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Bushiroad, Kadokawa Jointly Acquire 63.6% of Kinema Citrus Studio's Shares

Anime studio Kinema Citrus announced on Wednesday that Bushiroad and Kadokawa have each acquired roughly a third of the shares of the studio. Both have each acquired 31.8% of the company's shares (thus controlling 63.6% of shares between them), with Kinema Citrus representative director Muneki Ogasawara maintains a 36.4% controlling stake. The announcement noted that the new capital tie-up will allow the three companies to securely and more confidently develop globally targeted intellectual property.

The three companies previously announced a comprehensive business partnership this past July. The partnership aims to produce a "stable" intellectual property and producing anime content in response to the growing popularity of anime both domestically and abroad.

Kinema Citrus is known in recent years as the animation studio that produced Made in Abyss, Revue Starlight, and The Rising of The Shield Hero. Revue Starlight adapts Bushiroad's franchise. Earlier in its history, the studio was responsible for such anime as Bottom Biting Bug, Yuyushiki, Code:Breaker, Scorching Ping Pong Girls, and Barakamon, and co-production duties on such anime as Black Bullet, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, Is the order a rabbit?, Norn9, and Under the Dog.

Bushiroad was founded in 2007. The company owns a number of cross-media franchises, some of which originate from its card games. Bushiroad's Cardfight!! Vanguard and Future Card Buddyfight series have both inspired long-running television anime series, and its Luck & Logic card game inspired two television anime series. Bushiroad also owns the Weiß Schwarz anime crossover card game. The company owns the Tantei Opera Milky Holmes franchise, as well as the BanG Dream! franchise, both of which have television anime series, alongside the aforementioned Revue Starlight franchise. Both BanG Dream! and Revue Starlight have active smartphone games. The company also owns the New Japan Pro Wrestling promotion.

Kadokawa is a multimedia company and publisher that primarily runs a number of labels and subsidiaries. Between its numerous subsidiaries, the company regularly publishes multiple magazines that serialize dozens of manga. The company also has business segments in games, light novels, advertising, and films. Many of the franchises Kadokawa manages have received anime and manga adaptations. Kinema Citrus animated The Rising of The Shield Hero series based on a light novel series published by Kadokawa. Crunchyroll, which co-produced the anime, recently announced two more seasons in the works for the anime.

Sources: Kinema Citrus, Animation Business Journal (Tadashi Sudo)