UK Anime Distributor Crunchyroll/Funimation/Manga UK Discussion Thread

Bloomberg have an article about the current state of Crunchyroll
lots of interesting info, including:

Current or former employees describe Crunchyroll’s new management–primarily from Funimation–as out-of-touch with employees and the anime fans the company once prioritized. Some executives write off anime as “kids’ cartoons,” they said, and resist hiring job candidates who describe themselves as fans. Customers weren’t too happy either. Some were furious when Crunchyroll announced that digital copies of anime they had purchased through Funimation wouldn’t survive the transition to the new platform.

Since the acquisition, the company has undergone at least three rounds of layoffs. Current employees said Crunchyroll’s strategy is unclear, resulting in a climate of uncertainty and confusion. Just 39% of its workers surveyed recently said management has communicated a strategy that motivates them, according to internal poll data seen by Bloomberg. That was down from 51% in the previous poll. Another reorganization is planned for early 2025, according to two people who heard it is coming.
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Executives also hoped merchandising would help retain subscribers and boost revenue, current and former employees said. Viewers could binge on manga comic books between anime seasons instead of pausing their monthly fee or purchase collectible figures of their favorite anime characters. After taking over the anime merchandise retailer Right Stuf for an undisclosed sum in 2022, Crunchyroll’s online store was poised to offer manga, DVDs and toys.

The business has shrunk since the acquisition, according to three former employees. Among the reasons, Sony asked Crunchyroll to pull the racier adult manga and toys that formed about 5% of Right Stuf’s revenue.
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zappi said:
Bloomberg have an article about the current state of Crunchyroll
lots of interesting info, including:
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wow, i would like to hope they can change course but this doesn't look like they know what to do, also when you know (or should know) most anime fan's are teenager's who don't have money maybe it's not a good idea to remove (for the most part) the ability to watch anime for free a week after subscriber's, i remember Johnathan Clements complaining in neo magazine about people saying they'll unsubscribe because of it as an entitled attitude (which he's right) and if it didn't work then crunchyroll would reverse course but looking at this it would suggest those in charge don't know what there doing.
 
There are certainly issues, but a lot of that article seems poorly researched. Examples given of shows are years old, and I don't think the fact that Netflix and others have some anime is having any significant impact on what Crunchyroll can license or what they have to pay for it.

What they did to Rightstuf and how they run their store still are issues for sure.
 
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cfx said:
There are certainly issues, but a lot of that article seems poorly researched. Examples given of shows are years old, and I don't think the fact that Netflix and others have some anime is having any significant impact on what Crunchyroll can license or what they have to pay for it.

What they did to Rightstuf is certainly an issue and how they run their store is certainly an issue.
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I was thinking along those terms too. Its not like the big streaming services have a monopoly like crunchyroll does and if the anime was specifically made for those services then crunchyroll not having them is a moot point.

However numbers on subscriptions don't lie, and I have no reason to not believe the claims about how there being managed right now.
 
bakura said:
Its not like the big streaming services have a monopoly like crunchyroll does and if the anime was specifically made for those services then crunchyroll not having them is a moot point.
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The thing is, CR doesn’t really have a monopoly as far as anime is concerned because (perhaps unlike your average Netflix or Disney+ subscriber) I think the average anime fan is probably a lot more net savvy and capable of obtaining anime via other means. The kind that don’t cost them anything or profit the industry in any way.

CR are not competing with other streaming services, they’re competing with piracy. That has always been the case but it doesn’t sound like their new execs get that (the old ones surely did because pirating anime is quite literally how CR started). In order to tempt people away from piracy they have to provide a service that people consider worth paying for. When they remove shows including ones their customers have paid for like in the case of the Funi merger, or simply fail to offer customers a service they feel is good value for money it’s very easy for those customers to just say “Well screw you, I won’t be making that mistake again” unsubscribe and hit up a torrent tracker.

Out of touch execs are a problem throughout the media and creative industries and the bigger the organisation, the bigger the problem. These people genuinely don’t seem to care about what their target market actually want, forgetting that their business only exists because of their customers and is only viable as long as those customers are willing to pay.
 
ayase said:
The thing is, CR doesn’t really have a monopoly as far as anime is concerned because (perhaps unlike your average Netflix or Disney+ subscriber) I think the average anime fan is probably a lot more net savvy and capable of obtaining anime via other means. The kind that don’t cost them anything or profit the industry in any way.

CR are not competing with other streaming services, they’re competing with piracy. That has always been the case but it doesn’t sound like their new execs get that (the old ones surely did because pirating anime is quite literally how CR started). In order to tempt people away from piracy they have to provide a service that people consider worth paying for. When they remove shows including ones their customers have paid for like in the case of the Funi merger, or simply fail to offer customers a service they feel is good value for money it’s very easy for those customers to just say “Well screw you, I won’t be making that mistake again” unsubscribe and hit up a torrent tracker.

Out of touch execs are a problem throughout the media and creative industries and the bigger the organisation, the bigger the problem. These people genuinely don’t seem to care about what their target market actually want, forgetting that their business only exists because of their customers and is only viable as long as those customers are willing to pay.
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I suppose you are right and I takes me back to my first post
bakura said:
wow, i would like to hope they can change course but this doesn't look like they know what to do, also when you know (or should know) most anime fan's are teenager's who don't have money maybe it's not a good idea to remove (for the most part) the ability to watch anime for free a week after subscriber's, i remember Johnathan Clements complaining in neo magazine about people saying they'll unsubscribe because of it as an entitled attitude (which he's right) and if it didn't work then crunchyroll would reverse course but looking at this it would suggest those in charge don't know what there doing.
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Jon O Fun said:
I think this was a pretty interesting look at the article and probably explains why Gkids got Dandadan home video.

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GKids got Dandadan for home video as Toho own it and Science Saru. It was pretty obvious Crunchyroll weren't promoting it as they never did their usual social posts of highlight clips from the series like they would with most of their streaming titles.
 
No real surprises at all in that article for anyone paying close attention to the industry or the coy murmurings from older ex-CR staff. The company of the early-mid 00's has largely vanished, with the public faces of its fan-focused enthusiasm long gone or silent. Your Evan Minto's, Nate Ming's, Mile's etc were either fired or resigned, while the unique passion of their social media presence has long been replaced by the typical pandering pr speak of any company seeking to take money from nerds.

It's not like CR was ever a 100% pure bastion of anime mania, but there was a decent balance between the life-long fans there, and those simply seeking a paycheck. Those days have gone, and now the money men are purely in charge. It's similar to how you hear about how Bobby Kotick actively despises videogames. To these people, anime is simply a bunch of statistics to make a line go up, with the actual titles and fandom a distant second or something to be viewed with active contempt. It's wild to think that even the likes of Netflix (the Japanese acquisition division at least) care more about the medium than the company built out of it. Well, remember when Amazon was a online bookstore that cared about packaging, lol.

It's why none of these stories surprise me. Of course Sony/CR would buy out Rightstuf and regional licencors like Manga UK, before or ever having any concrete plans for them. Of course they've refused to promote Dan Da Dan as an act of spite against not getting an exclusivity deal, despite it being a plan that will only hurt them/help the competition in the long run. For the corporate mind, short-term control & consolidation becomes the all-consuming thought.

As easy as it is to blame this purely on external forces coming from Sony, it's important to note that a lot of CR's worst practices in recent years (the mistreatment and underpaying of VA's, translators etc, or the increased increase in AI to replace human talent), is largely a decision that arose out of the Texas offices - i.e. the Funimation board, that chiefly ended up in the higher position. Of course, you could also argue that when it comes to the higher ups, all these companies and subdivisions can be painted with the same stripe, with the genuinely passionate people underneath either punish or pushed out, but that's our grim future I suppose.
 
bakura said:
I would love for one of these disgruntled CR staff to do an ama here but it probably won't happen.
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I would imagine they've been forced to sign non-disclosure agreements. You might get some comments made by freelancers like voice actors or translators, but most of them are too dependent on work to think about permanently burning bridges through publicly airing grievances. After all, they happily made an example out of Kyle McCarley after he tried to push for union representation. David Wald also insinuated some pretty insidious practices and behaviors after he discovered they were opening his fan mail (illegal) and passing the gifts to staff.
https://twitter.com/x/status/1856020105064304747
https://twitter.com/x/status/1850014781115109449
 
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