Crunchyroll has revealed a creative alliance with Chilean-American singer-songwriter Paloma Mami to mark the arrival of her album, Códigos de Muñeka, which landed on major streaming services today. The partnership sees the anime streaming company overseeing the record’s complete visual identity, complementing what it sees as its expanding outreach to the U.S. Hispanic and Latin American anime community.
At the heart of the campaign is artist Ken Hensly of Kensuke Creations, whose blend of streetwear, mecha, and samurai motifs has produced a suite of eleven anime-inspired “dolls” – one for each track. The most prominent piece, titled Astros, graces the album cover and highlights the project’s fusion of Latin music and anime aesthetics.
According to Crunchyroll’s Director of Regional Marketing UCANZ, Josellie Ríos López:
This partnership with Paloma Mami represents our dedication to celebrating Hispanic voices and creating authentic connections with our passionate Latin American and U.S. Hispanic fanbase. With many U.S. Hispanics identifying as anime fans, collaborations like this are vital to honoring and expanding our diverse community.
For Paloma Mami, the project allowed her lifelong love of anime to inform the album’s look and feel:
Anime has always been a big inspiration for me, and working with Crunchyroll and Kensuke Creations to shape the visual world of Códigos de Muñeka was amazing. Representing 11 different sides of my personality, the dolls line up with each of the tracks on the album and I’m excited for my fandom to see all of the love that we put into the project.
Hensly described an iterative workflow guided by Paloma’s direct feedback, during a creative process which took more than half a year to complete from start to finish:
We worked off mood boards for visual references, and after every round of sketch drafts, we’d regroup to refine the concepts further. It was really important to Paloma to give feedback directly. She made sure every detail aligned with her vision, which is why I mentioned earlier that nothing in these artworks was random. There’s symbolism in every piece, and honestly, these are artworks fans can decode and decipher for deeper meaning. There are even little Easter eggs hidden in each cover that connect all the artworks together. It’ll be fun if fans start picking up on them.
This was truly a new and exciting experience for me as an artist. Being able to collaborate directly with Paloma on ideas for her album artwork was incredible. I learned so much through this process, and it’s easily one of the highlights of my career. All thanks to Crunchyroll for making it happen. Paloma and her team were amazing to work with. Every time we jumped on a call to explore concepts for the album, there was real magic. Paloma is not only a brilliant musician but also a deeply creative artist with a clear vision… It still blows my mind that as a Crunchyroll subscriber, I had the chance to do something like this with them. I feel very honored.
The launch continues Crunchyroll’s recent push to spotlight Latin artists, following earlier collaborations with J Balvin and Eladio Carrión.
