Today is a sad day for anime fans. For the past two years, Funimation and Crunchyroll have had a partnership where they would share the streaming rights for their various anime titles, but that partnership has come to an end. As of November 9th, the partnership between Funimation and Crunchyroll will end, as well as Funimation’s partnership with VRV. The reason is mostly due to AT&T’s buyout of WarnerMedia, who own both VRV and Crunchyroll, while Sony owns Funimation.
So what does this mean for the average anime viewer? Well, it’s a bit unclear at the moment. According to Crunchyroll, several Funimation titles will disappear from their service on November 9th, however those titles have yet to be decided on. Crunchyroll has also stated that titles that premiered during the partnership, like My Hero Academia and Attack on Titan, will continue to air on Crunchyroll, though they didn’t say for how long and if future seasons will still air on their service. On that same note, the Funimation channel on VRV will shut down on November 9th.
On a more positive note, HIDIVE, another anime streaming channel specializing in dubs, will appear to take Funimation’s place with their upcoming channel on VRV. HIDIVE is a relatively new streaming service, but they’re streaming some pretty solid anime like Made in Abyss, aka if Dark Souls was made for children and tortured said children. Honestly, it’s sad to see Funimation leave Crunchyroll and VRV, but they’re still going to be producing dubs for shows. It’s just inconvenient to see them leave since it was so nice having all of my anime in one location to stream. Still, getting HIDIVE on VRV softens the blow, plus now I have another excuse to watch Made in Abyss on an anime streaming service that won’t implode on itself after a year (coughanimestrikecough).
Funimation Exits VRV, Crunchyroll Deal; HIDIVE to Offer Anime Dubs – [Collider]
