Crunchyroll Is Killing Funimation for Good, And You'll Pay For It
Come April 2, Funimation is going the way of the dodo. Earlier in the week, Sony revealed it’ll be sunsetting Funimation’s app and website in order to unify both it and Crunchyroll...something the company first revealed all the way back in 2022.
When Funimation was folded into Crunchyroll back in 2021, subscribers could have both services, and Crunchyroll would often rotate Funimation works in and out of its catalog. Those days will soon be over, meaning Funimation owners will have to migrate their account over to Crunchyroll (or, if both accounts share an email, sync them together) so they can still access to the anime they are/were watching.
Either way, this comes at a cost for Funi subs: Crunchyroll doesn’t support digital copies that came in physical editions of Funimation media, meaning they’ve got no way of watching the digital version of a DVD or Blu-Ray they bought. Four years ago, Funimation said digital copies could be kept “forever,” but Crunchyroll currently doesn’t support that platform’s digital copies. There’s no indication as to when (or if) that’ll change, with Crunchyroll saying it’s “continuously working to enhance our content offerings and provide you with an exceptional anime streaming experience.”
All this sucks on its own, but users going from Funimation to Crunchyroll will be going by the latter’s subscription fees. Meaning, a user may have to pay $10/month in April (Funimation was $6/mo) or $100/year (vs. $60/yr), depending on their payment plan. In its blog, Crunchyroll says the new fees “will be reflected in your next billing cycle through Crunchyroll or via your third-party access platform to your current payment method on file.”
Further information on Funimation’s shuttering and what to do pre (or post)-Crunchyroll migration can be read here.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
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