The feature still exists on Crunchyroll (under a more expensive subscription plan, however).
Summary:
Funimation removed offline streaming, prompting questions about the platform’s future.
Both Crunchyroll and Funimation are owned by Sony, and between the 2018 split and 2022 merge, there were multiple issues.
In the end, Sony is planning to use its current platforms to create a bigger streaming service.
With Funimation being merged with Crunchyroll back in 2022, people have wondered about the future of both platforms. Most content from one is on the other, of course, so the differences were negligible for most people. Yes, there were some exceptions — and some subs had much higher quality on one platform than the other — but the decision of which platform to use ultimately depended on which one the user preferred.
One of the biggest pros of both streaming services (although you have to pay more for it) is the ability to download episodes to watch them offline later. With Funimation announcing they were removing that option, however, questions about the future of the platform arose.
The 2018 split caused an outrage
Both Crunchyroll and Funimation are owned by Sony. When their partnership was temporarily broken down in 2018, people were outraged: for some anime, to watch all content, you should have had subscriptions to both services.
That made many resort to piracy — especially with the fact that Funimation’s region availability is limited to just a few countries. Yes, the US is one of those countries, but with anime becoming a global phenomenon, people from all around the world are trying to watch their favorite shows legally — and region locks prevent that.
The 2022 merge had multiple issues
They were, however, merged back in 2022… mostly. Yes, the content that wasn’t on one platform was copied there from the other, but if something was already on both, for example, Gurren Lagann, it was unaffected. However, if you’re in Australia, you can still only watch the anime on Funimation.
Another issue is that many ecchi anime are censored on Crunchyroll — and uncensored on Funimation. Funi’s audio quality is also higher, which is extremely important for the users who used their offline viewing option, which they just removed.
Future prospects
The end goal is very clear and was stated before: it is to create a streaming service available worldwide with as many anime as possible. As such, things like merging CR and Funi make sense — although it is very sad that content gets lost in the process. A function like offline viewing was probably just not profitable and too hard to support for Funimation as it is now, and it had to be cut.
In the end, the platform is probably going to be completely different in a few years (at least, if Sony’s plan of a bigger streaming service works out). As such, perhaps we shouldn’t be talking about the future of Funimation, but about the future of legal streaming in general.
The feature still exists on Crunchyroll (under a more expensive subscription plan, however).
Summary:
Funimation removed offline streaming, prompting questions about the platform’s future.
Both Crunchyroll and Funimation are owned by Sony, and between the 2018 split and 2022 merge, there were multiple issues.
In the end, Sony is planning to use its current platforms to create a bigger streaming service.
With Funimation being merged with Crunchyroll back in 2022, people have wondered about the future of both platforms. Most content from one is on the other, of course, so the differences were negligible for most people. Yes, there were some exceptions — and some subs had much higher quality on one platform than the other — but the decision of which platform to use ultimately depended on which one the user preferred.
One of the biggest pros of both streaming services (although you have to pay more for it) is the ability to download episodes to watch them offline later. With Funimation announcing they were removing that option, however, questions about the future of the platform arose.
The 2018 split caused an outrage
Both Crunchyroll and Funimation are owned by Sony. When their partnership was temporarily broken down in 2018, people were outraged: for some anime, to watch all content, you should have had subscriptions to both services.
That made many resort to piracy — especially with the fact that Funimation’s region availability is limited to just a few countries. Yes, the US is one of those countries, but with anime becoming a global phenomenon, people from all around the world are trying to watch their favorite shows legally — and region locks prevent that.
The 2022 merge had multiple issues
They were, however, merged back in 2022… mostly. Yes, the content that wasn’t on one platform was copied there from the other, but if something was already on both, for example, Gurren Lagann, it was unaffected. However, if you’re in Australia, you can still only watch the anime on Funimation.
Another issue is that many ecchi anime are censored on Crunchyroll — and uncensored on Funimation. Funi’s audio quality is also higher, which is extremely important for the users who used their offline viewing option, which they just removed.
Future prospects
The end goal is very clear and was stated before: it is to create a streaming service available worldwide with as many anime as possible. As such, things like merging CR and Funi make sense — although it is very sad that content gets lost in the process. A function like offline viewing was probably just not profitable and too hard to support for Funimation as it is now, and it had to be cut.
In the end, the platform is probably going to be completely different in a few years (at least, if Sony’s plan of a bigger streaming service works out). As such, perhaps we shouldn’t be talking about the future of Funimation, but about the future of legal streaming in general.
