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curtisd88
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Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2020 9:52 pm
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On one hand, as an anime collector, this COULD be a good thing as it may give anime that CR had licenses to a better chance at home releases like their previous partnership which to me would be music to my ears.
On the other hand, as an anime streamer, I'm left wondering how is streaming going to be handled from here on out between CR and FunimationNow, and will prices rise. Or will they merge completely into one super-streaming service?
I'm not worried about a possible monopoly as there are still other competing services out there such as HiDive, Netflix and Prime Video.
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Covnam
Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 3674
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Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2020 10:01 pm
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Hmm, I wonder if there's any significance that it was Funi GG that bought Crunchy and not Sony Pictures?
While we'll have to wait and see whether this ends up being a positive or negative effect, I hope that more Crunchy shows that haven't gotten a physical release, now will through Funi. (though really since Discotek got Konosuba I can't think of any of the top of my head I'm waiting on )
LegitPancake wrote: | Also guessing the "Crunchyroll Collections" section on AT&T-owned HBO Max will get deleted sometime in the future, or they just start a new anime section since they do have some Aniplex and Viz stuff on there that CR doesn't have (Hunter x Hunter dub, Promised Neverland dub, etc). |
Huh, hadn't thought about that, but you're probably right. It's not like I use it for that, but I'm sure some people do.
Hikifroggy wrote: |
I wonder how this is going to affect both sites in the future and if both websites will merge into one |
They're both pretty big, I could see them remaining independent and just linking to the other site for anything relevant.
I wonder how the online stores might change though...
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lossthief
ANN Reviewer
Joined: 14 Dec 2012
Posts: 1399
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Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2020 10:08 pm
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matt78 wrote: |
I think this might actually help Sentai since I doubt Funimation will continue to license all of the more niche shows that Crunchyroll usually licenses. In theory this would allow Sentai to license more shows even if they won't be any of the more popular shows.
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Honestly I think the opposite is more likely. Funimation *has* been licensing more niche shows the past year or so, in order to bolster the number of shows compared to Crunchyroll. And back during the "Strategic partnership" days, Sentai was still struggling to get many shows, especially for the 3 seasons they streamed exclusively on Amazon Prime/Anime Strike. If anything, with Funi/CR all under one umbrella again and no longer bidding against eachother for shows, I could see Sentai struggling to get much of anything besides continuations of stuff they already license. Oh, and I guess this means the CR/Sentai home video partnership is going to be gone within a year of starting too. woof.
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ErikaD.D
Joined: 09 Jun 2019
Posts: 659
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Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2020 10:11 pm
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Telu wrote: | Well, rip LATAM. |
And RIP Europe (except UK and Ireland), including the Baltics.
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Cardcaptor Takato
Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 4869
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Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2020 10:14 pm
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While there's reason to be concerned, people concerned about international streaming seem to forget that the whole reason the initial FuniRoll split up was because Funimation wanted to expand their global streaming yet it was Crunchyroll who was blocking them from expanding.
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matt78
Joined: 25 Jul 2015
Posts: 250
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Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2020 10:45 pm
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ErikaD.D wrote: |
Telu wrote: | Well, rip LATAM. |
And RIP Europe (except UK and Ireland), including the Baltics. |
Do you really think Sony paid $1billion just to shut Crunchyroll down? This was done to speed up the process of expanding Funimation internationally while also having the benefit of buying their main competitor. Unless Sony in completely inept this should be a good thing for you and everyone else in territories not covered by FunimationNow.
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v1cious
Joined: 31 Dec 2002
Posts: 6203
Location: Houston, TX
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Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2020 10:51 pm
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Blood- wrote: | Going from a pirate site in 2006 to being sold for $1.175-billion in cash 14 years later... not too shabby. |
I'm still impressed! I thought they would go down with Mangafox.
I wonder what this means for all Crunchyroll's original content. Is that Toonami pirate show still gonna happen?
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omoikane
Joined: 03 Oct 2005
Posts: 494
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Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2020 11:14 pm
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matt78 wrote: |
Do you really think Sony paid $1billion just to shut Crunchyroll down? |
Please say this louder for everyone.
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KitKat1721
Joined: 03 Feb 2015
Posts: 954
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Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2020 11:16 pm
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Vannil wrote: | I wonder if this is going to be reviewed by the FTC since this is going to kill competition for streaming services |
That would require the FTC to recognize anime-specific streaming as a separate entity from all other media streaming companies. Which I do not see happening. And even if they did, there's a million ways to get through that approval process pretty easily (like splitting the services' priorities).
I don't want to go around and make too many predictions about what's going to happen. We don't even know how these companies will look at the end of all this, or what their objectives will be (either under one name, or with each one focusing on separate jobs). A lot of people will likely lose their jobs depending on how much of a merger this buyout ends up being, which is the most unfortunate thing. I'm sure its a really nerve-racking time. I also can't imagine JPN companies are very excited about this at all. Long-term implications are definitely a bigger gray area than short term right now, and while I don't want to completely doom-post like almost everyone else I've seen, I do get it. I just don't think Sony would pay this much to completely kill CR and have a complete merger.
As far as any hopes I have, I don't care so much if prices increase or whatever, but I do want rates/benefits to improve for translators, or at least follow Funimation's model more so than CR's. I really hope streaming services actually feel the need to improve and don't just completely stagnate. Funimation's service/app is not the best, and neither is CR's actual video player, so uhh I guess we'll see on that...?
On a purely personal note: I would like CR to actually releases some titles on blu-ray instead of treating those partnerships like one-night stands with nothing to show for it, and I would like to get more mixed dub casting with TX and LA actors. Although Funimation has been outsourcing/partnering with several other ADR studios in the past few years for simuldubs as they've been licensing more and more shows, so I'm actually weirdly hopeful on that front. Especially considering the huge influx of shows about to be under one umbrella.
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Angel M Cazares
Joined: 23 Sep 2010
Posts: 5431
Location: Iscandar
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Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2020 11:42 pm
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As a huge fan of Sentai this is a bummer because it will probably make it harder for them to license new shows. But as a fan of anime this could mean more streaming titles and more disc releases. Hopefully the reorganization benefits anime fans around the world. I am wondering if Funimation handling the English markets (including North America) exclusively and Crunchyroll handling the rest of the markets is a good idea.
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SilverTalon01
Joined: 02 Apr 2012
Posts: 2404
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Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2020 11:54 pm
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I feel like it would be better to roll Funi into Crunchy. Crunchy seems like it has been super hot the last few years, and Funimation seemed like it was limping. Although my only real concern is that they don't put everything into Funi's app because that thing is garbage.
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Cardcaptor Takato
Joined: 27 Jan 2018
Posts: 4869
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Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2020 12:00 am
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KitKat1721 wrote: |
I don't want to go around and make too many predictions about what's going to happen. We don't even know how these companies will look at the end of all this, or what their objectives will be (either under one name, or with each one focusing on separate jobs). A lot of people will likely lose their jobs depending on how much of a merger this buyout ends up being, which is the most unfortunate thing. I'm sure its a really nerve-racking time. I also can't imagine JPN companies are very excited about this at all. Long-term implications are definitely a bigger gray area than short term right now, and while I don't want to completely doom-post like almost everyone else I've seen, I do get it. I just don't think Sony would pay this much to completely kill CR and have a complete merger.
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Something I think people are forgetting is even after Sony bought Funimation, they continue to operate Aniplex and Funimation as separate entities even if Funimation now has streaming rights to their catalog. But people still keep expecting the destruction of Aniplex any day now even though it hasn't happened yet and they've only collaborated with Funimation on exactly one BD release thus far and that was Demon Slayer.
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penguintruth
Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 8461
Location: Penguinopolis
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Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2020 12:45 am
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I'm not a fan of monopolies, but I'll wait to see how this plays out before condemning it. Maybe it'll motivate Funimation to fix its streaming platform, or roll it into Crunchyroll's. HiDive is probably looking pretty nervous now, though.
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lostrune
Joined: 09 Jun 2012
Posts: 313
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Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2020 1:05 am
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Never been a fan of Funimation either, but aren't all their controversies about censorship and political stuff only in the dub? Feel free to enlighten me if they've changed a bunch of subtitle translations as well, but all the big ones I ever heard about were dub writers going wild rather than the actual translators. The only subs I ever hear complaints about are weird, non-political choices like "big brudder" in Higurashi from a week or two ago, and of course copyright issues like JoJo's stand names. Not that a monopoly is ever really a good thing, but I suspect that will be who is most affected by this: English dub watchers, especially if Sony throws out all the Crunchyroll's dub producers and LA voice actors and uses strictly Funimation/Texas talent.
And even in a worst case scenario where a monthly subscription is 50 dollars a month, everything is censored, and streaming quality is garbage, well, it's not like people haven't been finding alternate ways to watch anime for free already.
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Sketchor
Joined: 09 Dec 2006
Posts: 74
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Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2020 1:39 am
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ninjamitsuki wrote: | Yikes, a monopoly on anime streaming isn't good, and I'm worried that so many more dubs are gonna be done in Texas now. I don't care much for Funi's pool of voice actors. I at the very least hope we'll still get LA dubs. |
Netflix primarily uses LA studios so I wouldn't worry about Texas taking all the new English dub jobs. Aniplex had some new shows dubbed in LA recently and Viz and some other companies will throw some work at LA studios as well. But at the very least I do expect a larger portion of dubs will be done in Texas.
Blood- wrote: |
I wonder what this means for all Crunchyroll's original content. Is that Toonami pirate show still gonna happen? |
Yes. Fena: Pirate Princess along with Uzumaki, Blade Runner: Black Lotus and Shenmue the Animation will still be allowed to air on Adult Swim's Toonami block.
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