Those who keep up with the anime industry knew that Crunchryoll bought out Funimation a while ago and it was only a matter of time before they merged completely. That time is finally upon us as we’ve been enlightened to the official completion date of April 2. By then the deal will finish and Funimation will shut down. Again, this is nothing new. What IS new is that we’ve also received a bunch of information about how the merger will go down, and man oh man is it a slap in the face to both the people who used Funimation and the subscribers of Crunchyroll.

First we need to address the Funimation side of things. It has been announced that while users can migrate their watch history and anime queue, their digital libraries will not be migrated. Oh yes. That guy who paid money to “own” an entire season of anime? I’m afraid the term “own” has lost its meaning a bit my friend. Judging from the statements so far, any purchased digital media stored in Funimation’s digital libraries will NOT transfer to Crunchy and those costs will not be refunded. Essentially those users paid to rent that content for a limited time without realizing it. In a world where corporations are fighting to let consumers own less and less that news alone would be bad enough, but Crunchyroll wanted to tag in and slap customers around too. They announced a price hike on current subscription prices from $54.95 per year to $99.99 per year beginning in 2025, justifying the increase by pointing out that all of Funimation’s content will be coming to Crunchy. Yippee. Reading this update reminded me why I still watch anime using, uh, alternative methods. 

"The Ultimate Anime Experience" is wild.

I’d love to be able to pay $10-$20 a month for a reliable, quality anime subscription service that hosts all the noteworthy anime airing each season. Yet the longer I wait it seems the further we get from that reality as more and more services appear and split up anime, and sometimes even the damn SEASONS of the same anime (Pokémon being a prime example). Have you ever used Funimation? Where do you watch anime? Is the industry moving toward a better or worse viewing experience for fans? Pay for content, add it to your library, and lose access to it anyway in the comments below!