Anime.

I have neither of the two streaming services CrunchyRoll or Funimation but have always thought about getting them. Should I?

Does anyone know what's going on or what will happen now that Sony owns them both? Will anything be different? Will they keep the status quo and keep them separate? If I was Sony I would combine them into one mega streaming service. Or at least have them work together like everyone seemed to love a couple years ago.
depends, if you're the type to follow mainstream/concurrent shows then yea it's a good idea. Not If you're the type to watch classics and/or niche pre-streaming/physical media era animes.
 
btw, @Jesse if you're looking for old physical based animes, @Tsukuyomimagi99 is well more knowledgeable on that stuff since he does legit imports and have build up a collection of rare classics.
Thanks so much for the heads-up. I haven't bought physical anime since I was in middle and high school when me and my friends would order subbed DVDs of seasons of Inuyasha (and the subbed Inuyasha movies too) that had all the future episodes on them of course and binging them over a couple weekends at each other's houses. This was way way before I'm talking months and months and on a couple occasions a full year before they aired the dubbed version of those episodes/seasons & films on TV Stateside. Such a crazy time and wonderful memories.
 
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Thanks so much for the heads-up. I haven't bought physical anime since I was in middle and high school when me and my friends would order subbed DVDs of seasons of Inuyasha (and the subbed Inuyasha movies too) that had all the future episodes on them of course and binging them over a couple weekends at each other's houses. This was way way before I'm talking months and months and on a couple occasions a full year before they aired the dubbed version of those episodes/seasons & films on TV Stateside. Such a crazy time and wonderful memories.
I used to go to rentals and borrow a few seasons worth of animes for the weekends. Watch movies/OADs collections over at friends and families. W/e the relatives bring home from thier college/HS anime clubs I'd watch too. Then when I got spare savings I'd sought after some of my fav series/movies. Ghibli movies were the first animes I bought with my own money.
 
Sony's almost $1.2 billion acquisition of CrunchyRoll has finally happened. I selfishly hope because I currently have neither Funimation or CR that they combine both apps under one roof and we get all the anime

I read the press release and I found this quote: "Our goal is to create a unified anime subscription experience as soon as possible.”

I think that sounds pretty cool personally. People liked it when they worked together for a bit last year or the year before. now with everything being unifed under one roof I can only see positives from this moving forward. What name do they keep or do they come up with a new one?
 
I am subscribed to cruchyroll for about 2 month and I like it so far. Quite decent servive for the german speaking part of teh word.

@Sergeynest You are right Blade Runner looks promising indeed.
 
A report by Eurogamer, who claims to have heard that there are "plans to potentially offer Crunchyroll as part of a more expensive premium PlayStation Plus offering."
 
Sony's almost $1.2 billion acquisition of CrunchyRoll has finally happened. I selfishly hope because I currently have neither Funimation nor CR that they combine both apps under one roof and we get all the anime

I read the press release and I found this quote: "Our goal is to create a unified anime subscription experience as soon as possible.”

I think that sounds pretty cool personally. People liked it when they worked together for a bit last year or the year before. now with everything being unified under one roof, I can only see positives from this moving forward. What name do they keep or do they come up with a new one?
Even if they did combine there are plenty of anime that neither company has that other streaming services do. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Retro Crush, Hi-Dive, YouTube, and VRV, to name a few. And even if you combine all these libraries it would pale in comparison to the vast majority of anime that has been produced over the past century. Even though I have been a fan since the eighties, I have not even begun to comprehend the breadth of anime.

However, for the sake of fun, I think the moniker "CrunchyMation" would work. On a side note, I find it ironically funny that a former piracy site is now worth a billion dollars.
 
Even if they did combine there are plenty of anime that neither company has that other streaming services do. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Retro Crush, Hi-Dive, YouTube, and VRV, to name a few. And even if you combine all these libraries it would pale in comparison to the vast majority of anime that has been produced over the past century. Even though I have been a fan since the eighties, I have not even begun to comprehend the breadth of anime.

However, for the sake of fun, I think the moniker "CrunchyMation" would work. On a side note, I find it ironically funny that a former piracy site is now worth a billion dollars.
Oh yeah there's definitely a ton of anime out there not covered by both services. I just meant in more of terms of those two being the biggest dogs on the market I believe. A combination of those two libraries is something I'm looking forward to at least in terms of new seasonal anime, newish or recent ones and other older ones I wouldn't mind seeing again. hopefully it's a win-win for everyone.

I didn't know Prime Video or YouTube (of all things) produce or houses anime and wow I've never heard of Retro Crush or Hi-Dive. I'll have to check those two out. Man there's a bunch of streaming services out there now lol.

Doesn't Sony now own VRV because isn't that handled by CrunchyRoll or is VRV its own separate entity? Anime is most certainly a massive phenomenon. Also that's right I totally forgot about it being a ex piracy site! Man that's wild!

I like that name you gave or you could go with Rollimation haha.

Hopefully that ps plus news is just a bonus to people who have that ps+ service because I won't be a happy camper at all if I have to get ps plus to watch anime on whatever they're calling their new service.

I wonder when they roll out their new unifed platform maybe before the winter anime season I'm guessing. Or they could hold off till next year though I don't see that happening.
 
While I am not condoning piracy, a lot of anime from the eighties and nineties are on YouTube. Such as Demon Hunter Makaryuudo, Spirit Warrior, M.D.Geist, Hagane no Oni, Dirty Pair, and Dream Hunter Rem to name a few. Retro Crush is a free streaming site paid for by various advertisers. Most of the library from Discotek is hosted there, Hi-Dive is a streaming site owned by Sentai Filmworks (formerly known as ADVision), and Amazon streams more niche anime titles. Finally, yes you are correct in that VRV is now owned by Sony.
 
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Sony is prolly trying to be the "Netflix" of anime, which ironically, Netflix already has it's hand in the industry pie as well so...this will be interesting.

But, my own 2 cents is, that unless Someone can go back and archive majority of the animes since the 80's-early 2000's for legit streaming no-one service will be able to have a strong monolithic grip on the market.

Unlike hollywood, Animes do not have a hegemonic source to tap into for easy licensing.
 
Am I the only one who has never saw the appeal for Cowboy Bebop? I've tried watching 6 or 7 episodes recently and it just still does nothing for me.
 
Am I the only one who has never seen the appeal for Cowboy Bebop? I've tried watching 6 or 7 episodes recently and it just still does nothing for me.
Cowboy Bebop tends to appeal more to individuals who enjoy anime that caters more to Western individuals familiar with Hollywood-esque tropes. I enjoy it, but I understand it is not for everyone. While this anime has nothing to do with Shenmue, I thought it was interesting since it is going to take place in Yokosuka, Japan.

 
Cowboy Bebop tends to appeal more to individuals who enjoy anime that caters more to Western individuals familiar with Hollywood-esque tropes. I enjoy it, but I understand it is not for everyone. While this anime has nothing to do with Shenmue, I thought it was interesting since it is going to take place in Yokosuka, Japan.


Really interesting that it is going to take place in Yokosuka, This looks like a fishing manga/anime.

One of the things i think it is really interesting in manga and anime is that It has manga and anime about all types of subjects and for all tastes, a lot of variety about this. Fighting, romance, comedy, fishing, golf, basketball, all kinds of sports, adventure, action, horror, daily life/slice of life and much more, so many types of manga and anime that shows all types of subjects, it is really amazing in my opinion.
 
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While I am not condoning piracy, a lot of anime from the eighties and nineties are on YouTube. Such as Demon Hunter Makaryuudo, Spirit Warrior, M.D.Geist, Hagane no Oni, Dirty Pair, and Dream Hunter Rem to name a few. Retro Crush is a free streaming site paid for by various advertisers. Most of the library from Discotek is hosted there, Hi-Dive is a streaming site owned by Sentai Filmworks (formerly known as ADVision), and Amazon streams more niche anime titles. Finally, yes you are correct in that VRV is now owned by Sony.
Honoo no Doukyuji: Dodge Danpei is as well (my favourite anime ever and the Genesis game is one of my 15 favourite games ever), in all the languages it was released in (Italian, Spanish, Arabic, Korean, but not sure if the original Japanese one is).

That's not piracy btw, Tsukuyo; if someone was, "circling the tapes," with protected downloads on Mega or Torrent sites, then yes, that's piracy.

But if it's put on YT and it stays there, then clearly the creators don't give a damn AND you're not owning anything; you're streaming media on a free, public site.

If anything on YT was piracy, then the millions upon millions of songs/licensed music is being pirated.
 
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Honoo no Doukyuji: Dodge Danpei is as well (my favorite anime ever and the Genesis game is one of my 15 favorite games ever), in all the languages it was released in (English, Spanish, Arabic, Korean, but not sure if the original Japanese one is).

That's not piracy btw, Tsukuyo; if someone was, "circling the tapes," with protected downloads on Mega or Torrent sites, then yes, that's piracy.

But if it's put on YT and it stays there, then clearly the creators don't give a damn AND you're not owning anything; you're streaming media on a free, public site.

If anything on YT was piracy, then the millions upon millions of songs/licensed music are being pirated.
Fair enough. Also, I should have not included Dirty Pair in that list since the ones who released it are Nozomi Entertainment themselves. I think these other shows are not flagged because they are old shows that very few care about so they probably look the other way. What makes YouTube odd though is how content is filtered given the algorithms. Either way, I rushed my opinion out so you have my apologies. Also, I did not know there was an anime about dodgeball! I learn something new every day so thank you for that!

@Hiki I one-hundred percent agree about the vast variety of anime is one of its strengths. Also, I have never understood the sentiment that animation is only for children when it is just another medium one can tell a narrative. It contains fundamentally universal themes of the human experience that anyone can relate to. In other words, the medium has something for everyone.
 
I also had to edit; I meant to write, "Italian," as the first language, as the anime was never translated into English lol (I guess since Italian is my 2nd language, I accidentally put in English lol).
 
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