreed to be acquired by Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE) a US-based subsidiary of Kadokawa. All the technical legal stuff can be found in this press release here.

But I wanted to make sure that the people most important to us, our readers, found out about this straight from us, and I wanted to share some of the most important details with you.

Above all else, the two things that were most important to me while discussing this project with Kadokawa were that ANN's team remain unchanged and that ANN maintains its editorial integrity and independence. Fortunately, Kadokawa themselves insisted that these were priorities for them as well. They want to invest in ANN because they support ANN's mission and integrity, and have no interest in changing what makes ANN the internet's most trusted anime news source.

I will personally remain ANN's publisher, and our editorial independence is contractually guaranteed. Anime News Network has a long history of being editorially independent of both our largest advertisers, and our investors, and none of this will change.

There will also be no immediate changes to any part of ANN's team, except for one senior executive who is retiring. All of our staff will otherwise remain unchanged, however we will be adding more staff in the near future, particularly in our web development department.

As part of this acquisition, KWE will be investing significantly in ANN's software development. A number of new projects will be launched, and a number of projects that have been stuck in development for way too long will be prioritized.

As I wrote in the press release, “I am excited by this opportunity to work with Kadokawa and Kadokawa World Entertainment to dramatically improve Anime News Network during the course of the coming years. Myself and all of ANN's staff remain entirely dedicated to the standards of professional, exhaustive, and editorially independent journalism that ANN is already known for and we believe that Kadokawa's resources will be a great benefit to ANN's journalism and our readers.”

Myself, and Bandai Namco Filmworks will remain minority shareholders in the new company that is being established to operate Anime News Network.

Christopher Macdonald