Hulu Launches Adult Animation, Anime Hub Animayhem (EXCLUSIVE)

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Hulu is launching a new sub-brand focused on adult animation and anime called Animayhem, Variety has learned exclusively.

The new hub is meant to capitalize on Hulu’s already popular lineup of adult animation and anime shows. Series like “American Dad,” “Bob’s Burgers,” “Family Guy,” “Futurama” and “King of the Hill” consistently rank among the service’s top 10 shows based on hours streamed, per Hulu. So far this year, over one billion hours of adult animation content has been streamed on Hulu, along with over 288 million hours of anime content, the streamer claims.

“When you have the number one offering in adult animation and anime of any major streaming service, creating this destination is obvious. We know exactly where we can meet these fans, because they’re already here,” said Barrie Gruner, Hulu’s executive vice president of marketing and publicity, in an interview with Variety.

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“Creating this brand was really the brainchild of our leadership, Shannon Ryan, who runs marketing for Disney Entertainment Television, and Joe Earley, the president of D2C,” Gruner continued. “It quickly picked up momentum throughout the whole company. All the teams really shared the enthusiasm around that because it’s such a unique opportunity to give fans what they want.”

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Hulu currently has 46 adult animated series, which adds up to 174 seasons and 2,600 episodes. For anime, Hulu has 17 films and 272 series, adding up to 435 seasons and 18,400 episodes (including subtitled and English dubbed versions of episodes).

As part of the launch, Hulu is debuting a range of ads for Animayhem, which they describe as the “Animation Destination,” one of which can be seen below.

“I would say that this brand really cements Hulu as the ultimate streaming destination for animation and we’re not going to achieve that with single title campaigns,” Gruner said. “This is truly an intersection with our original programming and our library.”

The launch of Animayhem comes two weeks ahead of the July 24 debut of the new season of “Futurama,” which Hulu commissioned in February 2022. Hulu has also ordered a revival of “King of the Hill,” though that does not have a premiere date at the time of this publishing. There had been discussions about reviving “King of the Hill” at Fox going all the way back to 2017, but that was prior to the 21st Century Fox-Disney merger, in which Disney acquired 20th Television and many other assets but not the broadcast network.

Futurama is also a former Fox show, with the new episodes of both “Futurama” and “King of the Hill” being produced by 20th Television Animation. 20th TV Animation is also behind a number of Hulu’s biggest adult animated shows, including “Family Guy,” “American Dad,” and “Bob’s Burgers.”

“I’ll specifically call out how grateful we are to work so closely with true animation legends like Marci Proietto, who runs 20th Television Animation,” Gruner said. “She’s had her finger on the pulse and the cutting edge of these trends for decades.”

Hulu will also be taking Animayhem to San Diego Comic-Con with an immersive experience dubbed “Hulu Animayhem: Into the Second Dimension.” According to Gruner, the experience will be a “journey for fans” that will allow them to feel like they are part of the world of their favorite animated shows. Gruner said that is just one of the ways she and her team are connecting with fans.

“We’re also finding the fans where they are off-channel – all the social platforms, broadcast, podcasts, devices, gaming, streaming music and out-of-home, all of which is anchored by our presence at SDCC,” she said. “We are also leaning into unique engagement tactics including a TikTok bracket challenge, AR filters, and all of this work really stands out because of the creative that embodies the spirit and fun of adult animation, which my partner, Aaron Goldman, who leads creative marketing here, has brought together across teams.”

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