Anime StudiosĬrunchyroll and FUNimation make up a large portion of the anime market in North America, but Japanese companies can no longer facilitate bidding wars between the two. Well, at least Canada is included! Otherwise, nothing is going to change for you. If these two already make up a large amount of anime watchers in North America, how are they supposed to compete? International Fans Wait, what? I just said they were winners! Well, the other distributors - from competitors who focus on physical releases like Discotek to digital sites like Netflix - probably are worried about Crunchyroll and FUNimation basically becoming a monopoly. Japanese companies may also want to take chances with other distributors in order to avoid Crunchyroll and Funimation being the only option for streaming in the United States (and Canada). Well, if the two biggest competitors are only putting in one bid together, video sites like Amazon and Netflix will have one less competitor and can probably outspend them for a lesser amount than if they had more companies interested in a title. They can also concentrate on their specialties and complement with each other, not compete. The two companies shouldn’t be driving up the cost to license anime through bidding wars anymore. If you go with both, FUNimation’s new pricing means a savings for nearly everyone only those who subscribed to their subs-only package will see a bigger hit to their pocketbooks. If you’re mainly a sub or dub person, you can choose to subscribe to one or the other. Also, for most people, this will be cheaper. The Winners: Anime Fansįans should be able to find a lot more shows with less confusion on which major anime service is doing a certain anime’s simulcast or wondering whether an English dub is impossible for certain series. So, is this good news or bad? Let’s take a look at the winners and losers. This is cheaper than the previous all-access plan (with no ads) at $7.99 a month but more expensive than their limited package of $4.99 a month. Their premium package - called FUNimation Now – will be $5.99 a month or $59.99. Gray-man Hallow and Cowboy Bebop.įUNimation is also simplifying their streaming service. Crunchyroll will be streaming subtitled versions of both current and older FUNimation shows like D. FUNimation will handle distributing Crunchyroll home releases and are already preparing to launch broadcast dubs for some of this season’s shows ( 91 Days, Mob Psycho 100, and Orange). So what is going on with these two anime giants? In short, Crunchyroll is taking on most of the anime subs, FUNimation the dubs. This could be old news in a year, or perhaps they will make their partnership permanent. We also don’t know how long they are planning to team up. Some of FUNimation’s series - like Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash and First Love Monster - are now available to stream in countries like South America, Norway, and Denmark, but others like Cowboy Bebop are limited to the U.S. However, according to Anime News Network, the new agreement between the companies currently only applies to the U.S. There’s also no joint discount or “all together” pricing, meaning that many fans will still feel forced to pay for both or choose one or the other. That means there’s not going to be a site called Crunchymation or a FUNiroll coming up in the near future. Most importantly, Crunchyroll and FUNimation are not merging. I find it easier to first discuss what this doesn’t mean before discussing what it does mean. But the latest joint venture has certainly stirred the anime community: Crunchyroll and FUNimation are teaming up. Disney and Squaresoft (later Square Enix). History is filled with weird crossovers and collaborations.
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