Funimation to Acquire Crunchyroll (Crunchyroll to swallow Funimation content)

[GeoffOliver]

It's definitely sad to see the FUNimation brand come to an end, even though they aren't actually going out of business. I still wonder how the whole thing's going to operate now. Will the Crunchyroll staff in California take over everything, or will it be the FUNimation staff in Dallas? I'm just wondering because it could be possible that one or the other might be phased out entirely or heavily scaled back (maybe FUNimation's staff might only handle home video). I'm especially wondering how dubbing's going to be handled now. Crunchyroll outsourced their dubs to various studios like Bang Zoom. FUNimation did that too recently, likely due to the COVID backlog, but they still defaulted to their regular in-house studio most of the time. Will that studio continue to be the default, be spun-off into its own company (like ADV and 4Kids' old studios), or heaven forbid, be shut-down entirely? I also wouldn't be surprised to see Aniplex USA merged into this beast. The whole thing almost reminds me of the Disney/Fox merger.

Hopefully HiDIVE/Sentai is able to become healthy competition at some point so we don't have a total monopoly in anime streaming. Them, this new Crunchyroll beast, and Discotek are the only major players left in the NA anime game. Viz is back to mostly handling manga alongside their handful of big anime licenses, AnimEigo only releases one Kickstarter-funded title a year, I'm not sure what's going on with Media Blasters, and anime's only a very small part of Netflix, Amazon, and Disney's businesses.

Man, just think of how different the anime landscape would be if only Dragon Ball was a success for Harmony Gold when they had it back in 1989. FUNimation would never have even existed (Gen basically confirmed that company was first created just so he could bring Dragon Ball over).

Originally Posted by CuppaKofe

So are AnimEigo and Media Blasters the only old school anime labels still in their original(ish) form now? Seems like an end of an era.

Viz too. They were a manga company first, but they've been releasing anime since 1993. Honestly, very little of that company has changed since then, aside from that brief period they tried to get into the streaming game with Neon Alley.

[neoz]

Originally Posted by gundamcero

$80 a year for an insane amount of anime is less than two Funimation releases. Sounds like a good deal to me. It's still one of the cheapest subscriptions out there.

It isn't that though. Just don't like being forced into one service and being held hostage doing so.

Them basically saying that the 2022 anime season and every season forward will be only on CR is pretty much a middle finger to everyone.

Ideally though not much you can do. Like I said, I'll just wait for a show to finish on CR that I want to watch sign up for a month then cancel. Or ideally just stick to buying it on BD if they keep doing those for the time being. Please God let them still release shows on BD.

[bigzgod]

Originally Posted by neoz

Ideally though not much you can do. Like I said, I'll just wait for a show to finish on CR that I want to watch sign up for a month then cancel. Or ideally just stick to buying it on BD if they keep doing those for the time being. Please God let them still release shows on BD.

If they end up still not streaming the home video version, there's your incentive to keep buying on BD

[gundamcero]

Originally Posted by neoz

It isn't that though. Just don't like being forced into one service and being held hostage doing so.

Them basically saying that the 2022 anime season and every season forward will be only on CR is pretty much a middle finger to everyone.

Ideally though not much you can do. Like I said, I'll just wait for a show to finish on CR that I want to watch sign up for a month then cancel. Or ideally just stick to buying it on BD if they keep doing those for the time being. Please God let them still release shows on BD.

I don't get how everything in one service is a bad thing. Now you don't need to get both or to choose. You now get more anime. Not less. Would you still be upset if everything went to Funimation and the prices increased cause I guarantee that was a possibility.

[neoz]

Originally Posted by bigzgod

If they end up still not streaming the home video version, there's your incentive to keep buying on BD

I guess so if they still continue to do that in the future.

Originally Posted by gundamcero

I don't get how everything in one service is a bad thing. Now you don't need to get both or to choose. You now get more anime. Not less. Would you still be upset if everything went to Funimation and the prices increased cause I guarantee that was a possibility.

I wouldn't be happy if it all went to Funi either. I don't like the idea of monopolies or big companies in general controlling a lot of things. It stifles competition in the long run. Being able to choose was nice. Now all we have is one service that can set the rules and prices which will probably go up I would guess maybe by next year to offset the cost of putting everything under one roof maybe?

[gundamcero]

Originally Posted by neoz

I guess so if they still continue to do that in the future.



I wouldn't be happy if it all went to Funi either. I don't like the idea of monopolies or big companies in general controlling a lot of things. It stifles competition in the long run. Being able to choose was nice. Now all we have is one service that can set the rules and prices which will probably go up I would guess maybe by next year to offset the cost of putting everything under one roof maybe?

Guess we'll have to see.

[neoz]

Originally Posted by gundamcero

Guess we'll have to see.

I'm hoping it doesn't go up. I'm sure it will have to as all the other streaming services do sadly. Realistically as long as Sony still release stuff on BD I'll be content. If it were to all go to streaming then I guess I would stop watching anime. Yes that sounds stupid I know lol.

[gundamcero]

Originally Posted by neoz

I'm hoping it doesn't go up. I'm sure it will have to as all the other streaming services do sadly. Realistically as long as Sony still release stuff on BD I'll be content. If it were to all go to streaming then I guess I would stop watching anime. Yes that sounds stupid I know lol.

Doesn't sound stupid. Half the reason I love anime is the collecting. Without it I'd definitely watch less.

[Girls With Guns]

I have enough completely unwatched anime in my physical collection to last me for the rest of my life, so there's always that.

[Jhicksmedia]

I don't even trust Crunchyroll after they alienated their subscribers with High Guardian Spice, which is no doubt the platform's critical and commercial failure of a series.

[snowmint]

Sure. The sad thing is you will bring up that example everytime and for many years to come.

[mysticwaterfall]

Originally Posted by gundamcero

$80 a year for an insane amount of anime is less than two Funimation releases. Sounds like a good deal to me. It's still one of the cheapest subscriptions out there.

Did I miss a sale or something? I only see the usual $100 a year. It's been a bit since I had a CR sub though.

[gundamcero]

Originally Posted by mysticwaterfall

Did I miss a sale or something? I only see the usual $100 a year. It's been a bit since I had a CR sub though.

I have been subbed to Crunchyroll for years. Used to be $59.99 and was raised to $79.99 in 2019. It is what I just paid last October and I don't recall another price hike.

[alleyoop]

Originally Posted by Chie Satonaka

Really sad to see all this going down. I was locked into the old price of 6 a month for Funimation and just cancelled my subscription. Not moving over to Crunchyroll, almost double the price for no actual benefit to me.

A yearly Fan subscription is only a little more than $6 a month. Of course the yearly Funimation sub was less.

[alleyoop]

Originally Posted by mysticwaterfall

Did I miss a sale or something? I only see the usual $100 a year. It's been a bit since I had a CR sub though.

The store has yearly Fan subscriptions for less. We should setup a BR shared account for even less.

[alleyoop]

Originally Posted by gundamcero

$80 a year for an insane amount of anime is less than two Funimation releases. Sounds like a good deal to me. It's still one of the cheapest subscriptions out there.

I like the majority of anime being under one streamer as long as the price doesn’t become unreasonable. It beats Takagi-san shifting seasons from Crunchy to Netflix to HIDIVE.

[InuYashaCrusade]

Originally Posted by GeoffOliver

It's definitely sad to see the FUNimation brand come to an end, even though they aren't actually going out of business. I still wonder how the whole thing's going to operate now. Will the Crunchyroll staff in California take over everything, or will it be the FUNimation staff in Dallas? I'm just wondering because it could be possible that one or the other might be phased out entirely or heavily scaled back (maybe FUNimation's staff might only handle home video). I'm especially wondering how dubbing's going to be handled now. Crunchyroll outsourced their dubs to various studios like Bang Zoom. FUNimation did that too recently, likely due to the COVID backlog, but they still defaulted to their regular in-house studio most of the time. Will that studio continue to be the default, be spun-off into its own company (like ADV and 4Kids' old studios), or heaven forbid, be shut-down entirely? I also wouldn't be surprised to see Aniplex USA merged into this beast. The whole thing almost reminds me of the Disney/Fox merger.

Hopefully HiDIVE/Sentai is able to become healthy competition at some point so we don't have a total monopoly in anime streaming. Them, this new Crunchyroll beast, and Discotek are the only major players left in the NA anime game. Viz is back to mostly handling manga alongside their handful of big anime licenses, AnimEigo only releases one Kickstarter-funded title a year, I'm not sure what's going on with Media Blasters, and anime's only a very small part of Netflix, Amazon, and Disney's businesses.

Man, just think of how different the anime landscape would be if only Dragon Ball was a success for Harmony Gold when they had it back in 1989. FUNimation would never have even existed (Gen basically confirmed that company was first created just so he could bring Dragon Ball over).

Viz too. They were a manga company first, but they've been releasing anime since 1993. Honestly, very little of that company has changed since then, aside from that brief period they tried to get into the streaming game with Neon Alley.

I seriously hope Aniplex is taken over or dissolved into the Crunchyroll/Funimation buyout. Time to get releasing that back catalogue of theirs that they've let sit around for a decade. Not to mention more affordable releases most importantly. Keep doing these fancy high priced collectors releases and put out standard versions like they did with Demon Slayer. If the collectors editions continue selling then do both. Make it work for both sides. But one thing is for sure, letting their older titles sit around and remain OOP is useless and a infuriating as a collector. It makes no sense and I hope Crunchyroll/Sony see this and do something about it in the near future.

It'll be interesting to see where exactly Sentai is 5 years from now. I like how they got some of the Amazon exclusive anime. Blade of the Immortal, Vinland Saga, Dororo were all fantastic releases with solid dubs from them. I hope they manage to stick around but they've got some serious competition. Crunchyroll/Funi are obviously getting all of the big hitters going forward and have been for years. I'd say Sentai should focus on getting older series but Discotek is already doing that. If anything Discotek is Sentai's main competition because they probably can't compete with Crunchy/Funi.

VIZ gets an occasional spinoff series like Yashahime/Boruto/Bleach but they seem to be winding down on physically releasing anime otherwise. Now that the Crunchyroll x VIZ partnership is more than likely over already who knows what they'll be releasing aside from the Naruto franchise, finishing Yashahime and Bleach TYBW. Netflix went after all of VIZ's other big series in Sailor Moon, Jojo, Tiger & Bunny. They've got a good relationship with Netflix and I could see them acquiring the Blu-ray/DVD rights for these series.

Manga is doing insane for VIZ right now so they're not going anywhere. All I've ever truly cared about is that they got Yashahime and Bleach and they did. They're in a great spot thanks to the current manga hype that started around 2020. This just came out earlier in the week: "U.S. Manga Sales More than Doubled in 2021" and that's after a massive 2020 report.

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/new...n-2021/.183103

[mysticwaterfall]

Originally Posted by gundamcero

I have been subbed to Crunchyroll for years. Used to be $59.99 and was raised to $79.99 in 2019. It is what I just paid last October and I don't recall another price hike.

When I go to the main page, I see only $9.99 a month as the cheapest. When I Google for annual, I get another page that offers me 99$. The only page I get $80 on is to give a 12 month gift subscription.

[BoscoTheMan82]

Originally Posted by gundamcero

I have been subbed to Crunchyroll for years. Used to be $59.99 and was raised to $79.99 in 2019. It is what I just paid last October and I don't recall another price hike.

I payed $59.99 last October, somehow my price has never went up.

[GeoffOliver]

Originally Posted by InuYashaCrusade

I seriously hope Aniplex is taken over or dissolved into the Crunchyroll/Funimation buyout. Time to get releasing that back catalogue of theirs that they've let sit around for a decade. Not to mention more affordable releases most importantly. Keep doing these fancy high priced collectors releases and put out standard versions like they did with Demon Slayer. If the collectors editions continue selling then do both. Make it work for both sides. But one thing is for sure, letting their older titles sit around and remain OOP is useless and a infuriating as a collector. It makes no sense and I hope Crunchyroll/Sony see this and do something about it in the near future.

It'll be interesting to see where exactly Sentai is 5 years from now. I like how they got some of the Amazon exclusive anime. Blade of the Immortal, Vinland Saga, Dororo were all fantastic releases with solid dubs from them. I hope they manage to stick around but they've got some serious competition. Crunchyroll/Funi are obviously getting all of the big hitters going forward and have been for years. I'd say Sentai should focus on getting older series but Discotek is already doing that. If anything Discotek is Sentai's main competition because they probably can't compete with Crunchy/Funi.

VIZ gets an occasional spinoff series like Yashahime/Boruto/Bleach but they seem to be winding down on physically releasing anime otherwise. Now that the Crunchyroll x VIZ partnership is more than likely over already who knows what they'll be releasing aside from the Naruto franchise, finishing Yashahime and Bleach TYBW. Netflix went after all of VIZ's other big series in Sailor Moon, Jojo, Tiger & Bunny. They've got a good relationship with Netflix and I could see them acquiring the Blu-ray/DVD rights for these series.

Manga is doing insane for VIZ right now so they're not going anywhere. All I've ever truly cared about is that they got Yashahime and Bleach and they did. They're in a great spot thanks to the current manga hype that started around 2020. This just came out earlier in the week: "U.S. Manga Sales More than Doubled in 2021" and that's after a massive 2020 report.

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/new...n-2021/.183103

I really hope Aniplex is just merged into Crunchymation, which would make a whole lot of business sense, but I'm sure Aniplex Japan is still pulling the strings of that company, and they've seriously hurt their catalog by keeping it unavailable for so long.

As for Sentai, they may be in a position to benefit from this if they're the only strong competition. From what I've heard, their dubs have improved a whole lot in a decade (their Venus Wars redub is actually fantastic, and I enjoyed their Saint Seiya redub too, all 114 eps), but they're still a smaller company working with lower budgets than FUNimation, Bang Zoom, Studiopolis, New Generation and NYAV Post. Hopefully they're able to sink more resources into their dubbing at some point. Unlike the other studios, they've pretty much stuck with their Houston talent pool (with an occasional appearance from a FUNimation voice actor). With the other dubbing companies using multiple recording facilities and/or remote recording (maybe less now than during the worst of COVID?), the lines have definitely blurred between the talent pool regions, but Sentai appears to still do everything 100% at their in-house studio with the actors they have on-hand.

Viz really should just focus most of their attention on their manga. That's their bread-and-butter. Their business model for anime (handling just a few bigger titles) has worked out well for 30 years. They tried to compete with FUNimation during their Neon Alley era, but it was such a radical shift for the company, and they may have been out of their element. I don't even think they would've gotten Sailor Moon if Charlene Ingram wasn't in charge at the time.