The merger of Funimation into the Crunchyroll ecosystem will be completed on April 2, but it won’t be a smooth process.
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Funimation has announced that as of April 2 it will be shutting down and all of its accounts will be ported over to Crunchyroll. While this has been known to be on the way for some time, what wasn’t known was some of the implications that would come with it.
First, all of the digital copies you had via Funimation will no longer be accessible. As the company explained on its website:
We understand that you may have concerns about your digital copies from Funimation. These Digital copies available on Funimation were a digital access to the content available on the DVDs or Blu-rays purchased.
Please note that Crunchyroll does not currently support Funimation Digital copies, which means that access to previously available digital copies will not be supported. However, we are continuously working to enhance our content offerings and provide you with an exceptional anime streaming experience. We appreciate your understanding and encourage you to explore the extensive anime library available on Crunchyroll.
Funimation is playing a bit of semantics here as it says you were only ever promised “access,” and not ownership. It also had previously stated you would have access forever.
In addition to that information, the price of Crunchyroll will also be rising. Beginning Jan. 28, 2025, the cost of Crunchyroll will go from $54.95 to $99.99 for annual memberships. The monthly price will also increase from $5.99 to $9.99.
The world of anime is currently exploding in the U.S., but it appears it will be a lot more expensive to keep up with your fandom moving forward.
