Less than two months.
That is all that is left for Funimation fans who have digital copies tied to the Funimation website and app.
With Sony acquiring Funimation a few years ago and Crunchyroll, the two sites will be merged.
Funimation posted the following:
Funimation services end on April 2nd:
https://help.funimation.com/hc/en-us/articles/23103586580244-Funimation-End-of-services
As part of Crunchyroll’s unification of fan services announced in March 2022, the Funimation app and website will sunset on April 2, 2024.
What is going to happen to my digital copies?
We understand that you may have concerns about your digital copies from Funimation. These Digital copies available on Funimation were a digital access to the content available on the DVDs or Blu-rays purchased.
Please note that Crunchyroll does not currently support Funimation Digital copies, which means that access to previously available digital copies will not be supported. However, we are continuously working to enhance our content offerings and provide you with an exceptional anime streaming experience. We appreciate your understanding and encourage you to explore the extensive anime library available on Crunchyroll.
What does this mean?
What this means is that anyone who had entered their digital codes on Funimation’s website from their Blu-ray or DVD purchase or those who purchased the codes when Funimation were selling them, will be losing their digital collection.
My thoughts.
First and foremost, I want people to know that I absolutely loved working with Funimation. I had many long years working with their staff and they have been there for me and my staff and vice versa.
Two decades of working with the company until it all changed. Personally, I saw it on the wall when Funimation founder Gen Fukunaga was no longer involved and I started to see others that I worked with, no longer with the company.
The company and brand and the wonderful staff that I loved working with, ended pretty much in 2021. What was left of Funimation, to tell you the truth. Even I don’t know, as every communication with the company just ceased. There were other people still left but even they couldn’t say much, as many people were let go, and they were left with whatever way to keep the company going. I knew from that point, things were going to be difficult and just left it at that. I knew my relationship with Funimation would no longer be the same.
The Digital Copies
First and foremost, I have always been an advocate for physical media. When it started changing was when my wife started to get upset that there were just too much physical media and I agree. Having reviewed thousands of DVDs, Blu-rays and 4K Ultra HD’s in my lifetime, things were coming to the point where I was giving it out for free to neighbors, co-workers, friends and family members. I had more than what Hollywood Video or Blockbuster had when those stores existed.
So, I know there was Hulu, Netflix and other streaming companies but I’m a physical media person. How am I going to transition in a digital space? And that is what Funimation did for me. Not many anime companies were doing what they did by including digital copies with their Blu-ray and DVD releases. And also selling the digital codes on their website.
Now, it’s important to note that before it went on the Funimation site, they did Ultraviolet which would show up on major digital streaming platforms such as VUDU.
But my lifestyle would soon incorporate watching anime less on my home theater (as my wife and neighbors won’t tolerate anymore) and so, watching it via a digital app on my smart HDTV or on my smartphone or tablet, became the norm.
I found it convenient now that I didn’t watch it on my big screen. And slowly, I decided that I like this and I’m going to continue to view things digitally from here on in.
For anime, Funimation and VUDU became my primary sources to watch it. I do not subscribe to Crunchyroll, not because I don’t want to invest in it, it’s because I was slowly weaning myself off from physical media. I started doing it with music and video games, I figured now I can do that with my anime titles. Go digital streaming! Cut the clutter as much as I can and so my family can be happy about it.
I figured my digital copies were good, so I gifted many friends and family members, the original discs. It was OK, I thought, I can always watch it on Funimation as they were such a powerhouse of a company. They were the largest anime company with the “Dragon Ball Z” and the “One Piece” titles and so much more! They were responsible for top tier titles. No other anime company came close to what they were doing. The digital copies would be fine.
But I never expected Sony to acquire Funimation. But seeing what Sony did to discovery, I had this intuition that something would happen to Funimation. But I expected they would work a deal with other companies like VUDU for title transfers to happen.
This is not new. Disney did the same when they offered Digital Copies. MovieSpree (owned by Mill Creek) did the same and it was a sad day for “Ultraman” fans. With Mill Creek, being a smaller company, you had a slightest feeling what was offered, wouldn’t fully last.
But for Funimation, there is such a huge following of people who buy the animated series (seasons), animated films, specials and OVA’s. You can own one title, but under each title could be a plethora of seasons and releases.
The system was not perfect but yet you were able to access the content via English or Japanese with English subtitles. Not many offer that level of service.
But after years accumulating a digital streaming collection, many anime fans are upset, knowing their digital collection will disappear forever?
I know there are many people out there who have dozens, possibly hundreds of digital content on Funimation. People who believed they could access it whenever and not truly lose it until this week.
I tried to watch my digital content on my SmartTV but it now shows that the app is too old and needs to be updated, but the update is not found. Meanwhile, I can still watch it on my phone and via the web browser on my desktop or laptop until April 2nd.
Some feel that piracy is the solution or keeping the content on some media. But what I would like to see a solution.
Digital copies moving over to VUDU or something along that line.
I did sign up on Crunchyroll to see which titles transferred over and little over a dozen series that I have digital content on Funimation show up on Crunchyroll and that is small considering I have a pretty strong collection of digital content on Funimation. So, some will lose their digital content of series not offered on Crunchyroll.
The other thing is that for those dozen titles that I do have access too on Crunchyroll, only the first few episodes are available, the rest I would have to pay a subscription fee. Whereas on Funimation, those titles I had, I could view anytime through their digital section on my profile. And the Funimation subscription which was $54.95 a year will now be $99.99 per year on Crunchyroll starting on January 28, 2025. And I’m not interested in subscribing to Crunchyroll, as I want to pay for my digital copies like I have done on VUDU.
I just wished Sony would have handled things differently because good customer service goes a long way. This decision to get rid of one’s digital content is many steps backwards. Not addressing the angry people who are about to lose their digital content is also unfortunate.
And such decisions can tarnish a brand.
Which is a shame because the company that I loved working with for over two decades, this is not the move they would have made because they cared about their consumers. But I understand, the Funimation today, is not the Funimation I had a strong working relationship with.
And it’s important to note, I also worked with Sony and Crunchyroll. With Sony, more with its Sony Music Japan and their film divisions at Sony Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Classics and more. And have had a good working relationship with them as well in the past.
But there has to be reasons which I hope a Sony representative will come out with a statement that would satisfy both the company and the consumer, instead of leaving them feel saddened and angry.
I do hope for a resolution to all this but I just hope it’s not on the side of where fans lose their digital content completely.
