Western anime distributors Crunchyroll and Funimation have finally announced the merger of their libraries, months after Sony finished acquiring Crunchyroll.
Sony announced their intentions to acquire streaming site Crunchyroll from their parent company WarnerMedia back in 2020. Ultimately, Sony ended up paying $1.175 billion USD for Crunchyroll and its licenses.
The merger was almost stopped thanks to an anti-trust probe by the US Department of Justice in March of last year; but the merger was ultimately allowed to continue in the following August.
What does this mean?
This means all your anime, all on one platform. Starting today, tons of shows and movies from Funimation and Wakanim will begin arriving on Crunchyroll—so you’ll get more dubs, more subs, more of everything you’ve come to love!
That includes blockbuster titles like My Hero Academia, JUJUTSU KAISEN and Fruits Basket, and Crunchyroll favorites like ODDTAXI, Tokyo Revengers and Naruto Shippuden, all under one subscription!
This means that new anime series in the upcoming Spring season (the biggest on record—stay tuned!) and beyond will only stream on Crunchyroll. As we move forward, Funimation will only add new episodes of continuing series, which means that you’ll want to move to a Crunchyroll account as soon as possible.
Qualifying subscribers of Funimation, Wakanim, and VRV will receive a 60-day free trial code for Crunchyroll in their e-mail in order to make the transition more smoothly.
While the two largest anime distributors in the west have been allowed to merge, other distributors still exist to pick up niche series and cult classics like HIDIVE and RetroCrush.
