Anime Limited reportedly sold to German media company Plaion Pictures

As reported by Anime UK News and German sites such as Anime Nachrichten.de, Anime Ltd has been purchased by German media firm, Plaion Pictures, the film division of Plaion Group, itself owned by Embracer Group (formerly THQ Nordic).

If THQ sounds familiar, they're a company who were renowned for poor quality video games in the 90's, especially on the Super Nintendo where the company logo was often considered a warning sign. They were purchased by Nordic, who also bought game studios such as Gearbox, Eidos Montreal and Saber Interactive. In 2001, they acquired comic and manga distributor Dark Horse, which creates a cultural link to Anime Limited.

The news was broken by German magazine Blickpunkt:Film. The original article, translated by Google, reads:

Stefan Kapelari, Managing Director Plaion Pictures: "We are very pleased to welcome the team of Anime Ltd. to our group. By joining forces, we will continue to expand our role as a key player in the marketing and distribution of Japanese pop art content. Together, we will become a 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, adds: "I am particularly pleased that with this step 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 expand our SVOD channel Aniverse. Our entire anime team welcomes the new colleagues!"

The news is likely welcome from the current owners, who have struggled over recent years. The loss of their Funimation licenses to Manga Entertainment and subsequent wallet-busting acquisition of Manga by Sony in 2019 led to a liquidation of Funimation licensed stock at rock-bottom prices and a huge reduction of the Anime Limited catalogue.

The company needed a further government-backed Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan (CBIL) in 2021, a measure put in place by the UK government to aid businesses left struggling post pandemic, a curious position for a company that sells home entertainment to a nation locked in their houses, and a bail-out not sought by any of the competition. In a now-deleted article in the Scottish Business News (but referenced verbatim by ANN) the loan was to "take advantage of the recent growth in customer demand for anime internationally".

Anime Limited was jointly owned by Andrew Partridge (25%) and Anime Virtual Limited (75%) which is operated by the company's chief creditor Cedric Littardi based in France. Their roles, if any, within the new company have yet to be announced, though from the sounds of the official press release, nothing will change structurally within the company.