Crunchyroll sold; Sony becomes all-powerful Anime Behemoth

[pendell]

Or Will be , anyway

TOKYO -- Sony has entered into final negotiations to acquire U.S. anime-streaming service Crunchyroll, Nikkei learned on Friday, a deal that could catapult the Japanese icon into a global battle with the likes of Netflix.

Sony could end up spending more than 100 billion yen ($957 million) on the U.S. streamer, gaining its 70 million members around the world.

...

After acquiring Funimation, an anime distributor, in 2017, Sony gained 1 million paying subscribers, mainly in the U.S., but came up against obstacles expanding this customer base.

Crunchyroll has 70 million free members and 3 million paying subscribers in more than 200 countries and regions, including the U.S. and Europe.

Crunchyroll would also give Sony more than 1,000 titles that it can use to vary its offerings.

Sony's total operating income from games, music and movies is forecast to reach $4.79 billion for the fiscal year ending March, accounting for 60% of the group total.

So ... with funimation and crunchyroll both, not to mention their own studios, Sony will be in a commanding position, at least as far as Anime goes in the US. I wonder what that will mean for us? More titles from the new Sony? Or will they jack up the price tremendously ? Or both? And will Crunchyroll's current staff problems get better?


Respectfully,

Brian P.

[False God]

Rather unimpressed with Crunchy on the whole, so *shrug*.

[Rynjin]

Maybe they'll force Crunchyroll to host dubs now. As-is I need like 3 different services just to watch anime dubs, and Funimation's site is so mind-rendingly bad that I would rather pay for the service and still use "alternative sites" to watch the same content, or do without entirely.

[Xyril]

Honestly, I disliked Crunchroll's move into more of an anime focus, since it was pushing into a niche that had some solid streamers (both legal and extra-legal) already, while there weren't as many good platforms for other subbed import content. Of course, I don't know what was going on internally--anime's more popular in general, so maybe that shift was necessary for them to remain solvent.

I'm very curious what this merger means for their content composition moving forward.

[gomipile]

Maybe they'll force Crunchyroll to host dubs now. As-is I need like 3 different services just to watch anime dubs, and Funimation's site is so mind-rendingly bad that I would rather pay for the service and still use "alternative sites" to watch the same content, or do without entirely.

Crunchyroll has been paying for and releasing quite a few dubs in the past year or so. You might not have noticed because they lag several weeks to a few months behind the airdate, but they are releasing them.

[Ramza00]

I blame the Fate Stay Night Franchise! I guess that makes both of us copycats.
My logic is Sony made lots of money from the Fate Grand Order game and this is what helped the anime / video game sector of the company to turn a profit over the last few years.

[Precure]

Honestly, not a big fan of anime, or anything not made for anglosphere. It just feels so regressive to me.

[Ramza00]

Honestly, not a big fan of anime, or anything not made for anglosphere. It just feels so regressive to me.

Sometimes that is the point. Film Crit Hulk had a good review of Evangelion at Polygon during the "good times" of 2020 putting Evangelion in the larger context of Japan 1995, "during the lost decade." (Econ / Socio / Psychological term of that time of Japan from 1991 to 2001.)

[Rynjin]

...Regressive how?

[Xyril]

Honestly, not a big fan of anime, or anything not made for anglosphere. It just feels so regressive to me.

I don't know if you meant to use it that way, but to me the term "regressive" tends to have certain connotations. You usually see it used the way to term "counter-revolutionary" is used by dystopian/totalitarian societies depicted in darker-and-edgier fiction--i.e., a vague term that doesn't mean anything more concrete or specific than "you don't support the views/government I think everyone should be supporting."

If there's some particular traits that just don't resonate with you, it's usually more constructive to use more concrete, less loaded terms to discuss them. For example, if you mean the opposite of "progressive" in a social or political sense, the term "conservative" is more precise and more neutral. If you mean--as Ramza seems to think you mean--that "non-anglosphere" works seem to reflect the cultural or artistic trends of past decades, then using a term like "dated" might more clearly convey what you mean.

Understandably, some foreign works--especially from countries that are strongly influenced by U.S. pop culture--are a few years behind. There's lag time as they find something in U.S. culture that they like and then adapt it to their own culture. Then there's more lag--especially in niche markets--for their works to be localized back to the U.S. However, there are a lot of instances where the influence primarily seems to flow the other way.

[HolyDraconus]

I'm hopeful and a bit alarmed. Hopeful for there to arise a really good anime network from this, alarmed cause its another form of media that's becoming a monopoly.

[Rynjin]

I'm hopeful and a bit alarmed. Hopeful for there to arise a really good anime network from this, alarmed cause its another form of media that's becoming a monopoly.

It's not a media form that's becoming a monopoly; Sony doesn't own any of the actual production studios. It's distribution that it has a solid hold on, but it's kind of weird; competition in that space has, in many ways, HURT the anime industry more than it's helped, with dumb **** like Hulu and Netflix having different amounts of the same shows (eg. Netflix has the first 50 or so episodes of Bleach and all of Naruto, but none of Shippuden, while Hulu has every episode of the above three series, and vice versa for different series).

If anything this should force some kind of healthy evolution in the industry because every single one of the currently available streaming sites (Netflix, Crunchyroll, Funimation, Hulu, Amazon, and HiDive for the big ones) is incentivized to put in the bare minimum effort possible. Maybe Sony picking up a larger portion of the distribution market can help sort out these terrible licensing snarls that are holding things back.

[pendell]

Honestly, not a big fan of anime, or anything not made for anglosphere. It just feels so regressive to me.

*Shrug* We are very blessed to live in an era where we can watch the entertainment that tickles our fancy. If anime's not your cup of caffeinated hot water, I wish you joy of whatever it is you prefer in its stead.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[GentlemanVoodoo]

So ... with funimation and crunchyroll both, not to mention their own studios, Sony will be in a commanding position, at least as far as Anime goes in the US. I wonder what that will mean for us? More titles from the new Sony? Or will they jack up the price tremendously ? Or both? And will Crunchyroll's current staff problems get better?

On the business in I can see most of crunchyroll's staff getting the axe since Funimation essentially does the same job. Only real way to minimize layoffs is to separate job functions between the two companies in some manner.

In the grand scheme of things I am certain this will be a cluster for localization in the US market. I am personally not a fan of the idea as Sony being the anime juggernaut in the US given their issues with mass censoring of content. And I have never had any love for Funimation to begin with.

[Rodin]

On the business in I can see most of crunchyroll's staff getting the axe since Funimation essentially does the same job. Only real way to minimize layoffs is to separate job functions between the two companies in some manner.

In the grand scheme of things I am certain this will be a cluster for localization in the US market. I am personally not a fan of the idea as Sony being the anime juggernaut in the US given their issues with mass censoring of content. And I have never had any love for Funimation to begin with.

This is what concerns me most. Crunchyroll has never had great app design, but it is decently functional. Funimation drove me away entirely. Bad website design, bad functionality on their videos. I think I also recall difficulty in getting Funimation on the streaming devices I owned at the time.

If Funimation has actually sorted those problems I'll be much more open to the idea. Part of the reason I've never gone back is that I don't watch enough anime to justify two different subscriptions. Merging the two (even with a price hike) would likely be a benefit to me.

It just depends on whether Funimation has ceased being crap.

[Rynjin]

Spoiler: it hasn't, as evidenced by my first post in this thread. It has one of the most user unfriendly interfaces I've ever had the displeasure of using, at least on a smart TV.

[asda fasda]

I like Crunchyroll very much but most series I'm watching are being discontinues after 1 seasons, and only some in more DB or Naruto style are continuing, and that throws me off from buying subscription, Maybe with Sony they will keep some interesting staff on their platform

as for:

Sony doesn't own any of the actual production studios .

I would say it should been Sony doesn't own any of the actual production studios Yet
I bet that that getting into media business is their plan in line with Netfilx Aple and Amazon. And Anime is just the easies way for them to start.

[Psyren]

"Not liking anime" is foreign to me, as there is something for everyone imo. Sure the LGBT- and black/hispanic-focused content is a bit thin on the ground, but that's steadily improving.

On topic - Not sure what to think of the acquisition; maybe their apps will get better now. Certainly their library will dwarf that of competitors like Netflix.

[Precure]

If there's some particular traits that just don't resonate with you, it's usually more constructive to use more concrete, less loaded terms to discuss them. For example, if you mean the opposite of "progressive" in a social or political sense, the term "conservative" is more precise and more neutral. If you mean--as Ramza seems to think you mean--that "non-anglosphere" works seem to reflect the cultural or artistic trends of past decades, then using a term like "dated" might more clearly convey what you mean.

Both "dated" and "conservative" seems interchangeable with my use of "regressive."

[Rogar Demonblud]

On the business in I can see most of crunchyroll's staff getting the axe since Funimation essentially does the same job. Only real way to minimize layoffs is to separate job functions between the two companies in some manner.

In the grand scheme of things I am certain this will be a cluster for localization in the US market. I am personally not a fan of the idea as Sony being the anime juggernaut in the US given their issues with mass censoring of content. And I have never had any love for Funimation to begin with.

This is what concerns me most. Crunchyroll has never had great app design, but it is decently functional. Funimation drove me away entirely. Bad website design, bad functionality on their videos. I think I also recall difficulty in getting Funimation on the streaming devices I owned at the time.

If Funimation has actually sorted those problems I'll be much more open to the idea. Part of the reason I've never gone back is that I don't watch enough anime to justify two different subscriptions. Merging the two (even with a price hike) would likely be a benefit to me.

It just depends on whether Funimation has ceased being crap.

Maybe we'll get lucky and they'll replace the Funimation web team with the Crunchyroll folks. At least get some increase in functionality.

[Xyril]

Both "dated" and "conservative" seems interchangeable with my use of "regressive."

They could be, depending on what you mean, which is my point--we don't actually know what you mean because you're deliberately choosing ambiguous language. Do you not like anime because their technical and narrative choices reflect the media conventions of a much earlier decade? Do you hate foreign films because you see them as reinforcing social norms you find patriarchal and outdated?

If you're trying to start a conversation, it's generally important to be clear about what you mean. If you're just swinging by a thread because you like telling people that you dislike the thing they enjoy, then I suppose a lot of words would interchangeable and it doesn't really matter.

[Precure]

you're deliberately choosing ambiguous language. Do you not like anime because their technical and narrative choices reflect the media conventions of a much earlier decade? Do you hate foreign films because you see them as reinforcing social norms you find patriarchal and outdated?

Not sure what you mean by "technical choices" that could be called regressive, but I see no difference between narrative choices that "reflect the conventions of much earlier decades" and "reinforcing outdated social norms." They're basically linked.

[Ibrinar]

This tangent feels kinda pointless if Procure felt like saying anything substantial they would have probably done so already. (Though it makes me wonder if precure has a different use than the magical girl anime?).

About the main topic. Hmm mixed feelings but most of my concerns have been mentioned by others already. Well maybe it will be successful and lead to a more established anime market in the west. Which would probably strengthen influence of western fans. I know some worry about that and it has good and bad sides but I am cautiously optimistic that the change would be in a direction I would like. Well I watch few anime and read mostly manga nowadays so I guess it won't influence me all that much.

[pendell]

This tangent feels kinda pointless if Procure felt like saying anything substantial they would have probably done so already. (Though it makes me wonder if precure has a different use than the magical girl anime?).

Is there a reason to have that discussion ? Procure said they didn't like anime, which is their right. If we want to have that conversation, we can spin off a separate thread. I'd just as soon not discuss it at all, though. If the dislike is not personal but is instead due to contemporary real world trends, then we'll almost certainly go galloping out of forum bounds in a hurry.

I suspect Procure is trying to avoid making specific complaints because Procure knows that, if the comments are not themselves out of forum bounds, then it could rapidly spiral that way, and then the mods step in and start locking threads, handing out warnings and infractions, and general ill feelings all 'round. I'm perfectly willing to respect Procure's feelings and simply let it be.

Respectfully,

Brian P.

[Ibrinar]

My "this tangent feels kinda pointless" was meant to imply "so I suggest dropping it".

[Xyril]

Not sure what you mean by "technical choices" that could be called regressive, but I see no difference between narrative choices that "reflect the conventions of much earlier decades" and "reinforcing outdated social norms." They're basically linked.

I mean filmmaking conventions. The choice of frame-rate, for example, to many audiences signal the difference between a certain "film-like" and "television-like" quality, simply because that was one noticeable difference between the two for decades, and now that the lines between the two are blurred, this choice is sometimes deliberately invoked by producers in order to deliberately evoke these reactions.

In contrast, reflected social norms might be something like how (to use hopefully apolitical examples) even married couples were always shown to sleep in separate beds in early mainstream, or how a married woman was generally a homemaker. (IIRC, Agent 99 in Get Smart was the first mainstream woman not to quit her job upon getting married, so adherence to that rule was arguably a social convention conspicuously followed in film.)

There are also narrative choices that exist much more independently from any sort of social agenda. One thing I love about B-movies (especially the early ones, from the era of the drive-in) is the campiness--there's a certain lack of subtlety in the narrative and ambiguity in whether the actors and directors see the silliness that makes them so much fun. These scripting choices don't--at least not in a direct and obvious way--reflect or attempt to impose any particular social conventions, but they do clearly show a point of commonality among many films of what was a mainstream genre of the time. In contrast, when someone makes a B-movie today that largely copies the conventions of these films without updating them, they're considered throwbacks or niche, and it's impossible for fans of the genre not to see the connection to much older films.

[Rodin]

I looked at what was on Funimation for this month and there's actually a bunch of different shows I'm interested in. Plus there's likely a bunch of shows I missed from previous seasons I can catch up on.

So, what the hell. It's 5 quid for a month plus 14 days free. I can test out the service, binge watch everything while I wait for my new job to start, then ditch the service if it's really crappy. If I want to keep it, well, it's not like I watch Netflix much these days anyway. I can swap it out.

Except Funimation are too dumb to let me do that. They don't have a UK website. The price is offered to me in pounds, so it obviously knows where I am. But the form to fill in my credit card info? It requires a Zip Code. Which I don't have, because UK.

I'm staggered. I'm absolutely blown away by how incompetent they have to be to reject a customer who wants to give them money.

If this is what things will be like after the merger...yikes.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Does it accept your British postal code in the ZIP code space? I think it does for Canadians.

[Rodin]

Does it accept your British postal code in the ZIP code space? I think it does for Canadians.

No, it throws a non-specific "fix your card information" error. When I checked for others with the problem, the ones I found called support and got added manually.

Fortunately, I found a workaround. I downloaded the app on my Firestick and went in that way. This time it asked me to pay in dollars (on my British-bought Firestick from my British IP address) using my Amazon account. I did that and it accepted it, but I suspect it used my American Amazon account and the US credit card I keep for situations just such as this.

I can only think that they have tied my e-mail address to a US designation since I signed up with it previously. Since it's an "American" account I'm not allowed to pay with a UK card, even though what I'm getting is almost certainly the UK library.

Naturally, none of this was a problem with Crunchyroll.

I'm a bit annoyed because they haven't kept their price consistent with the fluctuating currencies. It's the standard 1.5 dollars to the pound, but that conversion hasn't been true for a long while now. I'm paying about a buck and half more per month by paying dollars. If I keep it I'll need to call support to properly get switched across for the lower price.

----

On the actual service once in? It's not as bad as I was expecting, but it's not great either. The interface is pretty darn clunky, although in all honestly I can't describe it as worse than Crunchyroll's latest Fire edition. Main thing I'm disappointed in is the library - once you get past the last couple seasons there's very little I haven't seen elsewhere. It's like there's a big gap between this year's anime and the really old stuff I watched back when I was subscribing the first time.

I'll likely stick it out through this cour (Talentless Nana is worth the price alone) and then ditch it. Then repeat the pattern a year or so down the road.