For years, two primary streaming giants have provided anime to the bulk of viewers.
Funimation and Crunchyroll have both been in operation for years now, but Crunchyroll’s tenure as a subscription service far exceeds that of its competition, which came available a good decade later. Despite this fact, Funimation’s been around for longer, bolstered by the Dragon Ball franchise to create Funimation films and, eventually, launch the Funimation streaming service.
In the years since Funimation put out its service, it and Crunchyroll have been stark competitors. Most anime fans have to choose one or the other — damn those subscription costs — but the choice just got quite a bit easier, thanks to a merger that’s been in the works since 2021.
Did Funimation and Crunchyroll merge?
Crunchyroll subscribers recently saw a change in price, which sparked concerns over the company’s future. Many people, aware of but uninformed about the Sony merger, assumed it was because Funimation acquired Crunchyroll, but its actually close to the opposite.
To be clear, neither Crunchyroll nor Funimation outright purchased one another, but Sony’s spending spree has seen the two companies begin to merge. Sony purchased a majority stake in Funimation back in 2017, and, right around a half-decade later, set its sights on Crunchyroll. Sony officially managed to purchase Crunchyroll in 2021, and since then the company’s been hard at work merging the two anime giants.
The process started in March of 2022, and its been ongoing ever since. The process of combining the two anime streamers will be complete by summer of 2024, but it comes with a catch — the Funimation app is set to shut down completely on April 2 of this year. With the vast majority of content still-accessible through the freshly merged Crunchyroll, that’s not really an issue — but the loss of digital purchases is.
Former Funimation subscribers recently learned that, when that April 2 shutdown occurs, they’ll lose access to any digital copies they may have purchased through the app. In a statement, Crunchyroll announced the change in a statement, noting that “Crunchyroll does not currently support Funimation Digital copies, which means that access to previously available digital copies will not be supported.”
Subscribers will still have access to their watch history and Funimation queues to enjoy, as their former Funimation account is merged with their new Crunchyroll account. But with the loss of digital purchases, paired with a major shift in subscription cost, not everyone is looking forward to April.
Is there a Crunchyroll price increase?
Alongside the official merging of Crunchyroll and Funimations anime libraries, Crunchyroll announced a major pricing change. The cost of a Crunchyroll subscription is set to nearly double starting early next year, but with no real competition on the market, subscribers won’t have many options outside of the pricey new plan.
In the end, its up to viewers whether or not they’ll pay the price, but Crunchyroll’s not likely to back down on this one. Sony’s created a bit of an anime monopoly with its merging of Crunchyroll and Funimation, and — state-side, at least — viewers aren’t left with enough alternate options to turn their noses up at the new cost.
If you’re a frequent anime watcher, the new cost is likely reasonable, but for anyone who only enjoys the occasional anime a Crunchyroll subscription will likely be out of the question starting on Jan. 28, 2025. That’s when the price of subscribing will rise from the current $54.95 per year to the new cost — a whopping $99.99 per year, nearly double what people are paying in 2024.
