Anime Limited Acquired by Plaion Pictures
Update: Anime Limited have released a blog post confirming the acquisition and confirming more information on what will be changing. We have updated the article below to reflect this new information.
Plaion Pictures, a film division owned by the Plaion Group, has today brought Anime Limited for an undisclosed sum, including both the UK and French divisions. Plaion Group, formerly known as Koch Media, is owned by Embracer Group. Anime Limited officially announced this news with an announcement on their blog.
Embracer (formerly known as THQ Nordic) are best known for their ownership of video game studios such as Gearbox, Eidos-Montréal, and Saber Interactive, but have increasingly branched out into other markets; most notably, acquiring Dark Horse in 2021, a US-based publisher of manga, comics, and graphic novels.
Anime Limited describe the sale on their blog as “a huge step forwards for the whole Anime Ltd team as it allows us to deliver the highest quality works in Japan across Japanese animation and music to the rest of the European market in addition to the UK, France and USA as we do at present.”
Andrew Partridge, Anime Limited’s Managing Director and co-founder, stated:
“We are looking forward to joining the team of PLAION, with whom we have already successfully collaborated via both our French and Scottish offices. Together, we are in a unique position to deliver a bespoke and streamlined approach for our business in each of the core territories in Europe. I am excited about the opportunities for growth that this deal represents.“
Anime Limited will continue to operate as an independent company, and will continue to be run by their current management. The post also confirms that Anime Limited’s current release schedule will not be affected.
Anime Limited have also responded to questions from Anime UK News community members confirming that no jobs will be lost as a result of this sale.
The news was originally broken this morning by German-language film magazine Blickpunkt:film, whose article includes a pair of quotes from Plaion executives not listed in the Anime Limited blog posst. A machine-translated excerpt of the Blickpunkt:film article reads:
The indie label Plaion Pictures, the film division of the Plaion Group, has acquired 100 per cent of the shares in British Anime Ltd. With the takeover, Plaion says it wants to expand its position as a pan-European key player in the marketing and distribution of Japanese pop art content.
Anime Ltd., with headquarters in Glasgow and offices in Paris and San Francisco, specialises in the marketing of Japanese animated films and series, soundtracks and merchandise products in Great Britain, France and the USA.
Stefan Kapelari, Managing Director Plaion Pictures: “We are very pleased to welcome the team from Anime Ltd. to our group. By joining forces, we will further expand our role as a key player in the marketing and distribution of Japanese pop art content. Together we will become the pan-European publisher that can offer our Japanese partners a 360-degree service from marketing to distribution on all relevant channels.”
Jochen Walter, Managing Director Plaion Pictures, added: “I am particularly pleased that with this move our Plaion Pictures team in the UK is growing and we now also have a location in France. With the support of Anime Ltd, we will also continue to grow our SVOD channel Aniverse. Our entire anime team extends a warm welcome to our new colleagues!”
