Sony has announced it is rolling the libraries of Funimation, Wakanim and VRV into the popular anime streaming service Crunchyroll starting today.
Users of the other streaming services are being prompted to now use the Crunchyroll website, which has already received a large amount of the content that was previously exclusive on the other platforms.
In the blog post announcing the move, it was confirmed that subscribers to Sony's Funimation and Wakanim, or Crunchyroll's VRV, will receive an email for 60 days free Crunchyroll Premium, which allows ad-free viewing at higher resolutions. No price increase for Crunchyroll has been announced, meaning existing subscribers are effectively getting three extra libraries worth of anime thrown into their subscription for free.
However, not everything from Funimation and Wakanim will be available right away. Though there is a huge list of shows already brought over from Funimation, including the incredible Akudama Drive, Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War, and the dubs of all five seasons of My Hero Academia, Crunchyroll states that it is expecting to only have "80%" of Funimation and Wakanim's libraries on the platform by the end of March 2022.
As for those who choose to remain on Funimation or Wakanim, Crunchyroll has said that, while they will both be available for a time, they'll only be receiving new episodes of existing shows, with no new shows being added. That means you can still get the new episode of Ranking of Kings or Attack on Titan, but as the series come to an end over the season, there will be fewer and fewer updates.
Right now, the only thing that has been moved from the other services to Crunchyroll are the shows themselves. Watch histories, queues, and login details are not currently moved over, and Crunchyroll hasn't said if or when it plans to do so. It does say that, if you have a Crunchyroll subscription, you can now safely deactivate your Funimation or Wakanim accounts.
Sony acquired Crunchyroll, and its more dub-focused service VRV, in August last year for $1 billion. Having previously owned Funimation, the acquisition effectively gave Sony control over almost all of the most popular anime streaming services. Since then it's been working to promote Crunchyroll more, including a Switch app for it launching only last month. It's also been focusing on original content, such as High Guardian Spice and the anime adaptation of Shenmue.
Source: Read Full Article