At a major panel during New York Comic Con, Crunchyroll announced a massive strategic partnership alongside HAYATE Inc. and WEBTOON Entertainment subsidiary LINE Digital Frontier. The trio has joined forces to co-produce potential anime adaptations for roughly 15 select titles directly from the webtoon catalog, overseeing development from the ground floor up.
Among the initial wave of titles slated for the screen are the previously announced adaptations The Boxer, The Remarried Empress, and Teenage Mercenary. Crunchyroll holds exclusive worldwide streaming rights outside of Asia for all projects born from this multi-company collaboration, cementing a deeper bridge between Korean digital manhwa and Japanese animation pipelines.
Inside the HAYATE and LINE Digital Frontier Partnership
Founded in March 2025 in Tokyo, HAYATE Inc. is led by Chairman and CEO Masanori Miyake alongside President and COO Leo Watanabe, with core staff drawn from both Aniplex and Crunchyroll. The venture is specifically built to streamline the planning, financing, and production of global streaming hits. Earlier this year, HAYATE acquired animation studio Lay-duce as a wholly owned subsidiary and is currently supervising production on the highly anticipated Ghost of Tsushima: Legends anime series.
Meanwhile, LINE Digital Frontier—the operator of LINE Manga—has rapidly accelerated its cross-media strategy under CEO Shin-bae Kim. After ramping up production output across 2024 and 2025, this new tripartite alliance guarantees that top-tier webtoon properties will receive dedicated, long-term animation development rather than standard outsourced adaptations.
