Sony is apparently bullish about its anime prospects, with chief strategy officer Toshimoto Mitomo offering up an intriguing comparison to its gaming division in a new interview with Toyo Keizai (H/T Automaton Media).
"It’s in a phase roughly equivalent to the period between the launch of the PS1 and PS2," Mitomo said.
Emerging from a failed partnership with Nintendo, Sony took the mid-'90s by storm with the original PlayStation. In a gaming landscape littered with cartridges and slightly stuffy messaging, the Japanese manufacturer exploded onto the scene – and proving the 'rule of cool' existed as the likes of the Wipeout series infiltrated nightclubs and Tomb Raider's Lara Croft became, for all intents and purposes, one of the first video game A-listers.
From there, Sony played its hand perfectly, outstripping Nintendo and Xbox in the sixth-generation of video game consoles with the PlayStation 2. To this day, it remains the best-selling console of all time, with over 160 million units sold worldwide.
Fast forward to 2025, and it's easy to see why Sony sees itself in a similar position. Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle is breaking all kinds of records in Japan ahead of its staggered international release across August and September. Sony also purchased anime streaming service Crunchyroll for over $1 billion in 2021, with it currently housing the likes of Solo Leveling, Jujutsu Kaisen, and more.
From there, who knows? But with a deluge of new anime on the way, the medium has arguably never been more popular – and Sony could be on the verge of a big, PS2-style breakout.
For more, check out our guide to the best anime you have to watch in 2025.
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