- A-1 Pictures recently shared its financial report for the fiscal year ending in March 2025.
- The animation studio announced a net loss of 178 million yen ($1.2 million).
- A-1 Pictures is a subsidiary of Aniplex, which is now owned by Sony.
A-1 Pictures is the production studio behind classics such as Fairy Tail, Sword Art Online, Kaguya-sama: Love is War, and more over the years. The veteran studio took the reins of the Solo Leveling project and set the anime world on fire with a breakout adaptation of the popular manhwa. Since the anime’s debut last year, Solo Leveling has been topping the charts as the most-watched anime on Crunchyroll. Regardless of the resounding success of the Solo Leveling anime, A-1 Pictures has reportedly faced its most significant financial loss to date, as per the latest reports.
Recently, Solo Leveling swept all major awards at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards 2025. The anime earned approval from both global fans and critics alike. Still, according to the Gamebiz report, A-1 Pictures reported a net loss of 178 million yen (or $1.2 million) for the fiscal year ending in March 2025, marking a significant decline compared to a net profit of 24 million yen ($167,000) in the previous fiscal year. The loss figures were publicly disclosed via their official financial results.
Now, you must be wondering, how could the studio behind such celebrated anime struggle with a financial crisis? Well, first, let me make it clear that the losses are unrelated to the success of Solo Leveling or other anime.
A-1 Pictures is a subsidiary of Aniplex, which is now officially owned by Sony. The studio was hired to handle the animation production with a budget in hand. Given the outstanding animation quality of Solo Leveling, it’s possible that the studio exceeded the allocated budget, which may have resulted in the loss. Meanwhile, the parent company, Sony, and Aniplex were the primary beneficiaries of the anime’s profits from distribution and merch.
Apart from Solo Leveling, A-1 Pictures also produced Too Many Losing Heroines!, Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online II, and NieR: Automata Ver1.1a Part 2 during this fiscal year. If you’re worried that this financial loss may impact the animation quality of Solo Leveling season 3, you have nothing to worry about. Since A-1 Pictures is owned by Sony and Aniplex, the parent company has got their backs covered and will provide the budget for the upcoming season.
Nevertheless, it’s worth noting that the studio and the hard-working animators behind one of the most successful anime series in recent times were hit with an unprecedented net loss in history.
