Sony’s stranglehold on anime is now practically complete, following its $1.1 billion purchase of Crunchyroll and historical acquisition of Funimation. Now, as expected, it’s combining the two services under a single umbrella: Cunchyroll is absorbing practically all of Funimation’s content, as well as its subsidiary, Wakanim. Not everything will make the transition, though: about 80 per cent of content is moving across.
So, what does this mean? Well, an unprecedentedly large library of Japanese animations, obviously. “Starting today, tons of shows and movies from Funimation and Wakanim will begin arriving on Crunchyroll – so you’ll get more dubs, more subs, more everything,” a blog post explains. “That includes titles available now like My Hero Academia, Tokyo Ghoul, and Yu Yu Hakusho, alongside favourites like Cowboy Bebop and Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation, all under one subscription.”
New shows scheduled to air in the Spring will now be broadcast through Crunchyroll, so if you’re currently subscribed to Funimation, it might be time to switch over. “Moving forward, Funimation will only add new episodes of continuing series, which means Funimation users will want to move to a Crunchyroll account as soon as possible,” the blog post continues.
The good news is that existing Funimation subscribers can get 60 days of Crunchyroll for free, and you’ll be sent a voucher to your email in the coming days to take advantage of that. The bad news is that Crunchyroll is more expensive, especially for long-time Funimation members. How are you feeling about these services combining? Are you excited for the ultimate anime experience, or do you feel Sony has too much of a monopoly on the sector now? Let us know below.
[source crunchyroll.com]
Comments 60
I am hoping a subscription to this, or at least a discount is going be included with the new tiers of PS+
@AndyKazama It surely will be! Makes too much sense!
Its cool and all. But also bad seeing as they already said 80% of Funimation/Wakanim's library is only coming over. Not to forget, we now have to pay DOUBLE what we paid with Funi/Wakanim..
I'm sure there should be some concerns but I am happy for this, having so many shows and options under one umbrella. I wonder how long Funimation will go until it shuts down altogether.
Isn't crunchy roll mainly subs? And funimation did the dubs? Hopefully they continue to dub anime and maybe more so than usual
No way this just reminded me I still have a Crunchyroll subscription because I wanted to watch an anime like eight months ago
Definitely a monopoly. But the conundrum with these types of monopolies is that it takes a while for the other shoe to drop. So I think this is gonna be the honeymoon period. For me, I have VRV that includes Crunchyroll so I wonder if it will still have the full access.
@get2sammyb @AndyKazama They have to do it.
The value this would add to a Spartacus sub would be unreal.
It feels like some of us have been hoping they'd merge these services and add them to Spartacus for ages.
From the moment they bought both companies I've been waiting for them to do this it just made sense. I'm still hoping at some point Sony will make a tier of PS Plus that's bundled with CrunchyRoll
Will be interesting to see if Sony bundles a Crunchyroll sub with Spartacus. As a new anime watcher, I would definitely subscribe. Any series you all recommend let me know!
To answer your last question, Sony's main competitors in this field are Netflix, Amazon, and now even AMC and Disney, y'know some of the biggest companies in the world, and a lot of their show end up on multiple services already.
So no. Sony doesn't have a monopoly on anime.
@johncalmc
Did you watch it?
I get premium tier Funimation for $5.99 as long as I didn’t let my sub expire because I was a current subscriber before the price increase. Making longtime subscription holders switch is a good way to screw us out of our current sub price. Oh, but thanks for the 60 days for free in exchange for $4 more a month. What a deal!😑
Some of the things Sony does just pisses me off!
@Master_Shake You will!
When Dragon Ball Super arrives there in Germany, I'm in.
@TheCollector316 Only the first series :')
Sick, as a subscriber to Crunchy it made me sad that there were more than one streaming services to get anime from (egregious example: Teasing Master Takagi-san, all three seasons are on different services). This is only good for my library...not good for my backlog though XD but I'll take it.
@UltimateOtaku91 You are correct. Crunchyroll does have dubs but not as many as Funimation, at least before this news.
@mrtennis1990 Death Note and Attack on Titan are two of the most interesting one I've ever watched (not everyone agrees, though).
I really want a new season of One punch man i have seen season 2 way to many times.
@naruball I second these! Both are great 😍
@mrtennis1990 So much great stuff out there, depends how far back your willing to go. Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Cowboy Bebop, Akira, Ninja Scroll, Death Note, Your Name, Evangelion Just a few off the top of my head!
I hope it’s an optional add on to PS+.
As someone who doesn’t watch anime I have no interest in seeing my PS+ cost slightly rise due to anime.
@Master_Shake Anime isn't categorized as a seperate thing compared to Netflix like mobile gaming isn't seperate from console/pc gaming. Both have different audiences but I guess since it is the same type of media, nobody has a monopoly.
I don’t like this. Move stuff over to Funimation. I also appreciate that Funimation let’s you choose simulcast or uncut and keeps both. I seldom use it, but it’s a welcome option I do use sometime. I also have a grandfathers $6 a month for Funimation I want to keep. This is the worst way of doing this lol.
@get2sammyb How did you make it thru an entire anime article w/o 1 single condescending comment about how anime sucks? You get another editor to take all that stuff out? 😉
Always weird to me when a company like Sony buys a big company like Funimation, then they buy it's competitor, then they name the merged company after the one they just bought, not the one they already owned. I suppose there are reasons to go w/ the name Curnchyroll rather than Funimation but it still seems weird. I've associated Funimation w/ anime for a long time, and for a long time I just thought Crunchyroll was a food. 😂
@rjejr I think because, as many posters are pointing out, Funimation members were grandfathered onto a cheaper plan. This will force everyone to pay the higher fee now.
@naruball @DreamlandGem @MightyDemon82 Thanks for the recommendations! I just started Neon Genesis and so far it’s phenomenal. I’ll add all those to watch next!
The Funimation TV app was so bad that I’m willing to give Crunchyroll a go. My Tv shows the last time they updated the FUNi app was July 2019. Hopefully CR is better for anime
I literally just got a yearly Funimation subscription a month ago so this stinks lol. Was hoping Funimation would absorb Crunchyroll since it has a far better app on PS4 imo but I guess Crunchyroll probably does have more subscribers so less people have to switch. Having no new content until my subscription expires and then paying a higher price is super lame, though. If anything, existing Funimation subscriptions should be converted to Crunchyroll subscriptions. Maybe even let existing subscribers have their current price instead of having to pay more? (Although that’s just wishful thinking, lol). Hopefully this at least means more of Crunchyroll’s shows will get dubs that wouldn’t have otherwise.
@mrtennis1990 Cowboy Bebop is my favorite anime. It’s only one season long, well worth checking out.
@get2sammyb Follow the money.🤑
They should have merged the 2 and gone w/ something new like "animaniarama" or "animine". Sill not a fan of Crunchyroll. Great for the people who do like it and are already on board, but doesn't sound like the kind of name you can use to grow the service outside of weebsville. It makes no sense. (The name, not the reasoning.)
@DeepSpace5D thank you!
Don't sleep on the Fate series, friends!! I really like it because it has a very video game-like premise. I also like Sword Art Online for the same reason, but I like Fate much more. Start with Fate/Stay Night.
@ElectricLogan Absolutely agree with you. It would make to much sense to have launched this when they had the ability to let people transfer accounts over to Crunchyroll. I mean they're going to give you the ability to transfer your queue and owned digital library at a later date, so why not just wait to launch this then.
Finally. The first anime i will rewatch will be Mushoku Tensei, but in funimation dub.
@rachetmarvel Nice choice. The dub is really good. I need to get caught up on it.
@AndyKazama This wont make tits way into Spartacus since they still make Deals with... Microsoft....to include Crunchyroll in Gamepass Ultimate. Sony being "Genius" as always 🙂
This will also mean Sony will stop censoring Anime games, right?... right?
@Master_Shake What is VRV?
It is confusing, so Crunchy roll is under VRV and Funimation is under Crunchy.
I know I can search this but I would like your opinion as a subscriber.
Thank you in advance.
@rjejr I think the main reason is, Crunchy Roll has a much bigger global audience and I was one of them, while in comparison I think Funmation is famous mainly in the US.
Well this kinda sucks, I was hoping it would be the other way around. Funimation is pretty good value, now I'm gonna pay a higher fee once my free 4 months of Crunchyroll I got from Game Pass is over. Hoping they got a plan to include it in the new Plus subscription coming soon.
We had a pretty good anime streaming service in Australia called Anime Lab which I was subscribed to, then it got bought out and merged with Funimation. It existed for a bit along side Funimation before fully merging. I guess the same thing will happen now with Funimation.
I'm glad they are ditching Wakanim and their awful translations by people who barely speak French. We'll have other language in France. I just hope Crunchyroll fix their crappy system that has been broken for years
@mrtennis1990 Full Metal Alchemist brotherhood is a good place to start
@NomNom definitely will add that to my watch list. Thanks!
@Dr-M Thanks, that makes sense. I'm in the US and Funimation has been a thing since the 90's and I associate it w/ DBZ which I started watching back then on Toonami, maybe even before that. Don't think I knew of Crucnhyroll any more than a decade, probably less.
For one side, I'm glad Funimation is no more after what they did to Vic Mignogna. But now, Sony has effectively monopolized anime distribution in the west...
I see a lot of new content migrated to crunchyroll is dubbed only. I hope they will support dubbed and subbed. I would literally cancel if they have too many dubbed only. But I'm just one customer lol.
I think Sony should rename it as Animax Now though I think Crunchyroll sounds like a tasty bread or a cake roll to me.
What a terrible time for me to unsubscribe from Funimation. Give me a that free trial anyway Sony!
I seriously hope this doesn't reduce the quantity and quality of dubs going forward
@IonMagi I noticed this when I had GPU. however Idid notice the offer ended this year, end of Feb when I last looked.
@mrtennis1990 Oh don't even get me started on Evangelion haha, it's my all time favourite! Once you've watched the main series I highly recommend watching End of Evangelion (movie) 😄
Does anyone know how this will impact watching Dragonball? I've been re-watching the series through a VPN as it's only available in the US on Funimation. If it means I'd be able to now watch it without a VPN, I'd actually be okay with it.
@JamieF1 you still need to use a VPN if you’re not from the US due to rights issue from different countries that has the rights of the anime/s that who ever tv station or cable company,etc. holds those anime’s right to broadcast it.
@DreamlandGem will do! Thanks! 😄
Not a fan of funimation, always used crunchyroll. And happy to see some funimation series coming to crunchyroll. Like assassination classroom. It was on crunchyroll, then went to funimation and I hope it comes back to crunchyroll so I can watch it. I had it and maybe a few others that I forgot about, on my watchlist and when they disappeared, I forgot about it.
An entire genre of content controlled by a single company via a single distribution model at a fixed price. What could possibly go wrong?
Happy news for an anime watcher like me who prefers dubs!
Though I am going to miss Funimation's player.
@Dr-M VRV is an attempt at bridging gamer related content, cartoons, and anime content into one service. It also has stuff from Rooster Teeth which does gamer live-action skit comedy and other things like that. It includes Crunchyroll and used to include Funimation so I was wondering if now that Sony owns Funimation would it come back.
@RevGaming When I say monopoly I don't mean that it has exclusive ownership over everything. I mean monopoly as in it has enough control so that no competitor can effectively fight against them should they start to engage in bad practices. This is the definition of monopoly that lead to the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. It is also what people feel MS may have if they could fully make the Activision-Blizzard content exclusive. Sony has so much control over anime now that if they wanted to raise price significantly, those other competitors can't really push back. So much content is owned by one company that anime fans would just have to take it knowing it they would otherwise have to miss out on like 80% of the content.
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