If you’re an anime fan like me—or just someone who keeps an eye on tech and media news—you’ve probably seen the headlines about Crunchyroll lately. Sony’s anime streaming giant just dropped some news that caught a lot of us off guard: layoffs. Yep, some big changes are coming, and not in the way most of us expected.

Crunchyroll is letting go of folks across the globe as part of what they’re calling “restructuring.” And it’s not just happening in the US—Rahul Purini, the company’s president, sent out a memo to teams everywhere, from North America to Europe to Asia. They’re not saying how many people are affected (which, of course, has led to plenty of speculation online), but they are quick to point out that they’re also hiring—over 100 jobs are open right now, with more to come.

According to Purini, this isn’t about cutting costs or fixing money problems. It’s more of a strategic pivot—they want to give regional teams more control, set up new engineering hubs in the US, India, and Mexico, and invest in things like collectibles, events, and even a digital manga platform bundled with subscriptions. Still, let’s be real—layoffs always leave a bad taste, especially when the industry feels like it’s at its peak. Crunchyroll has over 17 million paid subscribers, anime has officially gone mainstream, and every big streaming service from Netflix to Disney wants a piece of the pie. It’s a bit ironic to see cuts happening in the middle of all this growth, but it’s not exactly unheard of in the corporate world.

On the flip side, the push to build more regional hubs and give local teams real power is promising. If they can pull it off, this could mean more opportunities for creators, fans, and tech folks like us. And if you’re job hunting? Well, turns out Crunchyroll is hiring in several places—so maybe there’s a bright side hidden in all of this.