Crunchyroll and Aniplex Joint Venture Hayate Acquires Anime Studio Lay-duce

The anime world continues to shift! Hayate Inc., a joint venture established last year by Crunchyroll and Aniplex, has officially announced the acquisition of all shares of the anime studio Lay-duce, known for its successful productions. This announcement, made on April 3, 2026, marks a major milestone as it is the first direct capital investment in an animation studio by Hayate, which was founded in 2025.

Founded in 2013 by former Studio Bones producer Noritomo Yonai, Lay-duce quickly established a solid place for itself in the industry. The studio has been behind notable projects such as Tomo-chan Is a Girl!, Fate/Grand Order: First Order, O Maidens in Your Savage Season, and more recently, Rising Impact, which garnered significant attention on Netflix. Yonai's experience with legendary productions like Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood formed the foundation of the studio's character-driven and visually rich storytelling style.

So, what does this acquisition mean for us fans? Hayate's primary goal is to produce exclusive and "premium" content for the Crunchyroll platform. The official statement from the company noted, "Thanks to this close collaboration with Lay-duce, we will be able to execute our anime projects in a more stable and sustainable manner." This move is seen as part of Sony's (the parent company of Aniplex and Crunchyroll) strategy to fully control the anime production chain and deliver content to the global market more rapidly.

For now, projects at Lay-duce are continuing at full speed. The studio's upcoming calendar includes highly anticipated productions such as the second season of Clevatess and Uchi no Ototodomo ga Sumimasen (Please Excuse My Younger Brothers). It is expected that the studio, now under the Hayate umbrella, will have greater resources for its employees and creative teams, allowing it to undertake much more ambitious projects in the long run. We will all see the fruits of this massive merger in the anime world in the coming seasons!