Crunchyroll is an American subscription video on-demand

over-the-top streaming service An over-the-top (OTT) media service is a media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms: the types of companies that traditionally act as controllers or distributors ...

owned by

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

through a joint venture between

Sony Pictures Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Sony Pictures or SPE, and formerly known as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.) is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio Conglomerate (company), conglom ...

and

Sony Music Entertainment Japan , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony Group Corporation and is opera ...

Aniplex is a Japanese anime, music production and anime licensee company owned by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. Established in September 1995, Aniplex has been involved in the production and distribution of several anime series, such as both ''Fullm ...

. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced by East Asian media, including

Japanese anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

. Founded in 2006 by a group of

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, graduates, Crunchyroll's distribution channel and partnership program delivers content to over 100million registered users worldwide. Crunchyroll was a subsidiary of

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

Otter Media Otter Media Holdings, LLC was an American digital media company owned by WarnerMedia. The company was founded in 2014 by AT&T and The Chernin Group as a holding company of the anime streaming service, Crunchyroll who the latter invested in 2013 ...

, and from 2016 to 2018, the company partnered with

Funimation Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

, which would eventually merge into its brand in 2022 after

acquired Crunchyroll in 2021. Crunchyroll has offices in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

Culver City Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most ...

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Roubaix Roubaix ( or ; nl, Robaais; vls, Roboais) is a city in northern France, located in the Lille metropolitan area on the Belgian border. It is a historically mono-industrial commune in the Nord department, which grew rapidly in the 19th century ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Chișinău Chișinău ( , , ), also known as Kishinev (russian: Кишинёв, r=Kishinjóv ), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Republic of Moldova. The city is Moldova's main industrial and commercial center, and is located in the ...

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

, and

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, and is a member of

The Association of Japanese Animations The Association of Japanese Animations (AJA; , ) is an industry group consisting of 52 affiliate animation production companies. AJA's duties AJA's scope of duties are to work on various issues concerning the Japanese animation industry, w ...

(AJA). "Crunchyroll-Hime", also known as "Hime", is the official

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fi ...

of Crunchyroll. Crunchyroll offers over 1,000 anime shows, more than 200 East Asian dramas to users, and around 80 manga titles as

Crunchyroll Manga ''Crunchyroll Manga'' is a digital manga anthology published by Crunchyroll in North America. It began distribution on October 30, 2013. The service launched with a lineup of twelve titles, with chapters released simultaneously with their Japan ...

, although not all programming is available worldwide due to licensing restrictions. Crunchyroll passed one million paid subscribers in February 2017, and has over 10million paid subscribers . Crunchyroll also releases titles on home video either directly or by having select anime titles released through its distribution partners (

Sentai Filmworks Sentai Filmworks, LLC or just Sentai, is an American entertainment company owned by AMC Networks. Located in Houston, the company specializes in the dubbing and distribution of Japanese animation and Asian cinema. Its post-production arm is S ...

Viz Media VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...

Discotek Media Discotek Media is an American entertainment company based in Altamonte Springs, Florida, focused on distribution and licensing Japanese anime, films, and television series. Formed in 2005, Discotek primarily focuses on licensing retro titles fr ...

, and its corporate sibling,

Aniplex of America Aniplex of America Inc. or Aniplex USA is the U.S. distribution enterprise of Aniplex, an anime and music production company owned by Sony Music Entertainment Japan. It was established in March 2005 in Santa Monica, California, with the goal o ...

in North America;

Anime Limited Anime Limited, also known as All the Anime is a British anime distribution company based in Glasgow, Scotland. It releases anime for British, Irish, French and other European audiences. The company was established in 2012 by Andrew Partridge, b ...

in the United Kingdom).

History

Origins and informal distribution

Crunchyroll started in 2006 as a for-profit video upload and streaming site that specialized in hosting East Asian content. Some of the content hosted on Crunchyroll included versions of East Asian shows that had been subtitled by fans. In 2008, Crunchyroll secured a capital investment of $4.05 million from the

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which ha ...

firm

Venrock Venrock (portmanteau of Venture and Rockefeller) is a venture capital firm formed in 1969 to build upon the successful investing activities of the Rockefeller family that began in the late 1930s. It has offices in Palo Alto, California, New York ...

. The investment drew criticism from anime distributors and licensors

Bandai Entertainment was a Japanese anime, film production, and distribution enterprise, established by Bandai and a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings. They focused mainly in international distribution of anime properties in North America. Most of the anime and f ...

and

, as the site continued to allow users to upload unlicensed copies of copyrighted titles.

Move to legal distribution

Crunchyroll eventually began securing legal distribution agreements with companies, including

Gonzo Gonzo may refer to: People * Gonzo (nickname), a list of people with the nickname * Radislav Jovanov Gonzo (born 1964), Croatian music video director Radislav Jovanov, also known as Gonzo * Matthias Röhr (born 1962), German musician whose sta ...

, for a growing list of titles. On January 8, 2009, after announcing a deal with

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as and known colloquially as , is a television station headquartered in the Sumitomo Fudosan Roppongi Grand Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, owned and operated by the subsidiary of listed certified b ...

to host episodes of ''

Naruto Shippuden ''Naruto'' is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto. It tells the story of Naruto Uzumaki, a young ninja who seeks recognition from his peers and dreams of becoming the Hokage, the leader of his village. T ...

'', Crunchyroll stated that it was committed to removing all copyright-infringing material from its site and to hosting only content to which it had legitimate distribution rights. In 2010, Crunchyroll announced its acquisition of the

North American North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Ca ...

DVD rights to '' 5 Centimeters Per Second''. This was the first DVD release licensed by Crunchyroll. On October 30, 2013, Crunchyroll began digitally distributing 12 different manga titles from

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...

– series such as ''

Attack on Titan is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama. It is set in a world where humanity is forced to live in cities surrounded by three enormous walls that protect them from gigantic man-eating humanoids referred to as ...

'' and ''

Fairy Tail ''Fairy Tail'' is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiro Mashima. It was serialized in Kodansha's ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' from August 2006 to July 2017, with the individual chapters collected and published into 63 '' ...

'' were part of the manga that were available initially – through

Chernin Group ownership

On December 2, 2013, The Chernin Group, former News Corp. president

Peter Chernin Peter Chernin (born May 29, 1951) is an American businessman and investor. He is the chairman and CEO of TCG (company), The Chernin Group (TCG), which he founded in 2010. TCG manages, operates and invests in businesses in the media, entertainment, ...

's holding company, announced that it acquired a

controlling interest A controlling interest is an ownership interest in a corporation with enough voting stock shares to prevail in any stockholders' motion. A majority of voting shares (over 50%) is always a controlling interest. When a party holds less than the majo ...

in Crunchyroll for a reported $100 million. The Chernin Group said that Crunchyroll management and existing investor TV Tokyo would maintain a "significant" stake in the company. On April 22, 2014, AT&T and The Chernin Group announced the formation of a joint venture to acquire, invest in and launch

over-the-top An over-the-top (OTT) media service is a media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms: the types of companies that traditionally act as controllers or distributors ...

(OTT) video services. Both companies committed over $500 million in funding to the venture. The new company was named Otter Media and became the majority owner of Crunchyroll. On August 3, 2015, ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' reported that Otter Media would unveil Ellation, a new umbrella company for its subscription-based video services including Crunchyroll. Ellation's services included VRV, which debuted in 2016, a video streaming platform described as targeting "geeks, gamers and lovers of comedy, fantasy and technology." On October 22, 2015,

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and oth ...

reported that Crunchyroll had achieved 700,000 paying subscribers. In addition, the company announced that Crunchyroll and

Sumitomo Corporation is one of the largest worldwide ''sogo shosha'' general trading companies, and is a diversified corporation. The company was incorporated in 1919 and is a member company of the Sumitomo Group. It is listed on three Japanese stock exchanges ( ...

had created a joint venture to produce and invest in anime productions. On April 11, 2016, Crunchyroll and

Kadokawa Corporation , formerly is a Japanese media conglomerate that was created as a result of the merger of the original Kadokawa Corporation and Dwango Co., Ltd. on October 1, 2014. History The holding company known today as Kadokawa Corporation was origi ...

announced the formation of a strategic alliance that gave Crunchyroll exclusive worldwide digital distribution rights (excluding Asia) for Kadokawa anime titles in the upcoming year. It also granted Crunchyroll the right to co-finance Kadokawa anime titles to be produced in the future.

Funimation partnership, and home video expansion

On July 1, 2016, Crunchyroll announced plans to dub and release a number of series on home video. On September 8, 2016, Crunchyroll announced a partnership with

. Crunchyroll would stream select Funimation titles, while Funimation would stream select Crunchyroll titles, as well as their upcoming dubbed content. In addition, Funimation would act as the distributor for Crunchyroll's home video catalog. On February 9, 2017, Crunchyroll announced that it had reached one million paid subscribers. On March 22, 2017, Kun Gao took over as representative director of its Japanese branch, succeeding Vincent Shortino. On March 30, 2017, Crunchyroll began to distribute anime through

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

. On November 4, 2017, a group of hackers managed to

hijack Hijack may refer to: Films * ''Hijack'' (1973 film), an American made-for-television film * ''Hijack!'', a 1975 British film sponsored by the Children's Film Foundation - see Children's Film Foundation filmography * ''Hijack'' (2008 film), a Bol ...

the official site for almost six hours. Users were redirected to a fake lookalike site which prompted users to download ransomware under the guise of "CrunchyViewer". Crunchyroll filed a

first information report __NOTOC__ A first information report (FIR) is a document prepared by police organisations in Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asian countries including Myanmar, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan when they receive information about the commissio ...

against the hackers.

AT&T/WarnerMedia ownership and internal productions

In January 2018,

bought the remaining shares (20%) of Crunchyroll from TV Tokyo and other investors. In August 2018, AT&T acquired the remainder of Otter Media that it did not already own from Chernin Group; the company and Crunchyroll were thus folded under

WarnerMedia Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...

(formerly Time Warner, of which AT&T had also recently completed an acquisition). In August 2018, the service announced an expansion into original content with the anime-inspired series ''

High Guardian Spice ''High Guardian Spice'' is an American animated Streaming television, streaming television series created by Raye Rodriguez, who formerly worked for ''Danger & Eggs'' as a character designer. The series is produced by Crunchyroll Studios (formerly ...

'' produced by Ellation Studios. On October 18, 2018, Funimation announced that their partnership with Crunchyroll ended as a result of

Sony Pictures Television Sony Pictures Television Inc. (abbreviated as SPT) is an American television production and distribution studio. Based at the Sony Pictures Studios complex in Culver City, it is a division of Sony Entertainment's unit Sony Pictures Entertainm ...

's acquisition of Funimation and AT&T's acquisition of Crunchyroll's parent company Otter Media. On March 4, 2019, it was announced that Otter Media would be placed under

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

as part of a reorganization. As a result of said reorganization, the company and Crunchyroll became corporate sisters to the American cable channel

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

and its nighttime programming block

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representati ...

and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...

, which have been known for their television broadcasting of most of its anime under their ''

Toonami Toonami ( ) is an American late night television programming block that primarily broadcasts Japanese animation and occasionally American action animation. It was created by Sean Akins and Jason DeMarco and produced by Williams Street, a divis ...

'' brand. Due to a subsequent reorganization, Crunchyroll was moved under WarnerMedia Entertainment (owner of networks such as TBS and

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

) in May 2019, so that its COO could oversee an upcoming entertainment streaming service from the brand. On July 3, 2019, Crunchyroll announced that they had partnered with

to distribute select Crunchyroll licensed titles on home video and electronic sell-through in the United States and Canada. On July 20, 2019, independent Australian production company Glitch Productions announced that they had partnered with Crunchyroll to produce their

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

original series, ''

Meta Runner ''Meta Runner'' (known as ''Meta Runner: The Final Season'' for its third season) is an Australian adult computer-animated cyberpunk web series created by Kevin and Luke Lerdwichagul. It is produced by Glitch Productions, with production fun ...

''. On September 6, 2019, Crunchyroll announced that they became the majority investor in

Viz Media Europe Crunchyroll EMEA, formerly known as Viz Media Europe, is a European anime distributor. Established as Viz Media Europe, it was Viz Media's European sister company until 2019. It holds partnerships with TV channels, DVD distributors, and manga pub ...

. Crunchyroll solidified this deal on December 4, 2019, becoming the majority owners of Viz Media Europe Group, and appointed former Viz Media Europe president John Easum as Head of Crunchyroll EMEA. On October 15, 2019, it was announced that

Naver Corporation The Naver Corporation is a South Korean internet conglomerate headquartered in Seongnam that operates the search engine Naver. Naver established itself as an early pioneer in the use of user-generated content through the creation of the onlin ...

webtoon Webtoons (), are a type of digital comic that originated in South Korea usually meant to be read on smartphones. While webtoons were mostly unknown outside of Korea during their inception, there has been a surge in popularity internationally ...

publishing portal,

WEBTOON Webtoons (), are a type of digital comic that originated in South Korea usually meant to be read on smartphones. While webtoons were mostly unknown outside of Korea during their inception, there has been a surge in popularity internationally ...

, was partnering with Crunchyroll to produce animated adaptations of its series. On February 25, 2020, Crunchyroll announced a slate of several programs under their new "Crunchyroll Originals" brand, including anime adaptations of the webtoons ''

Tower of God ''Tower of God'' () is a South Korean manhwa released as a webtoon written and illustrated by S.I.U. It has been serialized in Naver Corporation's webtoon platform Naver Webtoon since June 2010, with the individual chapters collected and publish ...

'', ''

The God of High School ''The God of High School'' () is a South Korean manhwa released as a webtoon written and illustrated by Yongje Park. It has been serialized in Naver Corporation's webtoon platform Naver Webtoon since April 2011, with the individual chapters colle ...

'', and ''

Noblesse The concept of the Scottish Noblesse, a class of nobles of either peerage or non-peerage rank, was prominently advocated for by Sir Thomas Innes of Learney during his tenure as an officer of arms. Innes of Learney believed that Scottish armige ...

''. On April 2, 2020, Crunchyroll announced it had rebranded Viz Media Europe as Crunchyroll EMEA, with former Viz Media Europe brands

Kazé Kazé is a French publishing company that specializes in anime and manga. Its head office is in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. Founded in 1994, the company debuted by publishing '' Record of Lodoss War'' on VHS. It is currently run by Sony thr ...

Anime on Demand Anime on Demand was a German video on demand service that specialised in the streaming of anime within German-speaking markets. Before the service's closure on 8 December 2021, Anime on Demand was owned by the Crunchyroll EMEA division of Crun ...

, Anime Digital Network and Eye See Movies becoming Crunchyroll brands, and AV Visionen and Ellation becoming Crunchyroll companies. As a result of the rebranding, the Ellation name transitioned from Otter Media's Consumer Division to Crunchyroll's Moldovan offices, and VRV became a brand of Crunchyroll. Ellation was later renamed to Crunchyroll Moldova on April 17, 2020. On September 5, 2020, Crunchyroll announced that they had entered in a partnership with

to distribute Crunchyroll licensed titles onto home video and electronic sell-through, with ''

Granbelm is a 2019 Japanese anime television series created and produced by Nexus. The series was directed by Masaharu Watanabe and written by Jukki Hanada, with original character designs by Shinichirou Otsuka, and music composed by Kenichiro Suehiro. ...

'', '' Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma: The Fourth Plate'', ''

Ascendance of a Bookworm is a Japanese fantasy light novel series written by Miya Kazuki and illustrated by You Shiina. It was serialized online from September 2013 to March 2017 on the user-generated novel publishing website Shōsetsuka ni Narō. It was later ...

'', and ''

World Trigger , also known in short form as , is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Daisuke Ashihara. It was initially serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from February 2013 to November 2018, and transferred to ''Jump Square'' in December 2 ...

'' being the first titles distributed through the partnership.

Acquisition by Sony

On August 12, 2020, '' The Information'' reported that

Sony Pictures Entertainment Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Sony Pictures or SPE, and formerly known as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.) is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio conglomerate that produces, ac ...

, Funimation's parent company, was in talks to acquire Crunchyroll from WarnerMedia (later spun out by AT&T and merged with

Discovery, Inc. Discovery, Inc. was an American multinational mass media factual television conglomerate (company), conglomerate based in New York City. Established in 1985, the company operated a group of factual television, factual and lifestyle television bra ...

to form

Warner Bros. Discovery Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. (WBD) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at 230 Park Avenue South in New York City. It was formed after the spin-off of WarnerMedia by AT&T, and its merger with D ...

) for . According to ''

'', the amount was decreased to . Later in October 2020, it was reported that Sony was in its final talks with AT&T to acquire the streaming service for more than . On December 9, 2020, Funimation and its owner

announced that they had reached a deal with AT&T and WarnerMedia to acquire Crunchyroll for around . The acquisition was considered to be a major consolidation of global anime distribution rights outside of East Asia. However, on March 24, 2021, it was reported that the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

had extended its antitrust review of the acquisition. On August 9, 2021, Sony announced that it had completed its acquisition of Crunchyroll. Following the acquisition, Sony stated that they wanted to create a unified anime subscription experience using their existing anime businesses as soon as possible. Crunchyroll confirmed four days later that VRV was included in the acquisition. On September 23, 2021, Crunchyroll announced that they had entered in a partnership deal with

Fuji TV JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Owned and operated by the it is the key station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network Sys ...

for anime content development and production. The partners plan to start work on the new slate in April 2022 with anime-focused developer and producer Slow Curve. On March 1, 2022, it was announced that the Funimation,

Wakanim Wakanim SAS was a French subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by U.S.-based Funimation, a joint venture of Sony Corporation of America's two subsidiaries: Sony Pictures Television and Sony Music Entertainment Japa ...

and VRV SVOD services would be consolidated into Crunchyroll. Additionally, Funimation Global Group, LLC will be renamed and merged into Crunchyroll, LLC, with the Funimation brand currently in the process of being phased out in favor of Crunchyroll. On the same day, Crunchyroll will start adding new anime titles, including Hindi or Indian English subs and dubs for India. In the wake of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, Crunchyroll and Wakanim announced that they would suspend their services in Russia as of March 11. Its parent company Sony donated $2 million in humanitarian aid to Ukraine. On March 16, 2022, it was announced that Funimation's home video releases would be distributed under the Crunchyroll banner, with the latter's logo replacing that of the former on the spine and back of the covers for each new release that comes out starting with its June 2022 slate. On March 24, 2022, Crunchyroll announced that starting with the Spring 2022 season, a subscription would be required to watch new and continued simulcast, with older titles featured on the site prior to this season remaining free to watch. It was also announced that the first three episodes of select titles would be free a week after their premiere until May 31. On April 5, 2022, the company announced that Funimation's

channel was rebranded as Crunchyroll Dubs and that it would serve as Crunchyroll's channel for English-dubbed content while English-subtitled content would still be uploaded on their Crunchyroll Collection channel. The company also stated that they would release an English-dubbed first episode of an anime series every Saturday at 3:00pm ET on the Crunchyroll Dubs YouTube channel, starting with '' Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World'' on April 9, 2022. Three days later, another announcement was made in that the Funimation Shop would be moved to the Crunchyroll Store. On April 19, 2022, CEO Colin Decker stepped down from his position. He was replaced by COO Rahul Purini. On August 4, 2022, Crunchyroll acquired

Right Stuf Right Stuf Inc. (formerly known as The Right Stuf International Inc.) is an American video publisher and distributor of video programming that specializes in Asian entertainment (anime and live action films). The company since 2022 is owned by ...

. On September 20, 2022,

Kyle McCarley Kyle McCarley (born December 5Birthday tweets: * ) is an American voice actor known for his work in video games and anime. In anime, he is known as the voice of Shigeo Kageyama from ''Mob Psycho 100'', Mikazuki Augus from '' Mobile Suit Gundam: ...

's contract to voice Shigeo Kageyama, the protagonist of ''

Mob Psycho 100 is a Japanese web manga series written and illustrated by One. It was serialized on Shogakukan's ''Ura Sunday'' website from April 2012 to December 2017. It has been also available online on Shogakukan's mobile app ''MangaONE'' since Dec ...

'', was not renewed by Crunchyroll. McCarley, who is a member of

SAG-AFTRA The Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA, stylized as SAG·AFTRA ) is an American labor union representing approximately 160,000 film and television actors, journalists, radio personalities, record ...

, had offered to work on a non-union contract for the third season, on the condition that Crunchyroll meet with SAG-AFTRA representatives to discuss potential future contracts. Crunchyroll refused the offer, sparking criticism from anime fans and media outlets.

Operation

Crunchyroll is partly supported by advertising (

freemium Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium," is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or service is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical (o ...

), where a user can have access to limited content with in return advertisements shown during the video. The service also offers subscriptions allowing the distribution without advertising of its catalog and early access to episodes of new series simulcast with Japan (free users having to wait a week). Originally, Crunchyroll presented two "Premium" and "Premium+" subscriptions, the differences of which lay with additional advantages in customer service. In August 2020, the service reorganized its subscriptions into three offers: "Fan", "Mega Fan", and "Ultimate Fan"; the Fan level corresponds to the previous Premium, the Mega Fan adds offline mode and simultaneous viewing to 4 devices, while the Ultimate Fan level (available only in English-speaking countries) extends viewing to 6 devices and includes other advantages in customer service. Being a platform where the contents are broadcast mainly in video, the site was characterized for continued use of the obsolete Adobe Flash player in recent years. In September 2018 the platform was updated to an HTML5 viewer. On March 25, 2022, Crunchyroll issued a statement mentioning that starting with the anime in April 2022, the platform will stop making simulcasts of the seasons available to free users one week after their release. Users will require a premium account to be able to follow the premieres. This measure will also apply to ongoing anime that will continue their respective broadcasts in the coming seasons.

The Anime Awards

The Crunchyroll Anime Awards are annual awards given to recognize anime from the previous year. The awards were first held in January 2017 and returned for 2018. Crunchyroll selects twenty judges from diverse backgrounds who then create a list of six nominees within each category. This list is then made available to the public for online voting to choose the winners.

Crunchyroll Expo

In February 2017, Crunchyroll created the Crunchyroll Expo (CRX)

anime convention An anime convention is an event or gathering with a primary focus on anime, manga and Japanese culture. Commonly, anime conventions are multi-day events hosted at convention centers, hotels or college campuses. They feature a wide variety of activ ...

with organizational support from Left Field Media. The inaugural Expo was held at the

Santa Clara Convention Center The Santa Clara Convention Center is located in northern Santa Clara, California. It serves as one of the large meeting and convention facilities in Silicon Valley, with of meeting space. It was built in 1986 and expanded in 2009. The conventio ...

on August 25–27, with team manager Dallas Middaugh noting much of the ticket sales came within ten days of the convention. Special guests for the Expo included ''

The Fairly OddParents ''The Fairly OddParents'' is an American animated television series created by Butch Hartman for Nickelodeon. The series follows the adventures of Timmy Turner, a 10-year-old boy with two fairy godparents named Cosmo and Wanda who grant him w ...

'' creator

Butch Hartman Elmer Earl "Butch" Hartman IV (born January 10, 1965) is an American animator, director, producer, writer, and voice actor. He is most known for creating the Nickelodeon series ''The Fairly OddParents'', ''Danny Phantom'', '' T.U.F.F. Puppy'', ...

, voice actors

Shun Horie is a Japanese voice actor and singer. He is a known member of Pro-Fit and SparQlew. He won the Best New Actor Award at the 12th Seiyu Awards. Filmography Anime television series ;2016 *'' Age 12: A Little Heart-Pounding'', Kazuma Hiyama *''A ...

and

Hiromi Igarashi is a Japanese voice actress from Sapporo, Hokkaido. She is affiliated with Mausu Promotion. Her major roles are Anzu Futaba in the Japanese idol franchise '' The Idolmaster Cinderella Girls''; Hina Takanashi, the youngest daughter in '' Listen ...

, illustrator

Yoshitaka Amano is a Japanese visual artist, character designer, illustrator, a scenic designer for theatre and film, and a costume designer. He first came into prominence in the late 1960s working on the anime adaptation of ''Speed Racer''. Amano later became ...

, figure skater

Johnny Weir John Garvin Weir (; born July 2, 1984) is an American figure skater and television commentator. He is a two-time Olympian (representing the United States in the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics, respectively), the 2008 World bronze medalist, a t ...

, manga artist

Kore Yamazaki is a Japanese manga artist born in Hokkaido, Japan. She is best known for her manga series ''The Ancient Magus' Bride'', which was adapted into an anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside o ...

, and author

Keiichi Sigsawa is a Japanese light novel author. In 2000, his work '' Kino's Journey'' was a finalist for the 6th Dengeki Novel Prize, and was subsequently serialized in '' Dengeki hp'' magazine in March of the same year, marking his debut. ''Kino's Journey' ...

. The Expo was moved to the

San Jose McEnery Convention Center The San Jose McEnery Convention Center (commonly known simply as the San Jose Convention Center) is a convention center in Downtown San Jose, California. The facility is the largest convention center in Silicon Valley. It is known for hosting h ...

in 2018 on

Labor Day Labor Day is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday in September to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United St ...

weekend. The convention saw 45,000 in

turnstile A turnstile (also called a turnpike, gateline, baffle gate, automated gate, turn gate in some regions) is a form of gate which allows one person to pass at a time. A turnstile can be configured to enforce one-way human traffic. In addition, a t ...

attendance. Among the guests for the convention were ''

Dragon Quest previously published as ''Dragon Warrior'' in North America until 2005, is a franchise of Japanese role-playing video games created by Armor Project (Yuji Horii), Bird Studio (Akira Toriyama) and Sugiyama Kobo (Koichi Sugiyama) to its publi ...

'' creator

Yuji Horii (also written as Yuuji Horii; born January 6, 1954) is a Japanese video game designer and scenario writer best known as the creator of the ''Dragon Quest'' series of role-playing games, supervising and writing the scenario for ''Chrono Trigger' ...

, voice actors

Ryo Horikawa Ryo may refer to: * Ryō, a gold currency unit in pre-Meiji Japan Shakkanhō system * Ryō (actress) (born 1973), Japanese model, actress, and singer * Ryō (given name), a unisex Japanese given name * Ryo, Georgia, an unincorporated community in G ...

Justin Briner Justin Briner is an American voice actor. He has provided voices for English-language versions of Japanese anime films and television series with Funimation. He is best known for his roles as Izuku "Deku" Midoriya in ''My Hero Academia'', Mikae ...

Luci Christian Louisa Michelle Christian (born March 18, 1973) is an American voice actress and ADR script writer at Funimation and Seraphim Digital/Sentai Filmworks. She has provided many voices for English versions of Japanese anime series and films. Life a ...

Clifford Chapin Clifford Samuel Chapin IV (born January 29, 1988) is an American voice actor and director at Funimation and Bang Zoom! Entertainment. Career Chapin is known for his roles in anime and video games, such as Ichijo Takayanagi from ''Red Data Gir ...

and

Colleen Clinkenbeard Colleen Smith Clinkenbeard (born April 13, 1980) is an American voice actress, ADR director, line producer, and writer working for the anime-dubbing company Funimation. One of her major starts was as the English voice provider for Rachel Moore ...

, and the staff of ''

Darling in the Franxx , abbreviated as , is a 2018 Japanese science fiction monster romance anime television series co-produced by A-1 Pictures and Trigger and animated by Trigger and CloverWorks that premiered in January 2018. The series was announced at Trigger ...

''. Crunchyroll Expo 2019, also in San Jose, saw the premieres of the movie '' Blackfox'' and the '' Mob Psycho 100 II''

original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA s ...

, while

Toei Animation () is a Japanese animation studio primarily controlled by its namesake Toei Company. It has produced numerous series, including ''Sally the Witch,'' ''GeGeGe no Kitarō,'' ''Mazinger Z'', ''Galaxy Express 999'', ''Cutie Honey'', ''Dr. Slump'', ' ...

organized a screening of the movies '' Dragon Ball Z: Bardock – The Father of Goku'' and '' Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn''. Among the guests invited were horror mangaka

Junji Ito is a Japanese horror manga artist. Some of his most notable works include ''Tomie'', a series chronicling an immortal girl who drives her stricken admirers to madness; ''Uzumaki'', a three-volume series about a town obsessed with spirals; and ...

; '' 22/7'' voice actors Sally Amaki,

Kanae Shirosawa is a Japanese idol girl group. The group was formed through a media mix project by Yasushi Akimoto, Aniplex, and Sony Music Records. The members consist of voice actresses who provide the voice and motion capture for their characters, as well a ...

, and Ruri Umino; '' Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma'' writer Yūto Tsukuda and artist Shun Saeki; and staff members of ''

Zombie Land Saga is an anime television series produced by MAPPA, Avex Pictures and Cygames. The series aired in Japan between October and December 2018. A second season titled ''Zombie Land Saga Revenge'' aired between April and June 2021. An anime f ...

'', including voice actors

Kaede Hondo is a Japanese voice actress affiliated with I'm Enterprise. She took leading roles for each series, including '' Kamisama Minarai: Himitsu no Cocotama'' as Kokoro Yotsuba, ''Interviews with Monster Girls'' as Hikari Takanashi, ''Girlish Number'' ...

and

Asami Tano is a Japanese actress and voice actress and former singer from Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. She is affiliated with Amuse Inc. Tano was part of the girl group Boystyle from 2001 to 2007. Her voice acting career began with '' Toriko'' in 2011, an ...

, composer

Yasuharu Takanashi is a prolific Japanese composer and arranger for anime and video game series. His anime composition credits include ''Naruto Shippuden'', ''Fairy Tail'', ''Log Horizon'', '' Shiki'', ''Hell Girl'', and ''Record of Ragnarok''. He also composed ...

, and

MAPPA is a Japanese animation studio headquartered in Suginami, Tokyo. Founded in 2011 by Madhouse co-founder and producer Masao Maruyama, it has produced anime works including ''Terror in Resonance'', ''Yuri!!! on Ice'', ''In This Corner of the Wo ...

CEO Manabu Ohtsuka. Rock band Flow, whose songs have been featured in various anime as opening themes, held a concert on August 30. In 2020, Crunchyroll held its first virtual expo due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The event includes Hime's Cosplay Cup on September 5, 2020. Special guests included Shusuke Katagiri,

Myth & Roid Myth & Roid (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese pop rock band centered arounTom-H@ck(guitars, bass, composer, production) and hotaru (keyboards, lyrics, story planning), featuring multiple vocalists. The band made its debut in 2015 with the rel ...

, Rian Tachibana, and Matt Schley. In 2022, Crunchyroll Expo opened its new music festival, as well as featuring

Hololive Production is a virtual YouTuber agency owned by Japanese tech entertainment company Cover Corporation. In addition to acting as a multi-channel network, Hololive Production also handles merchandising especially in music production and concert organizati ...

VTubers (including Hakos Baelz, Kureiji Ollie, Watson Amelia,

Gawr Gura is a virtual YouTuber affiliated with Hololive English. She is a member of Hololive English - Myth (stylized as HoloMyth), alongside , , , and . She debuted on September 13, 2020, and has since become the most subscribed virtual YouTuber, ama ...

, Ninomae Ina'nis, and Takanashi Kiara) for the 2022 convention. At that same year, Crunchyroll held the event in Melbourne, Australia on September 17–18. The event had queueing and capacity issues.

Crunchyroll Originals

On February 25, 2020, Crunchyroll initially announced seven series under its Crunchyroll Originals label. These are anime or other animated series that are either co-produced or directly produced by the company. Crunchyroll previously co-produced anime titles before, but this list will only include those that Crunchyroll themselves officially place under the label. So far, these series include:

References

External links

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