Crunchyroll is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by the Sony Group Corporation. The service primarily distributes Japanese anime television series and films, as well as other East Asian media, and also hosts anime content from other providers, content add-ons, live events, music, video games, and video channels.
Launched in May 2006, the service offers more than 1,000 anime series, more than 200 East Asian dramas in more than 18 languages, and formerly offered around 80 manga titles through its Crunchyroll Manga anthology, although the number of available titles varied by country due to licensing restrictions. Crunchyroll is one of the most-subscribed video on demand streaming media services globally, with 21million subscriptions .
Crunchyroll is a member of The Association of Japanese Animations (AJA). "Crunchyroll-Hime", also known as "Hime", has been the official mascot of Crunchyroll since June 2013.
History
Origins and informal distribution Crunchyroll was launched on May 14, 2006 as a pirate site that specialized in hosting East Asian content. Some of the content hosted on this platform included versions of East Asian shows that had been subtitled by fans.
In 2008, Crunchyroll secured a capital investment of $4.05 million from the venture capital firm Venrock. The investment drew criticism from anime distributors and licensors Bandai Entertainment and Funimation as the site continued to allow users to upload unlicensed copies of copyrighted titles.
Move to legal distribution
Crunchyroll eventually began securing legal distribution agreements with companies, including Gonzo, for a growing list of titles. On January 8, 2009, after announcing a deal with TV Tokyo to host episodes of Naruto Shippuden, Crunchyroll stated that it was committed to removing all copyright-infringing material from its site and to only hosting content to which it had legitimate distribution rights.
In 2010, Crunchyroll announced its acquisition of the North American DVD rights to 5 Centimeters Per Second. This was the first DVD release licensed by Crunchyroll.
On October 30, 2013, Crunchyroll began digitally distributing 12 different manga titles from Kodansha through Crunchyroll Manga, including Attack on Titan and Fairy Tail.
AT&T/Chernin Group ownership On December 2, The Chernin Group (the holding company of former News Corp.) announced that it had acquired a controlling interest in Crunchyroll for a reported $100 million. The Chernin Group said that Crunchyroll management and existing investor TV Tokyo would maintain a "significant" stake in the company.
On April 22, 2014, AT&T and The Chernin Group announced the formation of a joint venture to acquire, invest in, and launch over-the-top (OTT) video services. Both companies committed more than $500 million in funding to the venture. The new company was named Otter Media and became the majority owner of Crunchyroll. On August 3, 2015, Variety reported that Otter Media would unveil Ellation, a new umbrella company for its subscription-based video services, including Crunchyroll. Ellation's services included VRV, which debuted in 2016, a video streaming platform described as targeting "geeks, gamers and lovers of comedy, fantasy and technology."
On October 22, Anime News Network reported that Crunchyroll had achieved 700,000 paying subscribers. In addition, the company announced that they and Sumitomo Corporation had created a joint venture to produce and invest in anime productions.
On April 11, 2016, Crunchyroll and Kadokawa Corporation announced the formation of a strategic alliance that gave Crunchyroll exclusive worldwide digital distribution rights (excluding Asia) for Kadokawa anime titles in the upcoming year. It also granted Crunchyroll the right to co-finance Kadokawa anime titles to be produced in the future.
Funimation partnership, and home video expansion On July 1, Crunchyroll announced plans to dub and release a number of series on home video. On September 8, Crunchyroll announced a partnership with Funimation. Crunchyroll would stream select Funimation titles, while Funimation would stream select Crunchyroll titles as well as their upcoming dubbed content. In addition, Funimation would act as the distributor for Crunchyroll's home video catalog.
On February 9, 2017, Crunchyroll announced that it had reached one million paid subscribers. On March 22, Kun Gao took over as representative director of its Japanese branch, succeeding Vincent Shortino. On March 30, Crunchyroll began to distribute anime through Steam. On November 4, a group of hackers managed to hijack the official site for almost six hours. Users were redirected to a fake lookalike site that prompted them to download ransomware under the guise of "CrunchyViewer". Crunchyroll filed a first information report against the hackers. On July 18, Crunchyroll began collaborating with the video-streaming platform Twitch.
AT&T/WarnerMedia ownership and internal productions
In January 2018, Otter Media bought the remaining shares (20%) of Crunchyroll from TV Tokyo and other investors. In August 2018, AT&T acquired the remainder of Otter Media that it did not already own from The Chernin Group; the company and Crunchyroll were thus folded under WarnerMedia, formerly Time Warner, which AT&T had also recently acquired. In August 2018, the service announced an expansion into original content with the anime-inspired series High Guardian Spice, produced by Ellation Studios. On October 18, Funimation announced that their partnership with Crunchyroll ended as a result of Sony Pictures Television's acquisition of Funimation and AT&T's acquisition of Crunchyroll's parent company, Otter Media.
On March 4, 2019, it was announced that Otter Media would be placed under Warner Bros. as part of their reorganization efforts. As a result of said reorganization, the company and Crunchyroll became corporate sisters to the American cable channel Cartoon Network and its nighttime programming block Adult Swim, which broadcast anime under the Toonami brand. Due to a subsequent reorganization, Crunchyroll was moved under WarnerMedia Entertainment, owner of networks such as TBS and TNT, in May 2019 so that Tony Goncalves, CEO of Otter Media, could oversee the development of its forthcoming streaming service.
On July 3, Crunchyroll announced that they had partnered with Viz Media to distribute select Crunchyroll-licensed titles on home video and electronic sell-through in the United States and Canada. In Summer 2019, independent Australian production company Glitch Productions announced that they had partnered with Crunchyroll to produce their YouTube original series, Meta Runner. On September 6, Crunchyroll announced that they had become the majority investor in Viz Media Europe. Crunchyroll solidified this deal on December 4, becoming the majority owners of Viz Media Europe Group and appointing former Viz Media Europe president John Easum as Head. It was later rebranded as Crunchyroll EMEA, with former Viz Media Europe brands becoming Crunchyroll brands.
On October 15, it was announced that Naver Corporation's webtoon publishing portal, WEBTOON, was partnering with Crunchyroll to produce animated adaptations of its series. On February 25, 2020, Crunchyroll announced a slate of several programs under their new "Crunchyroll Originals" brand, including anime adaptations of the webtoons Tower of God, The God of High School, and Noblesse.
On September 5, Crunchyroll announced that they had entered into a partnership with Sentai Filmworks to distribute Crunchyroll licensed titles onto home video and electronic sell-through, with Granbelm, Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma: The Fourth Plate, Ascendance of a Bookworm, and World Trigger being the first titles distributed through the partnership.
Sony ownership On August 12, 2020, The Information reported that Sony, Funimation's parent company, was in talks to acquire Crunchyroll from WarnerMedia for $1.5 billion. According to Variety, the amount was decreased to $1 billion. Later in October 2020, it was reported that Sony was in its final talks with AT&T to acquire the streaming service for more than $950 million. On December 9, Sony announced that they had reached a deal with AT&T and WarnerMedia to acquire Crunchyroll for $1.175 billion. However, on March 24, 2021, it was reported that the United States Department of Justice had extended its antitrust review of the acquisition.
On August 9, Sony announced that it had completed its acquisition of Crunchyroll. Following the acquisition, Sony stated that they wanted to create a unified anime subscription experience using their existing anime businesses as soon as possible. Crunchyroll confirmed four days later that VRV was included in the acquisition. On September 23, Crunchyroll announced that they had entered into a partnership deal with Fuji TV for anime content development and production. The partners planned to start work on the new slate in April 2022 with anime-focused developer and producer Slow Curve.
On March 1, 2022, it was announced that the Funimation, Wakanim, and VRV SVOD services would be consolidated into Crunchyroll. Additionally, Funimation Global Group, LLC rebranded as Crunchyroll, LLC. On the same day, Crunchyroll began adding new anime titles, including Hindi or Indian English subs and dubs for India. In the wake of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, Crunchyroll and Wakanim announced that they would suspend their services in Russia as of March 11. Its parent company, Sony, donated $2 million in humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
On March 24, Crunchyroll announced that starting with the Spring 2022 season, a subscription would be required to watch new and continued simulcasts, with older titles featured on the site prior to this season remaining free to watch. It was also announced that the first three episodes of select titles would be free a week after their premiere until May 31.
On April 5, the company announced that Funimation's YouTube channel had been rebranded as Crunchyroll Dubs and that it would serve as Crunchyroll's channel for English-dubbed content, while English-subtitled content would continue to be uploaded on their Crunchyroll Collection channel. The company also stated that they would release an English-dubbed first episode of an anime series every Saturday at 3:00 p.m. ET on the Crunchyroll Dubs YouTube channel, starting with Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World on April 9. Three days later, Crunchyroll announced that the Funimation Shop would be moved to the Crunchyroll Store. On November 2, Crunchyroll collaborated with the instant messaging social platform Discord. The integration allows Crunchyroll users to link their accounts and display the movie or show they are currently watching on their Discord profile.
On March 1, 2023, it was reported Crunchyroll received a dedicated button on new Sony Bravia TVs remotes. A couple days later, Crunchyroll launched a feature where users with subscriptions could watch J-pop and anime music videos and live concerts on the site. It primarily features artists from Sony Music Japan.
On May 15, Crunchyroll partnered with the language learning app Duolingo to help users learn Japanese while watching anime.
On October 6, Senior Vice President of global creative marketing Markus Gerdemann stated that some of Crunchyroll's fastest-growing markets outside the United States were Brazil, France, Germany and Mexico, and more than 800 million people were interested in anime worldwide.
On February 16, 2024, Crunchyroll launched its official weekly podcast Crunchyroll Presents: The Anime Effect on all major audio streaming platforms made to discuss anime and its impact on worldwide popular culture. Throughout February 2024, Crunchyroll launched its application for LG and Samsung smart TVs globally.