The Funimation anime library has begun to move onto the Crunchyroll website as they steadily merge into one streaming service.
This week, the anime world finally faced the reality that the Crunchyroll merger with Funimation was beginning to roll out on Tuesday, March 1, 2022. The acquisition was already sorted on August 9, 2021, when Sony’s Funimation Group LLC closed the $1.2 billion deal to buy Crunchyroll from AT&T.
Now, the Funimation anime library has been steadily moving over to the Crunchyroll site. While it is Funimation who has bought Crunchyroll, Crunchyroll’s website will become the premier source for both libraries. But do not worry, your Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer episodes are still going to be on time.
Many fans would say the orange anime site has been doing a lot better than Funimation even though Funimation as a company has been around since 1994. The structure of the subscription plans, the interface, the ease of app usage, global audience reach and services both varied in strength and weaknesses for both sites—the conclusion was that Crunchyroll excelled in more of these fields than Funimation.
Using the arguably better service was practically the better choice in this instance. To understand what this merger means for the new Crunchyroll website importing Funimation’s content, here is a list to understand the deal in more detail.
1. One for All Subscription Cost
While there are fewer options with subscription plans as almost everything anime will fall under Crunchyroll, it will definitely save some money with one consolidated plan and also means less taxes for two separate plans. Here is the model of what both subscription services currently offer:
Crunchyroll
| Starter Price (Fan) | Basic Price (Mega Fan) | Premium Price (Ultimate) |
| $7.99 | $9.99 | $14.99 |
Funimation
| Starter Price | Basic Price | Premium Price |
| $5.99 | $7.99 | $9.99 |
On paper, Funimation had the better price for their plans by keeping them lower than Crunchyroll in all subscription tiers. However, this would most likely be because their anime library was significantly smaller and did not provide additional services or had the global reach Crunchyroll had.
2. Bye Bye Exclusivity…Sort Of
There will no longer be a streaming site barrier for audiences who want to watch site exclusives. Funimation was known to have most of the same big anime shows streaming at the same time, but Crunchyroll had been missing some new and old, popular titles that fans would have loved to enjoy sooner. Some examples of this include The Case Study of Veritas, Cowboy Bebop and Yu Yu Hakusho to name a few.
3. The Subs vs Dubs War is Over
The number one thing that Funimation had over Crunchyroll was that they were the best service provider of anime dubs. What are anime dubs? It is when there are English (or other language) voice actors who voice the characters of the original Japanese version of the show.
I must admit that growing up with Friday night dubbed anime shows like Dragon Ball Z, Bleach, Inuyasha and Fullmetal Alchemist has provided me with fond memories of how dub shows can be both good and bad—it all came down to the funding and creative freedom of the production.
With the joint operations of both departments, the war between the sites of dubbed versus subbed have been broken—both language versions can be enjoyed in one place. If only the feuds between subbed versus dubbed could be squashed in real life between anime fandoms and otakus (anime fans in Japanese).
4. No More Regional Barriers
One of the biggest disparities between the two anime streaming sites has been regional availability. Crunchyroll is known to provide its services to around 200 countries around the world in place like the Philippines, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Canada, the United States, Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia, Norway, Mexico, Chile, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Peru, Dominican Republic, Ireland, and Columbia—just to name a few.
Meanwhile, Funimation is only offered in a few countries, such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It seems like Crunchyroll would not necessarily gain much from Funimation’s regions, but they may still bring more anime fans from their shared regions over—essentially bringing the rest of the anime audience over. This would help them stay competitive as Netflix is trying to invest in original, exclusive foreign shows and movies (including anime).
5. The Biggest Anime Convention/Awards Show of All-Time…Maybe
Before the pandemic, conventions were the best place to be for fandoms, especially anime fandoms, as they allowed complete strangers to meet and talk about their shared love for their favourite pop culture properties like Star Wars, Star Trek, Attack on Titan, Pokémon and so much more! Crunchyroll Expo (CRE) was created in 2017 to celebrate the latter anime fandoms.
While Funimation attended a number of conventions, they never had a centralized event the way Crunchyroll established their own convention—they brought voice-acting stars, manga writers and artists (mangakas) and anime icons from around the world to meet their fans. Additionally, the Crunchyroll Anime Awards began celebrating the great companies and creatives behind some of the best anime studios in the world in 2017.
In the same year, their first expo held in 2017 had approximately 16,000 in attendance for the three-day event that typically runs Labour Day weekend in San Jose, California. While there were not many Funimation exclusives at their convention booths other than merchandise, having Funimation’s great English voice actors in attendance may see an increase.
These were the top five results of the Crunchyroll and Funimation forming one colossal anime library in their merger. Currently, Crunchyroll has a list of anime subs and dubs being added, which will be updated in chunks in the next few weeks.
Here are some great anime shows to check out that were just added: Kingdom Season 1-3 (Sub and Dub), Scarlet Nexus (Sub), and SK8 the Infinity (Sub and Dub). Be sure to check out this week’s news article for more information on perks and how to make the transition from Funimation to Crunchyroll a smooth and easy one.
