This article is about the streaming service. For the company formerly known as Funimation Global Group, LLC and the service's former operator, seeCrunchyroll, LLC.
Funimation
Final logo for the streaming service used from 2020 to 2024
In March 2022, Funimation Global Group, the service's parent company, was rebranded asCrunchyroll, LLC and a large majority of its catalog was moved to Crunchyroll;[5][6] despite this, the Funimation streaming service remained active and continued to distribute titles that were originally licensed by the Funimation company before the merger until it was shut down in April 2024.[7][8]
In the early 1990s, Japanese-born businessmanGen Fukunaga was approached by his uncle, Nagafumi Hori, who was working as a producer forToei Company. Hori proposed that if Fukunaga could start a production company and raise enough money,Toei Animation would license the rights to theDragon Ball franchise to theUnited States. Fukunaga met with co-worker Daniel Cocanougher, whose family owned a feed mill inDecatur, Texas, and convinced Cocanougher's family to sell their business and serve as an investor for his new company.[9][10][11] The company was founded on May 9, 1994, as FUNimation Productions.[12]
They initially collaborated with other companies onDragon Ball andDragon Ball Z, such as BLT Productions,Ocean Studios,Pioneer andSaban Entertainment.[13][14] After two aborted attempts to bring theDragon Ball franchise to television viafirst-run syndication,Cartoon Network began airingDragon Ball Z as part of itsToonami programming block in 1998, which quickly became the highest-rated show on the block and garnered a large following.[15][16][17] The success ofDragon Ball Z is credited for allowing Funimation to acquire other licensed titles.[17][18]
In 2009, Funimation signed a deal with Toei Animation to stream several of its anime titles online through the Funimation website.[19] On October 14, 2011, Funimation announced a partnership with Niconico, the English language version ofNico Nico Douga, to form the Funico brand for the licensing of anime for streaming and home video release. From this point on, virtually all titles simulcasted by Niconico were acquired by Funimation.[20] On February 18, 2012, Funimation announced that it would launch its video streaming app on April 6, 2012.[21]
In 2014, Funimation releasedDragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods to theaters in partnership with Screenvision.[22] Based on its success, Funimation launched its own theatrical division in December 2014.[23] On June 22, 2015, Funimation andUniversal Pictures Home Entertainment announced a multi-year home video distribution deal. The deal allowed UPHE to manage distribution and sales of Funimation's catalog of titles.[24] Universal began distributing Funimation's titles in October of that year.[25]
In January 2016, Funimation introduced a new logo and announced the rebranding of their streaming platform as "FunimationNow".[26][27] In April 2016, they launched their service in the UK and Ireland.[28]
On September 8, 2016, Funimation announced a partnership withCrunchyroll. Select Funimation titles would be streamed subtitled on Crunchyroll, while select Crunchyroll titles would be streamed on FunimationNow, including upcoming dubbed content. In addition, Funimation would act as the distributor for Crunchyroll's home video catalog.[29]
On May 18, 2017,Shout! Factory acquired the North American distribution rights toIn This Corner of the World, with a U.S. theatrical release to take place on August 11, 2017, co-released by Funimation Films.[30]
In May 2017, it was reported thatUniversal Studios andSony Pictures Television were interested in purchasing Funimation; however, Universal decided not to proceed with the bidding.[31] On July 31, 2017, Sony Pictures Television announced that it would buy a controlling 95% stake in Funimation for $143 million, a deal that was approved by theUnited States Department of Justice on August 22, 2017.[32] This deal allowed Funimation to have synergies with Sony'sAnimax andKids Station divisions and "direct access to the creative pipeline".[33] The deal was closed on October 27, 2017.[34]
On February 16, 2018, it was reported that Shout! Factory's Shout! Studios division acquired the U.S./Canadian distribution rights toBig Fish & Begonia and partnered with Funimation Films again for distribution.[35] On July 12, 2018, it was announced that Funimation Films had picked up licensing rights forDragon Ball Super: Broly inNorth America and that its English dub would premiere in theaters sometime in January 2019 in the United States andCanada, only around a month after its national premiere in Japan.[36]
On August 7, 2018,AT&T fully acquiredOtter Media, owner of Crunchyroll.[37] On October 18, 2018, Funimation and Crunchyroll announced that their partnership with would end on November 9, 2018, as a result of Sony Pictures Television's acquisition of Funimation.[38] Despite the home video releases being unaffected and still going on as planned, select Funimation content would be removed from Crunchyroll, and subtitled content would return to FunimationNow. Additionally, it was also announced that Funimation would be removed from Otter Media-owned streaming serviceVRV entirely, being replaced byHidive.[38] In December 2018, it was reported that another reason the partnership ended was due to a dispute concerning international expansion.[39] On December 4, 2018, Funimation inked an exclusive multi-year first-look SVOD deal withHulu.[40]
On March 23, 2019, atAnimeJapan 2019, Funimation announced that they had partnered with Chinese streaming serviceBilibili to jointly license anime titles for both the U.S. and Chinese markets.[41]
On May 29, 2019, Funimation announced that they had acquiredManga Entertainment'sUK branch, and immediately consolidated the former's UK business into the latter's.[42] On July 5, 2019, Funimation announced atAnime Expo that they had reached a streaming partnership withRight Stuf Inc., with select titles from Nozomi Entertainment being made available on FunimationNow later in the year.[43] On August 31, 2019,Aniplex of America announced onTwitter that they would be partnering with Funimation Films to co-releaseRascal Does Not Dream of a Dreaming Girl theatrically in the U.S. on October 2, 2019, and in Canada on October 4, 2019.[44]
SPT / Aniplex joint venture and streaming consolidation
On September 24, 2019, Sony Pictures Television andAniplex announced that they were consolidating their international anime streaming businesses under a new joint venture, Funimation Global Group, LLC., with Funimation general manager Colin Decker leading the joint venture. The joint venture would operate under Funimation's branding, and allow Funimation to acquire and distribute titles with Aniplex subsidiariesWakanim,Madman Anime andAnimeLab. The first title under the joint venture,Fate/Grand Order - Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia, would receive a 30-day exclusivity on FunimationNow, AnimeLab and Wakanim, and provide Funimation exclusive rights to the English dub for one year.[45]
In December 2019, Funimation launched a "Decade of Anime" poll in which fans voted for their favorite anime across multiple categories.[46][47]
On January 24, 2020, Funimation announced it would be merging its online catalog into AnimeLab for Australian and New Zealand audiences, and would shut down FunimationNow for Australia and New Zealand on March 30.[48]
On May 1, 2020, Funimation announced that they formed a partnership withKodansha Comics to host a series of weekly watch parties.[49] On May 4, Funimation announced that they had struck a deal withNIS America to stream select titles on FunimationNow.[50]
On July 3, 2020, Funimation announced at FunimationCon that they would expand their streaming service toLatin America, starting withMexico andBrazil in Q4 2020, with one of the first dubbed titles released beingTokyo Ghoul:re.[51][52] Funimation later revealed that they would launch their Latin American services in December 2020.[53] However, they launched their service early on November 18, 2020.[54]
On September 9, 2020, Funimation announced that they had reached a distribution partnership withViz Media, with Viz Media titles being made available to stream on Funimation's website.[55] The deal was made after select Viz titles such as Part I ofNaruto and the first 75 episodes ofHunter × Hunter were previously made available on FunimationNow. On December 2, 2020, Brazilian TV channelLoading announced a content partnership with Sony Pictures Entertainment. Funimation titles being included in the partnership was hinted at, but not confirmed.[56] Five days later, it was officially confirmed that Funimation titles would be included in the partnership.[57]
On December 9, 2020, Sony Pictures Entertainment announced that it would acquire Crunchyroll fromAT&T'sWarnerMedia (later spun out by AT&T and merged withDiscovery, Inc. to formWarner Bros. Discovery) for a total ofUS$1.175 billion in cash, placing the company under Funimation once the acquisition was finalized.[59] The acquisition of Crunchyroll was completed on August 9, 2021, with Sony stating in their press release that they would create a unified anime subscription using their anime businesses as soon as possible.[60]
On April 12, 2021, it was announced that subsidiary Manga Entertainment would officially be rebranding asFunimation UK in the UK and Ireland, starting on April 19, 2021.[61] On June 10, 2021, it was announcedAnimeLab would begin the process of rebranding and transitioning its services to Funimation in Australia and New Zealand, on June 17, 2021.[62] On June 16, 2021, Funimation launched in Colombia, Chile, and Peru.[63]
On September 1, 2021, Funimation andGonzo announced a partnership to upload select remastered titles on their respective YouTube channels until November 30. These titles wereRagnarok the Animation,Witchblade andBurst Angel.[64]
On January 25, 2022, Crunchyroll announced that they were going to releaseJujutsu Kaisen 0 in theaters on March 18, 2022, in the United States and Canada. The film launched in over 1,500 theaters, as well as someIMAX theatres, in both sub and dub. They also stated that the feature would be coming soon to theaters in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, and Latin America among other countries. This was the first and only Crunchyroll film to be distributed in association with Funimation Films.[65]
On March 1, 2022, it was announced that the Funimation, Wakanim and VRV SVOD services would be consolidated into Crunchyroll.[5][6] Despite this, the Funimation streaming service remained in operation, and continued to simulcast newer titles acquired by Crunchyroll, LLC after the merger.[7][66][67]
On February 7, 2024, it was announced that the Funimation app and website would shut down on April 2, 2024, and that all Funimation subscribers could choose to migrate their account data to Crunchyroll until then.[8] As part of the merger of services, legacy Funimation subscribers would see a price increase and users would lose access to their digital library.[68][69] Following complaints from users, Crunchyroll president Rahul Purini stated that the company would work with customers to provide "appropriate value" for their digital copies.[70][71]
Funimation Entertainment, along with OlympuSAT, launched theFunimation Channel on September 29, 2005, the second 24-hour anime digital cable network in North America (the first beingA.D. Vision'sAnime Network).[72][73] OlympuSAT was the exclusive distributor of the channel.[73]
On March 23, 2006, a syndicated block was announced for Colours TV.[74] A few months later, it was announced that the channel was launched in a few cities via VHF and UHF digital signals.[75][76] Both services were discontinued in favor for a more successful expansion on digital cable, fiber optics and DBS systems.[77][78] The channel launched its HD feed on September 27, 2010.[79] On December 31, 2015, Funimation and OlympuSAT ended their deal and no longer broadcasts Funimation titles on the channel.[80] The television channel was replaced byToku, while Funimation announced plans to relaunch Funimation Channel in 2016.[81][82]
Funimation's catalog of series and films, as well as official Japanese simulcasts, were available for streaming on their website and dedicated apps.[91] They streamed over 800 titles from their catalog,Aniplex of America,Viz Media,Nozomi Entertainment,NIS America, andTMS Entertainment among other distributors. Their titles were available for streaming in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Peru, and byWakanim they were also available in select parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia.[92][93] Via Crunchyroll, they also have over 5 million subscribers and 120 million registered users worldwide with over 1,200 anime titles, 200 dorama, and 80 manga currently available from a wide array of distributors such asSentai Filmworks andDiscotek Media.[94][95]
On September 19, 2006, Funimation created an official channel onYouTube where they upload advertisements for box sets, as well as clips and preview episodes of their licensed series. In September 2008, they began distributing full episodes of series on Hulu.[96] In April 2009, Funimation began distributing full episodes of series atVeoh.[97][98] In February 2012,Crackle began streaming select titles from Funimation, joining titles previously acquired from Funimation for their localizedAnimax hub.[99]
In January 2014, English dubbed episodes ofSpace Dandy premiered onAdult Swim's Toonami programming block a day before the Japanese broadcast; one of the rare occasions an anime series premiered in the United States before Japan. Funimation would later introduce a new "SimulDub" program in October 2014, in which English dubs of their simulcast titles would premiere within weeks after their subtitled airing.[105] This practice began with SimulDub versions ofPsycho-Pass 2 andLaughing Under the Clouds, episodes of which were streamed roughly three weeks to one month following their original Japanese broadcast.[106]
On March 18, 2020, Funimation announced that production of SimulDubs would be delayed due to theCOVID-19 pandemic; Subtitled simulcasts would continue as scheduled.[107] On April 10, 2020, Funimation announced that an episode ofMy Hero Academia had been recorded and would be released on April 12.[108] Funimation would later announce the scheduled release dates for SimulDubs that were produced during the COVID-19 pandemic.[109]
^Funimation directly operated in the United States, Canada (in English), Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Brazil, in the United Kingdom and Ireland throughFunimation UK and Ireland, and in Australia and New Zealand throughMadman Anime.
^Formerly known asFunimationNow from 2016 to 2020.
^Although Anime Network never airedGrave of the Fireflies on TV in the United States and Canada, it streamed the film on video on demand in the two countries.
^Later, Viz Media streamedNana,Buso Renkin andHoney and Clover on their Neon Alley service, butHunter × Hunter (the 1999 anime, not the 2011 reboot), andMonster were never streamed on that service.
^Macdonald, Christopher (September 20, 2006)."Haré+Guu on Funimation Channel".Anime News Network.Archived from the original on August 9, 2020. RetrievedAugust 22, 2020.
^Bertschy, Zac (October 2, 2015)."ANNCast – A Funi Feeling".Anime News Network.Archived from the original on December 21, 2016. RetrievedDecember 30, 2016.
Media related toFunimation at Wikimedia Commons