Crunchyroll President Addresses Funimation’s Digital Library Debacle

There is no denying the might of Crunchyroll. The streaming service is the go-to home of anime online, and that title was solidified a few years back with Funimation’s help. The latter announced it was being folded into Crunchyroll under Sony’s umbrella, and now that merger is nearly done. On April 2nd, Funimation will sunset its services, and Crunchyroll made headlines as it revealed Funimation users’ digital libraries will not be supported. So in a recent interview, Crunchyroll president Rahul Purini addressed the situation.

Speaking with Verge, Purini talked about the nuances of Funimation’s inlay at Crunchyroll. It was there the president said the company plans to compensate users who lose their digital libraries in this final merger.

“It could be that they get access to a digital copy on any of the existing other services where they might be able to access it. It could be a discount access to our subscription service so they can get access to the same shows through our subscription service,” Purini shared when asked about the potential compensation for users.

Of course, no official word has been shared by Crunchyroll on compensation for Funimation users. For years, anime fans would split their fandom funds between Crunchyroll and Funimation given their hold on the industry. The two brands worked together on streaming deals well before Sony moved to merge Crunchyroll and Funimation. With this merger nearly complete, Crunchyroll will be the de facto face of anime streaming, but Funimation spent decades building a fanbase. For those fans, their digital libraries are sacred, so you can imagine how upset they were to learn Crunchyroll would not be supporting these collections. Headlines about the migration quickly went viral online as television lovers reiterated the important of physical media.

Now, Crunchyroll’s president has responded to the situation. It is still unclear how Funimation users with digital libraries will be compensated if at all for the loss. Crunchyroll has until April to follow up with fans before Funimation’s services close. So hopefully, we get official word before long. 

What do you make of this anime ordeal? Let us know what you think in the comments below as well as on Twitter and Instagram. You can also hit me up @MeganPetersCB to share your take!