In a press release on Wednesday, May 25, 2022, Medialink, a Hong-Kong based media content distribution company, announced that they have teamed up with Studio MAPPA for distribution and merchandising rights on Chainsaw Man anime in Asia, including China.

Further information will be posted on Medialink and Ani-One Facebook accounts at a later date.

To celebrate the announcement, Ms. Lovinia Chiu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Medialink Group, said: “Medialink is excited to bring this highly anticipated title from MAPPA to whole Asia. We believe our anime fans are as excited as we are, and Chainsaw Man is one of the most awaited titles in 2022 by the fan communities across the region, and will definitely create a big hit wave. Medialink and MAPPA will continue to provide the best anime titles to the anime fans, and the general market.”

Medialink sub-licenses selected titles to streaming services and TV stations. In 2018, the company launched a new brand called Ani-One to simulcast new anime titles and distribute older series on their partnered platforms. Its notable clients include Netflix, Aniplus Asia, Animax Asia, iQIYI, Bilibili, Dimsum, and local streaming services in select served regions. It also offers anime content on its own YouTube channel since October 2019.

The streaming giant Crunchyroll had previously announced that the company will simulcast the episodes of the upcoming Chainsaw Man anime in the West, set to release later this year.

Crunchyroll will broadcast the anime in Japanese with English subtitles, and with English, Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, and German dubs in over 200 countries and territories(excluding Asia) around the world.

While the official release date of Chainsaw Man anime is still not revealed, a teaser video that was streamed during Jump Festa ’22 stated a 2022 broadcast date for the anime.

Ryū Nakayama is directing Chainsaw Man at MAPPA, and Hiroshi Seko is writing the scripts. Kazutaka Sugiyama is designing the characters, and Tatsuya Yoshihara is directing the action.

Makoto Nakazono is serving as chief technical director. Kiyotaka Oshiyama is designing the devils, and Yūsuke Takeda is directing the art. Naomi Nakano is the color key artist, and Yohei Miyahara is designing the screens. Kensuke Ushio is composing the music.

The Jump Festa panel also announced that the second part of Chainsaw Man manga, which will feature the school arc, will release in early Summer 2022 in Shonen Jump+

Moreover, MAPPA’s Chainsaw Man is currently the most anticipated anime according to MyAnimeList (MAL), with more than 399,000 members waiting for the series to air.

Chainsaw Man is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tatsuki Fujimoto. It was serialized in Shueisha’s Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine from Dec 2018, with its chapters collected in eleven tankōbon volumes. As of December 2021, the manga had over 12 million copies in circulation.

The manga was nominated for the 13th Manga Taisho awards in 2019, and ranked at #4 on the Kono Manga ga Sugoi! 2020 (This Manga Is Amazing!) guidebook’s top manga for male readers. The manga won in the Best Shōnen Manga category at the 66th Shogakukan Manga Awards in January.

Additionally, the manga topped the Kono Manga ga Sugoi! 2021 list for male readers. Chainsaw Man also won the Best Manga award at The Harvey Awards in October.

Source: Medialink Press release