Crunchyroll was sold to Funimation’s owners when debt-laden AT&T struck a deal with Sony for around $1.2bn.
Funimation will merge into Crunchyroll, moving about 80% of Funimation and Wakanim’s most popular content by March.
I have accounts at both, and if you’re in the same situation as me, then the official advice is that you should go ahead and cancel Funimation. The snag? Your watch history or queue at Funimation will be lost, but the company says they are working on solving that.
Colin Decker, CEO of Crunchyroll, told the press;
“When we brought Funimation and Crunchyroll together last year, our top priority was to put fans first. Unifying all of our brands and services under the Crunchyroll brand globally enables us to offer more value than ever before as we combine subs, dubs, simulcasts, library, music, movies, manga—all into one subscription. The new Crunchyroll is the realisation of a dream, and we are grateful to the creators of anime and the millions of fans who have joined us in making the community what it is today.”
Pricing at Crunchyroll won’t change, and the anime streaming site now has 1600+ hours, 50 new titles and come April Fools Day (is that a wise choice?) new and exclusive content.
That means the tiers are; £6.50/month, Fan; £7.99/month or £79.99/year, Mega Fan.
The people at the anime-making end of the business are full of praise. Takeshi Kikuchi, Executive Officer, Chief Animation Officer, and Chief Licencing Officer at the influential Kadokawa said;
Let’s bring the world to its feet with the best anime that only we, KADOKAWA and Crunchyroll, can make! Congratulations!”
Manabu Otsuka, CEO of MAPPA, added;
Congratulations on the brand unification. We will continue to do our best as a production studio so that animation fans around the world can enjoy anime through Crunchyroll.”
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