Crunchyroll Strikes Again! Buys Right Stuf!

[@RiderOmega]

Part of the problem with purchases and mergers of this kind is that what usually happens is one or both companies is forced to vomit staff which kills their ability to maintain quality. Adam Conover has talked quite a bit about what happened to the TV station TruTV when they merged with Time Warner. We're probably going to see something similar. There's a good chance that Right Stuf is gonna see a lot of their staff cut to save costs, but those people are doing critical work, and the quality of Right Stuf will suffer as a result.

[@XenoKnightAlpha]

I'm wary of this. I'm afraid that it'll decline in quality, disappointingly. I feel like this exact thing has already happened to Crunchyroll themselves.

[@itsblitz4437]

And remember Rooster Teeth under OtterMedia which is also under AT&T with Warner Media. Its just Nowadays there is now unsolicited buyers and corporations just getting bigger and purchasing everything. We are definitely in a new guilded era.

[@wisdumcube]

​@@XenoKnightAlpha Crunchyroll's quality was already questionable before it was bought by Sony, probably around the time they partnered with Funimation and started developing their own in-house "anime" content. The real issue is that Sony now owns a significant portion of the international market when it comes to anime so now people don't have a lot of choices if Sony starts dropping the ball hard on anime localization and distribution.

[@XenoKnightAlpha]

@@wisdumcube I didn't notice how bad they were until I experienced their customer service around the time they started that partnership and in-house animation. That's a good point. They definitely have snowballed out of control. I don't like that there's not much choice for most people around the world now. It's a real shame.

[@SerifSansSerif]

@@wisdumcube the flip side to this is that a lot of us were complaining on the streaming side that we had to have 5 different services to get everything. (Like funi, crunchy, hidive, Netflix, Amazon, and now Disney just to start) The streaming side is more of a win. It's physical media that's the big concern. Even the 18 plus is spinning off on its own, and believe it or not, this may not be a bad thing. the lines between the two have been blurred too much and overall the quality of more mature anime has devolved into just porn or porn adjacent. The best thing I've seen lately (via piracy cause Disney) has been summertime rendering. Most of the rest is just porny Isekai. Although CR still streams several of the borderline content shows it may not be a bad thing for some pressure against the material to exist. Rentanime used to be a Netflix analog back when Netflix did disks by mail. Once they started caving to the demands for h material, the demand for regular content dried up completely and they only really updated the porn section (as that's what had demand), and then finally ran themselves down. Porn is a great business.... As long as it's not mixed with family friendly material. You can do one or the other but not both. Sony being anti-porn will be a nice self censorship for the industry.

[@juances]

Why are companies so puritan and refuse to admit that yes, people are into adult stuff. Shouldn't it be an easy source of more money towards their coffers? Of all the shady stuff companies do, it's weird that they suddenly claim to have some moral objection against this one thing.

[@72kyzero]

Investors is all I can say

[@shadows_star]

Because adult content limits the audience and that hurts profit margins

[@danielseelye6005]

The same reasoning why they go for G or PG films instead of R. There are exceptions (Deadpool) but the more family friendly, the broader the customer pool.

[@sancturillore]

@@shadows_star No, it doesn't. Adult stuff has an audience. And they aren't even the ones making the product. They lose nothing from selling it. They only gain from it. There is a lot of stuff for broader audience. The audience for adult content is pretty big too.

[@Altmer353]

@@shadows_star as another person said, it doesnt make sense. There dedicated companies and studios that creates adult content. Why not Crunchyroll to just make separate streaming service for specifically stuff like that. They will loose nothing, only stand to gain.

[@eliasrosner4427]

I got the email and absolutely freaked the fuck out. 35 year sale ended and the next week they're being eaten by Sony/Crunchyroll. What's extra frustrating about this is that it's a pure example of a vertical merger - production, access and now distribution - and it didn't even get an antitrust look. Sure funimation and crunchyroll had stores but RightStuf was *the* distributor of physical media and neutral too. Now its parent company is the same as Aniplex of America and Crunchymation (and the fact that Sony kept Aniplex of America around for physical releases after merging with Funimation in *2018* is nuts). I agree that I can't see a positive even as we're assured nothing will change. I don't believe prices will remain competitive or fair and I don't believe it'll be as user friendly as it currently is (even with my gripes with the site). I mean, Sony probably wants it all under the Crunchyroll brand store and we've seen how well that worked for the funimation and dub stuff. This on the heels of the HBOMax news, and everything with Netflix, was just a gut punch for people in these industries. Ugh. Edit: And how could I forget ComiXology's sudden and precipitous collapse thanks to Amazon's ownership?

[@tazatom]

You forgot about disney plus summertime rendering crap. Also Udons printing company printing the hardcovers worng twice

[@SillyOmega]

People have noticed prices are already going up. I can still get stuff from Sentai shout factory.

[@eliasrosner4427]

@@SillyOmega Oh how exciting! Not even a weekend and things are rising. I'm guessing it's not uniform, and different for non-members and members?

[@Melodyofthesea78]

You forgot Manga up.....it's censorship is beyond ridiculous.

[@Mir_Teiwaz]

They probably kept Aniplex because their stuff sells at a stupidly high premium for what you get.

[@draochvar9646]

And people wonder why piracy is as rampant as it is 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@windowsux]

Whats most ironic is that CR started as a pirate anime site before going legit, so the same thing could possibly happen again once those sites get enough dirty ad money to make a turn around.

[@Zalis116]

Before the CR/Funi merger and the purchase of RightStuf: "Anime is too fragmented on too many sites! I'm gonna pirate" After the CR/Funi merger and the purchase of RightStuf: "Anime is too centralized on Crunchyroll! I'm gonna pirate!"

[@juancarlosalonso5664]

Zalis116 Ikr, people who pirate will use literally anything as an excuse to keep doing it.

[@eldorados_lost_searcher]

I think the fact that anime is still considered niche is why this sort of thing is bypassing antitrust scrutiny. Which is worrying.

[@charlestrudel8308]

and then, when it start to make big money, its too late because companies are already too big.

[@shadows_star]

Anime is only considered niche nowadays by extremely, extremely old white boomers.

[@eldorados_lost_searcher]

@@shadows_star Yeah, and who writes the laws and decides to enforce them?

[@1337w0n]

Now explain Disney for the past few decades.

[@jase276]

Quite the opposite, anime is no longer niche which is why these corps are getting their little grubby paws on it to milk and ruin. To better market to the mindless masses.

[@erics.2440]

I've spent several thousand dollars at Rightstuff over the last decade, and I've always been satisfied with the products I've received. Their prices have consistently been considerably better than most of their competitors, and their customer support have always been extremely helpful. I'm really hoping that Crunchyroll, and Sony by proxy, understand how important physical releases are to the community and don't kill this brand. Either way, it's looking like I'll have to start using other online bookstores to get my LN's and Manga in the future, because I don't particularly like the idea of giving these mega corporations anymore of my money.

[@weismax33]

I think Sony does. Rightstuf, at the end of the day, is a distributer of physical media. The part that Sony really cares about is the blu-ray section. Both Crunchyroll and Funimation have their own stores where they sell stuff. I don't know what Crunchy offers, but I know Funi offers BR/DVDs on their store. So, why would Sony want two stores that sell anime related media at the same time(Crunchy/Funi stores) when they can buy one mega store(Rightstuf), move all those products to it and shut down the two stores they don't need anymore?

[@Klaaism]

@@weismax33 CR offers all kinds of merch from various companies, especially deals to higher-paying tier members. Hopefully they manage to fold Rightstuf into the existing infrastructure. Granted alot of that depends on why CR bought.

[@soul71000]

@@weismax33 Fuck Funimation.

[@Buckaroobrandi]

Guess I'm gonna have to go on a spending spree before crunchy roll can nuke physical media because I refuse to use their streaming service

[@pupsaderpupin5627]

@@Buckaroobrandi I just picked up Bubblegum Crisis, oh the irony.

[@SaberknightX]

On announcement, they immediately got rid of the smut : ( Mergers are messy, but to put that kind of workload immediately on the staff ... yeah there is plenty to be worried.

[@natesmodelsdoodles5403]

Oh they've still got the smut... ...on a completely separate site that's likely borked to hell and back!

[@Shebeast3]

I don't want physical copies to die out because as good as streaming is,it can be frustrating if you can't get a show you want or can't afford to pay for a subscription 🤞

[@darkdruidsvale]

^ id totally buy Log horizon S1-2 if i had the cash, S3 is debatable if id buy it or not as well its good, i didnt like it as much as the prior ones, and since S4 seems to not be viable since the writer was arrested for tax evasion or whatever and theres not really enough content left from what ive read for it to happen, it would probably be just the first 2

[@sinom]

Outside of NA the funimation buyout/merger caused a bunch of countries to loose legal access to a bunch of different anime so yes something of value was indeed lost.

[@512TheWolf512]

They're encouraging piracy, you have to be mad to give them money eveiid you ARE american

[@thesurvivorssanctuary6561]

As a professional weeaboo, I'm horrified.

[@jonathanyeh6624]

A large reason why Sony acquired Crunchyroll and decided to move forward with Crunchyroll as the main brand was Crunchyroll’s International presence, which was much larger than Funimation/Wakanim/AnimeLab. I don’t think any market with Funimation or Wakanim doesn’t have Crunchyroll already, so other than Russia (due to Crunchyroll and Wakanim ceasing service in Russia due to the Ukraine war), none of the Funimation/Wakanim markets should have lost access to a Sony owned anime streaming service. And new releases should have wider international (excluding Asia) availability under Crunchyroll going forward. Is it possible some countries lost anime titles due to the rebranding/merger as certain licensing agreements were affected? Yes. Sentai pulled many of its older titles from Crunchyroll in the Us since they now offer HiDive. HiDive is available in most countries outside of Asia, though you can only pay in USD and the selection varies (since Sentai’s worldwide excluding Asia library is much smaller than the US/Canada library).

[@erufailon4723]

@@jonathanyeh6624 That last point about Sentai is important. For example, there are quite a few KyoAni shows that were available in my country on Crunchyroll before they were removed, but are still not on Hidive here because Sentai doesn't give a fuck about territories outside of America

[@Gadottinho]

may say anyone? because there werent any, funimation basically didn't exist outside of the US.

[@KiaraDex]

We had a few years where Anime was able to be watched legally for a resalable price now begins the new dark age

[@RusticRonnie]

You mean the new good times, PLEX SERVERS baby

[@kosmosXcannon]

They are ushering in another golden age of piracy

[@windowsux]

Whats most ironic is that CR started as a pirate anime site before going legit, so the same thing could possibly happen again once those sites get enough dirty ad money to make a turn around.

[@davidruth1902]

@@RusticRonnie how is that good?

[@CommanderZx2]

Lots of uncut versions of anime that Funimation had available to stream have not been migrated to Crunchyroll and they instead have only migrated the broadcast version, despite the fact that CR says the show has been migrated.

[@ThePhoneix999]

And not enough people care sadly

[@512TheWolf512]

Order everything from Japan directly, or pirate. There's no other way

[@reverseshin]

I Need to Rip my Tegami Bachi Dvds Soon... I Need to See what animation was fixed/patched on the DVD Releases

[@bilditup1]

Is there a list?

[@Altmer353]

This is why piracy is so important. People always bash it, but in reality a lot of the stuff that you cant buy anywhere can be found on private trackers. And i say more, people there put so much work into getting old anime with 480p to upscale to 720p/1080p using different AI tools. Try to find for example Texhnolyze legally with 720p, you just cant. It was never released in 720p. But you can find it on couple private trackers. Im not saying you should always pirate and never support creators. Buy steaming subscription, physical releases or merch. I do that, but if i see some anime that is soo good, i will get it for myself in digital format so i can OWN it. Either by ripping blu-ray or downloading from torrent.

[@haru.4267]

I’ve been worried about the Crunchyroll’s monopoly issue for a while now - here in France, the second biggest anime/manga consumer in the world, they’ve bought out Kazé, a physical goods producer and manga publisher, as well as several other companies.

[@Animebryan2]

As the old saying goes, If you can't beat 'em, buy 'em out.

[@juice6521]

Why you French such huge weebs?

[@WannabeShady90]

I didn't know Crunchyroll took over Kaze. That means in Germany Crunchyroll owns not only Wakanim, but also Kaze. Not much competition left.

[@zero195]

I could totally see them buying Right Stuf, just for gundam. I am hoping that nothing changes, since killing physical media would also kill a significant chunk of companies that go to anime cons, like Crunchyroll Expo. Killing off DVD/Blu Ray would be like Shonen Jump killing off their manga division just because the Jump Plus app exists.

[@yunogasai1338]

Discotek just announced that they've licensed urusei yatsura's tv series but now I wonder if it'll be ok.

[@LucasCarter2]

I'm still mad about the funimation purchase of AnimeLab, which by all rights had the best UI for any anime streaming service I've ever seen, and the best, most lovely customer support too. Their interface (both the players and the site to browse the content) was so good, I even went out of my way to use their "give us feedback" feature to just tell them they'd done a good job. And now all that is gone. Funimation never bothered taking the far superior interfaces, and now crunchyroll owns funimation and animelab is just a memory only in the hearts of Australians who knew there was a better way.

[@lydiagrace8300]

AnimeLab forever!

[@microsoul669]

The new interface for their website is atrocious

[@Mirality]

Preach.

[@NihongoWakannai]

Yup, animelab was by far the best service and they just murdered it and tossed it into a deep grave never to be seen again

[@wyw201]

All are owned by Sony, it's Sony consolidating their subsidiaries.

[@SolracNexus]

I have a feeling that the business meeting went like this: "What should we do to maximize profits?" "Something with the right stuff" "Sure, let's do that"

[@Haskellerz]

"What should we do to maximize profits?" "Buy everything!!! Since we have the distributors, the anime studios are next"

[@TheNobleFive]

@@Haskellerz Sony already had A1 Pictures and Cloverworks.

[@Purpless_ON]

@@Haskellerz Sony already own a couple anime studios

[@JaseAnimates]

Gee, for a company that supposedly uses it's profits to 'support' anime studios, they sure have a lot of spare change to keep buying up the competition. 😶

[@erufailon4723]

Have they ever claimed to "support studios", though? They obviously pay for licenses, but the studio rarely is the one handling an anime's overseas licensing. The money goes to the companies that fund anime, and it enablds them to fund more anime. I suppose that counts as supporting the industry. Too bad that the industry is in such a state that it might be better left unsupported.

[@rexmckey1604]

@@erufailon4723 they did a lot in the past. It was kinda their main talking point that the money used on crunchyroll went directly to the anime industry.

[@AstaIsAMonster]

@@erufailon4723 yup they had

[@demonic_myst4503]

Streaming services have never done shit to help anime studios streaming decreases their profit most their money comes from salss of dvds

[@wyw201]

Profits are retained capital used for operations, M&A typically are funded by debt or investor capital. Doubt Crunchyroll will approach M&A with cash to hurt cash flow.

[@homingice6444]

It worries me that people will start to transverse more into pirated websites because of the fact. That Chrunchyroll can just now not re-license something and when all of the print outs are gone. It becomes an issue to legally watch a show that can't be legally watched anymore or becomes even more difficult to legally watch said show. Chrunchyroll is walking a dangerous path because they could end up shooting themselves in the foot and eventually eating themselves alive.

[@Zalis116]

Yet I thought anime viewers were pirating because there were too many different legal services streaming anime and splitting up the market. But now one service having too much anime is somehow a problem?

[@doomzilla3568]

I'm extremely worried for Nozomi Entertainment's future after the purchase from Sony. They are one of my favorite publisher as their gundam blu rays, nadesco, and sayonara zetsubou sensei are amazing, especially gundam. This is extremely bad timing as we *FINALLY* got Macross coming to the states. This sets a very dangerous precedent for every independent retailers and distributors of suffering a monopolistic future from a conglomerate.

[@me-myself76]

Man, where the hell are anti monopoly laws when you need them the most?

[@auraaetherbladesigma6939]

Exactly!!!

[@Kikasitsu]

They went away as soon as the Soviet Union disappeared. Do you seriously think you were given the 40-hour work week because of “good will” by a Rockefeller or a J.P. Morgan? Think about what has transpired since 1991, and you’ll see where your Anti-Trust laws went. (That’s what they’re called, just so you know.)

[@FredSpade]

No such thing, these days, in practicality. Corporations own politicians.

[@SgtPotShot]

Well, their competitors are Amazon & Netfilx, so you could argue in a courtroom that Crunchyroll does not yet have a monopoly, at least in streaming media. You could argue that distribution of physical media is becoming a monopoly, but then again, Crunchyroll's competitor is Amazon.

[@radicalindividual7774]

Democrats dug holes around them, and put dozens of other laws in place so they could profit from it not existing.

[@FredSpade]

Preserve your hard copies. That's all, folks.

[@XenoKnightAlpha]

Oh no... this is absolutely scary. I had good experiences with RightStuf.

[@mordi9286]

Maybe for Discotech: "Old but gold." I'll agree, it's worrying. I'll admit my first and only piece of merch so far is the box set to Paladin;Agateram. It took me until then to understand the desire for physical pieces like these. And the concern for if they remove many aspects RightStuf had. I kind of wish there were an official statement at some point.

[@sjp8024]

It def worries me. It's difficult to find physical anime that's out of print. Once Fullmetal Alchemist (original series) was taken off of streaming everywhere, I tried to find the box set and every seller sent black-bottomed bootleg-looking discs. The ps5 plays them somehow but I return them... If I wanted a pirated copy I'd just put on my pirate hat and do it myself.

[@b1merio]

Loved Interspecies Reviewers. Really hope Ero Anime somehow makes it available for purchase.

[@williamdunbar2802]

Hopefully they keep making physical anime, since I really want to get all the Gundam Blu Rays

[@madcrowmaxwell]

I suspect that physical releases will continue, but will go up in price significantly. I wouldn't be surprised if $80-$100 "semi-deluxe" box sets end up as the only game in town.

[@Strider_Shinryu]

My biggest concern on the surface is what's going to happen with the smaller and/or less successful series. I've had only positive experiences with RightStuf as well and that's largely because I've been able to get physical versions of stuff that it felt like I was the only one watching, even if it took a while for it to get a release. I don't see CR stopping physical releases entirely but I see them basically just being an endless parade of MHA, Rent a Girlfriend or whatever the flavour of the month is. The sort of stuff they already constantly promote the crap out of on their social media. Rather than being fan friendly or anime friendly, whether something gets a physical release at all will entirely depend on how much money CR thinks they can squeeze from it (and this is even more the case if it's something they've already sunk money into by producing/co-producing regardless of actual quality).

[@bitnecromancer3721]

This is my biggest fear. That the all the unique and interesting stories that only seem to be found in anime are going to be chocked out by "safe" profitable clones of popular shonens and harems. At that point it's not anime anymore, it's just Japanese flavoured hollywood.

[@wernerviehhauser94]

There is nothing to fear. It will happen as Netflix happened. What generates the most profit stays, the rest dies. And we know that most profit is made with crap, since it has happened several times in the roundabout 45 years I've known what a TV is.....

[@erufailon4723]

Crunchyroll/ex-Funimation has been putting out physical editions of some less popular stuff even after the merger so I wouldn't be too worried for now. So far the rule of thumb has been that if it gets a dub, it gets a blu-ray

[@Shebeast3]

this is my fear too,the smaller or lesser know but great series will probably suffer the most just because it's not a 'popular' show like the ones you mentioned

[@ghoulchan7525]

RIP of ever getting a western DVD/blu-ray release of Thunderbolt Fantasy i guess.

[@kelionpro9612]

I always appreciate these important updates within the anime community

[@CommanderZx2]

Shouldn't this really be called Sony strikes again? CR by itself doesn't have the capital to be doing this and it's just Sony hiding behind the CR brand to do their dirty work.

[@rumfordc]

and if you called it Sony, that would just be CR hiding behind Sony to do their dirty work.

[@bloodirose]

@@rumfordc no, not really. Sony is the controlling party here. They bought out crunchyroll, they bought out funimation. They are the ones with the money and power here. Not crunchyroll.

[@rumfordc]

​@@bloodirose thats as silly as saying Google has no power simply because its owned by Alphabet, or that KZbin has no power simply because its owned by Google.

[@bloodirose]

@@rumfordc not saying they have no power… but Sony is the one pulling the strings at the end of the day.

[@rumfordc]

@@bloodirose at the end of the day, they're both pulling strings and working together. so claiming its all Sony is just trying to let CR hide behind Sony.

[@AstaIsAMonster]

This is why I don’t like these big companies taking anime/media because they will censor and destroy everything we love. 🤦🏽‍♂️

[@tjl9458]

One of my major concerns with the purchase of Nozomi is their history of Kickstarters. Like we got a Blu-Ray/dub release of all of Aria thanks to their Kickstarter as well as other series like Skip Beat. What is going to happen with those kind of series? Maybe if we're lucky Discotek will do them?

[@cheangelcazares]

Glass Reflection seems unaware that AMC Networks recently bought Sentai and HIDIVE. And based on the amount and quality of titles they licensed this current season, it would appear that they could compete with Crunchyroll.

[@sibsart2039]

Well it’s a good thing I bought the Interspecies Reviewers Blu-Ray before this as a gift. No seriously, my girlfriends loves the series.

[@pinkCEO]

Hey I believe it, I think it's unironically a decent couples show lol. Watched it with mine and had a good time.

[@sibsart2039]

@@pinkCEO I mean, it was basically smut… but it was also genuine funny.

[@sibsart2039]

@Bionick Toa True story, we went to a con with Crim’s dub VA. She got a signature and gifted a drawing of Crim she did. The voice actress said she felt bad the dub didn’t continue:

[@PJammaGod]

A very cultured girlfriend

[@tiedomi80]

I bought the Steelbook version pretty much as soon as it was made available for preorder.

[@TBoneTony]

Critical Mass, is that the same company that was also known as Anime18 back in the 90s when they used to dub old classics like La Blue Girl and Urotsukidoji Legend of the Overfiend?

[@venomouslizards]

Well great, I love RightStuf, but I don’t know if I can continue supporting it if Crunchyroll now owns it.

[@XenoKnightAlpha]

yeah. it's a shame, but I'd have to agree.

[@Vash1306]

Just one to point out that its Funimation by extension Sony was the ones who bought Crunchyroll from AT&T/WarnerMedia. And not Crunchyroll bought Funimation. They just chose to go with the Crunchyroll branding due more wider world brand recognition.

[@Sonicfalcon16]

I've been feeling like NOW is a good time to get anything you need on your backlog. As these buyouts are happening I find that getting good anime series is becoming less and less common so go get stuff you like or want and get it now

[@overkill1340]

Rightstuf just dropped the free shipping to Canada while Sentai Filmworks offered basically the same offer as Rightstuf. While a great deal of my desired shows are Sentai, I wish HiDive and Sentai could branch out and really own a significant part of this market. I'm no fan of Netflix or Prime but, we need something that can stand up to this conglomerate/near monopoly that is developing here. Sentai also has near storewide sales frequently while Rightstuf has a large scale sale perhaps once a year. I haven't been able to put togeather a proper order from RS in quite a while and anime pricing has really jumped here in Canada. I just jumped on the recent Sentai sale and I don't know if RS will have much of my business in the future.

[@tiedomi80]

I've also noticed that Sentai/HIDIVE has more aggressively gone after simulcasting series this season. Like, in seasons past you might get one or two (or none at all). This season though they have like, 9

[@Haskellerz]

Bring back ADV Films

[@edsenior]

@@Haskellerz Psst! Sentai IS ADV Films.

[@michaelc657]

CR and Funi merging made sense because Netflix entered the picture, and if Netflix purchased either CR or Funi it was likely death for the other. This one's a little more of a headscratcher.

[@LeonWagg]

How can Netflix buy CR and Funi when both of them are owned by Sony?

[@instagritsinbound]

Dude, physical copies of Baccano! are disappearing both in video and manga format. Some volumes and blu ray bundles going for insane prices on Amazon. It's a huge bummer that the only way I can view this media is thru less than legal means and I'm truly bummed that I may never personally own any of it.

[@DeckDogs4Life]

15:18 I am glad I picked up a copy of it when Sentai Filmworks was having a sale in that case. I wondered why they said something about limited stock....

[@outofsyncsamurai]

The reasoning behind this if I had to guess would be Crunchyroll wants to expand their sales of merch. Right Stuf already has the infrastructure to do this so its easier to buy and rebrand than to build it out themselves. As far as DVD's and Blu-Ray go, there's always going to be a market for getting a physical copy of your favorite show or a collectors edition, so having a system to offer that probably makes a lot of sense for Crunchyroll instead of letting others do it or not offering it at all.

[@01oo011]

Eventually everything in the world will be owned by one megacorp.

[@waffenwafflesreal]

I doubt

[@rattlehead999]

we have laws against that, that should work, but are kinda not working, because loop-holes, due to purposefully made complex laws that allow for said loop holes.

[@NoIdentity724]

So Disney?

[@TheWaross]

We are in the age of corporate consolidation. You see it in tech, in video games companies and now in anime... nice...

[@rikumajumder1558]

@@rattlehead999 Laws don't work when Corruption is in play in the government.

[@luceph]

I´m worried as Macross were finally coming in legal physical form. It was announced recently to be licensed by RightStuf. And now I don´t know waht to expect.

[@seraphonica]

I have bought literally 150 dvds at once from Right Stuf, and they all were well-shipped and arrived without incident. I hope that Crunchyroll is planning to make good use of them. Perhaps an anime by mail rental service, something like Netflix's?

[@RykonDragonix]

This video demonstrates a very good understanding of the business landscape sir, well done. I think this is a very fair and measured take on the whole situation as it's been evolving over the last few years. Makes me wonder what's really going on back at Sony headquarters for them to send PlayStation HQ to the states and start gobbling up western anime distribution companies. I hope things don't take a turn for the worst as a result of all these hasty mergers both in anime and in gaming.

[@Moldybeard]

they're likely looking at increasing their physical merch business, they bought an established distribution service so they don't have to build up one on their own.

[@CleanUpNick]

So Disney's buying up popular "Hidden Gems" like Summertime Render and Made in Abyss while Crunchyroll is buying up physical media... this is gonna get messy... isn't it...

[@danielg.w5733]

Gold Roger laughs in the distance

[@PipimiOden]

...i thought hidive had made in abyss?

[@natesmodelsdoodles5403]

@@PipimiOden It does, but they're with AMC. Disney has Hulu, tho.

[@PipimiOden]

@@natesmodelsdoodles5403 yeah but technically amc isn't disney, amc just licenses stuff to hulu i think

[@CureCrystal1]

They don't do Free Shipping to Canada anymore this was a couple of months before the Crunchyroll buy out

[@jamie4993]

Reading the landing page at Ero Anime, it's explicitly stated that they are taking the role of Critical Mass properties (including retaining the brand). Even going so far as to try to fulfill open orders left hanging by this acquisition. So as long as they are able to follow through on the promise, then the 'smut' should be fine.

[@Road_to_Dawn]

Iirc, I’ve actually gotten my collections of Kara no Kyoukai, Madoka Magica, and Yuuki Yuuna from Right Stuf, and the quality on all of those is fantastic. I really hope our fears are unfounded and they can keep up the standards they’re known for.

[@Zalis116]

Garden of Sinners and Madoka Magica were both released by Aniplex, which is controlled by Sony, who also owns Funi/CR and now Rightstuf.

[@aiwash2766]

I got that special edition of gundam 00 because of you Tristan and ngl the quality is amazing

[@horrorkesh]

to be fair owning Gundam is a massive thing if you like Gundam I mean its a huge name in anime

[@mutepoet_]

“I’m concerned about the monopoly.” and “Spending money to squash competitors... that’s almost too far.” Arkada I lament to remind you but that is the peak of capitalism. Take it all & squash anything that stands between you & profit. Money spent crushing your adversaries is long run money earned from their clientele back to you. Edit: American physical copies are already bare bones & a slap to the face for anime fans. Bare bone blue ray plastic case, paper thin holding case with penny cost stickers, animation panels booklet, and if we are barely lucky leaflets, not books, mind you, but leaflets of art. Not even an actual book containing art for the advertised collectors edition save for series of old like FullMetal Alchemist 2003 Collectors Edition. If you want to be treated with respect as an anime fan going the full mile buying merchandise Japanese collections is the way to go because even with their increased prices you gain so much. Physical soundtrack osts, textured box holders for your blu rays, unique art carefully chosen & placed on the box holder & blu ray disks... you wont find that level of care and dedication for American releases from Crunchyroll anymore. Right Stuf seemingly tries to keep the beating blood of the caring fans alive by making vinals and bringing back older series manga and blu rays when it is popular enough. Crunchy, in my opinion, is going to further push for penny cost collectors editions & not a cent more for only the most popular series while the lesser popular series gets shafted. Please, prove me wrong.

[@Shebeast3]

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@mutepoet_]

Just wanted to return back to this video to check the upload date; They waited a year to shaft RSA.

[@CE73KiraYamato]

I sadly did not know crunchyroll purchased rightstuf until u made this video. I hope if we get more news you can post another video

[@carstenhedegaardjensen230]

Was able to order a copy of the Interspecies Reviewers on bluray from a Danish retailer and will be receiving it shortly - just got the notice that they now have it ready in their warehouse. Maybe I was just lucky to get one, but I hope everyone who wants one will be able to get it. Still wish Japan would just create their own international anime streaming service and make an effort to get shows properly subtitled and I'm sure they would kill all other competition and not have to suffer anymore harmful Western influence and censorship. I know I would sign up in a heartbeat.

[@Friendly_Neigborhood_Astolfo]

Would totally be for that

[@LadyNekoshema]

I buy physical anime for the collectors value. IDK what the profit margin is for that, but it sucks to think that option might go away forever. I rewatch my Lucky Star box set at least once a year, and I think of anime I purchased in my teens that aren't being streamed anywhere. As for why, I honestly want to believe it's Interspecies Reviewers. I'm not a fan of ecchi [which I know that show was borderline schmentai] but it's not for me. I think there's some petty person who just wants to destroy this anime, not realizing the more you tell us no, the more we'll seek it out. If this means messing with CrunchyRoll by constantly making new platforms for 1 anime, I'm game.

[@PenumbralVT]

Can't wait until every company merges into one and I can finally get my apple branded anime smart watch to sync with my refrigerator

[@CamKoudo]

I find it funny that a Crunchyroll ad played right at the beginning of the video for me xD

[@pvs18]

I don't think you understand how little profit there is in streaming when you're responsible for the content production as well. The real money is in the distribution of physical media. Each title costs X amount of money to produce and is then marked up to make a profit. For streaming, you charge a flat price per month or year to have access to an entire catalog. The amount of money you make this way is MUCH LESS than selling physical media. The costs of subtitling and dubbing stuff is expensive, and streaming revenue just doesn't cover it. This is why Disney+, HBO Max, Paramount+, etc. still operate at a LOSS. Netflix was making money from streaming for a while because they didn't make their own content. They'd work out a deal with the studios (Warner Bros, Disney, Sony, Paramount, Universal, etc) that spent the money to make the content, and then they'd charge the subscription fee. The upfront costs of producing content didn't affect their profits until those same studios began to get their own streaming services. All that stuff is being yanked from Netflix, and now they're losing so much money having to produce their own content. So why buy Right Stuf? People preferred buying from Right Stuf over the actual Crunchyroll and Funimation stores because their site and customer service are better. This move is to buy a better storefront along with the Nozomi catalog. You can't go all in on streaming unless you charge much more for it, and I think that price will be too high for most people to the point that many would just resort to piracy. Sony *invented* the Blu-ray (and 4K Blu-ray by extension), so why would they actively try to kill a format they invented and actively support?

[@jumpdriveradiodj]

I remember Animelab which was Australia and NZ's premier streaming service which was acquired by Ellation from Madman which has now has been closed down. Madman is still distributing physical items though which is a good thing.

[@cradica]

So first Animelab and now Rightstuf (they are literally after anyone with Interspecies Reviewers!)

[@The_mechanick]

I liked to use RS in addition to other places but now I’m using nothing but the actual distributors. Diskotech, Sentai Filmworks, Shout Factory, and Anime Ego are where I’m buying from now. Also, RS is forcibly shifting their 18+ open orders & preorders to the new site which includes the purchaser’s private information (including billing). I have the email that says so, so if you want to see it please let me know.

[@cradica]

I noticed some non-h stuff that's listed as 18 + is still there (like Highschool DXD)

[@statesminds]

I love Rightstuf. God i hope they dont mess them up. I still buy physical media as well as streaming so it better not change that. Im a physical collector. Sentai and Rightstuf is where i go and Sentai’s boxes often just say Rightstuf lol. I also use rightstuf for adult stuff sometimes ngl so hope that doesnt change either

[@XenoKnightAlpha]

I checked for some old links for some adult stuff to see if they still have it, and they lead to 404. I searched for titles I was sure they had and nothing. Perhaps I'm doing something wrong, and they changed the way the site works, but it looks like they indeed removed the adult stuff. Idk

[@BooktapC]

I do find it suspicious that Sony has acquired Rightstuf they are a major anime retailer in North America but I have more of a wait and see approach. I was thinking of aniblogging about this since Sony now owns FUNimation, Crunchyroll, and Rightstuf but I don't know, nothing is written in stone so nothing is certain as of yet.

[@dynamicworlds1]

If the supposed point of our economic system is to make companies compete with each other, why are mergers and them buying each other out a thing that's legal? For that matter, why are (inherently anticompetitive and monopolistic) exclusive distribution contracts legal?

[@Altmer353]

Because someone owns those companies. And they have right to sell them if they want to. Either it is a group of people, or one person. Same way you have a right to sell your home or your car.

[@dynamicworlds1]

@@Altmer353 corporate law is already vastly different than selling a car, and a person buying or selling stake in a corporation is not the same thing as corporate mergers. That is a ridiculous argument.

[@thesurvivorssanctuary6561]

@@Altmer353 Ok, but are you saying I have a right to buy all the weapons manufacturing in the world? That'll make it very easy for Mme to conquer the world, and then you won't be able to do anything about it; cause I won Monopoly(TM)!

[@Altmer353]

@@dynamicworlds1 Don't put words in my mouth. Monopoly laws is entirely different matter. Your question was "why are mergers and them buying each other out a thing that's legal?". I answered that. They have rights to do that, if i built company alone, with my friends or family, i/we should have rights to sell it. If not what I'm going to do with company i do not want? How do you even imagine that? Or you prefer for me to sell every company asset, fire employees and close down? Do you know how much harm it will do to people who worked there?

[@dynamicworlds1]

@@Altmer353 at no point did I put words in your mouth. That you need to resort to that level of dishonesty immediately is telling of how indefensible you feel your position actually is. You answered with an invalid comparison as a response and I pointed out how it was invalid, and then you just repeated it while throwing a false accusation at me. It's disgustingly dishonest. Btw, no, anti-monopoly laws are not an entirely different matter. They fall under the same category of anticompetitive business practices that a BUNCH of different but parallel laws fall under.

[@PhreezyOnTheBeat]

I love RightStuf … hope this works out well for them.

[@phoenyck]

The only positive thing I can think of for the buyout is maybe some crunchyroll produced anime may get physical releases, like A Place Further Than The Universe

[@amplifier464]

But that's very unlikely

[@amandaknapp8955]

I admit I haven't used Right Stuff since I was ordering VHS out of their catalog but I have very fond memories of them.

[@aaronorenstein5963]

Interesting insight. Oddly enough, you inspired me to actually make a purchase off of Right Stuf for the first time a minute ago. (As well as bring up a certain New Kids on the Block song, which is now playing intermittently in my head...)

[@myeternalsin]

I’m very excited at the aspect of getting a Sound Euphonium dub. And now that you mention it a Laid-Back Camp Blu-ray release would be amazing. If they release both of those things I’ll consider it a win as selfish as that is. Unfortunately, only time will tell, but videos like this definitely help because we all know they watch these things or at least get brought up even if they never talk about it.

[@tenchimuyo69]

Honestly, this is a problem inherent to streaming services in general, from CR to Netflix, and so on. That the quality of service was determined by the law's enforcement of copyright law. There is almost no innovations to be had in service itself, only what they have legal control over. Ironically, this can sometimes potentially cause this particular industry to be one of very few that actually functions better when controlled by monopoly since you'd be paying for a single service, and the more competition there was, the lower in quality each becomes. But how that will work when your monopoly is in the hands of the incompetent, I am unsure.

[@ProfessM]

Great now Gundam is indanger just when I started to save up cash to get those cool looking boxsets. Trying to be a casual collector is a nightmare. Stuff like this makes you have to BUY NOW hyper stressful.

[@jimonaldo3108]

how to encourage piracy 101

[@jeebay5188]

As a purchaser of anime from rightstuf since 1995 as I prefer owning physical copies. Now that Crunchyroll owns them they no longer carry adult titles for those who enjoy that form of entertainment you now have to go elsewhere. The monopoly concerns me for reasons of which one was stated about cutting down their physical medium in favor of streaming. Another concern is the north american branch of sony being censor happy, now adult titles are gone will they sensor titles like Shimoneta, High School DxD, Prison School, and others? Or even not keeping the licensing.

[@lordlonzo]

Holy shi I started watching you in 2012. I took a few years break from anime after I graduated highschool. I have been drawn back to anime recently. So glad I found your channel again. Your channel was part of my childhood. Miss the long hair though. 😂

[@Rumpelstiltskin01]

It would also seem that all of right stuff special bundles for older LNs and Manga have also vanish off the site as well.

[@ShouAmaterasu]

"I'm sickened but curious" is about how I can describe this moment. Nozomi Entertainment is not Gundam for me, it's Galaxy Angel, a series I love NOT for its anime, but its visual novel series that was originally supposed to be the spear head of the series and never officially left Japan, and a novel series I think many who have complaints on the current anime harem culture could appreciate. As a Tact and Mint shipper myself, I am kinda interested in seeing how Broccoli's game is going to be character assassinated on both sides of.... THAT conversation.... If you know, you know.

[@brandondavis8005]

I'm a longtime Rightstuf customer and impulse shopper (July was luckily not TOO expensive this year). The E-sports coach where I work actually used to work for them at one point. I hope this is a good thing. Maybe some consistency to packaging of Funimation titles will occur, or those quality deluxe editions for flagships like FMA, DBZ, other shows that make nice abbreviations. Be nice if Nozomi expanded their talent pool, maybe some more Yawara (how's that for obscure?) with a dub even. Eh, a fan can dream.

[@bentaphid44]

10:49 "The oldest and goldest" has a nice ring to it

[@YaknSnak82]

Part of the reason streaming companies buy physical media distributors is because not everyone has great access to Internet for streaming or families can’t afford it. Now Crunchyroll can sell to those people. This is the positive. The company gets a wider audience to sell to and the customer who had to get pirated media can now have the option to buy it.

[@fly_8659]

Now if only Crunchyroll could find some spare change behind the couch to hire developers to fix their website UI...

[@BeefIngot]

Series idea: Series end roundups. Im the type of person that waits till a show, anime or not, finishes before hopping on because if I here they mess it up in the late seasons, I know there is no point watching. I think a cool series would be maybe a yearly roundup talking about all the anime that has ended for good. Finished story, no upcoming seasons or movies. Done. It could just give a quick synopsis of the series without spoilers and whether its worth a watch now that its all said and told.

[@theshadowdirector]

Funimation purchased a notable UK distributor not too long ago. Personally didn't think of it as the end of the world as they had a habit of burying the streaming rights to certain shows and basically making physical copies the only means of legally watching them. I think we should be more worried if they swallow up Sentai and HIDIVE.

[@antrepeyous]

ngl most of this flew over my head as I don't really use Crunchyroll or buy products from right stuff, but you mentioned Sound of the Sky and i was all ears.

[@Blake_C137]

HiDive does have Made in Abyss 2, DanMachi 4, Call of the Night, and 4 other shows this season, so if you are an anime fan that isn’t a pirate, it’s worth the $4 a month.

[@ROUGEBLOCK]

You know what, I always like how bright your videos are. Great lighting

[@Scwoowy]

Very thorough. Some things I ordered Funimation things I ordered through rightstuf looked like they were placed in busted cases, before getting plastic wrapped and sent off.

[@statesminds]

Funimation, Sentai, Righstuf were where i got my physical media. Sometimes Gkids. So i was worried before with funimation now im super worried. Hell i still have 4 outstanding orders with rightstuf

[@Bransbow]

I’ve been intentionally avoiding giving Crunchyroll my business for awhile now, and Right Stuf was my main alternative for buying and watching shows. Now I guess I only have Hi Dive to stream with, but who knows how much longer they’re going to last?

[@Altmer353]

There other ways to support creators. Better one. You can buy merch directly from japan and just pirate anime. This way you will continue to support them and will get much better consumer experience.

[@draochvar9646]

Just pirate the shows and buy the merch from Japan. That's a far better way to give the creators your support.

[@cradica]

same

[@shadowtheimpure]

@@Altmer353 "buy merch" Unfortunately, merch takes up a lot of goddamn space. I own almost no merch because I'd have nowhere to keep it.

[@jetmcgavin6663]

There still isn't a Hidive app on the ps5 smh

[@ProphetOfTruth_]

I’m surprised at how good the Crunchyroll/Funimation merger has been so far. Transfer of shows from Funi to CR has been smooth and rapid (except Steinsgate dub and Claymore, those are the ones I’m still waiting on). We’re getting more shows dubbed with dub episodes coming out sooner than they used to. International subscribers actually saw a monthly price decrease rather than the increase many were predicting. The only real issue still is that Funi had the uncut versions of shows from blu ray release whereas CR only has simulcasts (if that’s no longer the case please let me know, I seriously hope CR changes from simulcast only to update shows to uncut versions). HiDive is still there for more risqué anime but I’m unfamiliar with how broad their lineup is, that’s why even months later I still haven’t canceled my Funi account and moved over to CR since there’s still some more uncensored shows I want to watch.

[@ThePhoneix999]

7:53 crunchyroll could have just stopped whole selling to rightstuf to choke a section of their distribution

[@lubossoltes321]

Looks like Sony is slowly eating the Anime market ... I just hope that there's some positive to people outside North America and we get access to more IPs as Sony should have more money to license a bit broader rights. The amount of shows I cannot watch on Crunchyroll is frustrating. Imagine I can only watch the LATEST season of some shows while they are available in full for NA users.

[@CBlade0]

I remember you being their partner! You played a part in this :p

[@KumiChan2004]

I've been wanting to watch a few semi older Magical girl animes. They were on Crunchy a few years ago, no longer there. I find out that they were on Funimation. Mmkay cool. I'll just buy the physical version as I absolutely hate Funimation's streaming service. Ohh they don't offer physical releases. Fine. I'll just google and see what I can.... holy crap there's barely any copies and what there is for sale is expensive. Well.. yeah.

[@GainingDespair]

Deep down, while not a positive for the consumer, I hope someone like Amazon smells blood in the water, and makes a strong push towards an authentic anime platform. They probably wouldn't be much bothered with going into debt, it is a growing market, and with the backing of Amazon they could seriously give Crunchyroll/Funimation a massive competitor. Odds are naught however

[@MyRealityIsProof]

When will the Japanese anime companies band together to make their own streaming/physical copy distribution company for the western audience?

[@overkill1340]

Streaming, maybe, but the Japanese physical market simply doesn't work over here.

[@dynamicworlds1]

Even just banding together and agreeing to ban exclusive licencing deals would be a big improvement.

[@Dante93k]

​@@overkill1340 In Spain we have Selecta Visión, which licenses a lot of works every year and even manages to bring some important titles to local cinemas. There is a pretty big demand here for anime, people ask for new titles all the time and we love when they get new licenses. So they're great, but also one of the very few companies that consistently bring Blu-ray releases. Aside from them, we don't have much choice for getting physical media.

[@overkill1340]

@@Dante93k Not sure exactly what you are getting at, but what I meant was this. The Japanese physical market is directed at a small group of dedicated otaku whales with lots of money to spend. As a result their physical media is very expensive. Our (North America's) physical media market has always been about large quantity sales of low cost releases. With consumers innundated with cheap vhs/dvd/bluray discs for decades, the Japanese system doesn't catch on here and Japanese companys don't look outside their own borders very often. This is why distribution is almost exclusively done by NA companies with little or no ties to the Japanese creators and marketers. It is highly unlikely that Japan could create a physical media production company that would actually work in our market. There is a lot of dubbing in Spanish and Portugese, while these markets are often underserved by both streaming and physical anime platforms. I'm not sure how your local/hollywood movie/tv market works, but a limited run, expensive release market might work there, while the non-European Hispanic/Portugese countries usually have a workforce that could simply not afford the Japanese physical pricing system.

[@Altmer353]

Yeah. same, I dont get it. Why they dont create their own streaming service. Outsource translation overseas, then after translation was done, hire couple of local good translators in japan to verify quality of translation and then publish on their streaming service. If you afraid to kill off physical disk market you shouldn't be, you can just add some exclusive scenes to physical copies of popular anime (like for example Psycho-Pass did it) and release them. Game studios from Japan got smart and started do release their games on steam and other platforms some years back. Some niche studios got so much money from sales, even more than in Japan. If anime industry wants to grow and prosper it needs to adapt.

[@eaglef003]

I wouldn't panic just yet. Crunchyroll bought VIZ Europe / KAZÉ in 2019 and until now, not much has changed. I haven't noticed drastic changes in their DVD/Blu Ray publishing operations. They are consolidating their 3 streaming services into Crunchy and are in the process of renaming everything to Crunchyroll. BUT what happens in the future is another question.

[@ZekeStaright]

On the subject of more adult stuf, CR is doing Harem Labyrinth & it is quite lewd heavy & the only version they are so far releasing is censored to hell & back

[@TheNobleFive]

So is the Japanese public television version.

[@ZekeStaright]

& I'm not paying for public TV

[@Haz3dNightfall]

Sentai Filmworks Hidive is our biggest and possibly last hope standing in the way of Sony's total monopoly of the anime dubbing industry.

[@lucinae8512]

Even someone who pirates like anime like me hate all this corporate merging. I loved watching Funimation's credits opening before an anime started. They were like those fun credits logos you'd see on Toonami, Saturday morning blocks and film credits. Crunchyroll, Netflix and Amazon's were like "Here's our name! This anime is an 'Original' and we were part of the 'Production Committee!' We care very much about our audience!" This is anime branding at its most basic for me, so what's going to happen to that?!

[@TurboSax]

Soooo Sony just straight up has a monopoly on Anime, right? Why isn't anything being done about this? Oh right corruption right. Honestly, it's probably time to just starting sailing the high seas when it comes to anime.