Anime fans still using Funimation to stream anime were alerted today to an email informing them of the service’s discontinuation as of Tuesday, April 2nd, 2024.
In late 2020, Sony subsidiary Funimation initiated a transaction to purchase Crunchyroll from Warner Media/AT&T, which saw the two largest players in the anime distribution market merge under the Crunchyroll banner in 2022.
Since then, Crunchyroll has slowly been encouraging users to move off of the Funimation platform while still maintaining it for the remaining account holders to enjoy their content.
Now that the cessation date of Funimation is set in stone, Funimation account holders will need to login to Crunchyroll with their Funimation credentials; doing so will carry over their watch history, but not any purchased digital content which is not supported on Crunchyroll. Account holders wishing to continue their subscription will also see their price increase, up from the current $54.95 USD a year plan to $99.99 USD starting on January 28th, 2025.
Crunchyroll dedicated a full FAQ section to the end of Funimation on their website.
Funimation was founded in 1994 by Gen Fukunaga as a way to license Japanese shows in North America, notably Akira Toriyama’s popular Dragon Ball franchise. Ownership changed over the years, from Navarre Corporation, back to Gen Fukunaga, and then finally Sony.
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