The Netflix of animation arrives in France with a historic union between Crunchyroll and Wakanim

news culture The Netflix of animation arrives in France with a historic union between Crunchyroll and Wakanim

A new era for anime

Object of rumor for a few weeks, the collaboration between Wakanim and Crunchyroll was formalized today. Wakanim and Funimation join Crunchyroll, making the latter a must-have platform for all fans of Japanese animation. Indeed, the unification of these two services makes it possible to offer a rich catalog of blockbusters on a single platform, that of Crunchyroll: My Hero Academia, tokyo revenge, JUJUTSU KAISEN or Mushoku Tensei Jobless Reincarnation, fire force and fruit basket…

According to Crunchyroll, 80% of the most popular series from Funimation and Wakanim will be available by the end of the month. From 6:00 p.m. tonight, Crunchyroll will announce the first Wakanim titles to be part of its catalog. These are probably regular announcements that will be shared over the weeks to inform about the various anime coming to Crunchyroll. A union that made perfect sense for Colin Decker, CEO of Crunchyroll:

For years, anime fans have had to pay multiple subscriptions to watch all of their simulcast, subtitled, or dubbed programs. When we brought together Wakanim and Crunchyroll last year, our absolute goal was to put fans first, and so that had to change.

Today, more than 40,000 subtitled and dubbed episodes are globally available on Crunchyroll (around 12,000 in France).

Subscribe to Crunchyroll with Micromania

Crunchyroll X Wakanim: is the subscription price changing?

What about the subscription? In a press release, Crunchyroll clarifies that the price remains unchanged. It is only the content that becomes denser! More than 50 titles (1000 hours of content) have been added in France and are already available. Each new upcoming series will be exclusive to Crunchyroll starting April 1. However, if Wakanim subscribers have to cancel their subscription, they haven’t lost everything: 60 days of free Crunchyroll Premium are offered to them! An email should be sent to them in the next few days.

Another step forward for Sony?

If this merger between Wakanim and Crunchyroll allows consumers to benefit from a unified catalog, it is also a step further for Sony Interactive Entertainment. Last August, the Japanese company had finalized the takeover of Crunchyroll for more than one billion euros. This purchase had allowed him to own three of the four major players (Netflix being the last remaining). At that time, Sony even indicated that it wanted to offer “a unified anime offer as soon as possible“. A first step done?

It is in any case legitimate to consider it, especially since the Spartacus rumor is more insistent: it is the new format of PlayStation Plus, subscription service for PlayStation players. Initiative to counter the Game Pass, this ”Spartacus” could offer a subscription with free games… But also a kind of cultural pass with Uncharted, Spider-Man and anime like Demon Slayer. The future is one to watch closely for Sony.

Source: Crunchyroll