FUNimation is Dead. So, What's Next...?

[@Ruuinx]

It is funny when you remember that Crunchyroll started as a piracy website but grew big enough to become legit

[@Duamerthrax]

There was also this overlap time where they had Japanese investors, but still had pirated shit in their system. This is the lesson for everyone, NEVER PAY FOR BOOTLEGS.

[@groofay]

So they went from stealing from the industry to stealing from their customers. That's legit kinda hilarious.

[@sasshiro]

Anime Pirates - Just when I thought I was out…THEY PULL ME BACK IN!

[@stevegonzales527]

the most copy and pasted comment in this topic.

[@neonbvde2234]

True

[@galaxyiez4318]

The old funimation intros will never be forgotten 😢

[@vizualeater]

“You should be watching”

[@Toasty_Saiyan]

You should be watching

[@bowserjrimacasualshutup6754]

you should be watching

[@ItsukiKoizumi]

You should be watching

[@makotonarukami7468]

I'm trying to find a website that archives those funimation cards as the epsiodes of a show plays out. Anyone know of any?

[@Hei_Darkfire]

It seems like a lot of streaming services are hiking their prices. And they seem to forget that they are not essential services, so people are gonna quit them.

[@Windragon100]

Yeah, about had it with the price hikes on streaming. Planning to axe a few of my least watched services.

[@juanyanez755]

im getting rid of my funi right now and buying physical

[@eddiemin4312]

It’s because streaming is legit business now and content holders realize that they need them to make money because traditional TV is dying. Also, streaming now has to pay royalties to people that worked on the movies/shows like they do for TV. As much as price hike sucks at least you have option to cancel and start anytime with any streamer (you can rotate services every month to fit your budget). I hated having to pay $180+/month for the 300 channel bundle just to get the 8 channels that I actually wanted and usually you only had one provider in your area (essentially a local monopoly).

[@Windragon100]

@eddiemin4312 It's a sad reality we all subscribed too. *Pun not intended*. As much as we wanted to "cut the cord" to cable companies. We're showing streaming companies their product/services are something we'd be willing to pay for. However, with the price hikes, it'll be interesting to see which services are worth it to us over the other. This is also a demonstration of you no longer owning the content but gaining access to it. And it's up to them, which is/isn't available on the platform at their discretion.

[@eddiemin4312]

@@Windragon100what’s scary is that it makes it much easier to erase/alter history. Not just by removing content but also forever altering the content of what’s available like Greedo shooting first. No need for book/media burning just alter the streaming source.

[@driver7227]

Many have "unintentional" bluray players: PS3,PS4,PS5(Disc Ed.),XBO, XSX

[@screamingopossum7809]

There's really no reason to own an exclusive blu-ray player anymore, especially if you own any of the above. I almost exclusively used my PS4 as a blu-ray player.

[@jwest88]

Outside of Bloodborne and God of War(and at one point Nioh) my PS4 was mostly a blu ray player. My PC has a blu ray disc drive, but you have to buy paid software for blu ray discs to run; that still pisses me off. Blu rays have been around forever yet I can't just throw one into my PC and play them, unless I buy paid software.

[@MxPotato84]

My flat screen tv has a dvd player built in.

[@Kynatosh]

My computer has a blu-ray reader 🙃 Yeah it's from 2005 but it works really good

[@tcrime]

@@screamingopossum7809 Buddy, the subject of this video is a perfect reason to own one

[@Ruuinx]

Pirating is about to skyrocket if things keep going this way

[@taranjk1]

The way I see it nothing official is within reason of being worth buying, for its treatment of creators.

[@Originul_]

THE ONE PIECE... IS REAL! 🏴‍☠️

[@loggior.speedweed4345]

Yes, and?

[@Valoric]

First they bought animelab and were told it’s okay. Then they shut it down and were told to move to funimation. Then it’s shutdown because they bought crunchyroll. I guarantee there’s gonna be more BS and crunchyroll will be shut down because of some dumb ass at Sony. There’s no point in investing money into these subscription based platforms. It’s a scam.

[@hillppari]

havent paid a cent for anime in 15years ive watched it

[@Ncyphen]

I'm still shocked how most people have forgotten the details from a little over a year ago. The current Crunchyroll is Funimation. As soon as the purchase was finalized, Sony laid off a majority of Crunchyroll and renamed Funimation to Crunchyroll. Funimation's not dead, just their brand. (which I still find stupid. They could have used Funimation branding to distinguish English Dubs. "Funimation, A Crunchyroll Company." But the biggest thing to remember, it's all Sony. Sony bought Funimation and Crunchyroll so they could get into the streaming market just like their competitors that was unique from their competitors so that competition was reduced. I'm not going to go on about the digital content library. It was a stupid idea in the first place. A way to stream video without a sub that Funimation had to not only pay server hosting fees for the content, but also had to maintain a license to make that media available for access. It's not sustainable, and I'm not surprised they used the name change as a chance to ditch the service. Also, very few people actually bought digital copies. Most people who had libraries on Funimation admitted they were the free digital copies that came with the DVD/BD purchases.

[@michaelherrera4914]

Absolutely 💯. Also Sony is trying to recoup the 1.175 billion they used to purchase Crunchyroll

[@dubhdeamhan]

There are also other factors in play here as well. Yes, Sony owns/owned both Funimation and Crunchyroll. Does it make more sense if you own both to just migrate to only one service/app? Yes. Is Funimation the more widely known name, given that Funimation started as the primary western dubbing studio? Also yes. However, Funimation came under a LOT of fire in recent years for various different things, including shady practices in the dubbing studios with VA treatment. Many complaints of SA, regular alleged false allegations of SA, favoritism being played, fairly shitty work environments, the list goes on and on. Ultimately, Crunchyroll IS still Funimation. Sony is sunsetting Funimation in an effort to distance themselves from all the extremely bad press over the last few years by removing all Funimation branding and hoping nobody makes the realization that they are one and the same and just forgets about everything because the name that caused all of these problems is no long out there and in their faces.

[@LoveThatPhantom]

I think the whole Funimation brand is just destroyed at this point. You had the whole Vic Mignogna situation that did not put Funimation is a good light. Then their problems with them inserting politics into their transcripts. And not keeping true to the source material from Japan. Then from what I also heard Funimation had a really toxic work environment as well. I think overall Crunchyroll just doesn't have as big of a "Stain" (if that's word you want to use) on it as bad as Funimation did. So Sony decided to just get rid of completely.

[@Ncyphen]

@@LoveThatPhantom TBF, the same concerns about localization and the toxic work environment are also true about Crunchyroll. I had a friend who worked for Funimation at one point as a typesetter. She got treated like shit by upper management because she actually loved the anime they worked on. At the time, most of the big wigs in the company hated anime, and saw it as a means to a paycheck. This would explain their lack of care when it came to integrity.

[@darkprinc979]

What's even worse is that Crunchyroll also owns Rightstuf now, which was a big time distributor of anime and manga related goods for the US, and since then they shut down the Rightstuf store page and it now redirects to Crunchyroll's store, pretty much leaving Crunchyroll with little to no real competition when it comes to anime related merchandizing in the U.S.

[@deez9318]

Rip Funimation Every time I think about Soul Eater, the Funimation "You Should Be Watching" whisper comes to mind

[@Ra1ndr0p666]

Yessss not the only one

[@Ra1ndr0p666]

"Funimation what you should be watching" 😢

[@pedslapchat]

😭😭😭

[@katy.h1921]

That and Ouran high school host club, I’ll miss that so much 😢

[@kitt3302]

Afro samurai and soul eater ❤

[@DeckDogs4Life]

I'm honestly surprised that people are surprised that this happened. Funimation and CR merged years ago (as a company), and at that point Funimation stopped getting new anime because it all went to Crunchroll. I'm just surprised it took this long for the Funimation app/site to be taken down. Also, for physical media, Sentai Filmworks in the west has sales all the time that make it pretty affordable to buy. I remember for their mother's day or valentines day sale one year, I got like 10 or more complete series (including Higurashi, all seasons) for less than $150. I got the collectors set for My Love Story before for something like $40 before, which included a bunch of physical goodies.

[@V.U.4six]

Sentai sales are my go to but of course not all anime is Sentai licensed

[@DeckDogs4Life]

@@V.U.4six of course, but it IS a great option to keep an eye on for physical media.

[@eruantien9932]

Sentai is fine if you're in NA, but UK/Europe's a different region for both DVD and Blu-ray

[@HalfBloodSenpai]

I own a respectable collection of Anime series on Blu-ray also, many came from Sentai, but like it's been said in this thread already, the selection is still limited 😕

[@Boshea241]

There was also that dumb period where they merged, but you still needed two subscriptions because they had no plans of moving anything.

[@suika666]

I still buy physical copies of anime. I just bought seasons 1-5 of My Hero Academia on DVD at the beginning of the year. I now have those discs for as long as I take care of them, and no service can just suddenly go 'you can no longer access these discs'. I live in the UK, and I order my physical copies online for the most part.

[@BubblesChika]

You can probably find most of what you want from HMV in the UK

[@random3263827]

If me downloading a digital copy doesn't equal ownership, than pirating doesn't equal theft.

[@TamalPlays]

pirate everything.

[@mangamama9881]

If you paid for a legal download, it really should not be deleted.

[@DacLMK]

Right on the spot. That's why I just pirate. That, and because I live in a country that has limited options to obtain media legally (and when it is, it is usually expensive for our standards) so me and over half of the population just pirates.

[@vsnfudge]

then*

[@Louie002XvX]

Yeah same, i live in a country where it is really limited and the legal anime services are really not enough, so i blame that for why i pirate.​@@DacLMK

[@Korvi-Kun]

I'm really glad you said the thing about piracy being a service problem. People will buy a service that they can trust and is reliable, you have to provide at least equal service to piracy to make people like your service. If companies are gonna show us a middle finger over and over and over again, we'll just stop buying their services and move to piracy.

[@NoahErikkson]

yeah dude it sucks trying to watch certain shows and they just arent available on one plaform so to legally watch certain shows you end up having 4-5 different subscriptions

[@BuPan]

That's the real issue. No one should trust a streaming service when all the power is with the streaming service. They can just as easily remove service to their products with no recourse. You want to preserve a level of ownership, as irritating as it sounds, you need physical media.

[@_korbo_]

Yeah, that doesn't really stand on any legs for me when 95% of the piracy sites are just literally downloading and serving you a ripped copy of the crunchy roll videos. All you're skipping is the "pay 5 bucks a month" step. You're still benefitting from the subbing and licensing that CR does.

[@NoahErikkson]

@@_korbo_ sure that maybe true but if I want to watch certain shows that aren't available on Crunchyroll I have to spend more and more money on other subscriptions

[@jennisfalling1379]

@@_korbo_ however, the crunchyroll player is notoriously bad/broken, while piracy sites commonly have players with far fewer issues and just generally function better. not saying they don't benefit from rips (although many rips also add additional subs/styling), but that's not the whole story

[@jer1776]

Monopolies are always bad, period. We need laws mandating users who "purchase" digital copies be entitled to mp4 downloads of their libraries and force license holders to sell licenses to other platforms at affordable prices so Crunchyroll would have actual competition.

[@duchessdemona1549]

The prices for Blu-rays in the western world is way cheaper than in Japan. I noticed that when I visited Japan. Here in the US you can buy the complete 1st season of No Game No Life, new for $40-$50 not $200. I can see physical media possibly getting a resurgence, HiDive becoming bigger, and fans tapping into their inner Jack Sparrow after this Crunchyroll announcement.

[@ben99ny69]

40 dollars is still a lot for 12 episodes. You can get all of Avatar, 60 episodes, for 25 bucks. 40 dollars is I'd say the medium end of prices. There are prices even more expensive than that like stuff from aniplex. The last thing we need is hidive getting bigger. They should just shut down. Otherwise we will get in a situation we have now with max, Disney, paramount, etc getting their own service which is splitting up content. With more services, we need to pay more. And prices are still going up. There is no such thing as competition in the streaming landscape. If you were smart, you'd realize nothing has changed after this announcement. Literally nothing. No one is gonna cancel. And everyone saying they will cancel doesn't even use crunchyroll.

[@e.t.anderson4639]

But I am still surprised by how much anime seasons cost in the States. I recently bought the complete The Expanse (six seasons) on blu-ray for $60, compared to $40-50 for a single season (or sometimes /half/ a season) of an anime. And even for finished anime series, it seems rare to have complete series collections available. I fully intend to go on buying physical media, but I would like to understand why anime is so much more expensive than western series.

[@kakashiXAino]

Time for block Buster's to make a comeback

[@ben99ny69]

@@e.t.anderson4639 I don't know. But i have some idea. For one, US is part of Region A and so is Japan. So, people in japan could just import. Licensing fees. Same reason why boutique labels like criterion are expensive. Since they don't actually own the movie, they have to pay to distribute it. I don't agree with this idea, but some people believe that the less demand there is for something, the more expensive it gets. It makes no sense, but that is one justification i see for why boutique labels are expensive. One of my theories is that they may as well jack up the prices cause physical media is something only collectors purchase. You don't buy blurays to watch the show. For example, you'll get more profits by selling something at 50 dollars than 25 dollars cause not that many more people will buy the 25 dollar one.

[@brennang.7762]

Yes you can buy entire shows or seasons for 20 or 30 bucks and have it forever and the quality is the best that you can get if the transfer is done correctly.

[@animelover1978]

This is why I hate Digital Media. As for the price increase, it looks like it only effects people with Funimation accounts as that price has been the current Crunchyroll price for awhile now so if you only have Crunchyroll it's not really going to matter.

[@StoneCBears]

Digital media, partial privilege to watch your favorite franchise for convenience sake. Only if you pay them on their subscription fees and not infringe on the contract about copyright and blah blah blah. Or your contact to watch said media franchise with them is terminated. Physical media, you can beat the crap of it, neglect it to the Shadow Realm, modify it to fit your personal style, and do many more things (legally). Plus, you could watch it any time and space on your own terms. No contacts to agree, no subscription fees to pay, only upfront one-time payment for your favorite media to be in your hands.

[@KingBobbito]

@@StoneCBears you're implying that every show is "my favorite media" though. If I watch 30 different shows over the course of a year that's thousands of dollars for stuff I'll never watch again.

[@cottage3106]

@@StoneCBearsbuddy why would I ever do that? 1) I can’t watch CURRENTLY AIRING shows on some old blueray. 2) My apple TV can’t be used then 3) I live in a smaller apartment and I will absolutely not spend thousands of dollars on all the shows I want to watch 4) You’re a fucking boomer get the fuck out.

[@autumbreeze1129]

There's a reason I've stuck with physical media, despite the difficulties it has brought me

[@KingKam93]

We are entering the age of No ownership for consumers. Since streaming began it has pushed this agenda of 'we own it and you pay us to watch it' and I now see the video game industry trying to do the same. Places like VUDU and Amazon where you 'OWN' things is a facade. Majority of people just give in the digital age because it's convenient. What happens when a service dies and you can't access all the things you bought? Unacceptable. We need someone to shake things up and bring Physical copy back to the table. This is why I respect Nintendo in this manor. They've always found an innovative way to keep Physical alive. Little chips that take little to no physical space but has great games and hours of entertainment. We need a Physical renaissance or we are doomed and no one will own anything except the corporations!

[@staceystarlight]

The irony of getting a Crunchyroll ad right after this video..... 💀💀💀💀

[@Gunsight-One]

LOL! You too huh? I found it quite funny. Damn Crunchyroll has become the Evil Empire

[@Tenjo406]

Me to 💀

[@Cbas619]

Same here it was JJK

[@staceystarlight]

Update: crunchyroll is savage- clicked on this vid again... and guess what? A crunchyroll ad 💀💀💀

[@Cbas619]

@@staceystarlight Gojo says “bullshit” in the ad

[@MayaConner16]

Physical anime isn't nearly so expensive, at least in the states. The big problem is that it can be really hard to find what you're looking for because of licensing. I can find The Ancient Magus Bride S1 for, like, 30 bucks but I couldn't get Naoki Urasawa's Monster for quite so cheap because it isn't officially licensed for release in the U.S.

[@Taintedwisdomaz]

I found a few season sets like Hellsing Ultimate and Black Lagoon for around 60$ a piece. Not AS expensive, but still expensive :/

[@DutchFemme]

The moment Kissanime got mentioned, I got flashbacks.💀

[@Che1seabluesdrogba11]

Lol do you guys not know how to use Ublock Origin?

[@DaBoomDude]

I feel like aniwave, formerly 9anime is the next kissanime currently. It's just really well set out.

[@victoriazero8869]

Kissanime will never die. It just have countless of bad clones.

[@therapist2852]

@@DaBoomDude dont mention how often the server host loses connection 🤫

[@LeHarmacist]

Dude i used to read kissmanga and mangarock😔 Now kissmanga is dead and mangarock is dead to me.

[@rudyyyyyy]

10:23 certain pirate websites with just one simple ad blocker can provide more than sufficient quality anime, and the anime is in 1080p

[@livedandletdie]

GOGO GADGET PIRACY...

[@Rowdy_Raider]

I see what you did there, well played. @@livedandletdie

[@SilverSalomao]

don't forget to use a VPN at least

[@kororma]

Why vpn?​@@SilverSalomao

[@EternalBeatbox]

@@SilverSalomao Only thing a vpn will do is give access to a blocked site, other than that they don't really do anything.

[@MatsuShiki]

Tldw: FUNimation subscribers no longer get a 50% discount compared to normal crunchyroll subscribers. People who bought PHYSICAL copies lose their ability to steam it digitally from funimation.

[@tama47_]

Best summary that nobody get

[@tama47_]

@skechergn for most people, the digital come with the physical

[@jonivarboland8690]

This. Also, Funimation was never a western streaming service, it was a US Service. Nothing on Funi was available anyway for us living elsewhere. It's a much bigger loss that HiDive pulled out.

[@MrGrandBarbu]

tbf the 50% discount is for the handful of people that kept being subscribed *without cancelling* to funimation for over a decade ago, the recent outrage just never looked at the most recent funimation pricing before their service got terminated.

[@tinhphan17]

Also to add that bandwidth is expensive. Business wise it makes sense to shut down one platform since their purposes are the same. The price hike is to be fair like you said to existing Crunchyroll subscribers since it's already $99.99/y.

[@karlmueller1980]

Well sadly, one of the biggest problems is Sony and Crunchyroll have a monopoly in the anime space in the west and the rest of the world outside of Japan.

[@rantingfatman4555]

Sony is the monopoly. They own Crunchyroll and Funimation. It's literally Sony just being Sony. They destroy everything they touch.

[@kyliethelittlespider-mangirl94]

That and Sony can easily screw over companies (as one of my friends told me)

[@Icarus975]

Dude this is the END OF AN ERA Funimation was huge in the 90’s and 2000’s, I love seeing the Funimation logo back in the 90’s and 2000’s whenever my DVD’s or VHS’s ended And in the 2010’s there was that really fun Funimation logo that happened and stuff. I really am gonna miss this era.

[@nine_tails137]

Honestly, I miss those days. I wish more companies would care about their customers, rather than pushing an agenda, and screwing us over years later.

[@Labyrinth6000]

@@nine_tails137and messing with Vic Mignogna

[@nine_tails137]

@@Labyrinth6000 Yeah, that too.

[@luvhair255]

@@Labyrinth6000 That feeling when Vic is thrown out but actual peedo is fine hanging out in the forums at Anime News Network lol

[@ANPC-pi9vu]

Most of their history was shit, though. There was only a small window in which they had competent teams doing faithful dubs with good voice acting. I am so glad for their demise.

[@PinBiohazard]

PHYSICAL MEDIA - That's why it's so important, they should seriously reduce the pricing of DVD/Blu-Rays and people will buy, it's like CD/VInyls, people still get them

[@AbenAben-u9h]

I agree with you brah, it's like Manga. anybody in the right mine would just buy a physical copies rather than having ''digital copies''

[@TheRealZura]

Never buy retail price. Eventually they all go on sale.

[@Sonic171K]

⁠​⁠​⁠@@TheRealZuraNot true.

[@MuhammadKharismawan]

CD and vynils are only cheap because they are obsolete media, Blu Ray's are still being used actively and 100% of the time where actually well made quality version of a content is being sold. Blue ray still offers better quality than any 4K stream simply because they are lossless. Yes it matters less as compression on Anime is much easier to do well but hey for film and stuff, that's where you gotta go if you actually care about good content.

[@nine_tails137]

Exactly! Us anime fans are cheap! CHEAP! And price hiking just scares away customers. Speaking of which, my local Sunrise Records had to recall a ton of anime DVDs this week, because of Funimation shutting down. Some examples include MHA, Fairy Tail, DBZ, Attack on Titan(except for some box sets), and even Demon Slayer season 1, but not Mugen Train. It's not their choice BTW, it's the distributor's decision.

[@acctrsh]

One thing to note is that that price hike (~$55 to ~$100) was from a grandfathered Funimation subscription, at leastr according to the guy who tweeted it. However, currently the annual subscription to CR is $79.99 USD, so it's still a $20 price hike, making it still a pretty substantial increase.

[@DefinitivelyZach]

no, the current annual sub is $96/year.

[@acctrsh]

@@DefinitivelyZach the only one that I could find was a $79 one on their website. I’m not sure which plan that one fell under, so there could be multiple annual plans (like maybe one for fan and mega fan tiers).

[@DefinitivelyZach]

@@acctrsh Fan Tier is 7.99/month x 12 is $95.88 per year. That is the lowest plan.

[@MyVanir]

@@DefinitivelyZach Just entered their website and it says Fan tier is 17.90 NIS a month, which is 4.90$ when converted, making it 58.8$ a year. Jewish hacks stronk I guess.

[@cn005ckr]

55 doller = 6000+ in my country. But crunchy roll subscription in my country is 1650

[@Leegingersnaps]

We saw this with the music industry in going to streaming, now it’s going to anime and movies. These companies want to control what you watch and the money you spend.

[@snil4]

I'd say with music streaming we got saved really good, there aren't any exclusivity deals or anything weird like with video streaming as no matter which service you're paying for you'll get about the same content, and I think it's too late for record labels to start this kind of war.

[@darkprinc979]

@@snil4 Yes but the issue lies in control. If you're paying access to a digital streaming service they can revoke your access to what you paid for at any time of their choosing, or even as the result of some computer system failure.

[@mikejfile9070]

that price update has some misconceptions, it is for legacy Funimation accounts. The crunchyroll subscription has not increased

[@mikejfile9070]

The crunchyroll prices havent increased in 4 years

[@thoracicfuture]

this comment should be pinned

[@AnarchyMitsukai]

If that's the case, maybe Crunchyroll shouldn't be putting out vague or easily misconstrued statements. It's not hard to get a proofreader, but they just don't care: they only want your money.

[@10Raiden01]

They havent, one individual received an email about their legacy Funimation subscripton. Crunchy havent released anything in terms of a statement. Like always, the internet has taken someones post massively out of proportion. Unfortunately Joey appears to have fallen into the trap aswell. ​@AnarchyMitsukai

[@thoracicfuture]

The screenshotted statement is an email from CR to an individual user about their Funimation account. The original poster of the image says that the price increase is misleading in a later tweet.

[@GamerCool-ow6nn]

He says no one buys anime Blu Rays. I'm currently staring at my anime Blu Ray collection

[@h.h1623]

That's not the point, you guys are the minority of minority, you def don't watch nearly as much as some other guys

[@EximiusDux]

@@h.h1623The people watching huge amounts of shows and movies are an extreme minority too. Almost nobody with a job or school life has the time to watch 40 to 100 different shows per year. At best they binge watch combined with selective skipping and forwarding.

[@darkprinc979]

@@h.h1623 Well then maybe the majority ought to consider the consequences of their decisions. Just because something is popular does not mean it is wise or good.

[@winster32]

Dude same!

[@EximiusDux]

@@h.h1623 The people watching huge amounts of shows and movies are an extreme minority too. Almost nobody with a job or school life has the time to watch 40 to 100 different shows per year. At best they binge watch combined with selective skipping and forwarding.

[@JoMastr]

I thought the price hike was because people had been grandfathered on funimation, so the price increase is just the normal price for the plan they're on.

[@nine_tails137]

IMO, price hikes are a good way to scare customers away from your business. Not just streaming services, but grocery stores and shopping centres as well. That's why my family always looks for discounts! Because we're cheap!

[@rice_frying_shrimp]

that's exactly what it is, they are also receiving a bigger catalogue than they had access to before with the old pricing. they just kept the cheaper price as part of the transition period because they thought immediately bumping it up would put people off. so it could have been much worse and consumers effectively saved a good chunk of money thus far, but that doesn't fit Joey's narrative.

[@luvhair255]

@@rice_frying_shrimp So how much money did they lose on the stuff they bought and kept in their library that they are losing? In any case, it gives people LESS agency in choosing who they want to buy from and support, and that's the big point here. Monopolies reduce the agency of the customer and funnel all the money to the top. I've always hated Crunchyroll since they went legit, they have proven themselves to become an unethical company and are overridden by ESG money issues. Sony is another iceberg. The employees of Crunchyroll's public statements and behavior paint a good picture of what is going on inside as well. I don't care how many titles they have or how 'good of a deal it is'. People have forgotten all the scummy things they have done over the years, even just last year. The only anime service I am supporting right now is High Dive, which has a relatively small selection. This is ultimately a very, very bad thing for fans and signs that the worst is yet to come.

[@BooleanDev]

it is

[@HiroJJ94]

back in the day when I started watching anime online Crunchyroll was still sailing the seven seas it's almost ironic to see how they turn their users back to piracy

[@shadowtheimpure]

To be fair, a lot of the blame can probably be levered at their corporate overlord: Sony.

[@Herrkaminkx]

I don't see a single reason to watch anime legally on paid services (besides "supporting them"). There will always be a show you need to watch on another site or download/torrent. Thinking of it like driving: The cop won't let me off for speeding if I tell him "well I dont speed 90% of the time".

[@krislukiwski]

When the merge happened, my Crunchyroll sub went from $8 to $10 in Canada. We also had a problem for a while where the catalogue was not the same as the US. It used to be, but it isn't anymore

[@brandipityha9457]

Catalogue has always been different, just maybe not as noticeable, we have different copy right. $2 increase imo also isnt the worst. Netflix no ad sub is like $16 now, hulu is 18 and hbo is 18 i think, youtube red is now $13 for no ads, and thats in USD so its probably closer to $21, 24, 21 and 18 in canadian money. So its half the cost as any other streaming playform out right now. I know its only anime compared to netflix having irl shows and stuff but being half the cost is a pretty good discount for that.

[@JohnSmithIlIlIlIl]

Man, if you told me years ago that the piracy site Crunchy Roll would "replace" Funimation... (Yes, Crunchy Roll was a humble piracy site in the beginning.)

[@sasukeuchiha998]

Now you're gonna tell me a porn piracy website is going to bring doujins to Texas.

[@anthonynelson6671]

@@sasukeuchiha998 Just search, I'm sure you can find them.

[@LvL1henchman]

You mean Fakku? Lmao​@sasukeuchiha998

[@sasukeuchiha998]

@@LvL1henchman What? It started as a piracy website as well?

[@luGnar]

i miss when everything on fakku was free 👀

[@goldmemberpb]

The price increase was specifically for that one person who was grandfathered into the funimation price. CR has been 100 bucks a year for a while now. The only big issues are not transferring bought digital anime over to CR accounts and not having every single funimation shows available on CR still. Funimation I think did have BD/uncut version of shows which are not in CR yet.

[@siyrean]

and that $100 price happened after they bought funimation. just because it already happened doesn't make the monopoly good.

[@anthonynelson6671]

If one buys something, they should have the explicit right of ownership of the thing. There's an increasing march by companies to make owning a thing by a customer a thing of the past, especially in the realms of technology and media.

[@ToonGohan]

@@siyreanpeople complain about a monopoly over one thing but we also complain about there being 20 different subscription services you have to pay for to watch a couple shows so pick your poison. I’d rather have everything in one place but going physical and pirating aren’t bad options either

[@joshuajackson4473]

And that $100/year is just shy of the total for the lowest tier subscription by less than $5

[@kissena3830]

OP is quite correct

[@jochenwuerfel]

And that's how we go full circle.. introduce platforms with affordable monthly payments, getting all content clustered on 10ish platforms with increased prices, followed up by merging platforms slowly back into one big one with a huge price tag 👏 PS: Still buying Blu-rays, never stopped, will most likely not stop as I don't like relying on streaming.

[@history_loves_anime8927]

Especially when the sites lose the rights to show like FMA and FMA:B. I will hoard those blu rays like a dragon.

[@heroizumi]

For me, I prefer to stream anime, however for series I absolutely love, I do also try to buy the physical media. Also, the USA region blurays are usually a lot cheaper than Japanese ones. I do have some Japanese blurays/DVDs too, but most of them I have purchased pre-owned.

[@ryana5435]

as an asian who usually watches anime on Muse Asia on KZbin, I just hold my popcorn and try to understand what are you guys angry about

[@K000H]

I used to buy BR/dvds when i was younger, but i haven't owned a dvd player of any sort for probably 10 years. Can't even remember the last time i saw a physical dvd. That market isn't exactly booming where i'm from.

[@AbenAben-u9h]

@@ryana5435 as an Asian you should also know the dark ages when people buy bootleg DVD or burn DVD before the internet came bout. Also Muse ASia will delete some anime after a certain time of period hence we can't rewatch

[@simpledj509chromo7]

RightStuf going down made me cry man. I miss that site.

[@firebirdstark]

Can you send me your used copy of Mobile Suit G Gundam Part 1? I don’t have sixty bucks to throw at it, thanks

[@thomasnguyen9335]

I installed a Blu-ray player into my PC so I could watch Blu-rays again and own my stuff! The idea we haven't used them in 10-15 years is true and we should build the industry back up.

[@HeadCannonPrime]

Its like records making a comeback. Literally the LEAST convenient music format and yet it is now 75% of physical music sales and a 2 billion dollar industry. Consumer backlash will save physical media...I hope.

[@lo0ser555]

@@HeadCannonPrime bring back VHS!

[@nine_tails137]

I still have my PS3 and PS4(as of this reply), so I can watch Blu-Rays and DVDs whenever I want. Plus this is why I always go for physical media. Cause once you buy it, it's yours forever. And no corporate people can take it away from you. Digital on the other hand, you don't own it. You're just given permission to use their stuff, as long as the service remains up. Even Netflix removes shows I like after a few years and I hate not being able to view them anymore.

[@Shebeast3]

yes!

[@luvhair255]

I'd love to but the box sets have always been expensive. I used to save up my allowance to go to Suncoast, Best Buy or our local anime store(which was very upsold) to buy my dvds. I also bought the used copies when they went on sale at Blockbuster. We keep a library of dvds, a binder, and we have them on our insurance policy.

[@lajlasa]

the price-change should at least allow broaden their content in more regions - cause a lot of anime (especially older ones) aren't available outside of japan and the US, but I'm not holding my breath

[@bakauchuujin7716]

The prices for anime blu rays in the US, UK and AU market is way lower than the prices in the JP market. There are a few exeptions like Aniplex of America where the prices while not being as bad as the japanese releases are somewhat compareable, however the vast majority is sold at a way lower price that in japan, sometimes less than 10% of the price. Considering that Funimation is targeted towards the english market I don't think it is fair to use prices for japanese blu rays. For example no game no life is sold on sentai filmworks site for 49 USD which is still a lot, but atleast it also includes the movie and during a sale you can probably get it for a lot cheaper than that.

[@Lugen101]

Not to mention I do not have to go out and buy every single anime season I watch. I can use the subscription service for the first time watch and if its something I loved I will go out and buy the physical copy for subsequent rewatches. For me, 50-ish dollars is worth it if I run into a season I greatly enjoyed.

[@EscurelEsquire]

Funny you should mention Aniplex, seeing as Crunchyroll is one of their subsidiaries. And of course, Aniplex's parent company is Sony. The recent dust-up over purchased Discovery Channel content being revoked on PS5 (until the backlash apparently caused them to actually hash something out with Warner Bros.) comes to mind. Western prices for physical anime releases are still nowhere near as eye-watering as they were 20 years ago, though. Doesn't excuse anything, but what basically happened in domestic releases between the DVD era and Blu-ray era was more than a little bit of the Wal-Mart effect, where one company having a larger and larger share means they can undercut everybody else...until 'everybody else' is gone, that is.

[@ThaSandwitch]

Everything related to entertainment seems crazy expensive in Japan. I always wonder how they afford their interests

[@Pokemaster-wg9gx]

is there a reason why you would go to such lengths to ebay out of print australian versions for years instead of just getting the American version or some other import? i mean its like Australians speak a separate language or have such a different written text its not understandable

[@DieAlteistwiederda]

I've almost fully gone back to piracy now again for anime and I don't see myself going back to doing it the legal way anytime soon. I'll maybe reconsider if and when Crunchyroll creates a website and app that is actually nice to use on mobile devices as well.

[@LUDOfanGIRL]

It's frustrating cause there are soo many animes not available in Australia. I can't even watch the Original Sailor Moon 😭 Some crunchy roll animes in Australia aren't even in Japanese or English and even don't have English subtitles. I got to season 3 and it was only in German with no English subtitles, but before season 3, it was in Japanese with subtitles... They have done this with a few animes on Crunchyroll it's so frustrating! To be honest with how expensive Apps and streaming services are, I know some people are buying DVD'S again. People are buying from 2nd hand stores and ebay.

[@xkblxcripple]

As a fellow Aussie I also cant go back and watch stuff I grew up with as they no longer have it or there is no subtitles. I was rewatching Bleach getting ready for the New arc and its on Damn Disney+ and the whole of bleach gone from CR.

[@edmorrisonjr9088]

Sony entertainment is the one that owns both Crunchyroll and Funimation and it was Sony who decided to combine them into one not CR so that’s a bit misleading.

[@VictorVelasco83]

Finally someone who said what I was thinking. Crunchyroll and Funimation were bought by Sony and they made the decision to sunset the Funimation brand and merge it into Crunchyroll. The price hike part is not correct as well. Lastly I will say other big boys like Netflix, Disney/Hulu and AMC with their service HIDIVE are the current competitors and have been landing quite a few exclusives so the competition is still there.

[@tygerchickchibi]

The price hike is correct so far. What do you mean?

[@edmorrisonjr9088]

@@tygerchickchibi it’s not really it’s been the same price on Crunchyroll for years now. It’s only for the legacy subscribers of Funimation that never migrated over to Crunchyroll when Sony announced almost a year ago that eventually Funimation content was moving to CR and Funi was eventually gonna be shut down and integrated into CR. But Joey saying that it was CR’s decision or wanting to have a monopoly over licensing rights to anime is wrong, it’s Sony Entertainment doing that. I had both CR and Funi but when I heard almost a year ago they would more than likely shut down Funi and they were already moving the Funi library over to CR I just ended up with only CR and cancelled my Funi subscription. Because what was the point of having two separate subscriptions when you can get what they both didn’t have now one platform knowing they were gonna shut down the other.

[@cqk8268]

@@tygerchickchibi for me it's 99,99 since 2 years?

[@fredbrown7582]

@@tygerchickchibi funimation boosted prices to match Crunchyroll years ago . But people who was long time subs was able keep their price like the person in the image and even they said it . Tbh most people spreading this false stuff don’t pay for subs or don’t watch how much they pay

[@Gauntlet2021]

I miss Animelab. These providers keep eating each other just to kill their competition. The price goes up, but the benefits never carry over.

[@GrowingDownUnder]

that's what I said too, at least give us back animelab and the companies funimation bought. No need to take those companies down with them

[@azurekite3870]

@@GrowingDownUnder or you could just watch pirated sites for free.

[@BananaKuun]

Legit, Animelab actually had a working TV app too- and a really good library full of classics 🥲

[@ckdl5087]

I thought Animelab was a localised version of Funimation? (Australian here)

[@GrowingDownUnder]

@@ckdl5087 no, anime lab was it's own platform until funimation bought them and merged. Seems like funimation bought a lot of these companies and then took them down with them on purpose to make crunchyroll the biggest platform

[@Ven183]

This is why you buy physical media. It can't be taken away from you this easily

[@ckdl5087]

You shouldn't have to though. That's the point

[@Jay-hy6rl]

And what if that digital media disappear forever?

[@darkprinc979]

@@ckdl5087 The world doesn't work on what should or should not be, it works on what is. Everything has a cost to it. You can't have freedom and rights without ownership, so if you abdicate those to someone else you can't really complain when they choose to take it away from you. The majority of people would rather give up their rights for the sake of convenience and this is the cost. You can't have it both ways.

[@aeternus2036]

Joey literally explains in the video why its not a viable option, to buy physical media. 12 episodes of No Game No Life, blu-ray version, costs $200. Which is way too expensive. If you want to watch an entire anime using physical media, you're gonna be spending hundreds of dollars. Anime in physical media form, is way overpriced. Like yeah, sure. It's not gonna be taken away from you as easily, but does it matter when you're spending hundreds of dollars just to watch 12 episodes? It doesn't. You'd be wasting so much money.

[@Ven183]

@@aeternus2036 cost less than £30 here. Just cause it's expensive in Japan, doesn't mean it's expensive everywhere.

[@KuribohLV9]

What really sucks for me is that HiDive shut down in my region. So now every show they had are legally locked and my only option is to pirate. This happened in the middle of when Helck was airing :p

[@razxberrie]

I’m guessing VPNs don’t work either… sorry to hear that

[@HaagenDawn]

I decided to get crunchyroll about a year ago, and cancelled the same month because it buffered more than the piracy websites did.

[@livedandletdie]

Also lower quality than the Piracy sites...

[@TheDaylightDemons]

I had this exact issue too.. and then the fact multiple series that I was interested in was "Unavailable in your region due to licensing" Like I mean fair I can't get everything. but sometimes its like the big names of the season.. Sure I guess VPN might be the answer to workaround licensing. But the fact you'd have to do that just to watch a series on crunchyroll is annoying as hell to me

[@gabblebabbles2017]

Seriously though. Like 9anime has been a saving grace for me since last year when I was starving myself just to afford my bills and it's interface is so much better than crunchyroll or funimation

[@temiasmercurial593]

I tried steaming on funimation and it was by far one of the buggiest experiences I've ever had. Simply just wanted to watch in Japanese dub with English subs... but each and every time you went to a new episode or reloaded the page, the settings would randomize, and if your were watching for free you had to watch ads, and if you wanted to apply your settings... you had to reload the page. So every time it would go to a new episode, settings would randomize, requiring you reapply settings and refresh the page, requiring you sit through a minute and a half of ads... and your settings wouldn't necessarily apply correctly.... made it about 6 episodes before never touching that damn service again. Crunchyroll still had flash player at that time as well, which was just ass to use, and it took waaaaaaay to long for them to switch to a html5 player. Pirating sites offer the best service and experience for streaming anime period.

[@RetroKidReviews]

This is heartbreaking but ultimately I hope regardless this will leave a huge power vacuum in not just the anime space but also for the industry as a whole I hope both distributors and voice actors that all work their for almost 30 decades now that they will get picked up for more projects after the fact

[@randx1075]

Damn, that bad...anyways *proceed to sail the seven seas

[@lordsquid6652]

Based

[@kueapel911]

YO HO HO HO HO HO, I've always been in the grand line of the anime seas.

[@simpingfordagoodstuff6897]

Yoho all together!!!

[@falcon5190]

And this is why NAS ownership should be the future for every anime fan. Funimation won't be streaming anime? How sad - if not for those 16TB of Anime (acquired by sea routes) I keep on my Synology NAS that I can watch from anywhere in the world while my NAS is sitting safely in my basement - completely in my possession and control and costing me nothing but basic internet subscripion that I'd have anyway. And you are not getting your grubby hands on that Crunchyroll :P

[@EscurelEsquire]

The real twisting the knife aspect of this is that Crunchyroll had bought out one of, if not the largest independent physical media storefront for anime in North America (Right Stuf Anime) a year or two ago, and pulled the exact same type of move, culminating in them shutting the entire site down last October and merging the physical media onto their own shop (which has a way worse interface), flushing the goodwill Right Stuf had built up over the last 35!! years down the drain in the process. The old 18+ content RSA used to sell had to be removed as part of the buyout, so the single amusing part of that debacle is that after RSA got shut down, the new company that was spun off for adult material has sort of reverted their front page to highlighting all-ages stuff way more prominently. The Blu-ray selection is basically just Sentai Filmworks releases, but yeah. The manga selection was unaffected by all of that nonsense. So this news doesn't surprise me at all. Grandfather people in with the same legacy pricing, and when they do away with that and hit them with sticker shock, who are you going to turn to if you just say, "okay fine, I'll buy the physical version". Crunchyroll themselves, because they had just gotten done killing off the competition in *that* segment. They did it because they could.

[@Ncyphen]

I'm going to correct you there. Not Crunchyroll, Sony. Just like Sony bought Crunchyroll and merged it into Funimation while changing Funimation's name to Crunchyroll, Sony were the ones who bought RightStuff and merged it into Crunchyroll.

[@EscurelEsquire]

@@Ncyphen Yes, in reality it was Sony behind it; I noted this in another comment about Aniplex and Crunchyroll's relation to each other and the issues Sony had with the recent PS5 Discovery Channel incident.

[@AndreaOgata]

Yeah it was technically Sony, but either way it was a slap to the face to long-time RightStuf customers, like myself, and sending out emails saying no-no, this is a good thing. Nah man, it stank as soon as that email went out. 😡 You could already tell it was the death of RightStuf and their company that was releasing some anime. Nozomi or something like that. Sad times to see how the industry is progressing from back in the late 90's/2000's to now. 😮‍💨

[@stephbritt1294]

And as a nice little sour cherry on the cake the crunchyroll store has tanked in customer service and quality so bad in just the last year alone. Ive had so many issues with preorders and just getting a normal order that once my last preorder finally showed up 8 months late I decided never to use their store again. I never had that issue with RightStuf. It all just really sucks. Ive been subscribed to both crunchyroll and funimation for years and honestly it wouldn’t bother me is the raised the price a little but this is insane and really disappointing.

[@ParthaYT096]

What's the name of the adult counter part company that sells 18+ content??

[@TheGoatBuhl]

Bruh i aint going back to the old days of closing 10,000 pop ups to watch one episode again. Those were the dark days of anime

[@KindaKaylaHQ]

The fear of catchin a virus 😅

[@ShouryaRathore]

You can use adblock extensions,they automatically block any popup and don't allow them to come on screen

[@srabonfkhan5834]

My guy never heard about adblocks

[@Truck-Kun2.0]

Oh wow your an OG like me 😂 remember using mega video

[@japanviewer]

*Looks at shelves with 250+ anime series on DVD/BD* Well, I got all series that I wanted to have from 2000 to 2023, so I'll be good. I rarely watch new series anyways...

[@pretzelman945]

Lol

[@KB-lp7ik]

Incredible 😮

[@mikehawk8984]

👏👏 Good for you. Pirate's life for the rest of us.

[@christianschaefer9343]

IF AT ALL possible I buy physical. Even if it cost more. At least they can't say "turn over your DVDs/Blurays. the rights have expired". In Germany we can still get DVDs and Blurays if you know where to look.

[@danitabori]

yeah, there are plenty of anime publishers in Germany alone. And I'm sure countries like France and Italy also have plenty of physical anime. I only buy English and German DVDs of anime so I can't say anything about the other countries for sure. But to me it doesn't seem like those anime publishers are starving for money. They started not releasing anime on DVD and I don't get why they haven't released S2 and 3 of Demon Slayer yet. But otherwise I'm fairly happy with them. In my country anime doesn't get released at all, so it's a nice alternative to get them from Germany. There are webshops here that sell foreign books and DVDs, I was so happy when I found them a couple of years ago.

[@andreitaker3527]

I think the best thing about dvd/blurays anime is that some censorship were being removed.

[@gabadaba5436]

I understand that streaming services are expensive to run, incredibly expensive even, but I still hate how Crunchyroll transitioned from free with ads and subscription optional, to a subscription only service. They're directly limiting the options of lower income fans, especially kids, or people who simply don't want to spend money for something they can pirate very easily. When I watch like 3-4 series per year, I have no reason to pay for it. It's simply not worth it.

[@V.U.4six]

Yeah and what’s even the point of stream multiple devices at once if they don’t even have to the audacity to have profiles. HiDive needs a lot of UI etc work but even they have profiles. Not to mention the new “model” is ridiculous you get a “limited selection” of seasonal samplers and as far as I’m aware not only do you watch them with ads but you can’t even watch them right away. You’re still “behind” even though after 3 episodes we’re locked out anyway. They also can’t be bothered to make every seasonal anime have 3 free “samplers” It’s ridiculous.

[@m.i7211]

I agree that essentially gatekeeping anime from poor people is not cool, but for "people who don't want to spend money for something they can pirate very easily” I can’t extend the same sympathy. You say anime’s not worth paying money for, but you need to acknowledge the amount of time/effort/money that is spent in making them, as well as the cost of running a streaming site (which you do acknowledge). I think an ideal and healthy model would be where people are able to either watch free with ads or buy a reasonable subscription, and where streaming sites can earn enough to buy licenses/pay royalties to the anime production companies and to pay their employees, and where anime studios can also pay their employees a fair wage.

[@xkblxcripple]

@@m.i7211 I would continue my CR sub if they didn't drop all Samsung Tv's

[@Drums_of_Liberation]

What worse is that they're putting everything behind a pay wall to force you into paying for premium

[@skelebro9999]

The Greay Pirate Era begins once again!

[@Grimmlocked]

yohohohohoh

[@mutatedsilverunicorn]

We may have all these streaming sites here in the US, but half the time, anime is still unavailable to us. The physical copies or what we can get is insane and now they want to do this? Pirating is easier at this point. 🙄

[@dafff08]

as soon as mergers and inquisition start taking place the customers become the product and shareholders are the new customers..

[@rice_frying_shrimp]

Considering that we never had Funimation where I live in Europe and only within the last 2 years even got English dubs or subtitles on Crunchyroll, where previously it was only our local dubs and subs, I ultimately can't really relate because the merger was great for me. I got what essentially was the former Funimation content without them expanding to here which they never would have done. Previously there were like 5 different streaming services, all of which had like one relevant show but cost us around 10-12€ per month. Now everything is on Crunchyroll which costs the same and YET AGAIN is more inclusive by offering a wider array of different languages. I so significantly prefer this situation over what we had before that it's honestly hard to even sympathize with other places at all. All we had before was choosing to spend a normal amount of money for a whole catalogue to instead watch a single show OR spend 5x what other consumers to OR piracy. The Crunchyroll/Funimation merger got me OFF off piracy. Not led me towards it. There are always more options to consider here than just saying "merger bad".

[@rice_frying_shrimp]

"If the anime media, both in Japan and in the west refuse to keep up with the overall streaming businesses and offer a service that keeps people away from piracy" buddy that's what this merger was for parts of the world. Just because you can't see it after living in not one but two countries where Netflix is both reasonably affordable (not like that everywhere by the way) and has anime in it's catalogue (yet again, most places it still doesn't or only local dubs with awful quality that make you wish back for the days of KZbin fandubs) doesn't mean it's not the case. Also using 13-year-olds as an example of an audience that the price change is losing is just such a weird argument. An average 13-year-old who it put off by 90$ of annual pricing is probably equally as put off by almost 60$ of annual pricing. The people we are really talking about when we say piracy is losing money are in markets where piracy is the ONLY option, not the only affordable option. The understanding you have of their business model is just not how streaming services operate. As far as streaming services go, Crunchyroll is killing it right now. Netflix and Disney are raising prices at even steeper rates and no longer offering good deals to single households who make up a majority of their actual customers while cracking down on account sharing. They're also making catalogues ever smaller and alienating viewers by cancelling shows after a single season. How is Crunchyroll even the bad guy in this picture? Sure I don't love the monopolization we're seeing on a technical basis HOWEVER you have to understand that with streaming services, the alternative is having a million services that all make you overpay and only offer a fraction of the number of things you actually want to watch, bringing me back to my original point. You either pay through the nose to get them all (bad) you pick and choose which ones you want and are left unable to watch other things (bad) or you go back to piracy (good? I guess?). That just makes to sense. In streaming, mergers are ultimately consumer friendly, that's why they are rarely challenged in court or investigated at all unlike whenever a company starts it's own thing (like Discovery+ or Peacock where when those companies split their content off from existing services). I'll go as far as to say while you like to plead for the everyman, which I've liked about you for years, right now it is your own privilege that keeps you from seeing what the real situation is.

[@tobigrantlbart]

@@rice_frying_shrimp Gotta add my two cents I guess, tho largely agree on most points. The whole Funimation thing has been a large english speaking audience outcry. And personally never think we should have seen Crunchyroll as the bad guy: But Sony. If someone at all. Everybody acts as if Crunchyroll bought Funimation. While it is done by one Google search that Sony bought Crunchyroll to control more of the market, espacially internationally (thus the rebranding and migrating to Crunchyroll) But largely I think that even with all that said and it being a way better experience with watching shows since then, because the catalogue grew. I think that we should really overthink how we look at streaming services. Steeaming services in theory are the development of tv, the problem is that unlike tv we are used to a service offering everything, piracy not helping that. We have become accostumed to watching everything, when we want, where we want and how we want. And that's kinda awesome. But also it kinda sucks. Production teams are expected to output whole season everytime available to binge at day one. And like, sorry for this big tangent, people don't know who how long this need to produce. Like not an anime but when Squidgame was at the most hyped show ever, my friends thought the next season would just be out next year and when I explained to them how long they worked on the first season for, they were just like "Yea but now it's a big success so they will produce it faster", like maybe but still thiskind of show is expensive. Translations are expected to be there day one, with when looked into have a terrible payrate, so no wonder subs are sometimes... bad. Simuldubs sound like the worst idea to me anybody had. I mean it's awesome for people who don't like subs to not have to wait, however dubbing an episode the same time it airs in Japan, when the original probably had a longer time to record their lines. Like no wonder the voice acting quality is kinda meh a lot of the time. We are so used to get everything all the time and when we don't, we outcry. Everybody talks about supporting the industry and how modern dubs are bad unlike old dubs like Cowboy Bebop... and like of course they are. Just like everybody in the modern anime industry these guys are supposed to output work at a breakneck pace. And the amount of material to produce just increases. Even if it is best for the consumers, we should really think at what cost we are getting the media we consume.

[@Zeus57234]

The merger may have helped you specifically by making access more convenient, but the price of convenience for you and everyone else is ownership. People aren't angry cause their favorite streaming site is gone, they're angry cause content they paid for (with the reasonable expectation that they can watch it forever) is gone and now you have to pay twice for something you already paid for. And I'm not even affected by this either since I do still buy physical versions of my favorite anime, it's not nearly as expensive as Joey makes it out to be. But the point is that this is bad for ALL consumers, regardless of where you live. If they can do this to people in one part of the world they can do it to anyone. You included.

[@rice_frying_shrimp]

@@Zeus57234 actually the ownership question is pretty simple. either they specified in the ToS what happens to the access in the event of the platform shutting down, then consumers are at fault for not reading the ToS. they're not just there to click "yea yea whatever" on and then complain about something you agreed to. if it was NOT in the ToS, then it's a possible legal issue and there would/will be a class action lawsuit. but since we are talking about Sony here, I doubt they would be dumb enough to let something slip through the cracks. I also find the idea of investing heavily into this kind of digital ownership product and then complaining kind of odd, as if that is not one of the natural downsides of "owning" things in that way. we used to have owning things physically or renting them physically in video places. that obviously couldn't last forever because people already found it inconvenient, hence the rise of the original netflix mail order service. so now we just don't own media anymore, unless where you live actually has a place where you can buy stuff as a digital file to download and play independently of the retailer's own platform. in a world like that, where whether we like it this way or not, it was out own consumer behavior that created it, I find it almost painfully naive to think any platform will stay online forever. it's like when people want to boycott Netflix because their favorite show rotated out of the library or something. it happens. I don't think there is anything more sinister about it, as someone who know both sides of the story, working in the media industry and being a consumer myself. there are plenty of things worth complaining about, but this is just not it. I agree with your general point here, but it doesn't change the fact that Joey severely misrepresented the facts, either naively or consciously and tried to argue in a completely nonsensical way throughout the video, as you somewhat pointed out yourself. I also only realized way late what a conflict of interest he truly has here as a content creator employed by bookwalker (via geexplus). a company who's business model is famously digital ownership of manga. kind of a hard pill to swallow. how can he be sure that his own employer wouldn't consider the same type of rugpull (so to speak) when put into the same shoes as Funimation were?

[@JoshuaHugo8819]

I'm one of those individuals that still buys physical media and I still use my Blu-Ray player. I don't think I've ever seen a Blu-Ray box set of anime cost $200 here in the USA, unless it's some big collector's edition with a bunch of extra stuff in it (if that box set he showed was a regular one, that is some bullshit). Granted though, there are some box sets that can be expensive to most, $60-$70, so I think the point still stands. Sentai Filmworks, for example, charges that much for a 12-episode box set. Not to mention how you also have some seasons split into two box sets unnecessarily (that usually seemed like a Funimation thing).

[@MizuHime07]

The set Joey showed was a special 10th Anniversary collectors set. I had to look it up just to see, but yeah you can just buy the season blu ray for just $40.

[@cottage3106]

Cool! Do you watch current shows? That isn’t doable! I guess the excitement of talking to and watching the newest episode of one piece is dead! Also: who cares about spoilers, am I right? In any way implying that physical media (in terms of tv shows) in 2024 is a valid choice is just so incredibly naive that its laughable. Boomer.

[@Yunglex313]

@@cottage3106 You sound like a young dumb fool who is just salty that someone likes their physical copies. Physical Media isn't for season anime watching. You buy physical because you love the show and want to watch it whenever you want. No one who regularly buys physical media cares about seasonal anime discussion.

[@jerimyjohnston4192]

Yeah I was gunna say good thing I buy physical copies

[@inofficialplaytester3271]

This is the reason why I, a German, buy the UK releases. They give you 5 episodes per box, and every box costs 50€, so you're getting ripped off until they release the "full season 1" boxset down the line, which is still a worse deal then the import in most cases.

[@inkdevil4882]

At 9:16 you mentioned that people just don't really have a blu-ray DVD player, so, for both you and anyone else who may benefit from this, I wanted to mention that if you own a PS4, they also play blu-ray discs (and older discs, though you may have to deal with region-locking). Its not a perfect solution, and the issue of DVD costs is still horrid, but maybe this info helps someone who didnt know before.

[@billjackrock]

Blu Rays at least aren't as expensive as Japanese prices in most of the world. That No Game No Life BD for example cost me $50 Australian when I purchased it in 2015. The major problem is that it's next to impossible to find some old shows still for sale on BD or DVD. Once a show goes out of print the second hand market is very competitive. It's taken me a year to find all of the Australian published Fairy Tail Blu Rays on ebay (part of the issue being that Crunchyroll also took over Australian publisher Madman and stopped selling old shows).

[@TotemoGaijin]

Yeah, I was thinking, "Joey...how long has it been since you've bought something that it'd make you think western prices are on parity with Japanese prices."

[@perthzakugirl6288]

So sad that Madman is gone - I used to buy all my physical dvds from them. The sales especially - all of Gundam 00 for $10AUD? yes please.

[@codeskhr4092]

dude same here in new zealand trying to find old one piece and way older zoids is impossible

[@AkiyamaShun4President]

amazon has been my go to for dvd/blu rays, have gotten so many steals on there. rip madman

[@philo2189]

You bought something nearly ten years ago that's why it cost less 🤦🏻‍♂️ there's a thing called inflation.

[@V.U.4six]

I personally love getting Blu ray but only for series I know that I like-I definitely would prefer to stream something first before deciding if I want to own it. And digital vs physical will always have pros and cons. Problem with a lot of digital media like this is that they lock it behind their service so once that service is dead so is your digital copy…. Plus in terms of simulcasting forget home video because that’s gonna take a while to happen Are prices seriously that crazy for Japanese blu ray? They can be pricey in US but not that crazy unless it’s like old/out of print or limited editions….

[@imalittletoxicjustalittle]

then why are you streaming it on "legit" sites if you're going to buy it? why give money to people that hate the fans especially when it doesn't go to he studio at all cause they pay a licence fee it has nothing to do with viewers, i buy DVD's to thats how i support what i like it makes the most sense im not paying for 10 sites supporting companies i dont like just to see if i like the anime

[@V.U.4six]

@@imalittletoxicjustalittle I never said anything about paying for CR/Funimation etc I have stuff like Neflix and Hulu etc because I can use my parents’ account for the time being. Also it’s still more convenient to just open up an app and stream. As a matter of fact I do use “freebie sites” to watch anime. Ever since CR threw their free with ads system down the drain I watch a lot more on said sites. I have some ways around stuff that I watch/download from other sites that works for me (to watch on TV) but it’s still more of a hassle compared to just opening an app up to stream something.

[@V.U.4six]

@@imalittletoxicjustalittle I never said I did? Also I still use “freebie” sites for stuff that’s in CR jail but ok lol

[@heartless1866]

I don't know if its a barrier because Joey is looking at Japanese websites and imports but places in the UK a season of an anime is around £40 for the blu-ray, now I know that isn't amazing and is stupid expensive but still cheaper than a crunchy roll subscription lol another example is complete attack on titan season 1 is £25 from a reputable chain in the UK (don't know if its in other countries) called hmv. I still buy DVDs and blu-rays but only for shows that I absolutely adore and love, I wouldn't buy every show that I was considering watching

[@auxtaku3449]

Man am I the only one that remembers growing up with Blockbuster movie stores. And then it was redbox, and then It was Netflix. And after that, everybody started going to streaming Hulu Hbo Paramount. Apple TV Disney and many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many more.

[@scmarshtacky]

My first anime watching experience was from Blockbuster. There were a couple of episodes of Sailor Moon that I watched on repeat. XD

[@Plaprad]

I remember them well. The Blockbusters, The Hollywood Videos, the little mom and pop place that smelled funny and they didn't care when you went into the back room where they kept the "specialty" videos. 99 cent rentals for three days, and some sodas and candy.

[@the_terraria_guy9010]

The great pirate era is upon us

[@TheAnimeDude]

I’ve had arguments where people were literally trying to convince me that them having a monopoly is a good thing & would make prices go down in the long run as a result… you can’t make this stuff up. Needless to say I pushed back hard, haha.

[@davewallace5766]

Buying blu rays in the uk is waaaaaay cheaper, sure we dont get every release but the ones we do, we have 2 or 3 websites to buy physical media from, and boy when they go on sale you can pick them up for around £10 to £15 and sometimes to for £15

[@nasssaab4176]

Sail the seas 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

[@duelingbub]

YOU ARE A PIRATE.

[@timdoe8895]

Hi Ho fiddly Dee

[@jorno1994]

Nyaa Nyaa :)

[@kuroenekodemon]

Already there we got da good anime booty

[@acewing3889]

I WILL find the one piece

[@grey5626]

The merger happened a while ago and they haven't migrated the Funimation library over (e.g. Zillion is not on Crunchyroll) not just ignoring the digital redemption codes from physically purchased media (at least I still have the physical media). Acquisitions are horrible, always have been, always will be.

[@darkprinc979]

It's a sign of the times. Money is getting tight everywhere so companies will merge together like this in order to strengthen their positions financially. This is a reason why dystopian fiction often contains mega corporations, because it is just a natural outcome when the world starts falling apart, which it is doing right now.

[@xkblxcripple]

@@darkprinc979 Money is tight ha ha Sony owned both the platforms and many had subs on both.

[@tailz213]

I can see Hidive becoming much bigger, which hopefully leads to crunchy lowering their prices

[@Duamerthrax]

No one's lowering their prices. They'd rather burn the company then hurt their quartiles.

[@mechashadow]

​@@Duamerthraxevery bubble will burst when stretched further and further

[@Vinny_Vv]

That's probably not going to happen, since Hidive pulled out of every non English country at the beginning of the year

[@tama47_]

Maybe move your perspective outside of the US and you'll see that Crunchyroll has lowered price in many different regions

[@twilightgeneral777]

They'll just try and buy out HiDive next

[@humidair1927]

A little bit of misinfo about the prices increase. The price for crunchy roll has been the 99 price tag for a while. the price rise is for legacy accounts. The person who got that email is is most likely a legacy account holder.

[@lupolinar]

But Crunchyroll is 84 bucks a year.

[@grimsoar8818]

I remember it used to be free with ads or $35/year.

[@katelynpringle5506]

I watched my first anime all on Funimation’s KZbin channel cause they used to post the whole series with subs. Every episode of FMA Brotherhood AND FMA 2003 when I was 15. How the mighty have fallen.

[@SirJamestown]

I'm a weirdo and I like owning physical media because it means I always have a copy of stuff I own that can't be taken away (I also just like collecting though). But even that's not coming out unscathed cause in Crunchyroll's effort to eradicate the corpse of Funimation supposedly they stopped producing basically all of Funimation's current blu-ray library. So that's a bunch of stuff that hopefully they will reprint and just replace the Funimation branding with Crunchyroll branding but it also means that all the Essentials/Classics releases (AKA affordable blu-rays) are down the toilet. Thankfully Sentai, Discotek, and Animeigo are still carrying the torch.

[@BRUH-ne2zf]

Play the 1st One Piece Opening bois, we joining Luffy as fellow pirates

[@beirdo102]

YAYO YAYOOO

[@wanderingviewer8411]

​@@beirdo102DREAMIN! Don't give it up Usopp.

[@SaikaVa]

The same happened with Wakanim and Crunchyroll in Europe. You can have a normal subsciption for 60 Euros and the mega subscription for 100 Euro. The mega subscription offers streaming on four devices. Honestly, I think it is better if we have Anime on one platform rather than on two and paying for two sucscriptions, but I understand the problem with monopolies.

[@TheRanguna]

Mega is still 65 for me though

[@RnA.2]

A correction to what Joey said on Blu-rays FYI, those are just for Japan, especially with anime, but not so much overseas. Besides Aniplex of America who are abt keeping the prices much closer to what you'd pay in Japan, all the other physical copies from other licensors are mainly double digits, around 40-60 mainly. It can sometimes be cheaper ofc and if it's like somr kind of collector's, yh then it could hit the early 100s. The point is, don't worry if you were considering getting into physical, Joey was only pointing on Japanese Blu-ray prices for anime. It's not the same overseas thankfully, though hopefully Crunchyroll isn't thinking of doing that too.

[@KawaiiGonJhin]

I used my blu ray player yesterday to watch anime 😥

[@cynthiaherbst3909]

This lack of competition at the moment concerns me too fepending on what companies that are not Crunchyroll will come in to compete where they know there is a massive market. Disney (with Hulu primarily) and Amazon have the capital and reach to put Sony in their place, but...Disney and Amazon. I hope others felt the ominous vibe i fid when realizing that prospect.

[@ninjowe]

I still use dvds and blurays sometimes, and there's bluray and dvd disk player in our household that we use quite very often. Also, I recommend just getting physical copies of animes mostly only when the movie/series is very good in own opinion.

[@AkiraTheNephilim]

I t don't think physical media is going to die out wether or no matter what country you live in, but i do wish that there a laws that would prevent companies like Sony, Microsoft, or whatever from taking away digital purchases you paid for when a service goes down/shutdown.

[@Shebeast3]

here's hoping

[@IBeJadenMan]

I was mentally ready to ditch Funimation once the merger happened, but to see that it's completely shutting down now hurts to see. I watched some of my first anime thanks to Funimation and all the dubs that they had. The intro is so nostalgic too, truly the end of an era.

[@williambritton4831]

Mate l feel your pain as Funimation through Amazon (yeah late to the anime party l know) is how l started and have always rated them above Crunchyroll .This just feels like Crunchy killing that memory and dancing on it's grave a feeling l really , really don't like one bit

[@anonymoustaylor5992]

Stayed with funimation through the last day. The experience there is just so much better than Cr to me. And I ended having subs to both entities. Will definitely be pirating more moving forward, if nothing else for the simple fact that pirating sites have subtitles and Cr doesn't for some animes! It's ridiculous for a paid service

[@oscarmorales7085]

Yoooho yoooho a pirates life for me.

[@KB-lp7ik]

😂😂😂

[@NekoSoophie]

Bro I swear if they don’t move Outlaw Star over I’m done with them, there’s other shows that they still haven’t moved over but OS is pure childhood nostalgia that gets a rewatch from me almost yearly. If they are taking that away by removing Funimations library and app it’s over.

[@songsan807]

Back in the 2000s I would go to Best Buy or Fry's during lunch or weekend evenings with the family to browse and buy the DVD or Blu Rays of animes. Then I would just buy the sets because they would have extras features or inserts. I could understand them merging but upping the price is crazy. Never got into Crunchy Roll.

[@ShinryuZensen]

I see the golden age of Piracy coming. With many new captains sailing for the Red Line. **sings OP first season opening**

[@TexMuerte]

I agree with a lot of what you said but on the digital copies. The only way you could get those digital copies were through the physical copies it came with a code to get said digital copy. So while yes it sucks that we cant use those copies anymore everyone who had those digital copies already own the physicals unless they ended up selling them

[@cristianflores1588]

I usually past by the Funimation HQ here in Flower Mound Tx. I’ve never entered the building but I wanted to for a tour around. Sadly it closed down back in 2021 and now with all the news…

[@jesters16]

Been buying physical copies of everything I like and copying to my home storage for awhile. Streaming never made sense to me.

[@galaxy_kitten95]

I’ve never adapted into the digital age because of crap like this. I still purchase physical media whenever I can, that’s also counting video games because cloud gaming was never appealing to me for the same reasons.

[@whoudini7935]

Nothing beats being able to just sit down after a long day and flick something on or flick something new on rather. People don't have the time or effort to do this physical copy thing.

[@autumbreeze1129]

Glad to meet fellow physical media enjoyers. I've always been physical media. I even have a bunch of classic anime you will NEVER find outside second-hand sales, including a bunch of 4kidz dub DVDs, like Mew Mew Power. Even fun slice of life stuff, like 4 out of order volumes of Hamtaro. Heck, a little before last year ended, I found the entire Moon Phase series on DVD. A Funimation series they don't sell anymore

[@jesters16]

@@autumbreeze1129 Yeah finding this stuff is fun if it’s not overpriced

[@darkbreaker9767]

It's so bizarre that it took *this* long for the unification to finish. I was told in like mid-'22 that Funimation would be shutting down soon™ and everything would be moved over to Crunchyroll. It took nearly two years. Wtf

[@Eidolon5150]

This became known as the great pirate era Couldn’t help myself

[@heavenlyrequiem4019]

W

[@Luenthal]

🎶Arittake no yume wo kakiatsume Sagashimono wo sagashi ni yuku no sa One Piece 🎶

[@heatherchapasko2684]

I do own a Blu-ray player and use it fairly regularly (I'm an older millennial), but I'd be lying if I said I didn't buy my physical anime copies on sale or second hand. Also I don't have the shelf space to own all of them so digital copies and streaming have been great. It's sad that this is happening to the anime community 😞

[@tcrime]

It's honestly the best option. My rule is "would I be upset to lose access to this? If yes, buy it on disc"

[@TheCatStatue]

It would be cool if Shonen jump developed their own anime platform "À la Disney". At least the profit could go directly to support production.

[@Takato]

They could do that for their manga no problem (Manga Plus is basically that), but for anime it's a whole other can of worms. Shueisha doesn't own the rights to anime based on their manga, the publisher of these anime does. So to make their version of Disney+ would take a long time of negotiating distributing rights with those publishers, and some of these rights (not to say most of them) are already owned by other company already, let alone the money required to do that. Plus, Shueisha is a book/magazine company, not a multimedia distribution company. In other words: it's not going to happen.

[@Sponch1]

​@@Takato There is a paid Shonnen Jump app that has everything...

[@Sonsenju23]

Not all of shonen jump mangas have the same anime production company.

[@annamae4761]

Been trying to rebuild my physical library for a while now. Living rural means stream doesn’t always work well. Have been waiting for silver spoon to port over to crunchyroll ever since Sony/crunchyroll bought funi.

[@knleonhart]

Funimation’s media player was horrible from my experience. I was happy when everything migrated over to Crunchyroll. I won’t deny that mergers like this are bad for the consumer though, as they are demonstrating. Hopefully they use the extra money to pay the creators better.

[@Duamerthrax]

Never got into the Funi stuff, but I bailed on CR when they fired their US based IT staff and outsourced it all. I realized that their system was never going to get better.

[@apophisstr6719]

"Hopefully they use the extra money to pay the creators better." Lol, as if that would ever happen.

[@randypc1]

I can tell you aren't in the gacha community if you still have a positive or even neutral perception of crunchyroll

[@doctordoom85]

Generally, Crunchyroll was better on PC, but on the console apps FUNimation was better.

[@knleonhart]

@@randypc1 I only play Evercrisis

[@merie806]

I loved supporting Funimation because it was local for me in Texas but now that is all crunchyroll I wonder what will happen with the building tbh

[@Kosukie]

... and so began the great pirate era!

[@SmokeandSpirit]

Its looking like Crunchyroll might need a series of antitrust lawsuits. Much as I love their service and selection, their features are intermittent. Like intro skips. Something easy to automate, shows up on some episodes and not others in the same season of some series. Which i feel makes it come across as some budget low quality service. Reading the other comments and noting it's origins this makes more sense. I guess they have minimal incentive to get better now too smh..

[@KanpekiJan]

Having things spread out over multiple services that you have to pay subscription fees for sucks. Monopolies (or near-monopolies) that can take advantage of customers suck. Only good way I can see is subcription-less licensing services that allow you to download actual files that you can keep for a decent price. But that wouldn't allow them to squeeze as much money out of customers. Buying physical releases for everything is also not really feasible where I live. As the saying goes: Piracy is a service problem.

[@HawerTipeZero]

I hope one day the anime companies start uploading their animes on KZbin through membership and make a buttload of money in the process

[@kellychuang8373]

You'd think that but usually it's a NO! considering they can't get with the times or are too late in that regard. Really people dropping the ball and anyway this anime season is going hectic and new anime really getting around but the process for owning it and licensing is another matter and slow along with everything else along with inflation.

[@Raderade1-pt3om]

@@kellychuang8373 that already happen there are some legal channels like Muse Asia (region restricted) etc. that uploads anime for free legally but on youtubr per user revenue is wayy low

[@azurekite3870]

it will never happen cuz then they need to follow youtube's shitty rules and would need censor alot of there anime.

[@kellychuang8373]

@@azurekite3870 Also true on that and with anyone trying to go through the anime scene really have to look into that medium closely along with what type of form you're using among other questions and have to really match up anyway look into real clubs for this and what constitutes since there's a lot of sites that also tried to make shortcuts and cheat people on anime titles by not getting the whole story or really skipped some translations saw this instance with InuYasha and Hunter X Hunter on ROKU Channel seemed good but had episodes missing on some of their titles and InuYasha is missing a lot of episodes on Season 3 of it just recently and Hunter X Hunter had missing episodes on Season 2 of that as well really have to be careful and some could be dealing some shady stuff.

[@kellychuang8373]

@@azurekite3870 Oh yeah that's the truth there. Since things had changed for this platform used to see a whole lot of anime but later on it really got harsh.

[@rayjohnson863]

I had to do a college assignment and interview those at FUNimation. It was a stressful experience back in 2008 but it was fun time back then. I always pass by their building in Flower Mound TX whenever I go to work in the DFW area. Wonder what will happen to the building.

[@Silhohen]

HiDive out here as like the only other competition, holding onto the Emminence series was their best decision lol

[@xkblxcripple]

I need season 2 of our Atomic boy.

[@MxPotato84]

Best Buy has already started to yeet out all dvd and blurays from their stores. I haven’t used my dvd player since the pandemic. So it’s been a couple of years. I also rented movies from my local library when they were allowed to open back up. I do miss buying physical copies of media when it was affordable, but I stopped when it got too expensive to do so, cuz im not going to throw away my every paycheck just to buy a single dvd or a box set. I have bills to pay. So as much as I want my own physical collection, important things must come first always, and I don’t get paid much. Im really missing the 2000’s now. 💔

[@TotemoGaijin]

...but everything was way more expensive in the 2000s. A dvd of Urusei Yatsura with only a handful of episodes on it easily cost me something like $50 -$70. Now a good amount of stuff you can get entire seasons for something like 20-50 bucks.

[@SofiChronicles]

on the physical media point, they are actually coming back precisely because the different streaming services close, or take down some series, etc. Lots of people are buying physical media again. But, I agree that anime blu rays are really expensive =(

[@impaledm4936]

Yeah, or if the same series but different season being on different websites like food wars for example, I was watching dubbed because already watch sub and it was in background but Season 1 HiDive Season 2 Hulu which isn't in my country, Season 3 Crunchyroll, and Season 4 and 5 I can't seem to find the dub for them anywhere. Honestly ludicrous all seasons for one show should be on the same service, I don't mind sub and dub being on two different services but the service should have all the seasons in one place.

[@AdamYJ]

I don’t think physical media was necessarily “going away” so much as it was turning into collectors’ medium. Which might have driven prices up if it had continued on that path.

[@ShadowWolfRising]

It's not just DVDs, Music too (Friggin' VINYL came back. And now apparently Cassettes, FUCKING CASSETTES!), and Video Game Physical sales bounced back after the Lockdowns ended to an extent.