I took a few days away from blogging to properly process the sudden passing of a relative and other stuff. I prefer not to write when I’m down because the content suffers. Well, while I was away – Funimation decided to buy Crunchyroll (!!!) and Disney decided to release a ton of news and trailers for Marvel and Star Wars content (!!!) — WHAT?!?
Looks like 2020 finally gave us something good!
Rather than re-hash news that’s been out for days, I’ll simply point you to this article from Polygon about the Funimation + Crunchyroll news — and to this article from The Verge covering the Disney announcements (Marvel & Star Wars). And I’ll add the only novel thing I could possibly add to this discussion at this point: my reaction.
Anime Nerds Rejoice (or Cry?): Funimation + Crunchyroll
For those not in the know, Funimation and Crunchyroll are two goliaths in the world of Anime-streaming. While Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon are just beginning to really (impressively) sharpen their teeth in that arena in recent years – Funimation and Crunchyroll are the OGs in the legal streaming space. Between those two services alone – fans can gain legal access to nearly 1,500 – 2,000 titles (depending on how you’re counting)!
I have been a subscriber to both over the years – and at times, both at the same time – but I ultimately went with Crunchyroll because of two reasons:
- The services overlapped on a lot of new things.
- There was a more extensive back-catalog on CR.
Now, the two are coming together! That’s a good thing… right?
(I did not pick the above image because the girl is Asian and I’m talking about Anime… it was a solid image that popped up on Shutterstock when I searched for “Uncertain Nerd”. Now… does the coincidence make the image a little “funnier”? For some. Sure.)
My honest assessment of Funimation – in the past – was that it had an AMAZING app for smart TVs, but it really lacked any content that I wanted to see beyond newer content. So, I dropped it because Crunchyroll felt superior at the time in-respect to content availability.
But lately, Crunchyroll‘s TV app has SUCKED SO HARD after their last update. It’s so buggy that I was sincerely about to stop the automatic renewal of my subscription to their service.
Their union should fix all of those issues. Right?
There was/is a service called VRV (a great offering of combined channels that any self-proclaimed nerd should check out) that basically resolved this before and combined the two in the past, but they parted ways from that partnership, and now only Crunchyroll exists on the service.
This pairing introduced a lot of uncertainty into this space. I don’t know what this means for Anime on Hulu (who I think has a partnership with Funimation). I don’t know what this means for the pricing or existence of Crunchyroll licenses. I don’t know if this means that there will be a combined premium version of either of the services offered at a higher price — but I’m also not sure I care.
(Ok… my choice of the image this time WAS intentional – LOL! Anime Nerds will understand the significance of the girls pose in this one.)
If this helps give me all of the content I want on a smooth running app in the end, I’m willing to pay a little more for that peace of mind.
I am looking forward to seeing what this does for the world of Anime in 2021.
I am a Proud Disney Stock Owner: Marvel & Star Wars
Excuse me for saying this — but Disney really did just drop a bunch of B.D.E. with their Disney Inversor Day announcements. As a fan, and (disclosing) and an investor – I couldn’t be happier.
I’ll open this with the excitement of one of my favorite YouTubers – Comics Explained.
I know a lot of you have no idea what the hell he’s talking about… But you will. TRUST ME!!! You will. Also – if you’ve never watched “Daredevil” on Netflix – you owe it to yourself to watch that show if you enjoy comic… crap — GOOD shows!
There was waaaaaaay too much Marvel news for me to cover, but A LOT is happening.
My personal favorite is Marvel‘s “What If?” series being brought to life.
And the show for “Loki” looks like it’s going to be so good!!
And that’s seriously nowhere NEEEEAAAARRRR everything that was announced for Marvel.
And then Disney dropped a bunch of Star Wars news! Just look at everything that’s in the pipeline…
I’m not a diehard Star Wars fan like that, but I love the movies & I’m familiar enough with some of the lore that these names hold meaning with me. My one concern is the dilution of the Star Wars brand, but so long as this stuff is anywhere near as good as “The Mandalorian” has been – they should be ok.
Either way – huge announcements for the fans!
If you’re feeling ambitious – someone took the time to do a supercut of the Disney Investor Day announcements, but it’s still like half an hour. They announced SOOOOOO much more than just Marvel and Star Wars.
HO-LY CRAP!
What were any favorites that you saw/heard about? Share any thoughts that you have in the comments below!
I’ll wrap this there, and just say that the coming years are a great time to be a nerd or just into pop culture in general.
Wow.
ALSO — I can’t believe they’re touching “Willow“. I hope they don’t mess that up.
Peace, and thanks for reading.
The soundtrack for this post provided by…
Image Credits:
– Cover Image © Bucyfon (Shutterstock)
– Body Images 1 & 2 © Ranta Images (Shutterstock)
– Body Image 3 (LOGOS) © Disney