Funimation is at it again! After Sony, Funimation’s parent company, decided that Funimation and Crunchyroll shouldn’t be cozy together, it was only a matter of time before we found out what was going to happen to Funimation’s catalog of titles and where their upcoming releases would appear on. From the looks of it, Hulu will be the new host of Funimation’s new releases from 2019 onwards.
Hulu will now have exclusive rights to premiere all of Funimation’s upcoming shows and will be releasing subtitled episodes of those titles day of release. Hulu currently has a pretty decent block of anime on its service, most notably My Hero Academia, One Punch Man, and Naruto, but it pales in comparison to most other streaming services. Even Amazon is doing a better job at providing Prime users with current and classic anime. So the Funimation/Hulu deal is a pretty big step forward for the company in terms of anime clout, with them gaining over 600 anime titles total.
Getting Funimation, who is arguably the most well-known anime publisher in the West, onboard Hulu is going to have a huge impact across the major anime streaming sites like Crunchyroll, HIDIVE, and even Netflix. This solidifies Hulu as a force to be reckoned within the anime industry, especially with Funimation confirming that this deal will last for several years. What is unclear is if Crunchyroll, the betrayed lover, will still retain any rights to shows that premiered during their partnership with Funimation. Time will tell I suppose, but I think I’m going to renew my Hulu subscription for the first time in three years because of this.
