Crunchyroll Just Bought Rightstuf...What's Next?

[@wormythebutterfly9156]

It's hard to stay positive about this. RightStuf has always been a great company that cared about giving the customer what they wanted. Its a store I always end up recommending to anyone who watches anime or reads manga. It's under Sony, which at this point is a monopoly for anime in the West and any sort of monopoly is never good for consumers. I do also have my problems with how well the Cruchyroll runs but I do hope that RightStuf is able to maintain its quality and character and not just be merged into Crunchyroll and forgotten. Aside from that, I wanna give a big shoutout to Shawne Kleckner and the rest of the RightStuf! gang for being a great company all these years. I don't blame them in the slightest for accepting the buyout either, as a business its the best move you can make to accept an offer from the biggest company in the industry.

[@Justin_Anime]

Sony, literally has a monopoly on most anime content in the US now. Besides OtakuMode (figures) & Sentifilmworks (Anime & Blurays) Sony is now completely unchallenged. Also their press-release already verifies that they have been censored. Any content that would even be remotely considered "inappropriate" is being removed from the site. Lastly, anything shipped from Crunchyroll is almost guaranteed to come with some form of damage to it from lack of packaging, how long can we expect them to keep their customer service promise, when at least 20% of their content is being cut from their store & now they have effectively no competition.... This is a dark dark day for anime 😭😭😭!!

[@AnimeIntensity]

This 100%!!

[@tooruoikawa8985]

@@AnimeIntensity agreeeed I already wrote and email to them today voicing these exact concerns. I totally agree!

[@wcthesecret]

Discotek media and nozomi entertainment and anime matsuri exist too you know.

[@Justin_Anime]

@@wcthesecret Nozomi is owned by Right Stuf 🙃. Discotek primarily focuses on re-releasing older anime but they only sell through Right Stuf & Amazon, not an independent store... & I wasn't aware of that last one but it's a convention? I don't think that would fall under competition either.

[@wcthesecret]

@@Justin_Anime it’s Vic mignognas new dubbing company now.

[@austinsadler]

I hope right stuff keeps their prices on manga and anime which was some what cheaper than shopping at places like Barnes & Noble and Wal-Mart and Amazon. Which was one of the reasons why i spent over thousands of dollars with them

[@tooruoikawa8985]

This is a terrible move for the manga industry as whole. The biggest reason being Crunchyroll is overpriced and not customer friendly. They have terrible customer service and love to censor or change things in translations. The website will be now focused on pushing Crunchyrolls streaming services and promoting whatever anime they want to sell the most merchandise. The manga publishers will be hurt as their sales will no longer be private and one company will be distributing a majority of the US manga books. The website will now just become a promotional tool for Crunchyroll and the highest bidder in terms of advertising. This is terrible news.

[@d.akross3639]

I supported Nozomi's Dirty Pair kickstarter and now I am afraid it will be watered down in some way (they claimed it would not be altered but it is still months from release and things can change). Even if it does come out unaltered, my future purchases will be from Anime Corner Store and Books A Million.

[@Real_Name_Redacted]

This screams of a monopoly. From a business standpoint I can't blame them. But from a consumer stand point, this kinda sucks

[@deenyStar]

🥺I did’t know about this I’m kinda scared. Crunchyroll has so much issues why are they taking over everything.

[@ainbo9022]

Yeah all those ecchi statues you have will no longer be sold on right stuff. That's including DVD/Blu ray and any other ecchi merchandise

[@Launchpad05]

RightStuf was one of the places I use to buy anime from occasionally, and while I've never bought erotic stuff from them, I am worried about what else they could do to anime in the future. What if RightStuf forces Nozomi to censor 'Dirty Pair' to appease Crunchyroll's standards.

[@jeebay5188]

As a Dirty Pair backer I like others who posted am worried about Sony’s meddling and censor happy attitude towards anime. I do have the original dvd’s and vhs tapes so I can compare if it seems off.

[@ProfessorChaos2050]

Thanks for the video love your bubbly personality I didn’t know what crunchyroll & rightstuf was about may everyone have a blessed day.🥂😁

[@SuperOtakuKyo]

The big kicker for me is they now have Nozomi too. I hope this doesn't hurt Nozomi continuing supporting their licenses and I hope Nozomi as a brand isn't killed off. Nothing about this is a good deal outside of maybe higher ups who are getting tons of money from this. R18 content being removed by a major retailer like Rightstuf is a huge blow. Even if everything is moving to this other site, it won't nearly have the same traffic and attention like Rightstuf. This is going to hurt many longtime partners of Rightstuf like Fakku. They should've just put their money and resources into expanding the Crunchyroll store instead of buying Rightstuf entirely. Rightstuf was also major partners with other publishers like Discotek, and Sentai Filmworks and I find it hard to believe they won't get hurt in this aquisition.

[@NJ973201]

Note: They actually own a manga company now since Crunchyroll had bought out the European branch of Viz Media in 2019 and just like with ex-Funimation sets, they're using the Crunchyroll logo now on manga & anime that Kaze had rights to in France & Germany.

[@cradica]

Interspecies reviewers was 18 and 16 in Germany yet the whole thing is 18 + here

[@joQing.7384]

I’m skeptical about it, they’re already dividing and making a new site for “ero” stuff. I can get why, but it does feel like the end of an era.

[@cradica]

Agreed

[@STARSCREAMx22]

RIP Hentia 🙏

[@TheDubbedCasual]

Sony is really just out here with a death grip on anime huh

[@rogue9625]

It means we’re fucked

[@ThomatoSauce]

I’ve a theory that Sony purchased Right Stuf specifically to snuff out Interspecies Reviewers.

[@Boba_Fettuccine.]

Sony also owned VIZ which is the main source for manga translations for english. I always thought that Sony wanted to monopolize the market of linguistic translations of eastern media. I thought they might even be interested in doing translations for Korean media. This news is sus cuh

[@1234580324]

If you talking about European Viz media, I feel bad for you guy since they cut out support for Europe. Lucky for me, I’m in North America is different since the Viz company Hq is own by shueisha. It’s operate way different the old from European branches. We don’t effective by any of these. I hope you find away to import the U.S. if you don’t want to buy European branch one.

[@holofan4994]

I can't see how it's good either, I joked with friends that well at least now crunchyroll will package their stuff amazingly lol. I mainly buy manga from them because they're the best when it comes to price. Usually these things always end bad for the consumer, but I'm going to try and keep positive and think it'll all be alright. The thing I'm curious about the most is how does this impact their employees? I hope it has a positive impact for everyone though. Also nice to see you're back!

[@phyxiuss]

Haven't bought from rightstuf in a good while. I just hope it doesn't affect their deals.

[@foodini666]

not sure how this is going to go. i am also not sure if monopolies are against any rules in japan?

[@VictorGonzalez-ss9gi]

Why tf is Sony censoring everything they’re so lame now

[@hopeestheim7285]

Sony has become the next Disney or EA

[@ironpluca2373]

Do you by any chance know any other manga sites to recommend because I still want to buy manga but I just don't trust sony or crunchyroll enough to buy from them

[@Red_Sincara]

Nippon Niche

[@danielalancasey]

@@Red_Sincara never heard of them. I just went to their site and it looks like everything is sold for full retail. Why would people shop here?

[@Red_Sincara]

@@danielalancasey it’s one of my local shops that I buy from. Just trying to plug their store, since they’re nice ppl. I don’t see a problem with retail especially if they’re not a million dollar corp

[@davidruth1902]

Why am I getting the feeling that the anime entrainment industry is going to go down in flames?

[@boku-no-pico]

The way Sony looks at it. OK when kids go out to work working 15 hours a day and they don't have to worry about the adults ordering adult materials. Also while they are work they want to watch nudity. The kids work so hard and they can't deal with taking care of parents content

[@animefacts7227]

sony's acquisition of rightstuf makes strategic sense if you understand the logistics side of the industry rightstuf already handles the inventory and order fulfillment for funimation, sentaifilmworks, crunchyroll, why would sony want to bother maintaining multiple websites when all transactions and orders really go thru rightstuf its ultimately cheaper and more efficient for sony to just buy rightstuf rather then build out its own distribution/warehouse system and as a added bonus it removes rightstuf from being a possible competitor and gives sony the ability to instantly cripple sentaifilmworks who relies almost entirely on rightstuf

[@psoarchive]

Ah, but you miss the point. TRSI was/is the primary distributor for several anime publishing companies that have refused to sell out to Sony. SO right now, this dropping of R18 product is putting a huge squeeze on primarily on just one publisher, Media Blasters (Anime Works and Kitty Media). So half expect to see Media Blaster be Sony's next buyout. I think the only two publishers that weren't terribly effected by this were Shout Factory/GKids and Viz Media, both of whom use different companies as their primary distributors.

[@animefacts7227]

@@psoarchive do you think sony will use this acquisition to pressure sentaifilmworks into selling themselves to? i know amc owns sentai but i don't think amc cares about psychical releases so i was curious if sony would make a move for sentai assets

[@omegashenron8]

@@psoarchive Media blasters is too small to bother buying.

[@psoarchive]

@@animefacts7227 Doubtful, AMC only just finalized the purchase of Sentai this year, and there are some manner of contractual terms in place, rumored to be for 24 months. So what happens 16 months from now is anyone's guess, but I got the distinctive impression that AMC was legitimately purchasing Sentai because they wanted to expand their genre library of media offerings into anime. Really it's a wait and see with that.

[@psoarchive]

@@omegashenron8 Same could have been said for Manga Entertainment as it was essentially a moth balled company when Sony bought it away from Starz. But they bought it as it gave then a inroad to the British market, and gave them the license to all things Ghost in the Shell.

[@AnimeFan4Life2022x]

i did not see this coming tho i just checked rightstuf right now it looks like a nice site i wonder what will happen next with crunchyroll etc

[@bob-robertsanimecornerstor6115]

Sony doesn't control it all yet ;-)

[@shrap3d]

They control enough...

[@cradica]

That's anime store talking in the comments

[@busymike]

I blame the fans for supporting Crunchyroll and making it as big as it is. I never paid for that nonsense in my life. All anime is streamable for free online. 😂

[@juancarlosalonso5664]

You blame crunchyroll… for what exactly? Nothing bad has happened yet, drama queen.

[@sierra002hg2]

Exactly, same here

[@porsche9302]

Any reason we get to see you is a good reason.

[@PirateCaptainDan]

Right stuf was a company that was like an super anime fan owned it. And like you said the way they packaged your items were always with care. As if they were shipping it to themselves. If this Sony's attempt to be the Disney of anime streaming and other content. They are going to ruin the anime entertainment industry. By trying to both corner the ability to view anime, either by streaming or physical ownership. And by the content being censored from the way it was originally made. And will certainly lead to numerous pirate sites.

[@cosmicuzumaki3697]

crunchyroll is getting into games it be cool if they had visual novel games like higurashi and steins gate free on their service

[@madhukarg8052]

I just don't know where this is goona go

[@Kite562reviews]

although I've never used Crunchyroll or Rightstuf I've had heard a lot about Ritstuf's great deals for manga and anime box sets. I still have a bad feeling about this. However, only time will tell.

[@AnonymouslyForgotten]

We are in the dark ages of anime. I have no doubt that Sony plans to continue this aquisitional rampage. The companies left over are so small in comparison, that it wouldn’t be hard to gobble them up. As of now, or shortly later, Sony will have the power to completely change the incoming history of anime as we know it. Thats some scary ass shit.

[@EPS5000]

I hate RightStuf. One of their employees named Mauricio lied to me in a support ticket and then closed it. So I made a new one to tell them about this liar, they admitted I was right but that they would suspend my account for “speaking negatively about their employee” and they “don’t want my business anymore” - all I said was their employee is a liar.

[@AnimeIntensity]

Oh noooo that’s no good :( It’s a bummer they treated you like that.

[@AnimeFan4Life2022x]

you should of talked to the manger or threaten to sue for there bs if they did that to u make sure u have proof as well

[@EPS5000]

@@AnimeFan4Life2022x I still have all the emails, but it's not worth it to sue. After the way they treated me, I wouldn't want to shop with them again anyway. Also hiring a lawyer to sue can get expensive.

[@EPS5000]

@@AnimeIntensity The sad part is I've been a customer of theirs for about 9 years, and this is how they treat me.

[@AnimeFan4Life2022x]

@@EPS5000 understood I did think the cost forgive me your right still awful how they treat a customer maybe one day that employee will screw up and get fired but still if I where you I would make a complaint to the manager or higher if possible somehow and show the proof I hope you recover from what happened have a amazing day or night!

[@sierra002hg2]

Damn Crunchyroll!

[@shrap3d]

I used to love Crunchyroll and RightStuf. The taint of Sony and Funimation has ruined Crunchyroll. I FULLY expect RightStuf to die. Nozomi was purchased too. They announced it on their Dirty Pair kickstarter. I'm celebrating the news by buying some manga from BAM next chance I get.

[@Launchpad05]

Is BAM another store that sells anime?

[@juancarlosalonso5664]

Oh sure, because BAM (an american company) is better for anime than Sony (a japanese company). Lol you guys love to be drama queens.

[@Launchpad05]

@@juancarlosalonso5664 That would be funny if Sony didn't move their headquarters to Californis. So I guess all that 'drama' you speak of is perfectly justified there, skippy.

[@MegaMegaman87]

litterally NOT happy about this at all!

[@celestialbikiniatoll87]

Definitely not a good thing tbh I see this as a major power play move from Sony. They wanna buy out and control all anime distribution in North America. First Sony buys crunchyroll which led to them buying out funimation pretty much the biggest company for dubs and home video releases and now rightstuf which was pretty much the #1 place to buy anime merch. As a anime collector who’s been buying anime and manga since 2008 I’m concerned about what will happen to nizomi entertainment or any other smaller company who rely on rightstuf for exclusive home video releases. What will also happen to the a lot of animes getting released moving forward because that could mean censorship down the road. Already concerned since they pretty much black listed the r-18 section. Just a sad day frfr. Never thought rightstuf would be brought out. Hope there customer service and constant deals on movies and manga won’t go away. Thanks for making a video on this a lot of my friends who collect anime been upset about this all day.

[@ChrisMeth7285]

I'm definitely not happy about it, hopefully rightstufanime exclusive anime are still available to purchase.

[@MrMichaelisaacs1]

Yea not anymore the r18 stuff just got taken off the site

[@AnimeIntensity]

Wow they didn’t even wait a single day. It really is all gone :/

[@fredcrane3951]

@@AnimeIntensity yep they did it this morning

[@cradica]

Non-h 18 plus stuff is still allowed (like Highschool DXD)

[@jeremycaufield8605]

I just hope they don't start censoring titles like some other companies.

[@TwistedTZ]

They will it was already stated by Sony and crunchyroll that they want to remove things they deem inappropriate.

[@thegamingwolf8755]

Unfortunately i do feel they would likely start censoring titles in the near future i dont like this merger.

[@treewisps4085]

Crunchy roll had like 30 items in there store

[@mooseeggzz]

I've been planning on making like a $200 manga purchase from them. Do yall think I should buy the manga now from them, because I'm scared the prices will go up.

[@jeebay5188]

I’d say buy now, I’ve been a customer since ‘95 and they’ve always had good prices. I don’t want to be a fear monger but if you can afford to get it now then jump on it. Just my opinion.

[@undecidedtoystore3003]

I'm nervous about this... I've been loving collecting manga from right stuf anime for the past 2 years...

[@ramoncastro4737]

First funimation, now rightstuff. Maybe they wanna improve their manga and merch side of things

[@psoarchive]

Actually the first Sony acquisition in North America was Manga Entertainment, then Crunchyroll, Harmony Gold, and now The Right Stuf International.

[@blakeslots5573]

It bad news for the anime community

[@Daecoth]

It's bad. They dropped several adult oriented products and titles. One less trusted site for adults to shop for what they want.

[@hiddengem2930]

Lmao everything is moving to the Crunchyroll store.

[@vermillion8827]

this has high potential to be utterly devastating. rightstuf was a great place to pick up merch and i dont see this going well

[@juancarlosalonso5664]

Why though?

[@SDAnime]

Lets just say I don't really like this merger.

[@eatthewoke5170]

Bad. This is a bad thing.

[@hbrant]

They can't acquire Kodansha but if Kodansha agrees to sell their manga division is up to them. Manga publishers are quite hard to consolidate in Japan. Shueisha, Hakusensha and Shogakukan are owned by Hitotsubashi Group. Just like Shueisha and Kadokawa, Gangan from Square Enix is more than just manga. They sell magazines with idols and jav models. Would Sony be interested in that? I think we should be more worried about than manga publishers CoMix Wave Films (the studio Shinkai works at) TMS Entertainment SEGA TYPE-MOON ufotable You never know what Sony's next move is when Aniplex, Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan, Crunchyroll and Sony Interactive Entertainment are always looking. Multilayered earnings structure for anime business as Sony called it at their strategy meeting in 2020.

[@omegashenron8]

I personally haven't shopped at Rightstuf in 10 years cause the shipping changes made for Canadian customers. Basically Its stupidly expensive to buy anything there after shipping and currency conversion. I had to stop buying there cause of it so this acquisition doesn't affect me but I feel for yourself and those that do. I don't like how Anime is becoming monopolized but ultimately this is what happens when people support opportunistic monopolizers like Sony/Crunchy Roll.

[@tooruoikawa8985]

No more yearly birthday sale. No more membership prices. No more preorder sales. No more exclusives. Everything will go away with Crunchyroll, they are the Disney of the anime industry.

[@cradica]

4:32 I only bought Interspecies Reviewers from them.