Is Funimation Shutting Down Following Crunchyroll Merger?
The anime world saw some big news this week as Crunchyroll and Funimation officially announced their long-expected merger. Both platforms and their extensive anime libraries are officially coming together under the Crunchyroll name. The merger is a viable move for the companies and fans, for it means that all our favorite anime series and movies will now be available on one platform.
Sony's Funimation Global Group bought Crunchyroll for $1.175 billion in cash from AT&T in August 2021. The anime division has been redubbed Crunchyroll LLC, operated as a joint venture between Sony Pictures Entertainment and Aniplex. Funimation's content is being made available on Crunchyroll, with several titles joining the site starting March 1, 2022. This move will include Funimation's subsidiary, Wakanim, and Crunchyroll's subsidiary, VRV.
Speaking about the union, Crunchyroll CEO Colin Decker said in a statement, "When we brought Funimation and Crunchyroll together last year, our top priority was to put fans first. Unifying all of our brands and services under the Crunchyroll brand globally enables us to offer more value than ever before as we combine subs, dubs, simulcasts, library, music, movies, manga — all into one subscription."
While many fans are excited about having all their anime in one place, several of them are wondering about the future of Funimation. Read on to find out.
Is Funimation Shutting Down?
As of now, there has been no official announcement stating that Funimation will be shutting down. The recent announcement makes one thing clear: all attention will now be on Crunchyroll, especially since all new anime series starting April 1 will only stream on Crunchyroll. However, since the two platforms have merged under the Crunchyroll name, it's only a matter of time before Sony shuts down Funimation.
Funimation will only continue streaming new episodes of series that are ongoing. For example, 2022's biggest hit, Attack on Titan, will see new episodes released on Funimation as normal. While Funimation is staying online, for the time being, it's unlikely there will be any major updates for the platform seeing how things are going. Despite the anime library moving over to Crunchyroll, the move will likely take a while. Therefore, it's likely that Funimation will stay online for at least the next few months.
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