Shunsuke Muramatsu, President of Sony Music Entertainment Japan, said as part of an interview that A-1 Pictures and Cloverworks have already supported certain work steps through the use of AI.
AI to increase efficiency
The statements came down during the “Music & Fireside Chat 2025” when Muramatsu received questions about the working conditions of creative people in the anime industry and its promotion. He emphasized that Sony had extensively restructured his anime studios in order to create better conditions for the animators and enable them to concentrate more on their main work.
In this context, he emphasized the in -house “Animecanvas” software, which was already announced last year and “Completely new processes in anime production” should enable:
»With A-1 pictures and cloverwork, not only the creative ones, but also management are actively involved in the development process. An example of this is the use of AI in the coloring of anime. Although this step runs according to the principle of experiment and error, the results are quite good.
I am regularly in the studios and see that the animators and other creative people continue to work strongly with traditional, analog methods. So if we can provide you with technological aids that reduce physical stress and make work processes more efficient, so that more space for the actual creative work remains, I would like to support this way. «
Contradiction with crunchyroll
Against the background that Sony, together with his subsidiaries A-1 Pictures and Cloverwork, is working actively on AI technologies for use in the anime area, the question arises as to what role Crunchyroll takes as part of the Sony group. This is particularly interesting because CEO Rahul Purini recently assured that artificial intelligence would not intervene in the creative processes.
Even if Crunchyroll does not belong directly to Sony Music Entertainment Japan (SMEJ), the streaming service is in close connection as part of a joint venture between the SMEJ subsidiary Anlex and Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Although the VoD provider positions itself clearly against the use of AI, in the future it will probably also offer works that were at least partially created with the help of AI tools. It remains to be seen how this conflict of interest will develop in the future. Of course we keep you up to date.
More on the topic:
Via Fireside Chat 2025
© Tatsuya Endo/Shueisha, SPY x FAMILY Production Committee
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