Is Funimation shutting down?

If you’re an anime lover then you’re likely well aware of Funimation, it’s one of the biggest distributors of anime in the west. The subscription based streaming service has given fans access to a number of great series over the years such as One Piece, Dragon Ball, and Attack on Titan. However, it looks like Funimation’s days may be coming to an end.

Funimation has been around since the 1990s and had a huge hand in popularizing the media form outside of Japan. Most notably, the company was able to bring Dragon Ball Z to Cartoon Network in the ’90s and it quickly became one of the network’s highest-rated shows. In the last decade, Funimation set up a streaming platform to air more anime content, but in the coming months the Funimation app will indeed be shutting down. After April 2, the platform will be no more. Whilst this may seem like terrible news for those with a Funimation account don’t panic yet as you’ll still be able to use your account thanks to Crunchyroll.

Did Funimation and Crunchyroll merge?

Funimation and Crunchyroll are both owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, with the former being acquired in 2017 and the latter being acquired five years later. As of 2022, Funimation’s parent company, Funimation Global Group, became Crunchyroll LLC. Funimation was consolidated into Crunchyroll but their streaming platforms remained separate despite now pretty much having the same content catalog. 

Whilst Funimation and Crunchyroll have coexisted for two years despite merging, that will all come to an end in April as Funimation will cease operating permanently. Users with an account will be able to migrate to Crunchyroll and will have access to the same shows and movies. You know what they say: one door closes, another opens. Users will just have to get used to going to a different site.

What is the Crunchyroll price increase?

Actually users will also have to get used to paying a higher price after migrating their accounts. People who subscribed to Funimation years ago are getting quite the shock when shown the price difference between the old and new services. One X user posted a screenshot showing that their yearly subscription rate had almost doubled from $54.95 with Funimation to $99.99 with Crunchyroll.

Of course, this price hike won’t be the same for everyone, this was more of an extreme case as the cheaper plan comes from the user having a subscription plan from 2014. Back then prices were obviously a lot lower and it seems the price they were paying hasn’t increased as the years went by. Either way, hopefully the difference in price won’t be such a hard pill to swallow for others.