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lossthief wrote:

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.

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.

Yeah, I can't see this being great for Sentai. They've been going for a while now on a combination of licensing things that bigger players passed on and filling in gaps for others, like physical distribution for CR or licensing stuff for Amazon. CR won't need that going forward and Amazon lost its taste for the anime market. CR and Funimation bidding against each other probably did have to make them somewhat choosy about what they tried to get, but now that won't be the case.

As far as physical releases go, I expect we'll see a more streamlined situation for CR's titles. They've had several partners doing that for them, and I think that contributed to why they've been kind of slow and inconsistent.

The streaming part of it could go various ways. When they were partners and subtitled Funimation shows migrated over to CR, the cost of FunimationNow went down a little bit since it offered less content. Unfortunately, even if they merged the services together, I could see that convenience coming at a cost since they could say, "look at all the content guys, it's worth more now!" If I had to guess, such a service would probably be priced to where it is more than if you had just one of them, but a little less than if you had both.

And I know it's pretty standard for companies to talk positively about things like this, but it's kind of hard to take Crunchyroll's tweets about how excited they are at face value. There are almost certainly positions that will be considered redundant, and it wouldn't be entirely surprising if Sony decided that there wasn't much point in keeping the Crunchyroll office open in the notoriously expensive San Francisco if they can accomplish it much cheaper in Texas, so keeping a position may come with the requirement to relocate.

yuna49 wrote:

CR still has more of the CGDCT type of shows like Climbing Girls and Days at the Breakwater. Those never seemed to be Funi's forte; wonder if that will change.

But Breakwater is a Funimation title, not a CR title.

I'd happily pay a few bucks more if as a result of this merger if I get CR, Funimation and a few of the other services from Sony under one service.

Hate having multiple bills re-occurring every month just for my anime.

yuna49 wrote:

This is the first season when I am watching more shows on Funi than on Crunchy. On CR I'm watching Golden Kamuy 3, Climbing Girls, and Jujutsu Kaisen. I'm following four or five shows on Funi like Moriarty, Sleepy Princess, and a couple of others

It seems like Funi has started licensing shows that I would have once expected to see on CR like Sleepy Princess. CR still has more of the CGDCT type of shows like Climbing Girls and Days at the Breakwater. Those never seemed to be Funi's forte; wonder if that will change.

While Days at the Breakwater is a Funi show, this point has been true for me the past couple seasons. I'm pretty consistently watching more shows on Funimation than Crunchyroll by far, and the stuff I am watching on CR are usually sequels anyway (like Haikyuu). Their originals (Tower of God, God of High School, Noblesse) have been big misses for me, and I suppose that's where their priorities lied this year.

Just this season alone, I'm watching Akudama Drive, Sleepy Princess, Moriarty, Higurashi Gou, Wandering Witch, The Day I Become a God, Nana, Gymnastics Samurai, and Yashahime (which tbf is on CR too) on Funimation's service. Plus checking out the dubs for some shows that aired in the last few seasons (Arte, Appare-Ranman, Fruits Basket S2, Kakushigoto, etc...).

I'm only watching Haikyuu and JJK on CR this season (and Burn the Witch if that's counts despite being a one-time viewing).

Covnam wrote:

Hmm, I wonder if there's any significance that it was Funi GG that bought Crunchy and not Sony Pictures?

None. Funi GG is owned by Sony. I know they say in the stuff "partnership between Sony Pictures and Aniplex", but basically it is Sony putting their foreign (non-JP) anime companies under the one banner, and CR would just be added to that pile really.

TheMorry wrote:

So I wonder where that leaves me when this is finalised. I've a Wakanim ( The European Funimation really) and Crunchyroll subscription. If like before all dubs on Crunchyroll will be moved to Funimationnow I wonder if that also includes for Wakanim. I hope they give us some clarity soon.

My best and hopeful guess is that the catalogue will be copied across to Wakanim and CrunchyRoll will stop in those territories. Not quite sure about Europe, but thats what happened here with the FuniGG merger (AnimeLab got the titles, FuniNow stopped streaming in the region) and I could probably see the same happening again. I assume like AL Wakanim is a good streaming service plus the branding so Sony would probably want to keep it.

Beatdigga wrote:

PseudoFiction wrote:

I doubt this merger worth enough money for the FTC to bat an eye at. If CR was that profitable, ATT wouldn't have put it up for sale.

ATT tried selling Warner Interactive a few months ago, which was profitable. It’s about pairing down that huge debt of theirs.

This is the thing that has puzzled me the whole time with the deal, or should I say deals. AT&T are getting rid of profitable arms of the Warner group in order to pay down their own debts, maybe they should offload Warner as a unit. CR sat well within the organisation and they could have ran with it, with both the CR originals and their JP arm, and the fact Warner is a multimedia organisation. Seems funny that Sony is adding to their portfolio while Warner is breaking theirs down, which if I was an AT&T shareholder I would be jumping ship

Ok, some cleanup has been done. Look people, let's forgo the standing on the soapbox and shouting doom and gloom & conspiracy theories please. They're pointless and add nothing to the conversation. Plus some of the posts have been straight up faulty information and assumptions. You don't have to like this news, but please articulate it with more than "arrrggghhhh anime is over rage!!!". Thanks.

And just like that, it finally happened. What this holds for the future of anime outside of JP... only time will tell.

On another note, I read through the comments and only 1 user connected Sony with censorship (unless more were removed before I got here). That is a huge improvement from the previous article about Sony purchasing CR where users (respectfully) ignorantly blamed Sony (Pictures) for censoring anime without doing research beforehand when in fact it was the PlayStation division of Sony doing that (to games). Sony has different divisions and each operates differently. Well done users of ANN.

I wish people would just calm down about this. Were probably not going to see anything major happen for the next few months. I could be something as simple as Funimation giving Crunchyroll all their subbed content and Crunchyroll giving Funimation all their dubbed content and Funimation giving Crunchyroll's library a physical releases similar to their first partnership or it could be major like both sites merging. We just need to be calm and wait to see what happens.

I hope this purchase will allow Crunchyroll translators to be paid more. It doesn't exactly have to be a livable wage but at least a bit better.

DjangoDCCX wrote:

I'm also worried about the future of VRV. The novelty of that service was having anime simulcasts, web animation, and classic cartoons under one roof. With Crunchyroll gone, WarnerMedia revolving around HBO Max, and half of VRV's content being third-party partnerships, they aren't going to last.

According to the Sony press release, "VRV (U.S.) and Eye See Movies (Germany) are also Crunchyroll brands." I take this to mean that VRV comes along for the ride with CR, and while they'll almost certainly lose access to Warner properties, I suspect they'll be able to make up for that with by aggregating Funi and CR titles in one place (as they once did).

Lynx Raven Raide wrote:

This is the thing that has puzzled me the whole time with the deal, or should I say deals. AT&T are getting rid of profitable arms of the Warner group in order to pay down their own debts, maybe they should offload Warner as a unit.

I imagine there are many variables, but I figure a big one is that ATT wants the billion dollar returns Warner IP can bring it, just look how they spent SO much money on the Snyder Cut of Justice League.

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NEWS: Sony's Funimation Global Group to Acquire Crunchyroll for US$1.175 Billion in Cash