Anime hit a record $25 billion, led by overseas demand

More from The Lane

• The Air Jordan-Naruto Pipeline — How Black sneakerheads run the anime conversation in 2026 — and why nobody covers it.
• From Sega's MJ to GTA's Playlists — How hip-hop wrote the soundtrack for video games — and why gaming press still won't cover it as one story.
• Why a Black-Owned Culture Brand Needed Beats, Podcasts, and the Drop Feed Under One Roof — The integrated model — and why every previous Black-owned culture brand ran into a wall by trying to operate just one of the three.
• The 1,000-Pair Jordan 7 ‘Miro’ Is Now a General Release — The Air Jordan 7 “Miro” — a ~1,000-pair Beijing 2008 grail tied to the Dream Team and Joan Miró — returns July 10 at $255. First retro in 18 years, and the first you don’t need a connect to own.
• True Blue Returns After a Decade — The only original AJ3 that broke from Bulls colors comes back July 18 in full-family OG spec, ten years after its last retro.
• The Sunset 5 Was a Women's Exclusive First — Twenty years after debuting as the first women's-only Air Jordan 5, the Sunset returns July 1 — and the story of who it was built for matters.
• The 9 Mike Never Played In — The OG Space Jam Air Jordan 9 returns August 29 for the film's 30th — a shoe built during the years Jordan was playing baseball, not basketball.
• Peel the Tongue, Read Rare Air — The Air Jordan 4 Tour Yellow returns September 5 for its 20th — the elusive cousin of the Lightning, with the Velcro tongue secret intact.
• The Chrome 8 Kobe Wore in the Playoffs — The Air Jordan 8 Chrome returns September 12 after a decade gone — a 2003 colorway whose biggest moment came on Kobe's feet, not Mike's.
• Royal Returns in OG Leather at Last — The black-and-royal AJ1 High comes back October 10 in standard OG cut — the first leather Royal in nine years and only the fourth ever.
• White Infrared, OG Mold, Nike Air Heel — The Air Jordan 6 White Infrared returns November 7 for the model's 35th — true 1991 mold, original Nike Air heel branding restored.
• Bred 4s Land on Black Friday Weekend — The Air Jordan 4 Bred returns in true OG spec over Black Friday weekend — face box, white edges, Fire Red, the works.
• The Sacramento 10 Has Never Retro'd — Thirty-one years after the City Series, the Sacramento Air Jordan 10 finally gets its first-ever retro — December 5, black and purple.
• Space Jam 11 Closes Out the Year — The Air Jordan 11 Space Jam returns December 12 at $235 — the holiday anchor, with the price creep telling its own story.
• Vince Staples Cry Baby Album Review — Cry Baby is the Long Beach rapper's first album as an independent artist, and the freedom shows in every guitar line.
• Tay Keith Dead At 29 — The Memphis producer behind some of rap's biggest hits died at 29 with a royalty lawsuit still unsettled.
• JAY-Z Headlines Roots Picnic 2026 — JAY-Z headlined a sold-out Roots Picnic with The Roots, marking 30 years of Reasonable Doubt and reuniting State Property.
• Clipse Earn Five Grammy Nominations — Sixteen years between albums, and Let God Sort Em Out pulled Album of the Year and four more Grammy nods.
• D12 Returns Without Eminem — Twenty-two years later, Kuniva and Swifty released D12 Forever (Vol. 1) — the group's first album since Proof died.
• YG Signs A New Major Deal — The Gentlemen's Club is YG's first major-label deal in nearly five years, landing through 4Hunnid and 10K Projects.
• Cardi B Leads BET Awards 2026 — Am I the Drama? made Cardi the only female rapper with back-to-back No. 1 debuts, and the BET Awards noticed.
• Freddie Gibbs Goes Independent Again — You Only Die 1nce (Deluxe) stacks 10 new songs onto a 2024 surprise drop, all of it through AWAL.
• The Grammys Hit 100 Categories — Five new categories push the 2027 Grammys to 100 awards — and rap fans have heard the bloat argument before.
• Mariah The Scientist's Breakout Year — Five BET nominations and a No. 1 R&B album put Mariah the Scientist in the conversation rap usually keeps to itself.
• Demon Slayer's billion-dollar theatrical blueprint — Infinity Castle's first film cleared $793 million worldwide and the biggest international opening the U.S. has ever logged. The model behind it now sets the terms for every studio chasing the theater.
• Chainsaw Man proved the theatrical model isn't a fluke — MAPPA skipped a TV season and put Reze in theaters. The film grossed $191.4 million worldwide and opened number one in America, confirming the finale-to-multiplex pipeline is now standard play.
• One Piece x Nike puts Devil Fruits on Air Max Plus — Three Devil Fruit colorways, $180 each, dropping Fall 2026. Nike's second anime collab in a year confirms the anime-sneaker pipeline is now a planned revenue lane, not a gimmick.
• Megan Thee Stallion is building her own anime — Working with Boondocks producer Carl Jones, Megan is voicing and co-creating an original series for Prime Video. It's a rare case of a Black artist owning the anime crossover instead of just referencing it.
• How an anime opening became a global rap hit — "Otonoke" topped Billboard Japan, charted in the U.S., went RIAA gold, and crossed 100 million YouTube views. The anime opening is now a legitimate path to a worldwide hip-hop record.
• Jujutsu Kaisen's Culling Game isn't done — MAPPA confirmed The Culling Game Part 2 with a new teaser and a new director. The franchise that ran on its anime momentum is staying in the conversation while a tie-in game arrives.
• Crunchyroll's Summer 2026 slate is stacked — Mushoku Tensei Season 3, Black Torch, and a wave of returning hits anchor a summer schedule that doubles as a map of where the next year's hype is heading.
• Witch Hat Atelier is 2026's quiet powerhouse — After a long delay, Kamome Shirahama's beloved manga finally got its anime — and the craft on display is reframing what a fantasy adaptation is allowed to look like.
• Kagurabachi's anime is taking a world tour first — The manga that became a meme before it became a hit lands its anime in April 2027 — and Anime Expo gets the first 20 minutes of episode one this July.
• God of War: Laufey Hands the Axe to Faye — Santa Monica's next PS5 entry benches Kratos and builds a faster, agile combat system around his late wife.
• Marvel's Wolverine Locks September 15 — The studio that nailed Spider-Man finally showed Logan's combat, and the September date is a strategic gift.
• Forza Horizon 6's PS5 Delay Stings — Fable and Halo hit PS5 day one. Forza Horizon 6 didn't, and the official excuse keeps getting thinner.
• EsDeeKid Brings UK Drill to Fortnite — Epic skipped the obvious superstar and added Liverpool's EsDeeKid to its Icon Series. The choice says plenty.
• Marathon's Season 2 Bounce Didn't Hold — A free week pushed Bungie's extraction shooter to 40K players. Then Destiny 2's farewell update buried it.
• Until Dawn 2 Goes Ghost-Hunting — Firesprite revives Sony's branching-horror series with a new cast and a found-footage TV-crew premise.
• Marvel Tokon Bets on the Tag Team — A 4v4 tag fighter from the GranBlue and Guilty Gear studio lands August 6, with Magneto, Carnage, and Goblin in.
• Two Indies Outscored the Blockbusters — Mewgenics and Mina the Hollower prove the indie shelf is carrying the year's critical weight, not the AAA slate.
• Three Horror Games Share September 24 — Control Resonant and Silent Hill: Townfall both date September 24, with Onimusha right behind on the 25th.
• Pokemon and Adidas Time a 30th Anniversary — A September 2026 capsule puts Pokemon on the Samba, Superstar and Adistar, the clearest gaming-sneaker tie of the year.
• The Lane — positioning essay — Why Sneakz & Beatz exists and where it sits.