A Beginner’s Guide to Funimation: What to Know About the Anime Streaming Service
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With live-action depictions of “Cowboy Beebop” and “Avatar: The Last Airbender” in the works, anime content might be more popular than ever. And if you consider yourself a fan of the genre, you might already be familiar with Funimation.
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The streaming service offers hundreds of titles and over 15,000 hours of anime content to deliver incredible fan experiences across TV, movies, mangas, events, collectibles, and the Funimation App. To give you a little more insight into the service, we put together a short breakdown of what Funimation offers and how much it costs.
In Early August, the Sony-owned company announced its acquisition of Crunchyroll, the top direct-to-consumer anime service offering AVOD, mobile games, mangas, event merchandise, and distribution. Crunchyroll boasts more than 120 million registered users across more than 200 countries, as well as five million SVOD subscribers and counting. The Funimation deal aims to expand distribution with content partners and consumers.
Courtesy Everett Collection
What Does Funimation Offer?
The service lets you enjoy ad-free anime streaming from a huge catalog of content. The cheapest tier is the Premium Plan, which starts at just $5.99 a month (or $59.99 a year) after a free two-week trial. With the Premium Plan you’ll get add-free access to the Funimation library, along with two simultaneous streams, simulcast straight from Japan, and new episodes dubbed within two weeks of Japan broadcast.
If you want to upgrade, go for the Premium Plus plan, which is $7.99 a month (or $79.99 a year) for everything in the lesser tier but with five simultaneous streams, the ability to download titles and watch them offline on iOS and Android devices, exclusive members-only events, early access to Funimation sales, free shipping on orders over $20, and members-only offers. There’s also a yearly Premium Plus Ultra Plan for $99.99 that includes everything in the Premium and Premium Plus plans, plus an annual anniversary gift. Each plan comes with a free 14-day trial.
Subscribers can stream “Attack on Titan,” “Dragon Ball Super,” “The Detective Is Already Dead,” “My Hero Academia,” “The Dungeon of Black Company,” “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba, “Wonder Egg Priority,” “Vivy,” “Gleipnir,” “The Millionaire Detective,” “Shadows House,” “Talentless Nana,” “Hyouka,” and “Bungo and “Alchemist: Gears of Judgement,” plus tons of others titles.
From $5.99 a month
Buy:
Funimation Subscription
Buy it
In addition to streaming, Funimation is your destination to pre-order anime releases on Blu-ray including, “Assault Lily Bouquet – The Complete Season,” “Robotech – Part 2,” “My Roommate is a Cat,” and “Dragon Ball Z – Resurrection F.”
Everett Collection
And if that wasn’t enough, Funimation also carries an array of anime action figures, apparel, Funko Pop! figurines, coffee mugs and cups, and a bunch of other cool collectibles that will make for a great gift idea (even if you’re shopping for yourself).
For those who like to stream in categories, you’ll also find food-themed anime shows, as well as comedy, drama, action/adventure, fantasy, romance, and live-action options. You can stream Funimation content on Apple TV, Roku, Xbox One, PS4, Chromecast, Amazon Fire, Samsung, LG, and other devices.
Want more anime? Check out these must-have manga box sets and the best anime shows that are streaming on Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Paramount+, and Hulu.
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